Skip the research and you build a plan on a guess. We run the ICP definition, insight and journey mapping the rest of your marketing depends on.
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Results our clients report to their boards
35:1
Your media return, if your campaign runs like HMS Networks' first one did
£760 to £72
What HMS now pays for a confirmed sales ready lead, down from a typical trade event lead
1,588
Sales ready leads HMS generated on reporting they own and operate
42x
Media efficiency Arrow ECS achieved against benchmark with VMware
It is tempting to skip the research and get straight to campaigns. It is also the most expensive shortcut in marketing. A poorly understood customer means broad targeting, generic messaging and a funnel built on guesses, all of which cost money to run and more money to fix. We do the insight work first: interviews, data analysis and journey mapping. The output is a clear, evidence-based picture of who you are selling to and how they decide, which makes every plan that follows cheaper and sharper.
Many ideal customer profiles are assembled in a single internal workshop and never tested against reality. We build the ICP from evidence: who actually buys, who buys profitably, who stays, and what those customers have in common. The profile that comes out is one you can target with confidence, because it describes your real best customers rather than the ones you wish you had.
Almost every marketing problem traces back to a weak understanding of the customer. The targeting is broad because the ideal customer was never properly defined. The messaging misses because no one researched what buyers actually care about. The funnel leaks because the customer journey was assumed rather than mapped. Customer Insight and Journey Strategy is the foundation that fixes this. We do the research, define the ideal customer profile, and map the real customer journey, so every downstream plan rests on evidence rather than assumption.
This is the work the other strategy spokes lean on. The clarity it produces is what made targeted work for HMS Networks deliver a 35:1 media return and a cost per sales ready lead cut from around £760 to £72: when you genuinely understand the buyer, the rest of the marketing gets sharper. The insight, the profiles and the journey maps are yours to own and build on.
If your targeting is broad because the customer was never properly defined, a short insight conversation is the quickest way to see what the research would reveal.
This fits if you are
This engagement suits B2B businesses whose marketing rests on assumptions about the customer that were never tested, and who want evidence before they plan. It fits four situations in particular.
Teams with broad, unfocused targeting who suspect they are reaching the wrong people but cannot yet prove who the right ones are.
Businesses whose messaging is not landing, because it was written from internal assumptions rather than from what buyers actually care about.
Industrial, electronics, manufacturing and distribution firms with complex, multi-stakeholder journeys that a single persona cannot capture.
Leadership teams about to invest in demand or ABM who want the customer understood before the budget is committed.
Not the right engagement if
1
Weeks 1 to 2
Research. We interview customers and the buying group, analyse the data you already hold, and gather the evidence the rest of the work rests on.
A body of evidence about who buys, why they buy and how they decide, drawn from real conversations rather than assumption.
2
Weeks 2 to 3
ICP and personas. We define the ideal customer profile from the evidence and build the personas that name the roles, motivations and objections.
An evidence-based ICP and a set of practical personas the team can use to make targeting and messaging decisions.
3
Weeks 3 to 5
Journey mapping. We map the real customer journey from unaware to advocate and identify the moments where marketing can genuinely influence the decision.
A mapped customer journey with the moments that matter clearly marked for the other spokes to act on.
4
Week 6
Synthesis and handover. We pull the insight together and brief the demand, ABM and lifecycle planning so it feeds straight into the rest of the strategy.
A clear insight pack and a clean handover into the demand, ABM and lifecycle spokes.
35:1
Return on media investment. Cost of a qualified lead cut from around £760 at trade events to around £72 online, with 1,588 sales ready leads on reporting HMS owns and operates.
Read the case study
454,176
Campaign views at 42x media efficiency, six times the target, with account level intelligence the sales team trusts. Enterprise distribution made measurable.
Read the case study
Good insight blends qualitative research with the data you already hold. This work links to Data Unification so the analysis runs on a single clean view of your customers, and the patterns it finds are trustworthy rather than artefacts of fragmented data.
Against an enterprise agency
Quarters, not weeks
Six month discovery phases and a quarter million before a single dashboard exists. We work in weeks, with senior people on every call and pricing itemised line by line.
The thread through our work, from HMS Networks in industrial connectivity to technology distribution with Arrow ECS, is that genuinely understanding the buyer makes the marketing sharper. Insight is what turns the same budget into better results.
We work in stages. Stage one is the research, ICP and journey mapping that produces an insight pack the other spokes can build on. Stage two, if you want it, keeps us involved as that insight feeds demand, ABM and lifecycle planning so nothing is lost in translation. Pricing is built line by line against scope, with no opaque contingency, so finance sees exactly what each stage buys. The insight is captured in systems you own and operate, never locked in a rented platform or a consultant's drawer. Enterprise grade thinking without the enterprise overhead.
"Complete dedication to our brand mission by Teylu. They worked within our limitations and made our marketing profitable on first purchase."
Ken Price
CEO, Blake Mill Menswear
"Teylu delivered rapid activation, delivered immediate sales uplift. Assisted in delivering a business exit and increased valuation."
Katie Dixon
Founder, Evellier Luxury Intimates
"It's a pleasure to work with the whole Teylu team. They delivered our exact brief quickly to great effect. What more can you ask for?"
Sophie Fresson
Head of Digital, Oceana UK
Is this research, or does it run campaigns?
It is the research and insight that everything else rests on. We define the ideal customer profile, build the personas and map the journey. That insight then feeds the demand, ABM and lifecycle planning, and from there into the delivery pillars that run the campaigns. This work is the foundation, not the activation.
We think we already know our customer. Why pay for research?
Most teams know their customer through assumption and a few loud anecdotes. Research tests that against evidence: who actually buys, who buys profitably, and how the decision really gets made. More often than not it confirms some beliefs, overturns others, and sharpens the targeting in ways that pay for the work many times over.
Do we own the research and the journey maps?
Entirely. The research, the ICP, the personas and the journey maps belong to you, and we capture them in systems you own and operate rather than locking them in a consultant's deck or a rented platform. The insight is an asset that keeps paying off across every campaign you run, which is exactly why the cost is easy to defend: you are buying something you keep, not renting access to it.
How long does the insight work take?
Four to six weeks: research, ICP definition, personas and journey mapping. The interviews take time to do properly, which is deliberate. The output is evidence you will rely on for years rather than a quick assumption dressed up as research.
How does this connect to the rest of our marketing?
It is the foundation the other strategy spokes build on. The ICP underpins account selection in ABM, and the journey map shapes both demand planning and lifecycle design. Done first, it makes every downstream plan sharper. We brief it straight into the other spokes so nothing is lost between them.
Bring your current view of the customer. One session is usually enough to show where the assumptions are doing the heavy lifting.
Tell us where the data lives and what the board keeps asking. A senior person reads every one of these.
What happens next
