Bright Ideas

Performance marketing: Just another buzzword?

We explore the fusion of agile and performance marketing for B2B marketers.

What is performance marketing?

You’ve probably heard the term performance marketing used a lot recently, and you may be wondering is this a methodology? A collection of channels? Or just another buzzword that’s being used in the industry? Simply put, performance marketing is an umbrella term for online marketing and advertising programs where you pay when a specific action occurs, these typically include generating a lead, sale, click or a download.

Performance marketing directly relates to sponsored advertising, social media advertising and search engine marketing. Depending on which platform you’re using, you will pay for an action, for instance, a cost per impression (CPM), cost per click (CPC) and cost per lead (CPL).

Although performance marketing is defined as such when an action is complete, setting up a performance-driven campaign will vary depending on which platforms you use, and what actions you want your audience to make.

What are the benefits of performance marketing?

There are many benefits to performance marketing in comparison to traditional marketing. Due to the nature of performance marketing, regardless of the channel you’re operating from, it’s easy to track performance, which means that if there is any indication that the campaign isn’t performing as expected, this can be identified early on and optimised in line with the data, ultimately resulting in a low risk, high impact activity.

Another benefit of performance marketing is ROI, depending on your overall objective and only paying for a specific interaction, this means budget isn’t utilised on vanity metrics or performance indicators that isn’t related to your overall objective.

What are the fundamentals of performance marketing and how do you measure it?

Now we’ve unravelled what performance marketing is and the benefits, let’s dive into the fundamentals of performance marketing and where to start when you’re looking to launch activity and how to measure it.

Firstly, setting marketing objectives is key, without clearly defining this at the start of your campaign it can be difficult to optimise and measure. Setting your objective is a crucial first step, are you looking to increase brand awareness? If so impressions and engagement across social channels may be your overall goal, you should then look at what this means in terms of tangible key performance indicators (KPIs), what is your total audience size and what is the number of impressions you’re looking to achieve? Or perhaps this is a click through rate (CTR) above 13%.

Once you’ve set your goal, you need to establish the content you’re planning to leverage. Refer back at your personas and identify what their pain points are and how your product/service can help alleviate their current challenges. Your persona should also include information on how they typically consume information, ensure that your content is aligned to your findings.

Now you’ve established the right-fit content, it’s now time to prepare your campaign and set up activity ready for launch, this will vary depending on the platform you use. Once you’ve set up, aligned and launched your campaign, it’s now time to monitor and optimise, whether you’re embarking on a brand new activity or launching a campaign on a platform that has typically worked for you before, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, this is where performance marketing and agile marketing meet.

The collision of agile and performance marketing

Performance marketing is an umbrella term, agile marketing is a methodology that allows marketers to respond faster and adapt at pace. Using agile marketing practices within your performance campaigns can ensure that you continually drive results.

Once your performance campaigns have been set up, it’s key to revisit, realign and review throughout. Not every marketing tool or social channel will drive results for your overarching goal, it may be that your audience isn’t as present on the platform, or the content you’ve leveraged may not be as impactful on your audience as you had hoped.

Running your performance marketing campaign in sprints will allow you to test new channels, audience groups, visuals, and messaging in a constructive way. Through sprints you can plan review and optimisation sessions, splitting your campaign into shorter periods of time, to reveal results quickly, as opposed to a more rigid traditional marketing methodology. Review your overall goal and drill this down into each sprint, what engagement level do we expect to see within a 3-week period of a particular channel, or perhaps it’s a click-through rate (CTR) above 7% initially to continue running activity for the next sprint.

The agile marketing methodology will ultimately enable you to be dynamic in your performance marketing approach, uncovering patterns and insights quickly to learn and adapt fast.

Don’t be bewildered by buzzwords

Don’t get lost in the language – performance marketing is simply a method of ensuring each action taken on each channel is utilised effectively and is measurable through metrics. Don’t be bewildered by buzzwords, Bright can help decode the detail and shine a light on the latest marketing trends.

At Bright, we pride ourselves on being B2B marketing experts that drive results through marketing agility. We embed an iterative and data-driven approach, leading the charge to better results and the ability to adapt and change at pace.

Get in touch with us today to chat all things agile.

May 30, 2022 Alexandra Jefferies Marketing Effectiveness

How to make Account Based Marketing successful with agile marketing principles.

How many times have you tried ABM and it’s not quite worked or driven the success you wanted it to? Or even struggled to get everyone internally on the same page?

Some sales teams see ABM as a risk, narrowing your activation to a select group of accounts compared to being out there for all to see. Others see it as talking to those most likely to buy and therefore more efficient use of budget. Both are right.

ABM can be categorised in three ways:

1:1 – is your hyper-personalised, highly targeted campaign, talking to a select group of individuals.
1: Few – is slightly broader, talking to your selected accounts with some commonality. This could be vertical-specific or common pain points.
1: Many – this is your broader approach that will talk to everyone in your target audience with an overarching message.

The following steps apply to all three categories and will guide you to making your ABM campaign, a successful one.

Data

In ABM, data is king. This might sound simple but selecting the right accounts and getting the correct data surrounding them is crucial. Get this step wrong and the rest is significantly less effective.

Starting with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), building your Total Addressable Market (TAM) and then narrowing down your audience and understanding the Decision-Making Unit (DMU) composition. These are the foundations of your campaign. Take your time here and be confident that you’re targeting the best accounts that fit your brand and service offering.

What is ICP?

An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a detailed profile of your ideal customer who would benefit the most from your product or service, used to customise marketing and lead generation tactics.

What is TAM?

TAM stands for Total Addressable Market which refers to the total market demand for a product or service. It’s the most amount of revenue a business can generate by selling their product or service in a specific market. Businesses can use TAM to estimate a specific market’s potential for growth.

What is DMU?

The decision-making unit (DMU) is a collection or team of individuals who participate in a buyer decision process. Philip Kotler defines the decision-making unit or DMU as “all individuals and groups that take part in the decision-making process relating to the negotiation of products /services”.

Alignment & metrics

This is a small but crucial step. Make sure that all stakeholders agree with the campaign and its steps, for example, sales & marketing need to be aligned to ensure the successful and seamless delivery of the campaign. This might sound obvious but in the cold light of day, misalignment and internal non-engagement with campaigns will result in missed business opportunities.

At the same time, we all must agree on what success looks like for this campaign. Success for marketing and success for sales can have different success metrics, so defining KPIs is key for everyone to get the most out of every campaign.

Speaking to your audience

Now you have settled on who you want to target, and everyone is aligned internally, the next step is understanding how you’re going to talk to them. Persona research, common pain point analysis, industry trends and value proposition development are all elements, that when combined, will help to form your messaging hierarchy.

Now you need to define which elements will resonate with the targeted individuals? Why your business? What problem do you solve? Why risk change? So many questions we will need to answer to move targets into and through your pipeline.

Fearless creative

Earlier, we said that data is king, and it is, however, a campaign creative is a very close second. With the marketing world becoming increasingly competitive and the cost of acquisition going up, standing out in a saturated marketplace is business critical. Creativity – conceptual and visual – can become the difference between winning and losing the attention of ICP’s in competitive business landscapes. Take a stand with your creative – be brave, be different and most importantly, be memorable.

One of our goals in marketing is to create memorable and actionable campaigns. This translates into business when you become one of your target audiences’ top three options when considering a change. That, in itself, is a success and will translate into pipeline opportunities.

Channels & execution

“Marketing is just LinkedIn ads, right?” This was an opening line from a sales director in a recent presentation. To a degree, he’s right and to a great degree, he couldn’t be more wrong. Whilst LinkedIn is a critical channel and one that has grown significantly during the last three years, it isn’t the only viable option available to reach your ICP. Direct mail, content syndication, sales development rep outreach, display ads, email nurture sequences, and many more options may be more appropriate, or impactful to get the right results your campaign.

This is where we go back to knowing our personas. Where do they spend their time? What do they value? Where and how can you get their attention? For some it is a direct mail landing on their desk and getting physically in front of them, for some it’s a catchy subject line from an email nurture sequence. Ultimately, no one channel will be the silver bullet. It will be a combination of tactics which all build towards moving you into their top three. Oh, and yes, LinkedIn ads are usually part of most campaigns nowadays. Music to the ears of the lovely Sales Director I mentioned earlier.

Data lead optimisation

Now, this is where we make the difference. Data allows us to see what is truly working and what needs more work. Which message is getting the most attention? Which image is driving the most clicks?

The crucial part of this is to not only review the data but to act on it. Make every touchpoint work harder. At Bright, we apply a test, learn and iterate approach to every marketing activity. This agile methodology gives us regular opportunities to review, assess and adapt to make sure your campaign is as effective and efficient as possible.

ABM is a great tool in the armoury of every marketer. Whether that is 1:1, 1: few, 1: many or a combination. Getting to the right people and propelling your business into their consideration options and ideally into that magical top three.

In summary; Be methodical with your data. Seek alignment, Speak to your audience. Be brave with your creative. Be agile, test, learn, iterate and follow the data.

At Bright, we pride ourselves on being world-leading B2B marketing experts, driving results through marketing agility. We embed an iterative and data-driven approach, leading the charge to better results, faster time to market, sustainable growth, and the ability to adapt and change at pace. Everything you need to have a successful ABM campaign and much more.

Shine the light on your marketing campaigns with Bright.

Get in touch with us today to chat all things agile.

May 13, 2022 Alexandra Jefferies Marketing Effectiveness

Four trends in the future of FinTech marketing

Insights from marketers on the ground, discussed at the annual FinTech B2B marketing conference.

As with many other sectors, the financial services industry is going through a continued period of disruption. Digital-first services are changing the way customers interact with brands as the move towards digital has increased customer’s expectation on service.

When I was asked to join the FinTech B2B Marketing Conference as a guest panellist, I was keen to share insights and experiences of agile marketing in the FinTech market, however the real value was found in the conversations had with my marketing peers about the immediate and undeniable factors that are influencing the marketing landscape for FinTech marketers today.

Navigating this ever-changing environment is tough at the best of times but navigating it post-pandemic brings its own host of disruptions. Here are four trends that I think will be influencing the industry over the coming months.

The role of critical thinking in data analytics

The goal of collecting and analysing data is to turn information into valuable insights and to create valuable insights, we must ask valuable questions. Our attention has too long been focussed on the hard skills in data – coding, visualisation, modelling etc. What seems to be far lower down the totem pole are the soft skills for making data useful, accessible, and valuable. Most importantly, the ability to critically think and analyse.

Critical thinking is a manner of thinking that employs curiosity, creativity, scepticism, analysis, and logic – the good news is, that critical thinking can be learned and upskilled. Finding the balance between trusting the data and our gut feeling is the key to discovering insights that add value.

The pandemic and the marketeer

I’m sure like me, you’re fed up with talking about the pandemic and how it has affected business over the past two years, but inevitably, it’s still impacting channel performance and creative a skills gap in the market.

The data we have on channel performance from the last two years is skewing our predictions – what worked in 2020 to deliver on demand gen seems to be shifting again. LinkedIn for example is currently working better for small businesses than it is for larger organisations – something that has changed dramatically over the past year and a half.

The great resignation, influenced by the pandemic means that the quality of contact data has become an issue as many people have left roles, challenging marketers to maintain and clean databases to ensure campaigns remain successful.

When one succeeds, we all succeed – the value in partnerships

Budget allocations have shifted over the past few years, with more money being invested into digital marketing and less on live events. Now that events have resumed and audiences are keen to attend, where will the money come from to satisfy both needs?

Brands need revenue and growth and have little appetite for further risk. Partnership marketing is a perfect antidote, brands can partner up on complimentary services and solutions to share resources and create value led events without having to risk the costs. The current circumstances highlight the virtues of creative, direct teamwork, so my advice is to find innovate ways to create long lasting relationships and partnerships that work for everyone.

Brand vs. Demand Generation

An age-old debate which every marketeer has had to negotiate, the truth is both are just as important, and one does not work without the other. A business with amazing brand presence but no leads will struggle to sustain itself. Whereas businesses that prioritise demand gen, tend to get a lot of prospects interested in a solution but will evidently lose out to competitors that have a stronger brand identity and clear values that cut through an already overpopulated market.

The financial services sector has always been considered as agile, with the requisite to adjust to ever-changing external factors. This inherent dynamism makes it an exciting and cutting-edge marketplace with scope for disruptive marketing tactics and experimentation at every turn, from brand to local and central levels. How can you enable experimentation approach, with a growth mindset and agile marketing approach to how your team execute.

Discover how Bright can inject agility into your business to maintain an edge on competition. Get in touch with us today to chat all things agile.

May 11, 2022 Lydia Kirby Marketing Effectiveness

Deep dive into agile marketing for FinTech

Bright injects agility into cutting-edge FinTech’s digital transformation journey

Bright’s client, a leading financial industry operating system, set out on a digital transformation journey to pivot their focus from brand marketing to demand gen. Requiring an agile approach, we helped transform their marketing strategy and achieve their business objectives. Vice President and Global Head of Marketing of the FinTech client, Mitra Roknabadi, joins our Client Delivery Director, Lydia Kirby, to be interviewed by John Cass and share their experience of putting agile marketing into action…

1. Move fast, break nothing

In a digital world time is of the essence – Mitra highlights the importance to “move fast but don’t rush”. The qualities of an agile marketing approach align perfectly with the FinTech client’s company motto: ‘move fast, break nothing’. By beginning to work in a series of iterations, we developed a safe foundation to learn more about their digital audience through listening, testing, and optimising. Bright empowered the FinTech client team to “work at pace and learn, iterate, shift and deliver quickly.”

2. Experts, assemble!

There’s more to agile marketing than the methodology. Mitra recalls how her experience with Bright helped her to see “the full extent of what agile means”. As the campaign developed, both Mitra and Lydia as agile aficionados adapted the team’s approach and toolkit to suit the FinTech client’s needs. Demonstrating the ability to onboard and offboard expertise where needed was paramount to the FinTech client, enabling them to identify how and where they wanted to grow as a business.

3. Planning, doing, and reviewing

Keen to shirk the assumption an agile marketing approach is an impulsive one, Lydia emphasises the “planning, doing, and reviewing” that goes into a project. Bright often work in three-week Sprints to allow ample “time for learning, understanding the subject and iteration”. Project management and instant messaging platforms are key tools to unite siloed teams and enable them to collaborate and respond at pace. It’s the way in which we respond that sets agile marketers apart; having an open mind that something may work better than predicted. The review process of continuous self-reflection allows for iteration, optimisation and ultimately, the best of results.

Lydia described her experience with the FinTech client as a “dream, not because they’re simply new to agile marketing”… but because “their scale-up mentality embraced the agile methodology”. Mitra is also confident the campaign experience “will influence what we do as a company” going forward.

As Bright continues to work with innovative FinTech companies, we look forward to delivering fresh, iterative, and data-driven agile marketing approaches, leading the charge to better results, faster time to market, sustainable growth, and the ability to adapt and change at pace.

April 29, 2022 Lydia Kirby Agile Marketing In Practice

Earth Day 2022: Agility in climate action planning and why we’ll fail without it

Net-Zero targets are rightfully ambitious, but they’re doomed to fail if strategies aren’t agile. Our agile guide to help #InvestInOurPlanet

Last year, the UK Government released plans on how it will deliver its Net Zero emissions targets by 2050 including a 78% reduction from 1990 to 2035. Whilst their strategy is ‘ambitious and comprehensive’ if their plans aren’t agile, measured and take an iterative approach, they’re doomed to fail.

This year’s Earth Day, falling on 22 April annually, is themed around nature in the race to net zero with the hashtag #InvestInOurPlanet. At Bright, we believe the best way for governments to plan for climate change is to use an agile approach.

13 going on 35

2035 seems miles away from where we are now, 13 years is a long time in project planning terms, however targets and goals as ambitious as climate action ones, demand special attention. Cities across the globe are setting targets and measuring for the years ahead, however, without monitoring, how are they going to track progress?

Agile methodology manages projects by breaking it up into several phases or sprints. Involving continuous collaboration with stakeholders and constant learning and improvement at every stage. Once the project begins, teams’ cycle through a process of planning, executing, and evaluating thus teams have a natural mechanism for responding to change quickly. Do you see where we’re going with this yet?

Seize the data

Climate targets need to be data driven; however, the data needs to be monitored and used correctly. Agile emphasises the freedom to be daring in concept and tactics whilst also highlighting the importance of data driven insights. The most important aspect of an agile approach is to turn your data into actionable insights.

Try, Fail, Try something different, Succeed

Collecting climate data is all well and good, but if that data suggests or even shows that transition targets have been missed by a large margin then more measures will need to be implemented behind this goal. Equally, if target measures seem to be particularly effective, more ambitious targets could be set to reach goals faster.

This kind of flexibility is important as climate strategies need to be adaptable based on actual results and external shifts that are not yet known. Agile ways of working promote this type of flexibility and retrospective outlook which allows for prioritisation on demand – providing teams with the knowledge of what is most important to work on next.

Some cities around the world are already adapting their climate strategies to make them more agile. Mannheim in Germany, for example will digitise its new ‘Climate Action Plan 2030’ to track measurable data close to real-time via a digital twin. Meaning the city can be more flexible in adjusting milestones to reach targets faster and more efficiently.

Limit risks without risking your limits

Agile methodology is based on the concepts of flexibility, transparency, quality, and continuous improvement. Visibility in project management plays a key role in ensuring targets are achievable and that teams have the resources necessary to attain them. It’s easy for governments to set ambitious targets that make headlines and line manifestos, but if the delivery is deficient due to lack of transparency, the strategies will fail.

The Committee on Climate Change – a group of experts that advise the UK government – called the governments net zero strategy “ambitious and comprehensive” but says the UK government needs to “strengthen delivery” and agree tougher policies. With increased visibility, predicting risks, and coming up with effective mitigation plans become simpler. When working within an agile framework, there are countless ways to identify and predict risks faster meaning it’s easier to plan to ensure that the project runs smoothly, targets are met, and goals are achieved.

So, there you have it, our challenge to #InvestInOurPlanet. While there may be plenty of obstacles in climate change planning, the benefits of agile ways of working, both to governments as well as the planet, are abundant. As the planet continues to evolve and change, strategies on climate change planning need to be agile enough to evolve with it.

If you would like to introduce agile marketing into your project planning, please contact us about our Agile Marketing training or marketing support.

April 21, 2022 Alexandra Jefferies Agile Marketing In Practice

Agile: Marketing at the speed of FinTech

The buzz surrounding FinTech companies keeps growing louder as these cutting-edge businesses introduce innovative ideas to disrupt the financial services industry.

From P2P lending and digital currency to online payments, internet insurance, and self-serve brokerages, FinTech solutions can offer customers more efficiency, convenience, and security than traditional solutions.

Business Insider expects the FinTech industry to grow with a CAGR of 20 percent over the next few years.

Despite growth, FinTech companies face steep challenges

Financial institutions and customers appear eager to embrace new tools. Still, even the best new financial technology must gain visibility in a crowded, shifting marketplace.

Very often, FinTech enterprises need to introduce their brands and ideas to a marketplace that barely understands the problem that needs solving. At the same time as innovators offer new solutions, they also face rapid shifts in their business environments because of changing regulations, competitors, and customer expectations.

FinTech companies don’t just need to produce innovative solutions to help customers. They must also employ their own creative, responsive, and adept marketing processes to remain ahead of a rapidly changing business environment. This demands an approach to marketing strategy and project management that uses agile methodologies.

Why agile marketing perfectly suits FinTech companies

Successful FinTech companies use rapid, data-driven methodologies to develop and test their ideas to offer the best products and services in this dynamic business environment. Startups and established tech companies must remain agile to cope with rapid and often unexpected changes. Many technical companies rely on Agile development tools to swiftly gather information, test ideas, validate theories, and optimise processes.

Thus, Agile marketing tactics fit the culture and business model of FinTech companies precisely the same way that Agile development tactics do. Developers working within an Agile framework will recognise the core principles of Agile marketing, such as rapid sprints, using an iterative process to develop and test, relying on data-driven ideas and techniques, and a holistic, interdisciplinary approach.

Highlights of why Agile marketing flawlessly suits FinTech companies include:

Responsive to the economic and market context: In the complex and rapidly evolving FinTech market, agile marketing can pivot quickly and relies on data, not assumptions. The interdisciplinary nature of this marketing framework also offers better insights into the broader economic and competitive context.
Complementary to FinTech company culture: Typical FinTech businesses tend to be agile, and very often, use Agile development tools. Employees readily understand and adapt to this adaptable, sprint-based, diversity-inclusive, and engaging style. An agile marketing team already speaks the language of every other team member, including marketing leaders and business decision makers.
Able to scale: Agile marketing’s focus on automation and efficiency helps clients scale as businesses evolve and grow. Agile marketing tactics don’t just scale quickly. They also encourage business growth, making scaling more possible, finding new ways to reach potential customers.
Suitable for the unique demands of FinTech: FinTech businesses constantly upgrade and improve products with new or improved features. Agile marketing can keep up with this level of dynamism. Besides offering insights about the best way to communicate changes to customers, these marketing approaches can help developers learn what to change or leave alone.

As B2B FinTech grows to catch up and keep pace B2C FinTech, B2B FinTech companies will need to reach B2B Companies. This needs an approach to B2B marketing that continuously improves their digital marketing and that guides modern B2B buyers towards a purchase decision

Agile Marketing: FinTech can’t wait

Santander provides a great case study of how even established financial services firms can implement agile marketing approaches. Santander shortened campaign cycles into ‘sprints’ and used daily ‘huddles’ to dynamically adjust priorities based on performance. This allowed Santander to create more adaptable campaigns that make better use of budget. Besides taking inspiration from best practice in Silicon Valley, Santander’s agile marketing approach has aligned the marketing part of their business with IT development methodologies.

Fintech companies cannot afford to wait for weeks to adjust or broadcast their marketing messages. They need tangible results fast, together with the capacity to learn from experience. Zaptino – working with Bright – used data-driven audience insight and a rapid, iterative approach to optimise key messages. In just six weeks, they were able nurture investors towards conversion that delivered over £125,000 in investment, as well as building a pipeline of longer-term opportunities.

Agile marketing relies on continuous streams of data analytics, automated processes, rapid tests, frequent evaluations, and a series of iterations. Here at Bright, we’re excited about the future of FinTech and understand the challenges our clients face. Our unique marketing methodology and technical capabilities help FinTech companies enjoy rapid growth and profits because they employ the same agile tactics that our clients use to produce new solutions.

Discover more about the intersection between agile marketing and FinTech as Bright’s client delivery director, Lydia Kirby, will be appearing as a guest panellist at this years Fintech B2B Marketing Conference on the 27th of April. Lydia will be sharing her FinTech industry insights and agile marketing expertise on the topic of ‘Winning B2B data-driven marketing strategy is the next new normal’.

April 12, 2022 Lydia Kirby Agile Marketing In Practice

Four ways agile marketing can help overcome bias

Bright explores how agility, curiosity, empowerment and spirit can #Breakthebias

Beyond hashtags, inspirational videos and moving quotes, celebrating International Women’s Day should serve as a reminder of the ongoing effort and change that is still needed to bring true equality and equity to women in society. As a female led business Bright place diversity at the heart of our business. Zoe Merchant, Bright, Managing Director comments “We, as marketers, whose profession it is to create awareness, drive change and make an impact, have the power to tackle biases and discrimination that permeate our much evolved yet still opinionated society.”

Unconscious bias and systemic prejudices are innate traits of the human being which affects opinions, decision-making and actions. But we believe that by challenging the status quo and testing preconceptions we can disrupt mindsets and create positive change in the workplace, our society and in culture, day after day.

“None of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and nor likely will many of our children. That’s the sobering finding of the Global Gender Gap Report 2020, which reveals that gender parity will not be attained for 99.5 years,” Global Gender Gap Report 2020.

As pioneers of agile marketing, we apply the same methods we use for our strategies to our approach to diversity and equality within the work we do. We’re focused on proving how an agile approach to all areas of business, combined with a culture of empowerment and a diverse workforce fuels operational capability as a business and helps us remove the limitations of bias in marketing both for Bright and for our clients.

Our business values of agility, curiosity, empowerment, spirit, encompass our commitment to breaking the bias.

Break the bias with Agility

As a collective of agile marketing practitioners, the discipline of research, test and validate; learning and improving goes beyond our approach to marketing strategy. We know that diverse talent and influences contributes to a richer pool of experience where positive friction allows us to challenge the norm to embed new ways of working and test new methods to achieve results.

At Bright, we pride ourselves on embracing flexibility to attract and, most importantly, keep a diverse and talented team. Zoe Merchant comments, “At Bright, we respect, challenge and nurture each other to ensure our marketing and campaign strategies are creative, innovative, and rooted in validated concepts.”

Break the bias with Curiosity

As part of our agile approach at Bright, we’re to always examine the bigger picture and understand its origin and trajectory with a methodical approach. The environment we find ourselves in shouldn’t mould us into accepting facts at face value. Scrutiny and curiosity should challenge and fuel our perspectives, we should continue to ask ‘why’ to understand the details that will allow for improvements. Interrogating the data will help to set us free from legacy and unconscious bias. Marketers need to move away from vanity metrics and set robust KPI through measuring what matters. Only then can we drive change by making more educated and insightful decisions.

Break the bias with Empowerment

Remaining data and insight driven is how marketers have comprehensive knowledge of the state of the market and the audience mindset before planning any strategy. We believe that acquiring an agile, innovative, and creative mindset can help us connect with a more diverse audience and offer more far-reaching solutions. It’s also important to ensure unbiased segmentation as well as considering any unconscious or conscious bias in market & brand positioning. At Bright, we believe that empowering our team to interrogate the status-quo and ask difficult questions helps us to discover new opportunities, tackle market or brand stagnation and achieve faster growth.

“Gender-diverse companies are 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability and boost productivity.”
– McKinsey

Break the bias with Spirit

We’re continually aiming to expand our team’s demographic diversity – diversity of experience and opinion is valuable and helps overcome stale assumptions and challenge conventional thinking. Working as a team towards common goals, we strive to maximise outcomes through innovative solutions, never letting preconceptions and ideologies hold us back. Zoe Merchant comments, “Liberating ourselves from bias helps Bright craft agile marketing strategies and campaigns that better connect with target audiences and deliver a positive impact.”

“Diverse teams are more innovative—stronger at anticipating shifts in consumer needs and consumption patterns that make new products and services possible, potentially generating a competitive edge”
– McKinsey

The Brighter Way

As a female-led business, we celebrate diversity not only within Bright, but also by partnering with likeminded organisations who advocate for minority groups to have equal opportunities and celebrate the success of women and minorities across the business and leadership landscape. Bright is an active member of WEConnect, a global network that connects women-owned businesses to corporate buyers around the world who are committed to diversity and inclusion. Being a member of WEConnect allows us to tap into the talent of creative and entrepreneurial women and access business opportunities from organisations who are aligned with our values. At Bright, we celebrate diversity across all intersections, not limited to gender. Zoe Merchant has been selected for two years running as a member of the 40 over Forty List, celebrating the talent and experience of over 40’s in the advertising, marketing and media industry.

All marketers benefit from creating an inclusive environment around agility, empowerment, curiosity, and spirit resulting in creating better, more effective marketing. We enjoy challenging the status quo, testing to validate new, diverse approaches and measuring performance through audience response. Through iterating to continually improve we achieve viable and impactful agile marketing, endorse our talented team, and break the bias.

March 4, 2022 Zoe Merchant Agile Marketing In Practice

Bright enlists corporate advisory consultancy, Cactus, to help navigate expansion

During these changeable times, businesses are increasingly seeking ways in which they can adapt and transform with a more agile approach. Due to the increased requirement for marketing agility, driven by the unpredictability caused by the pandemic, world-leading B2B agile marketing consultancy, Bright, has experienced more demand than ever.

Founded in 2013 by Zoë Merchant, Bright’s goal was to accelerate business growth for its clients and push their marketing forward through greater agility to achieve better results. Nine years later, Bright’s goal remains the same, now with a team of 21 agile marketing specialists and a roster of market-leading, technology, publishing and engineering clients.

To navigate the next phase of growth, driven by a collective passion for evolution, Bright has teamed up with Cactus – Europe’s leading corporate advisory and growth consultancy for agencies.

Cactus is uniquely positioned to supply corporate commercial development support, operational guidance and expert financial advice, having worked with over 2,500 agencies globally and some of the fastest growing agencies in their territories. With these credentials, 2022 is set to be a landmark year for Bright’s growth.

“It’s an exciting time for Bright, agile marketing has moved beyond nascent and we’re seeing clear benefits to those businesses that change their way of working to fuel business growth, through greater adaptability, client centricity and a data driven approach.
Bright’s on a mission to drive marketing agility forward and we continue to expand how we deliver our services and work alongside clients to co-create, coach and train marketers to become more agile.”
Zoë Merchant, Managing Director of Bright

“Bright is a remarkable business, one with huge potential to be a leader in the industry and one we’re thrilled to be working so closely with. They have such an interesting proposition and a truly unique service offering for their clients”.
Danny Turnbull, Managing Partner for Consulting at Cactus

Discover how Bright’s approach to agile marketing can equip teams with the expertise to adapt to a fast-paced, changeable business environment, take advantage of opportunities for growth and transform your business.

Bright is a world-leading B2B agile marketing consultancy, providing strategic marketing services, supporting transformation through co-creation and training for tech & professional services firms.

Bright’s team of expert B2B agile marketing practitioners inspire businesses to think and act differently; embrace curiosity and use data-driven insights to drive continuous learning, improvement and transformation, always putting the customer at the heart of activity.

February 14, 2022 Zoe Merchant Marketing Effectiveness

Four ways agile marketing supports the future of work

The future of work has been completely reshaped as a result of the pandemic. Both employers and employees have been awakened to the advantages of virtual and home working, but this has also thrown up its own challenges including ‘the great resignation’. But for marketing agencies, adopting an agile approach is one of the ways they can manage some of the workforce challenges caused by this seismic shift.

Agile marketing is no longer a niche methodology for marketing organisations. Our own 2021 annual survey found that over 50% of marketers are adopting agile marketing to respond faster and build resilience. More and more organisations are adopting agile marketing principles, and the gap between those that do and those that don’t is going to get bigger as a result. Marketing organisations who adopt agile are better placed to adapt to changing circumstances, whether that be external factors influencing a campaign, or internal factors impacting the running of your business.

The great resignation

Agile practices will be needed to handle the talent shift many industries are currently going through, including marketing. Internationally, a staggering 41% of the global workforce was considering leaving their employer in 2021, according to the 2021 Work Trend Index by Microsoft.

In the UK, the number of job vacancies rose to a record high of 1,102,00 between July to September 2021 according to Accenture Fjord Trends 2022. In particular, agile marketing expertise are scarce because it is still a relatively new concept for marketers.

It may be considered smarter to build this agile capability internally, so organisations can benefit from cross functional and capability-based teams, whilst building a growth mindset culture with their teams. Marketers need a productive and empowering environment that encourages development and entices them to join or stay in your organisation. Investing in agile marketing training and embedding new ways of working can make you a destination employer making recruitment and retention that much easier.

Hybrid working

As we begin to learn to live with Covid-19, it is clear that hybrid working is here to stay as the benefits are obvious and favourable for both employers and employees. While working from home has its work-life balance advantages, some employees also miss bonding with colleagues and access to mentors, especially those in their early careers. Agile marketing helps marketing teams adapt to this new normal both in terms of processes and in the implementation of new tools. Agile working practices help to break down barriers between employees and traditional ways of working, enabling teams to work at their best and most efficient. These agile working practices accelerated by hybrid working will attract new generations of top talent.

Forever transforming

Change is a constant. Agile marketing doesn’t just mean that you can respond and adapt quickly to change, but it gives you new ways of working that equip you to handle business transformation of all kinds.

Agile marketing principles encourage marketers to only plan to a level sufficient to ensure effective prioritisation and execution so that they can quickly adapt to anticipated change. Other principles include organising in small, cross-functional teams where possible and learning through data and experiments rather than relying on opinion or past experience, all designed to enable marketers to respond and adapt to new developments and constant change.

Empowering teams

Agile marketing can also help with staff retention as it helps create empowered individuals and teams, and empowered individuals are less likely to quit. The fifth principle of agile marketing according to the agile marketing manifesto is ‘build marketing programmes around motivated individuals and trust them to get the job done’. As teams mature in their application of agile marketing, they become more confident and empowered to make decisions autonomously.

Dan Meek, CEO at global leadership consultancy, LIW, follows this rule with both his internal team and clients, “we encourage our leadership clients to adopt agile principles to help create the right conditions for their teams and their business to succeed.”

Agile isn’t the future, it’s now

Currently the marketing industry is being heavily impacted by these significant changes to how people are working. But by adopting agile marketing principles, organisations can set themselves up to manage and adapt to ongoing and different types of change, whatever that change may be.

Jim Ewel, Founder of the Agile Marketing Manifesto summarises:

“We’re currently experiencing a period of intense change and disruption which some marketing organisations may struggle to survive. But organisations that embrace agile marketing methods are the ones who are most likely to succeed now and, in the future, as they will be more efficient, more customer focused and able to adapt to whatever challenges they may be faced with.”

January 26, 2022 Zoe Merchant Agile Marketing In Practice

The agile trinity: How three pillars drive Marketing effectiveness in B2B

Ever wondered how to explain your complex B2B marketing role to someone outside the industry? Simple explanations often hold the most power. Here at Bright, we champion agile marketing, where clarity, data and pace are paramount. So, how can we break down B2B marketing into a concept even an eight-year-old child could grasp?

Here’s our take: We connect businesses with the people who matter – those who can buy from them, join their team, or support their purpose.

The three pillars of high-impact B2B marketing…
or we might even call them the three gears of B2B marketing with their symbiotic relationship@

Building a thriving B2B organisation requires a solid marketing foundation. This foundation rests on three crucial pillars that work in perfect harmony:

Pillar 1: Demand Generation: The art of attracting the right audience

This is the cornerstone of traditional marketing – attracting potential customers with an interest and ultimately need for your products or services. However, it’s about more than just lead generation. Effective demand generation involves nurturing a long-term pipeline of qualified prospects.

Funnel marketing is a traditional marketing approach that visualises the customer journey as a funnel, with a broad audience at the top and a smaller set of qualified leads at the bottom. The goal of funnel marketing is to move as many prospects as possible through the funnel stages until they become customers.

However, flywheel marketing is a more recent concept that emphasises the importance of customer retention and satisfaction. The flywheel model depicts the customer journey as a continuous cycle, with happy customers referring new business and propelling the flywheel forward. It is a more customer-centric approach.

When considering the entire customer lifecycle, another relatively recent concept which can help to maximise marketing effectiveness is RevOps or revenue operations. This is the practice of aligning the revenue generating teams around a common set of goals & KPI which can include sales, marketing, and customer service teams to improve the customer experience and drive revenue growth. RevOps teams take a collaborative approach using data and insights to align, identify and remove obstacles in the customer journey.

Agile marketing allows your marketing team to adapt and respond to change, which is constant – by leveraging a test and learn approach, you can adopt new tools & tech, collaborate better and course correct to maintain alignment to company goals. By using experimentation, you avoid placing big bets and investing budget inactivity that doesn’t work. Instead you can iteratively develop and scale campaigns and activity that builds on what drives results.

By constantly adapting your approach, you can maximise marketing effectiveness and ensure a steady flow of high-quality leads.

Pillar 2: Brand building & positioning: Shaping your reputation for success

Your brand is your reputation. It defines how people perceive your company, products, and core values. Effective brand building establishes a strong market position, fostering trust and loyalty. While measuring the direct impact of brand marketing can be challenging in B2B, it’s an essential investment that fuels long-term success. In B2B you can use long term metrics such as customer lifetime value (CLV) or Lifetime Value (LTV) to demonstrate brand value & contribution. Firms targeting high value, long customer relationships need a strong and credible brand in order to maintain that value and extend the lifecycle of customers.

A key focus for every brand is having a thorough understanding of your brand value proposition. Developing a clear position that describes what is valuable about your brand, products and/or services to your audience and why they should choose you over your competition. This is something Bright have a lot of experience in, working with tech companies, engineering and professional services firms to help build the foundation of their brand narrative, value proposition and portfolio strategy in the market. It forms an umbrella for all your brand communications, as well as supporting and enhancing your demand and talent marketing generation activities.

Pillar 3: Talent acquisition & retention: Finding and keeping the best people

In today’s highly competitive job market, attracting and retaining top talent is a top priority. Marketing plays a vital role in your employer & employee value proposition (EVP) showcasing your company culture and attracting skilled individuals who resonate with your values. Remember, this pillar works hand-in-hand with your overall brand and demand generation – a strong employer brand attracts not only customers but also talented individuals.

Internal communication also plays an important part of retaining your employees, especially when undergoing any significant change such as implementing a new technology, striving for rapid growth, pursuing a new strategic direction or undertaking a business restructure. With 70% of change initiatives failing and reasons for employee resistance to change including mistrust in the organisation (41%) , followed by lack of awareness around the reason for change (39%) and fear of the unknown (38%)*, the value of a change communications strategy cannot be underestimated if you want to retain your most valued staff.

Taking an agile approach to talent marketing and internal comms is critical to meet the changing needs of the organisation as well as adapt to the talent market. Establishing the right ways of working and enabling opportunities to challenge how you’ve always done things, allows room to improve the effectiveness of your talent marketing and take your outcomes to the next level.

Why all three pillars of marketing matter

These three pillars are intricately linked and symbiotic. Focusing solely on demand generation might bring in new business in the short term, but neglecting brand building can hinder your long-term ability to drive sales. And, without a robust employer brand and agile internal comms, attracting and retaining talent becomes difficult affecting customer experience and potentially damaging your customer loyalty.

The Bright mantra: Demand, Brand, Talent, Growth

At Bright, we believe that all three pillars must work in unison for a marketing strategy to be truly effective. By prioritising each element and ensuring they seamlessly align, you’ll be well on your way to achieving sustainable growth.

Ready to unlock marketing effectiveness for your B2B organisation through agile strategies? Let Bright be your guide! Contact us today!

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November 15, 2021 Zoe Merchant Marketing Strategy 51 comments