THE POWER OF PERSONALISATION IN manufacturing MARKETING

There are a few exceptions, but leaders in the manufacturing sector tell us that buying cycles are continuing to grow.

Budgets are being scrutinised more. Decisions often involve more stakeholders than 18 months ago. Competition is as fierce as ever.

However, one approach which consistently delivers positive results is the strategic use of personalisation.

In B2B sales and marketing, people still buy from people. But personalisation isn’t just about using their name, it’s about showing you understand their world.

And with some thought and creativity, it can turn cold outreach into warm conversations and accelerate the journey of those already in your pipeline.

Key Benefits

• Higher Engagement: Personalised communication is proven to produce higher open and engagement rates.

• Improved Lead Quality: Targeted messaging attracts more relevant opportunities.

• Shorter Sales Cycles: Buyers move faster when they feel understood.

• Stronger Relationships: Personalisation builds trust and credibility over time.

There are a few exceptions, but leaders in the manufacturing sector tell us that buying cycles are continuing to grow.

Budgets are being scrutinised more. Decisions often involve more stakeholders than 18 months ago. Competition is as fierce as ever.

However, one approach which consistently delivers positive results is the strategic use of personalisation.

In B2B sales and marketing, people still buy from people. But personalisation isn’t just about using their name, it’s about showing you understand their world.

And with some thought and creativity, it can turn cold outreach into warm conversations and accelerate the journey of those already in your pipeline.

Key Benefits

• Higher Engagement: Personalised communication is proven to produce higher open and engagement rates.

• Improved Lead Quality: Targeted messaging attracts more relevant opportunities.

• Shorter Sales Cycles: Buyers move faster when they feel understood.

• Stronger Relationships: Personalisation builds trust and credibility over time.

Yet many businesses adopt a more ‘demand capture’ approach. Targeting a broad audience with (largely) the same (non-personalised) messaging and then hoping their sales team can convert.

Not horrific. But not the most effective way to sell to your ideal customer.

So, what’s a better way?

A demand generation approach, where you identify specific accounts in advance and tailor your approach accordingly. Here’s how it works:

3 Steps to Creating a Personalised Marketing Strategy That Boosts ROI and Retention 

Step 1: Identify your target accounts

You should start by identifying your target accounts. In essence, the who.

However, where many companies go wrong is by jumping straight to the how. The method of contacting or engaging with their ideal customer profile (ICP). This could be:

• Exhibitions and trade shows.

• Videos, content or online adverts.

• SEO and paid media (Google ads, etc).

• Direct mail and emails.

• And even cold calling.

Identifying your target accounts first enables you to assess your total addressable market (TAM) and refine your list to the accounts you feel fit your ICP or are most likely to buy from you.

Important: Don’t overlook existing accounts that might be interested in cross- and up-sell conversations.

As part of this process, it’s a worthwhile exercise to also ask yourself questions such as:

• Which accounts are we prioritising and why?

• Who are the key people in each account we need to contact?

• How will we segment accounts? (eg: Tier 1, Tier 2?)

• What opportunities do these accounts have that we can help with?

• How can we tailor an approach and/or messaging for each account or Tier?

• Which channel(s) would be most effective for reaching these accounts?

What you should have noticed is that only after establishing the who should you aim to decide upon the how. As in “how are we going to connect with our ICPs and cross-sell/up-sell opportunities?”

And that’s where personalisation comes in.

It enables you to target a more focused, smaller number of high(er) value opportunities. Doing so with a more impactful approach, tailored messaging and a better chance of success.

Step 2: Ensure your sales and marketing teams are aligned

Your sales and marketing teams being on the same page is essential for creating cut-through and cohesive campaigns covering the entire buyer’s journey.

Yet many businesses adopt a more ‘demand capture’ approach. Targeting a broad audience with (largely) the same (non-personalised) messaging and then hoping their sales team can convert.

Not horrific. But not the most effective way to sell to your ideal customer.

So, what’s a better way?

A demand generation approach, where you identify specific accounts in advance and tailor your approach accordingly. Here’s how it works:

3 Steps to Creating a Personalised Marketing Strategy That Boosts ROI and Retention 

Step 1: Identify your target accounts

You should start by identifying your target accounts. In essence, the who.

However, where many companies go wrong is by jumping straight to the how. The method of contacting or engaging with their ideal customer profile (ICP). This could be:

• Exhibitions and trade shows.

• Videos, content or online adverts.

• SEO and paid media (Google ads, etc).

• Direct mail and emails.

• And even cold calling.

Identifying your target accounts first enables you to assess your total addressable market (TAM) and refine your list to the accounts you feel fit your ICP or are most likely to buy from you.

Important: Don’t overlook existing accounts that might be interested in cross- and up-sell conversations.

As part of this process, it’s a worthwhile exercise to also ask yourself questions such as:

• Which accounts are we prioritising and why?

• Who are the key people in each account we need to contact?

• How will we segment accounts? (eg: Tier 1, Tier 2?)

• What opportunities do these accounts have that we can help with?

• How can we tailor an approach and/or messaging for each account or Tier?

• Which channel(s) would be most effective for reaching these accounts?

What you should have noticed is that only after establishing the who should you aim to decide upon the how. As in “how are we going to connect with our ICPs and cross-sell/up-sell opportunities?”

And that’s where personalisation comes in.

It enables you to target a more focused, smaller number of high(er) value opportunities. Doing so with a more impactful approach, tailored messaging and a better chance of success.

Step 2: Ensure your sales and marketing teams are aligned

Your sales and marketing teams being on the same page is essential for creating cut-through and cohesive campaigns covering the entire buyer’s journey.

 

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 

2 https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-06-03-gartner-survey-reveals-marketing-and-sales-functions-collaborate-on-only-three-out-of-15-commercial-activities

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/

6 https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/experience-led-growth-a-new-way-to-create-value