Many businesses expect immediate results from sales outreach and lead-generation campaigns. But without brand awareness and credibility to underpin these efforts, even the best demand generation strategies can struggle to gain traction.
Beth Sissons leads Tyto’s Awareness2Demand™ approach, helping high-growth technology companies create integrated campaigns that bring brand awareness and demand generation activities together, maximising their combined impact and value, and building the trust and visibility needed to make sales outreach more effective.
With a wealth of integrated campaign experience working with brands like Meta, Visa, NTT Limited, and Honeywell, Beth knows how to maximise marketing impact – no matter the budget.
In this Q&A, Beth shares her top tips for integrating brand and demand generation activities and driving even more value from investment in PR content.
She also explores the biggest mistakes companies make and why PR is becoming even more critical in the age of AI-powered search.
Read on to discover how an integrated approach can help you drive demand, boost credibility, and ultimately, drive more sales.
What’s the secret to a great integrated campaign?
“You must be audience-first in your approach. People consume media in so many ways today, so relying on a single channel just won’t cut it.
With so many options available, focus is critical and that’s where audience insight becomes invaluable. You need data and insight to be able to plan and optimise your campaigns and decide the best channels to use to reach your audience effectively.
Through understanding where your audience is, how they engage, and what messages will resonate most, you can make informed decisions about the right mix of channels rather than spreading efforts too thin.
Of course, amazing creative is essential. A great campaign is all about relevance and telling a compelling story that truly connects. Once you have that story perfected, it becomes the fuel that powers every piece of content across every channel in your campaign, ensuring consistency and impact wherever your audience encounters it.”
What kind of content do you need to create?
“Often you already have what you need. It’s about being able to adapt and repurpose that content for different audiences, channels and geographies.”
Most brands have a wealth of PR and thought leadership content that can be adapted and localised for different channels, audiences, and geographies. Yet, our research shows that over a third (37%) of these assets are only used once. So, it’s less about constantly creating new content from scratch and more about repurposing what you already have in creative ways to maximise its impact and value.
That said, when developing campaigns, you must be strategic – especially in what Gartner calls the ‘Era of Less’ where budgets are tight, and expectations are high.
It’s important to create content that is versatile, has a long shelf-life, and can be repurposed across multiple channels. A great test is also thinking about the newsworthiness of content. If your content has the potential to interest the media, there’s a strong chance your audiences will find it engaging on your channels.”
Do you need a big budget to run an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) campaign?
“No, you don’t need a huge budget to run an ABM campaign. Because it is a long-term strategy, there’s often a misconception that ABM requires significant upfront investment. But the reality is, there are plenty of ways to make it work within whatever budget you have available.
Piloting an approach before scaling is a smart way to test effectiveness without committing large resources upfront. And one of the most cost-effective tactics is repurposing and personalising existing content. This can massively reduce production costs while still delivering highly targeted, relevant messaging.”
What’s the biggest mistake companies make with ABM?
“Launching into a demand generation campaign without first building awareness and credibility is a common mistake. Businesses are often under pressure to generate leads quickly, but campaigns are much more effective when there’s a foundation of awareness in place. In fact, research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) shows that campaigns are six times more effective when awareness has been built.
Another common mistake is operating in silos. With ABM, it’s critical to align marketing and sales so that everyone is fully behind the campaign. However, I’ve rarely seen PR teams heavily involved in ABM, which is a huge, missed opportunity. PR teams create valuable content that can play a major role in building credibility and trust – integrating this into your strategy can make a real difference.”
How is integrated comms evolving?
“What’s interesting is PR’s growing influence on AI-generated search results. Earned media now plays a crucial role in shaping how brands appear in Large Language Models, e.g. ChatGPT searches and Google’s AI Overviews, making PR an even more important channel for brands looking to build awareness and credibility, to support demand generation.
As AI-driven search continues to evolve, it’s likely that earned media will have an even greater impact – helping brands secure visibility and trust at the very start of the buyer’s journey. This makes PR a key component in engaging target accounts and strengthening integrated campaigns at every stage of the funnel.”
What advice do you have for brands wanting to get more integrated in 2025?
“The key to integrated comms is integrating teams within the business. Bringing together PR, marketing, and sales to share audience and account insights, plans, and content is essential – not only to maximise resources but also to drive higher engagement with prospects.
To do this effectively, focus on running campaigns where your audiences are active. This means embracing multichannel campaigns rather than relying on just one and working in close partnership with marketing and sales to co-create campaigns.”
