Humanising B2B marketing: Why the human touch still wins

Technology has transformed the way we work and connect. It’s given us efficiencies we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago and opened up new possibilities for businesses of every size. But if we’re honest, it’s also left some of us feeling a little… disconnected.

Because when every process is automated, customer conversations are routed through bots, and interactions are reduced to ticket numbers, something important slips away. The human touch.

We’ve seen this before

Technology trends can be circular, like fashion trends. Something shiny and new arrives, and we all rush to embrace it, but the cracks begin to show over time. Just as the world of desire moved from small mobile screens back to bigger, more immersive ones, we’re now shifting away from total automation thanks to a renewed appetite for genuine human connection.

We’ve learnt that technology can be brilliant, but it’s not the whole answer. People still want to feel understood and valued, not just processed – however efficiently.

Balance is everything

In the B2B marketing sphere, we believe in finding the sweet spot where technology and humanity work in harmony.

Let tech do the heavy lifting

Automate, but carefully. Use it to free up time by removing repetitive tasks and lean on its accuracy, scheduling, analysis and reporting strengths. Let it take these things off your plate to create more room for you to focus on the human side of business: creativity, empathy, big-picture thinking. There will be plenty of occasions where a CRM system can issue a templated response, and it will be absolutely fine. However, only a human has the skill to know when a relationship needs a unique reply.

Make time for real-time conversations

Sometimes a quick call or face-to-face meeting achieves more than an entire automated campaign. Generational awareness is critical here; you may need to train and encourage your younger employees to pick up the phone, and it’ll be essential to judge how each member of your high-value target audience likes to communicate. But the principle holds that direct, personal conversation can outperform nurture track programmes by miles.

Stay human

This isn’t about resisting change. It’s about choosing the right moments for a personal touch and making them count. In some ways, this means stepping up your vigilance for such moments and remaining alert for the times when you need to break free from the dictates of a marketing campaign structure to make a tailored move. For example, is your audience swamped with digital marketing to the extent you suspect they’re just deleting it unread? Could you break through this overwhelm with something unexpected, like sending some printed material with a hand-written cover note?

Humanising B2B marketing: What this means for us and for you

At asabell, we know our clients remember more than the results we deliver. They remember how we make them feel, which is why we combine the efficiency of technology with the warmth of human connection.

We stay vigilant and monitor marketing, sales and communication trends as well as the mood of your markets. And, although we use highly performing digital marketing strategies and tools in our campaigns (some of which lean on automation), we always start by asking ourselves how we can best get through to your targets. Sometimes the answer is as simple as helping your sales teams to make opportunities to speak to their customers.

This is how we earn trust. It’s how we help our clients grow. And it’s how we stand out.

If you want to work with a partner who can cut through the noise, tell your story in a way that resonates, and keep the human touch alive in a digital-first world, we would love to talk.

While your company page plays a central role in shaping your social media presence, the real power lies in activating the voices of your people.

When employees regularly share relevant industry news, offer expert commentary and speak authentically about their work, it adds depth, reach and trust to your brand. It also boosts visibility to new audiences - particularly important for scaling businesses looking to stand out in a crowded market.

Yet for many innovative organisations, particularly in fast-moving sectors like cyber security and quantum tech, managing consistent, strategic social activity can quickly fall down the to-do list.

That’s where a focused, low-lift social strategy that supports both company and individual accounts becomes a game-changer.

Take KETS Quantum Security, for example. This award-winning UK startup wanted to boost its credibility and industry profile online while staying focused on its core business. We partnered with KETS to deliver a streamlined, end-to-end LinkedIn strategy that elevated both its company page and employee voices - driving a 214% engagement uplift in just one month.

You can read our full case study here.

Generating on-point posts with a streamlined, low-touch process

Upfront, we worked closely with the KETS team to understand their key topics, keywords and preferred tone of voice so we could rapidly draft effective content for them in their ideal style. For each personal account, we carefully aligned all posts with that professional’s expertise and market positioning while keeping their voices authentic and distinct.  

We regularly scoured the national and industry press for high-quality news on the latest developments in KETS’ specific interest areas. Based on our deep experience in delivering technology and security content, we then crafted engaging posts, including insightful comments, to showcase this up-to-date information to KETS’ connections and followers.

Our streamlined workflow meant KETS personnel only needed to review a set of posts once a month to have a regular stream of interesting and relevant content going out on their accounts.

However, our partnership also had inbuilt flexibility to support ad hoc posts whenever required. One KETS team member, for example, liked to send through relevant news items that caught their eye. We took these links, plus the expert insight accompanying them, and returned a post for sign-off the same or next day. Plus, we designed bespoke, branded and visually engaging social images aligned with KETS’ brand identity when the company wanted it.

Once signed off, we took full responsibility for scheduling and publishing posts and managed all account access. In monthly check-ins, we reviewed performance, discussed upcoming topics and refined our strategy as needed.

A strong partnership for strong results

By entrusting us with their LinkedIn management, KETS Quantum Security was free to pursue its core business objectives, confident that its social presence was handled strategically and effectively. This strategy paid dividends: in the first month of our management, the KETS company page experienced a 214% increase in engagement on LinkedIn.

How the right marketing partner makes all the difference

For businesses operating at scale, a strong online presence isn’t just a nice-to-have - it’s business-critical. And for global organisations working across multiple industries, website overhauls can become an endless process where internal teams struggle to find the time to pin down a web vision, refresh content and turn complex messages into clear calls to action.

Whether you’re looking to refresh your website or build it up again from scratch, it’s important to bring in marketing experts who can help shine a fresh perspective on where your messaging and user journey is working, and where they could work harder.

That’s where the right agency can be a game-changer. A seamless extension of the team, ready to structure messaging, streamline user journeys and create content that speaks to diverse audiences - all while keeping strategy at the core.

In most web projects, early collaboration is key. But with an experienced agency, it’s possible to get a web project on track – or back on track – within weeks. From developing frameworks to guide website transformation, to navigation, messaging hierarchies and web copy – the key is to ensure every step of the online experience is intuitive, engaging and aligned with business priorities.

Keen to find out more about how to develop a site that reflects your organisation’s purpose while actively driving engagement and growth? Take a look at our case study to find out more about how we helped a global organisation redefine its online presence.

Supporting a strategic website transformation

One of our highly valued clients is a global company dedicated to sustainable, innovative infrastructure solutions. With a global presence and large workforce, our client connects with a range of customers from different industries around the world.

With a new website launch in the pipeline, they wanted a marketing partner to help translate their vision and services into a compelling, easy-to-navigate digital experience. This marketing partner needed to hit the ground running - offering both a strategic overview of web journeys as well as compelling copy.

Two weeks from introduction to strategy presentation

The organisation contacted us after seeing content we’d created for another arm of the business. Impressed with how we’d enhanced and updated sustainability messaging, the content marketing lead asked for an introduction to us.

Our contact began with a preliminary meeting to assess our capabilities, followed by a panel discussion to explore our experience as an agency and understand more about what we’d bring to the company’s supplier network.

Just a few weeks later, we presented our vision for the new website structure to the global marketing team. From user pathways to messaging hierarchies and new ways of expanding our client’s reach, our digital framework was an extensive piece that took both a strategic and practical approach to their online rebuild.

Our strategy was a hit with the marketing and web development teams, and we were signed on to help with the project. The project's first stage was to develop a framework document to help the organisation’s global teams to understand the vision and data behind the new website structure, approach and customer experience.

Impressed by our ability to develop and deliver innovative, compelling and out-of-the-box messaging, we were soon working alongside various members of the global marketing team on other projects ranging from whitepapers to case studies, articles, videos, web copy, social support and more.

What we delivered for our client