2019 was an exciting year for the team at Ilex Content Strategies. We’ve seen our client base grow in new markets and sectors while expanding our consultancy services and inbound marketing offering.
Our growth and development has been mirrored by a diversifying B2B technology and telecoms market. Digital transformation is reaching into new vertical industries and becoming a reality beyond the boardrooms and planning sessions. We see tremendous potential in supporting transformation in the construction industry, logistics, financial services and a whole range of segments that have unique needs and opportunities.
Ilex is well positioned to market digital transformation across verticals because no matter what the industry, digitalisation is underpinned with networking. From Infrastructure as a Service to cloud-based applications and all kinds of software platforms, networking is the foundation. We’re able to understand our clients’ businesses from the ground up and develop creative and compelling campaigns that speak to specific audiences.
In 2020 across B2B technology and telecoms, we’re going to continue to see this move from generic products to specific solutions. For marketers, this is going to be about telling vertical-specific stories that talk about the pain points facing each industry. It is a massive opportunity for Ilex and we have already been successful in marketing transformation in the carrier business, mobile, transportation, financial services, and other B2B segments.
Verticalisation will continue to grow in importance and define the content we create and the messaging and narratives we develop for clients. In the Middle East, it isn’t just about selling connectivity and data centre space. It is about creating a solution for seamlessly rolling an online game across borders. The opportunity in 5G will go way beyond faster download speeds for consumers. It will reshape entire industries and enable the Internet of Things (IoT) innovation to accelerate. In construction, managing health and safety isn’t just red tape. It is an opportunity to use digital platforms to ensure job satisfaction, reduce risk, and in turn grow profitability.
Companies that communicate effectively can own verticals and become a “go-to” player across different niches. That’s incredibly valuable because it creates inbound leads, customer loyalty and enables the business to further develop its products to serve their niches. The feedback loop between customers, partners and communities cements the company’s position in the vertical.
At Ilex, this is what we enable and are focused on delivering in 2020. We want to support our clients as they successfully target verticals and grow their businesses serving unique audiences. Over the last eight years, we’ve grown from a largely carrier-focused business to serving networking, mobile, enterprise IT, IT consultancy, IaaS and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) organisations across five continents.
We never stop adapting and evolving and 2020 will be no different. Here’s the five focus areas we’ll be working on over the next twelve months:
1. Transforming Marketing – A lot of our clients are pivoting to support digital transformation while offering new solutions, and this means changing how they approach marketing. We’re increasingly being asked to help them understand who they are going to be in the future and reposition their businesses to capture new opportunities. They need a relevant story to define their purpose for an array of customers across different verticals.
| We consult with the organisation, understand their objectives and challenges, then help them to evolve their communications to match a changing market. This kind of consultancy helps to clarify the organisation’s approach and gets the entire team moving in the same direction with the same purpose. |
2. Prioritising Nurturing – As they evolve their approach to marketing, our clients are continually asking for more efficient ways of engaging prospects, partners and existing customers over time. In B2B where sales cycles are long, we’re increasingly focused on nurturing strategies. The days of just “wining and dining” them are over. Most B2B organisations need a more scalable and efficient approach to staying in front of prospects, partners and existing customers.
| We help to offer useful advice, recommendations and content that can help their customers be successful. While wining and dining will always be a part of sales, we’re increasingly offering ways to nurture audiences with an approach that enables us to capture information and use it to provide a better service in the future. |
3. Inbound Strategies and HubSpot – We’re proud to be a HubSpot partner and brought our first HubSpot clients on board in 2019. HubSpot is an excellent tool for bringing marketing, sales and customer service functions into a single platform. It enables marketing teams to track sales from initial engagement and content through to the final deal.
| We use it ourselves and have found it to be the most intuitive marketing platform and a great addition to our offering. In 2020, we’re going to continue to help clients to adopt inbound strategies and maximise the value of HubSpot in their organisations. |
4. Channel Partner Enablement – Channel partner programmes are one of the best ways for innovative B2B tech and telecoms businesses to scale up and grow. We have been helping our clients to market their channel partner programmes.
| The challenge is to attract new partners and ensure that it is simple for partners to sell our clients’ services. We’ve put together an offering that gets channel programmes off the ground and using HubSpot nurtures partners and encourages them to sell. It is a fast and easy way to get started with all of the materials partners need to sell. We see the global channel ramping up in 2020 and will support a growing number of clients as they use the channel to scale their offering. |
5. Telling Our Story – In 2020, we’re going to communicate more of what we’re up to and share more of the ideas, insights and advice we discuss every day. We’re going to be more active in offering recommendations and consultancy to both clients and non-clients. Often, we’re doing great work but not sharing it with the world. Ilex has a brilliant story to tell and we’re going to prioritise getting it out there and driving awareness of our vision for B2B marketing and communications.
This time next year, our client base will be even more diverse than it is now. The value that we deliver with expertise, efficiency and execution opened a number of doors for us in 2019 and that will only continue in 2020. The key will be to engage with more organisations globally and really look for “good fit” clients that share our vision for marketing that can be rooted in technological understanding as well as creativity.
We want to work with ambitious clients that understand the value of marketing for their entire organisation beyond the basic KPIs. When we are all on board and share the same purpose, marketing becomes a driver for lasting success and the overall health of an organisation, and that’s what we strive for.
