A 2023 Gartner study1 discovered that a lack of sales and marketing alignment significantly affects lead generation (44%) and sales cycle duration (37%).
And a separate 2024 study from Gartner2 highlighted that sales and marketing collaborate on only 3 out of 15 key commercial activities. With 90% of executives report conflicting priorities between these teams. And a lack of shared insights causing 60% of teams fail to align, reducing conversion rates and revenue growth.
The reality is the fix is easier than you may think. As well as fostering effective communication, you can encourage alignment through shared definitions and processes like:
• Shared ICP.
• Unified target account list.
• Aligned objectives and metrics.
• Feedback loop.
Step 3: Creating personalised content
Once you’re confident sales and marketing are aligned, they should collaborate on ideas and content that can be personalised to each target account’s needs and pain points.
And if you’re targeting existing customers for potential cross- and up-sell opportunities, you should involve whoever currently looks after those.
This is where the quality of your data is key. At a minimum, you need a clear understanding of each target account’s industry, challenges and goals. Who the key decision-makers are. And often you can learn valuable insights and uncover opportunities from monitoring companies’ social media accounts.
And here is where it can be both fun and extremely effective. Brainstorm some creative ideas of how to position or present your campaign.
But what does creative actually look like?
Well, we’d like to think you’ve received a creative example from us ;-). But here are 3 of our favourites from entirely different industries ↴
Example 1: Hiscox
Target Audience: Affluent and high net worth individuals
Approach: A letter sent to each of their ideal customer profile, looking like red wine had been spilled over it.
Ed Birth, Head of Brand Marketing at Hiscox:
“In this campaign, we wanted to show our audience that we deeply understand their world and that this isn’t just ‘standard’ home insurance. That’s why this direct mail pack references things like Persian rugs, cashmere overcoats and collections of Bordeaux – things our audience know need specialist protection.”
The result: Hiscox combined this with a multi-channel campaign. The letter would go viral across social media, receiving over 5,000 reactions on LinkedIn alone and gaining Hiscox valuable media coverage.
Example 2: GumGum
Target Audience: T-Mobile CEO
Approach: Creating a personalised comic book character for John Legere, then CEO of T-Mobile.
GumGum, an ad-tech provider, wanted to target the T-Mobile account. Their research revealed the CEO was a huge comic book fan. So, they created ‘T-Man,’ fighting data villains alongside GumGum’s platform.
At first the visual was shared by T-Mobile staff, also going viral on social media. Then it grabbed Legere’s attention.
The result: GumGum’s research, creativity and execution secured them T-Mobile as a client.
Example 3: DocuSign
Target Audience: More than 450 enterprise-level accounts.
Approach: A range of personalised digital ads, account-specific messaging and dynamic website experiences.
The result:
✅ Over 1 million ad impressions served to enterprise decision-makers
✅ 300% increase in page views from targeted accounts
✅ 60% higher engagement rate compared to standard campaigns
✅ 22% sales pipeline growth
3 Benefits of a Personalised Marketing Strategy
Benefit 1: Increased ROI
By focusing on a smaller number of accounts that data shows should be more receptive to what you’re offering, ROI can be increased across a number of objectives. A 2022 Gartner survey found that:
- Account engagement increased by 28%
- Marketing lead to sales lead conversion rates increased by 25%
- Pipeline opportunity value increased by 23%
- Ad click-through rates increased by 20%
An Adobe case study3 shows a bank that increased annual booked accounts by 127%, a 5-times
increase in mobile app marketing impressions and a 4-times rise in marketing impressions.
Benefit 2: Accelerated sales cycles
Personalisation can expedite your sales cycle by targeting decision-makers with relevant content earlier in the sales process. This ensures that:
- You reduce the amount of time wasted on unqualified leads
- Data helps deliver the right message to the right people at the right time
- Prospects are engaged with consistent messaging across multiple marketing channels
- Marketing and sales teams contribute to accelerated sales cycles
- Internal alignment means less wasted time, better data analysis and lead generation
Brands that execute a personalised marketing campaign well are experiencing appreciable revenue growth because their customers buy more, more often, and remain loyal over time4.
Benefit 3: Improved customer retention and experience
Personalisation replaces traditional one-size-fits-all campaigns with a more strategic approach focusing on high-value target companies. This step-change can enable you to position yourself as more of a strategic partner to your customers, rather than just a supplier.
As Forrester’s 2024 State of Customer Obsession Survey5 demonstrates, highly customer-focused companies report a 43% increase in customer retention.
The emphasis on a personalised experiences is proven to increase customer satisfaction and engagement. McKinsey6 discovered that providing exceptional customer experiences can achieve an uptick in higher customer satisfaction and engagement of up to 30% and engagement – and increase cross-selling success by as much as 25%.
Made it this far?
Hopefully you’ve gained a few insights, some value, and a whole new perspective on how to approach your marketing.
Perhaps you have some questions? If so, you can contact me at: [email protected] or 01489 892 602.
Sources:
1 https://www.gartner.com/peer-community/oneminuteinsights/omi-sales-marketing-relationship-ciy
3 https://business.adobe.com/uk/customer-success-stories/us-bank-case-study.html
4 https://www.deloittedigital.com/us/en/insights/research/personalizing-growth.html
5 https://www.forrester.com/blogs/promise-keeping-is-key-to-building-customer-trust/