B2B marketing insights for
those targeting a niche
Insights, learnings and stories from the world of B2B marketing and communications, direct from Velo’s B2B agency team
10 things pancakes and content have in common
One of the best ingredients for success when it comes to creating exciting digital content is to ‘compare your subject matter with something you are passionate about’. For the reader, this provides something unique and interesting whilst also making it enjoyable for the writer. With that in mind especially for Pancake Day, we present…digital content […]
B2B Branding, Customer Experience
Social media sharing is about the who, not the what: An advocate marketer’s perspective
Against the backdrop of the new Sage Boss-It campaign and the success of the supporting TikTok campaign which was one of the first B2B uses of this channel, we’re seeing customers of B2B brands are playing a huge part in marketing and amplifying the company’s message in volumes never seen before. This campaign shows it […]
Building a B2B brand identity to be proud of – the importance of clarity, coherence, relevance and consistency
Building brands doesn’t stop because of pandemics and major market upheavals. Whilst many brands have had spectacular pandemic success, skillfully pivoting and navigating to a more online execution, a large number have at best survived rather than thrived – and a fair few have in fact “languished” (the inevitable word of 2021) somewhere in between. […]
B2B Content, B2B Marketing in Professional Services, Customer Experience
5 Problems Facing Professional Services Companies When It Comes To Growth
The global professional services market is conservatively worth $6,000bn (2022) and puts the skills and experience of millions of professionals at the disposal of organisations around the world. (1) The main types of professional services include design, research, promotional and consulting, legal and accounting services, plus a range of scientific, technical and technological services. In […]
Why an experiential event should be part of your thinking as a B2B marketer in 2022
We’ve all heard how events need to be more experiential, but let’s dive down into the reason why they are such an effective sales and marketing tool to achieve your critical marketing objectives. 1. Build customer relationships Nothing is more effective for a business than strong customer relationships. Creating a connection, a shared conversation, […]
B2B Campaigns, B2B Marketing in Technology, Customer Experience
What are the top marketing challenges facing technology businesses and how to fix them?
Technology is a dominant sector, with more spent online, on software and tech subscription and investment in business tech, at an all time high. Technology companies often appear to be incredibly marketing savvy. Deliciously minimalist and easy to navigate websites. Very clear propositions, often focusing on a single point of customer pain and transformation. Conversion […]
How to use events to create and drive a progressive staff wellbeing strategy
Nothing is as valuable to your business as your employees. They are your greatest asset, so doing something just for them, and to enhance their wellbeing, is a top priority for business success, bringing with it multiple rewards for all involved. Up to this point, as a business, our employee wellbeing has taken a less […]
B2B Branding, B2B Campaigns, B2B Marketing in manufacturing
What are the 5 main challenges for B2B industrial marketing?
Industrial manufacturing still forms a dominant part of most national economies. Including food, drink, transport, and pharmaceuticals, it can be as high as 70% in GDP terms and is responsible for millions of jobs. Although markets are currently buoyant in terms of demand, many are facing unrivalled challenges in terms of raw materials shortages, price […]
What I learned attending “Live Well at Velo”, our latest staff well-being event
On Monday 6th December, we hosted a “Live Well at Velo” event for our team, focused on well-being. Bringing together three expert speakers in a combination of face-to-face, virtual and interactive sessions, our team gathered off-site to spend some dedicated time focused on them as individuals. As an MD of a professional services firm […]
B2B Branding, B2B Creative, B2B Marketing in Technology, Customer Experience
Are changes in the HR space evolving the way products and services will be bought and sold forever?
We’re recognising significant changes in how buyers research, select and procure B2B services and none-more so than around HR services where roles, responsibilities, priorities and challenges have changed completely in comparison to pre-covid times. HR as a problem solver Following the pandemic, the importance of the HR function within organisations has been elevated. […]
B2B Creative, Customer Experience
Is data gathering as tiresome as it seems, or do we just need better tools?
Whether you are a large corporation or a small local business, data is a crucial element in driving effective decision-making. How else do we know how many sales are made or how many people got close enough to committing to a purchase before leaving the site before checkout? Data is an invaluable asset to have […]
B2B Content, Customer Experience
How do you make your B2B brand story resonate?
Crafting creating and engaging storytelling for B2B marketing. Part 3: In a three part blog series, agency strategist Rene Power looks at why storytelling in b2b marketing has become a go-to approach for so many marketers and how to start doing it effectively. In this third and final post, we offer some practical tips on […]
Brand and storytelling agency Creative Covenant is joining Velo. What does this mean for Velo’s clients?
Ever since I started the business in 2010, Velo has and always will, operate as an extension of our client’s teams. My mission was to build a committed team of experts with one common goal – to craft B2B marketing to be proud of in partnership with our clients. It is a rare philosophy, but […]
B2B Events, Customer Experience
Post-COVID, B2B Events Are Back But Not As We Knew Them
It has been incredibly difficult for event organisers since Covid began. Attendees are reluctant to travel, exhibitors unwilling to commit to floor space in advance, starving exhibition organisers from the cash needed to market their events and sponsors nervous of investing marketing budget when uncertainties around attendance exist. In addition, and this is particularly in […]
B2B Branding, Customer Experience
Want to know what the new Google Page Experience ranking algorithm means for you as a B2B marketer? Read on…
At the end of May this year, Google provided advanced notice of a shake-up in how it ranks search engine results to penalise those with poor user experience. However, unlike previous updates, this time Google has provided more details and tools to allow B2B marketers to evaluate and fix any aspects of their sites so […]
It’s time to rethink cybersecurity marketing
What hinders cybersecurity marketers from doing their jobs well? And what can be done about it? If you’re a cybersecurity marketer, you’ll know that the industry is heavily populated by multiple companies purporting to solve endless cybersecurity needs. Crafting messaging that cuts through this quagmire is no small feat. This challenge is compounded by the […]
How to be happy with hybrid
Preparing for hybrid working Working from home and working from the office present very different challenges. The social side, the collaborations, the banter, the informal glances and serendipity all are tough to accomplish when we work remotely. But after a year of lockdown, I’ve noticed several behaviours we’ve adopted that will help all of us […]
5 reasons to consider Augmented Reality in your B2B marketing mix
Not so long-ago Augmented Reality (AR) felt like something so distant and far off in the future, that the majority of us didn’t give it another thought, let alone think about using it for marketing purposes. But in a little over ten years since BMW triumphed as the first brand to use the then extremely […]
B2B Branding, B2B Campaigns, B2B Creative, Customer Experience
Creative thinking is at the core of B2B marketing. Never more so than now.
What’s been your highlight of the lockdown easing – a visit to friends and family? A trip to the local? Getting back in style with a haircut? As we emerge and are finally able to go out again, see people and re-establish ourselves within our communities, B2B marketers are already questioning what the impact is […]
B2B Audiences, Customer Experience
How to effectively plan customer experience touchpoints using user story mapping
Our agency formula for ‘B2B marketing to be proud of’ consists of three core components: Customer Experience, Integrated Marketing and Brand Communications. We believe these elements working together ensure that your audience connects with your brand, your customers are nurtured towards an ultimate sales goal, and you turn engagement into long-term customer loyalty. If any […]
New to 2020: Recent LinkedIn features that you should know about
LinkedIn has had an incredibly busy year, that’s for sure. With new features rolled out across the platform nearly every other week throughout 2020, LinkedIn has continued to evolve to become a channel B2B marketers simply cannot live without. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a significant transformation towards H2H (human-to-human) or […]
B2B Audiences, B2B Content, B2B Research
All You Wanted To Know About Research-Led Marketing
Not sure how to implement research into marketing campaigns? We have everything you need to get started. Part 2 of our podcast with Peter Cohen of HolistiCyber and Matt Lewis of NCCGroup is now live. In Part – An into to research-led marketing – we discussed what makes for compelling research-based marketing and provided examples of thegood, the bad, and the factually incorrect. But […]
How to successfully prep your interviewees for video customer testimonials
Let’s face it, being interviewed in any capacity is not the most natural thing in the world to endure. Throw a camera into the mix….. and well, ‘rabbit’ and ‘headlights’ is the most likely outcome for your interview subject. But with video customer success stories and case studies becoming a key marketing tool in the […]
Our top 10 WordPress Plug-ins – and why you need them today
You’ve installed your WordPress site, it’s up and running along with a nice clean theme, and you’re ready to add content. But there’s a few things you need to know before getting started. In this blog we’ll help you add the ideal WordPress plug-ins to enable notifications, set up contact forms, ensure the security of […]
Cybersecurity Marketing Podcast: Episode 2, Part 1: An intro to research-led marketing
Everything you wanted to know about research-led marketing, but were afraid to ask. What is the role of research in Who does it well? If you’re either new to this area or are unsure that your current approach is working, how do you get your head around this vast and complicated space? Our latest podcast […]
Cybersecurity Marketing Podcast: Episode 1: Accepting you have a problem
The first in our ‘Marketing Cybersecurity’ podcast series, where we unpick some classic marketing challenges in this space. Our guests are Becky Kiely, Head of PR for UK and US, F-Secure, and Eliza-May Austin, CEO and Co-founder of th4ts3cur1ty.company. Join us for the very first episode of our ‘Marketing Cybersecurity’ podcast series. If you’re a […]
B2B Marketing Agency Selection
Built by recommendation – why specialising in three core sectors makes Velo a B2B marketing agency to trust
After 10 years of growth, Velo has become an award winning, full-service B2B marketing agency. Although our values are the same as at the start, our team, our clients and our knowledge have grown more than I ever dared dream they would. We now serve and specialise in three core sectors – technology, industrial and […]
Wassup?’ Lessons in brand storytelling
TBT to 1999 and a group of friends ‘watching the game, having a Bud.’ Gayle Kennedy, our Director of Storytelling, explains what brand storytelling lessons we can glean from this iconic advertising series. Our #tbt this week goes back to 1999, in which one question was asked: ‘Wassup?’ On the face of it, this […]
B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
What does COVID-19 mean for your marketing strategy?
We are all feeling apprehensive at the moment, but let’s make the most of this time to complete some projects and try some new things. Creativity will get us through the darkest of times. Today, instead of posting our usual quick Tuesday tip, we thought it would be more helpful to talk to you about […]
B2B Strategy, Customer Experience
Five ways to make your online workshops more engaging
Workshops are an integral part of the marketing industry, and a useful platform to get team members involved in presentations and new pieces of work. But with an ever-changing landscape due to the backdrop of Covid-19, running them has become a much bigger challenge for B2B agencies and their clients. That’s not to say that […]
B2B Marketing Agency Selection
Being the best, not the biggest agency for our sectors
Over the past decade, the Velo team has changed in size and shape to be unrecognisable from where we started. In the beginning, the team worked from home and comprised young parents looking to enjoy the perks of a better work-life balance alongside the challenge of diverse and wide-ranging work, team and clients. And all […]
Navigating a post COVID-19 world
It’s a rough time for business leaders. No one really knows what’s going to happen, how long our lives will be impacted by enforced isolation, how long the looming recession will last, or how much governments will intervene and support us. There are some things we definitely do know though. The world will be different […]
You are not the protagonist
Writing a brand story can seem frivolous, but it’s a crucial reminder of your product’s role in your customer’s everyday life. Writing your brand story can feel like one of the more esoteric moments in crafting your positioning. Destined to stay within the confines of your brand guidelines, the more hardened and cynical amongst a […]
B2B Campaigns, B2B Content, B2B Sales Enablement
The most personal is the most creative
Because brand storytelling lives under the ‘business’ umbrella, it can be easy to assume that the principles of ‘real’ creativity do not apply. It’s time for this to change. At the 2020 Oscars (before everything changed), Best Director winner Bong Joon Ho cited this quote by Martin Scorsese in his acceptance speech: ‘The most […]
ABM, B2B Marketing in Technology
‘THE’ hot topic of 2020 in the technology industry: Covid-19 recovery and what it means for b2b marketing
While it’s been technology that has allowed the business world to keep going during the pandemic, it hasn’t just been all good news for the tech sector. They, like most other businesses, are in full recovery mode. The pandemic has impacted everything from raw materials supply, disrupting the electronics value chain, and causing a huge […]
B2B Marketing in manufacturing
‘THE’ hot topic of 2020 in the manufacturing industry: Covid-19 recovery and what it means for b2b marketing
A running theme across the sector is that manufacturers will need to ‘thread the needle between uncertainty and opportunity’ this year. Trade association Make UK has reported the UK manufacturing sector is set to take one of the biggest hits from COVID-19, with industry output expected to fall by 55% in Q2 of 2020. 37% of […]
B2B Marketing Agency Selection
Compassion conquers all
What is a ‘culture of compassion’? While we have endeavoured to achieve this from the start, this week we truly put it into practice. We’ll be honest: we’ve been having a hard time keeping motivated this week. Maybe it’s because the sun has been shining. Maybe it’s because we still haven’t hit a rhythm […]
B2B marketers, here’s what to do right NOW to maximise ROI from your content
Get ready – I’m going to share some of Velo’s proven tips for successfully maximising ROI from your B2B content efforts. Tips you can implement RIGHT NOW that can achieve immediate quick wins. A blog or content hub is a staple component of any B2B website, providing a place for companies like yours to share […]
Our 4 Top Tips For Video Conferencing Like A Pro
We’ve worked with a range of clients over the past decade, and while we’re a London-based agency, our reach has grown substantially over the years. We have built Velo through our relationships with clients nationally, on the continent, and globally, and we couldn’t have done this without collaboration software – namely video conferencing – enabling […]
B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
Advice for Velo clients: how to navigate Covid-19 and be ready to spring back
Without doubt, Covid-19 is causing disruption to marketers in unprecedented ways, and we predict that the changes in marketing will be forever. Although it’s difficult to know what will happen, or how and when businesses will spring back, learning to adapt and acclimatise to the ‘new norm’ is going to be key. Below are a […]
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