7 refreshing tips from your favourite B2B marketing agency
Our 7-Upp series looks to provide B2B marketers with clear, simple and practical ways to get better results from their B2B marketing.This week, we're taking a look at personalisation.
Personalisation isn’t a new thing in B2B, but the way in which you use AI can make or break your attempt at boosting your lead-gen efforts.
A good B2B marketing agency can help you take out the guesswork and apply it strategically to get real results. Here are our top 7 tips:
Tip #1: Know the difference between personal and intrusive
Just because you can personalise something, it doesn’t mean you should. While there’s usually no harm in adding someone’s name to email comms, if it’s ill-timed or too repetitive, it can be a little bit irritating. After all, are you showing that you really know them or just that you know their name? The key here is to think a bit smarter.
Instead, try serving them something you know they’ve been researching. Rather than asking them to download a generic whitepaper, send them a link to something useful, perhaps an interactive calculator that can help them explore a budget as part of a solution. Being genuinely useful is always a good way to build brand trust. It's not always easy, but if you can help prospects get what they need without being intrusive, you're on to a winner.
Tip #2: Focus on intent over identity
Even though AI and automation make it easy to neatly segment audiences, the reality is buyers don’t care about which box they fit into, they just want answers to their problems.
As we know in B2B, that’s rarely straightforward. Buying cycles are long and with multiple stakeholder involvement, so identity alone can’t tell you what this person cares about in this exact moment. Intent-based personalisation can really help you here, as AI can spot behaviour patterns and signals to show you what’s really on their mind right now. So instead of making assumptions based on titles, roles or demographics, use this to respond to their actions.
Say a visitor to your website is spending a lot of time looking at pages about integration challenges, your landing page could surface case studies about how easy it is to adopt a tech solution. Show them that you understand more than just who they are, and give them what it is they need from you today.
Tip #3: Sometimes less is more when it comes to content
Personalisation is all about providing relevance not volume. Remember, buyers are people too, and they don’t always have time to sift through hours of research. Dynamic personalisation needs to guide prospects through the right content, without overwhelming them in the process.
Our advice is to start out with a single hero piece that aligns with their sector, rather than bombarding them with 10 things at once. Small, subtle tweaks can often drive the biggest impact over flashy, but chaotic experiences. An experienced B2B marketing agency can help you with this, planning and structuring your content hierarchy so it always lands at exactly the right time.
Just because you can personalise something, it doesn’t mean you should. While there’s usually no harm in adding someone’s name to email comms, if it’s ill-timed or too repetitive, it can be a little bit irritating. After all, are you showing that you really know them or just that you know their name? The key here is to think a bit smarter.
Instead, try serving them something you know they’ve been researching. Rather than asking them to download a generic whitepaper, send them a link to something useful, perhaps an interactive calculator that can help them explore a budget as part of a solution. Being genuinely useful is always a good way to build brand trust. It's not always easy, but if you can help prospects get what they need without being intrusive, you're on to a winner.
Tip #2: Focus on intent over identity
Even though AI and automation make it easy to neatly segment audiences, the reality is buyers don’t care about which box they fit into, they just want answers to their problems.
As we know in B2B, that’s rarely straightforward. Buying cycles are long and with multiple stakeholder involvement, so identity alone can’t tell you what this person cares about in this exact moment. Intent-based personalisation can really help you here, as AI can spot behaviour patterns and signals to show you what’s really on their mind right now. So instead of making assumptions based on titles, roles or demographics, use this to respond to their actions.
Say a visitor to your website is spending a lot of time looking at pages about integration challenges, your landing page could surface case studies about how easy it is to adopt a tech solution. Show them that you understand more than just who they are, and give them what it is they need from you today.
Tip #3: Sometimes less is more when it comes to content
Personalisation is all about providing relevance not volume. Remember, buyers are people too, and they don’t always have time to sift through hours of research. Dynamic personalisation needs to guide prospects through the right content, without overwhelming them in the process.
Our advice is to start out with a single hero piece that aligns with their sector, rather than bombarding them with 10 things at once. Small, subtle tweaks can often drive the biggest impact over flashy, but chaotic experiences. An experienced B2B marketing agency can help you with this, planning and structuring your content hierarchy so it always lands at exactly the right time.
Tip #4: Let the buyer control the journey
Just because it’s personalised doesn’t mean you can dictate the way. In 2026, you need to give buyers options to let them explore at their own pace.
As an agency, we’re seeing more of a preference for self-service, as highlighted in our top B2B marketing trends. This hands-off approach shows buyers they’re empowered, not stalked, while giving your team insight into which content drives decisions. It’s about letting the journey unfold naturally, so your personalisation hits at the moments that really matter.
Tip # 5: Forget vanity signals Again, just because AI can track dozens of behaviours, it doesn’t mean it’s all useful to you. Clicks, opens, even downloads, these are all things which might look good on a report but don’t really tell you which buyers actually engaged, learned something or moved closer to a decision. Instead, focus your attention on the signals that show intent and progress. This could be things like visited pages, using interactive tools or reading guides in full. Watch what happens after downloads to see if they engage further. If they do, then offer a clear next step like a free demo or consultation that matches their proven interest.
Tip #6: Pick your battles Tempting as it may be to want to personalise every touchpoint, you might be better off focusing your efforts on the moments that influence a buyer’s decision. This means at key conversion points in the journey, (not just interactions or sign-ups). Buyers notice and respond when content feels purposeful. For instance, instead of trying to personalise every element of an email nurture sequence, think about making small copy tweaks to the subject line or call to action, based on recent behaviours. By focusing on the moments that matter, you’re focusing your efforts on maximising ROI with far less resource.
Tip #7: Take your time Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your full-scale personalisation strategy. Trying to fast-track things before you’re ready can actually set you back further, leading to confusion both for your team and your B2B audience. Sometimes the best approach is to start small so you can test and refine your outcomes before scaling. Incremental adoption can help you understand how buyers respond and interact with you, so you can apply that insight based on data, not just assumptions.
Tip # 5: Forget vanity signals Again, just because AI can track dozens of behaviours, it doesn’t mean it’s all useful to you. Clicks, opens, even downloads, these are all things which might look good on a report but don’t really tell you which buyers actually engaged, learned something or moved closer to a decision. Instead, focus your attention on the signals that show intent and progress. This could be things like visited pages, using interactive tools or reading guides in full. Watch what happens after downloads to see if they engage further. If they do, then offer a clear next step like a free demo or consultation that matches their proven interest.
Tip #6: Pick your battles Tempting as it may be to want to personalise every touchpoint, you might be better off focusing your efforts on the moments that influence a buyer’s decision. This means at key conversion points in the journey, (not just interactions or sign-ups). Buyers notice and respond when content feels purposeful. For instance, instead of trying to personalise every element of an email nurture sequence, think about making small copy tweaks to the subject line or call to action, based on recent behaviours. By focusing on the moments that matter, you’re focusing your efforts on maximising ROI with far less resource.
Tip #7: Take your time Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your full-scale personalisation strategy. Trying to fast-track things before you’re ready can actually set you back further, leading to confusion both for your team and your B2B audience. Sometimes the best approach is to start small so you can test and refine your outcomes before scaling. Incremental adoption can help you understand how buyers respond and interact with you, so you can apply that insight based on data, not just assumptions.
Chris Banner
Creative Director
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Get personal with an experienced B2B marketing agency
With a new emphasis on AI and intent-based experiences, personalisation is an area of B2B marketing that’s changing rapidly. Brands are looking past basic segmentation and content preferences to deliver experiences that resonate with their audiences and make them feel understood. At Upp, we’re combining over 20 years of B2B expertise with AI-driven insights to stay ahead, turning data into strategies that convert and build lasting relationships. If you’d like to know what this could mean for your business, maybe it's time to get personal. Email us at hello@uppb2b.co.uk
