The Terminus September Issue
A collection of this year's most creative ad and banner designs in B2B's hottest marketing channels.
Walk the Gallery
Introduction
In an unprecedented year of uncertainty and change… Just kidding. Luckily our September Issue has always been (and will always be) Pandemic Proof. No matter what, our incredible customers always put out stellar work that we can’t wait to feature. So, no unprecedented times or challenging days ahead in this virtual gallery, we invite you to forget the world around you and wander through these exhibits to find inspiration for your next campaign, banner, or ad. Just in case you’re new around here, the September Issue is a space for celebration and inspiration. We at Terminus get the joy and privilege of seeing creative campaign after creative campaign come to life in the hands of our customers, and we feel they deserve their own space to be celebrated outside the confines of a LinkedIn feed or an email for their brilliance, boldness, and straight up awesomeness.
This year it was harder than ever to choose who made it into our first ever digital issue. Our customers have launched so many creative campaigns that we’re now in the triple digits for selections (which means even more inspiration for you)! You can navigate easily between our categories by clicking on a category in our interactive Table of Contents, or just take a leisurely stroll through each exhibit. And, we couldn’t help but gush about every single one of this year’s nominees, so don’t forget to click on the to flip each frame over and read more about each work of art. If the future of marketing is in the hands of these brilliant teams that brought these campaigns to life, we’re more excited for the future than ever before. Without further ado, here are this year’s selections for the Terminus September Issue!
Table of Contents
Any Stage
General Brand Awareness Event Promotion (Webinar or Virtual) Educational Content (Ebook, Report, Guide, White Paper
Stage: New Deals Won
New Customer Welcome + Community
Stage: Open Opportunities
Discount Competitive Free Trial Personalized Content Destination Newsletter Sign-Up Customer Reviews
Stage: Retention & Expansion
Customer Feedback Additional Resources or Training New Feature or Offering Customer Recognition
Stage: Win Back or Reengage
Big Product Update
Stage: Target Accounts
Target by Industry or Vertical Target by Location Target by Portfolio Engaging Content (Podcast, Interactive, Video, Blog Post)
Stage: Engaged Accounts
Account-Specific Targeting Persona-Based Targeting Demo or Meeting Request Case Study Content Pricing
Creative Ad Plays for Every Stage of Your Funnel
Other Use Cases
Internal Targeting The Best of the Rest
Full-Funnel Ad Creative
Here’s one trend we’re positive of: creating immersive experiences for your audience is always in style. And when it comes to ads and email banners, a little personalization goes a long way! We’re not talking “Hi, *first_name*!” personalization. We’re talking thoughtful, targeted content that is–at its core–actually helpful to the specific account you’re targeting. That’s all account-based marketing is! These designs are a masterclass in making sure those ABM efforts never go unnoticed. So sit back, scroll slowly, and get inspired to get personal.
Any Stage of the Sales Funnel
The beauty of an account-based marketing approach is that you’re making connections (and pulling a gold mine of valuable customer data) from the entire sales funnel. That means you’ll want to have a few mainstay pieces of content that can grab a prospect’s attention no matter where they are in that funnel! What does this look like? Glad you asked! We’re talking general brand awareness campaigns, event promotion, eBooks and surveys and reports...the list goes on. These use cases can work in any stage of your sales funnel, and these teams are utilizing these use cases best.
Target Accounts
Engaged Accounts
Open Opportunities
New Deals Won
Customer Retention
Customer Expansion
Any Sales Stage: General Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is key no matter where a prospect is in your sales funnel. You want to always be top-of-mind for your prospects and customers, and showing up in multiple different channels with strong branded content is key to brand awareness. Think of it like this: there’s a lot of power in that “double take” moment. *scroll, scroll, scroll* *STOP* “Wait! I’ve seen these guys before!” These designs? Very double-take worthy.
General Brand Awareness
Event Promotion
Educational Content
Company: Medallia
Sales Stage: Any
Use Case: Product Overview
We can’t think of a better way to represent call center technology than animated volume bars. It’s the perfect dose of subtle movement to catch someone’s attention and get them to learn more.
Company: Envirologix
Sky blue, wheat gold, garden green; this banner has us convinced that nature provides the best color palettes. And how about that moving semi?!
Company: Sayari
Use Case: Company Overview
Easy-to-find logo placement? Check. Clear headline? Check. Distinctive visual element and a colorful CTA button? Check AND check! This design has all of the fundamental elements needed for a quality brand awareness ad.
Company: Five9
Poppin’ pink. Bold block lettering. Subtle artistic details (see the little handwritten “To the Cloud” on the box?!). Five9, we salute you. Killer design.
Company: Rockwell Automation
First of all: gif goals. This animation literally walks you through reading the copy, which makes for a big impact when the CTA pops up. And we’re obsessed with the red + teal color combo. Very “fire and ice”.
Company: Zoot
Ok, is this a scary movie poster or an ad? This is a masterclass use of photography–it’s clean and dramatic yet isn’t distracting from the copy. Bonus points for a pop-of-color CTA!
Company: Revenue Analytics
This proves gifs don’t have to be gaudy. The clean line animation walks you through the ad line by line, all while providing a little eye-catching movement. Bonus points for a pop-of-color CTA!
Company: Lexmark
A bold accent color like this electric lime green is a superb pairing with a grayscale palette. It makes the CTA the star of the show–just how it should be. Plus, how cute are those little people?
Company: Outreach
Here’s another great example of how a neutral grayscale background allows the colors of a brand to really shine. Outreach shows that a simple layout with bright colors can work together as one effective ad.
Company: iCIMS
The iCIMS team combined a neutral photographic background here with a “fizz & bubble” effect of their brand colors. We’re also big fans of highlighting specific text in a headline so it stands out more. Nice work!
Any Sales Stage: Event Promotion
Virtual events are so hot right now. And we have a sneaking suspicion that their newfound popularity might have some staying power. We love how these teams are using bold designs, lively graphics, and engaging gifs to promote registration for their virtual events. Because no matter where a prospect is in your sales funnel, they’ll rarely say no to a chance to learn something new or interact with the people behind your brand.
Company: IMPACT
Use Case: Virtual Event
This CTA is unmissable with that sheen effect. So chic. So simple. So effective. With multiple appearances in past issues, the IMPACT team does it again this year!
Company: Appfolio
We love when design subtly supports the copy. The use of shapes throughout the design for this “changing shape” themed event provides a full circle moment for savvy readers that catch the fun reference.
Company: Smartling
Smartling leans into the fun of their live comedy event by working lots of color and fun graphics into their banner. And the black and white treatment on the headshots helps strike a great balance between elements. Color us thrilled.
Company: Forter
If you’ve got a good design element in play, work with it. We applaud this move from Forter - utilizing the gradient triangle in the event logo to emphasize the speaker photos is a great move!
Company: Iterable
After Iterable’s virtual event concluded, they repurposed the sessions recordings as new content that they could then promote for any stage of their sales funnel. Bright colors, a clean and concise headline, AND a pulsating play button CTA? Bravo!
Company: MemberClicks
Just like Iterable, the MemberClicks team repurposed session recordings from their MC Thrive virtual event as ongoing content for all sales stages. Also, vegetation flourishing out of a laptop might be our new favorite thing.
Company: Quest Software
Use Case: Webinar
This is the ad version of a mullet–business on the top, party on the bottom. We love that the important event information sits prominently at the top of this ad, while the bottom real estate gets a fun graphic treatment.
If a banner were sunshine! This deep gold and rich orange are guaranteed to warm up even the worst of the email blues. Well done, 3C!
Company: dscout
A bold but muted color palette is SO in right now, and this banner’s electric blue background is an ideal backdrop for a colorful illustration like this one.
Company: Belden
Just as no outfit is complete without a bold accessory, no campaign is complete without a bold CTA. And in the case of Belden’s banner, it does not disappoint. The block lettered copy and pop of green make this CTA unmissable.
Company: ThoughtSpot
Depth and dimension are tough to pull off with little space, but ThoughtSpot’s banner proves anything is possible. Multiple layers, subtle shadows, and bold contrasting colors help them pull this look off effortlessly.
Company: Nintex
Nintex used a bold pop of orange against their purple background to get the CTA stand out, yet keep the copy the star of the show. Chic and unique.
Company: Aircall
Nothing says joy like confetti! The party scene in the background adds a depth to this banner that brings it to life immediately.
Company: ServiceMax
Innovation is the star of the show in ServiceMax’s banner, and it shows. They matched the bold green used to pop the word “innovation” with the CTA for an eye-catching combo. Standing ovation for this move!
Don't forget to click on to see why our editors picked each ad/banner!
Well-thought out content delivered to the right stakeholders = a better customer relationship. Now that’s a strategy we can all rally around! Nobody knows it all, which is why educational content is a must for every stage of your sales funnel. These brands are pouring their hearts and smarts into really engaging pieces of content like eBooks, white papers, reports, and guides. And they’re doubling down on well-designed ads or email banners so the right educational resources gets in front of the right audience.
Any Sales Stage: Educational Content
Company: Predictive Index
Use Case: Educational Content
Why aren’t we using dark backgrounds more? There’s nothing more chic or dazzling than bright pops of color against darker colors, and this Predictive Index banner proves it.
Company: TripleLift
This is a texture dreamland. TripleLift left the heavy lifting to a colorful textured background and gave the CTA a burst of color. Simple, effective, and totally unique.
Company: SmarterHQ
This banner pops off the page–(almost) literally. SmarterHQ certainly thought smarter when they added a subtle shadow to their white design, giving it the illusion of coming right off the page.
Company: Phenom
With a report as gorgeous as this one, why wouldn’t you make it the star of your banner? We idolize Phenom’s use of a sneak peek inside of their report to drive more clicks.
When they say “a picture is worth a thousand words”, this is exactly what they’re talking about. This photo tells a story enough to stop even the quickest scroller.
Company: DDI Sales Stage: Any Use Case: Educational Content
This is a textbook example for texture. Lines, shadows, dots–all combining to make a dreamy dimensional ad that you can’t scroll past.
Company: eSentire Sales Stage: Any Use Case: Educational
It doesn’t get much fresher than this. mongoDB knows that green brings a fresh, lively feel to any ad. The 3D effect of the whitepaper brings it life and allows it to become the star of the show.
Company: mongoDB Sales Stage: Any Use Case: Educational
We admire so many things about this ad, but we especially respect the CTA. That gradient has the perfect striking effect to make sure the ad nabs that precious clickthrough.
Company: Billtrust Sales Stage: Any Use Case: Educational
This banner should be in a color theory class. There are so many gorgeous shades here, and they work together to highlight all the right things (like that lime green CTA against the pink gradient sky? Inspired.)
Company: Magenic Sales Stage: Any Use Case: Educational
Adding gold elements is a fab way to add some shine to your design. TTEC worked hints of this gorgeous marigold into the design, and–most importantly–used it to make the CTA really stand out.
Company: TTEC Sales Stage: Any Use Case: Educational
A bold, heavy font is the best way to draw attention to this headline and memorable ad copy. Convey then combined this with colorful mountain imagery to (dare we say) reach new heights!
Company: Convey Sales Stage: Any Use Case: Educational
Bold colors. Creative font choices. Non-traditional CTA shape. Bluecore shows how thinking outside the box makes for an unmissable banner.
Company: Bluecore Sales Stage: Any Use Case: Educational
Playing it cool is so last year. Trust us, you want your prospect to know that you’re trying hard to get their attention. Below you’ll find a plethora of gorgeous examples of what making a bold first impression really looks like. These brands are meeting their target accounts (AKA, those companies they’re dying to add to their customer list) all over the web with ads and banners based on location, industry or segment, and portfolio. Personalized and targeted marketing never looked so good.
Target Accounts: Target by Industry or Vertical
An industry sometimes has a culture of its own, right? Its own language, its own business problems...this is where ABM shines. These teams used their designs and messaging to prove that they’re ready to dive into the target industry’s culture and provide an uber-specific experience in a sea of a lot of one-size-fits-all solutions.
This layout is a textbook use of (sometimes awkward) adspace. Formstack utilized the natural tendency of reading left-to-right to set up a hierarchy that makes it easy to gather all the info in one quick scan.
Company: Formstack Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Target by Vertical or Industry
This ad is the poster child for brand recognition. We respect the bold move of letting their logo fly solo for a few moments before transitioning to their CTA.
Company: Lyniate Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Target by Vertical or Industry
Mindtree has been working on their mind tricks, haven’t they? The subtle shadowing and use of layered patterns gives this banner a 3D feel that can’t be missed.
Company: Mindtree Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Target by Vertical or Industry
Industry or Vertical
Location
Portfolio
Engaging Content
Target Accounts: Target by Location
Ok, so there’s the importance of getting the right message to the right people, then there’s the importance getting the right language. One is a little higher up on that priority list. These brands created amazing ads and emails banners based on location. Because a message is only good if your prospect can...you know...read it.
AppsFlyer designs banners in different languages for each of their audiences around the world. This banner in Spanish promoted an upcoming webinar and targeted their Latin America audience. Great use of bright, wavy elements!
Company: AppsFlyer Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Target by Location
Rubrik put this color rush banner on display to promote their Forward Summit (this version targeted their Japanese audience). The pink and teal colors of the brushstroke effect really shine through - and we appreciate how it matches the arrows of the logo!
Company: Rubrik Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Target by Location
Genesys designed this banner to promote their recent global virtual event specifically to their French audience. We’re obsessed with the gradient, bright colors in the background with the teal play button and CTA. Chef d'œuvre!
Company: Genesys Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Target by Location
Fortinet also has many banners in different languages, each targeting different geographic locations. In this example, they’re promoting their exclusive virtual event to their Latin America audience. And it proves a valuable design lesson: black & white headshots with colorful backgrounds can work together nicely.
Company: Fortinet Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Target by Location
Target Accounts: Target by Portfolio
We can all find a little something in common if we look hard enough - the same goes for your target accounts! Beyond vertical, industry, or location, there are plenty of other common characteristics you can leverage to create targeted campaigns. Let’s see it in action...
Here’s a question every marketing team should ask themselves: “what are some commonalities our customers share with other companies who aren’t yet customers?” That’s what Pramata did as they targeted a set of accounts all from the same portfolio. Oh...and we almost forgot to mention that crazy cool bullseye animation. AMAZING.
Company: Pramata Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Target by Location
Target Accounts: Engaging Content
Regardless of how you organize or segment your target accounts, one thing is certain. You’ll need fun, interesting, captivating content to catch their attention and engage with your brand. Whether it be a thought-provoking blog post, podcast, video, or any form of interactive content, these brands are doing it best with engaging content.
Just because a banner doesn’t have tons of real estate to work with doesn’t mean fonts have to be simple and boring. We’re very fond of Brainrider’s thinking with this chalkboard-inspired font choice.
Company: Brainrider Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Engaging Content - Video
You want eyes on your banner? This is the way to do it. With a longer looping gif like what DocuTech did here, your readers won’t be able to move their eyes away. We’d be clicking this CTA in a heartbeat.
Company: DocuTech Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Engaging Content - Video
The composition of this Chrous banner is perfection. We’re crazy about the collage of images and illustrations, all tied together by circular elements and cool blues and greens.
Company: Chorus Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Engaging Content - Podcast
This headshot treatment is ideal for an ad of this size–treating it with a green overlay and upping the opacity helps blend it with the rest of the ad. We also appreciate the consistency between the background illustration and Happy Co’s podcast logo.
Company: Happy Co Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Engaging Content - Podcast
Sometimes it’s the little things that complete the look. That’s most definitely the case in this SmartBug Media banner! The electric teal bar at the top of the banner catches the reader’s attention, and immediately draws the eye to the CTA of the same color. It’s more than smart–it’s genius.
Company: SmartBug Media Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Engaging Content - Interactive
Having some subtle movement in the background of your banner is a reliable way to make it stand out from other digital noise–especially with a white background. HTI nailed it here!
Company: Human Technologies Sales Stage: Target Accounts Use Case: Engaging Content - Blog Post
They like you! They really like you! Or at least they’ve engaged with you a time or two, so now it’s time to get down to business. When someone from one of your target accounts has engaged with your brand via either an ad or a piece of content or your website, they become an engaged account. This is where you can really layer on the charm, and delight them in an even more personal way. Need some inspo? We’ve got you covered. These rockstar teams keep their prospects moving down the funnel by adding flair and finesse to their engaged account campaigns.
Engaged Accounts: Account-Specific Targeting
Imagine scrolling through LinkedIn or reaching the end of an email and seeing your company’s name in a space that’s usually reserved for other brands’ generic campaigns…pretty cool right? Today’s ABM tech stack actually makes this possible (and scalable). If you can’t quite picture it, we’ll get you as close to this reality as we can with these examples (“Klowd” is being used as the target account example here). If you’re thinking about using account-specific messaging to wow your top engaged targets, use these brands’ designs for best-of-class inspiration.
Celonis designed a bold look that’s easily recognized across multiple channels. They included messaging personalized for each individual account and paired it with a fire execution of color!
Company: Celonis Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Account-Specific Targeting
Knowing your audience pays off when it comes to crafting effective targeted ads. FPX used yellow and black–a classic construction site combo–to catch the eye of specific accounts within that industry.
Company: FPX Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Account-Specific Targeting
We’re a sucker for cute iconography, so this Transitscreen banner is just our style. Also: bonus points for mixing it up with a CTA in the middle of the banner–it’s just different enough to warrant a second look!
Company: Transitscreen Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Account-Specific Targeting
If opening with the reader’s company name wasn’t noticeable enough, the fun photo treatment certainly would seal the deal. Snowflake also reworked elements from their logo into their design for extra brand recognition.
Company: Snowflake Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Account-Specific Targeting
Account-Specific Targeting
Persona-Based Targeting
Demo or Meeting Request
Case Study Content
Pricing
Engaged Accounts: Persona-Based
When you’re targeting multiple personas, you’ve got the big task of appealing to...well, everyone! Persona-based targeting helps narrow down your value prop and present it in a shiny box to the right people. Check out how these brands made it personal.
There’s no better way to appeal to people than with...people! This use of photography makes Allocadia seem approachable and personable. They’re also awarded bonus points here for persona-specific messaging!
Company: Allocadia Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Persona-Based Targeting
Gradient rainbow? Yellow script font with a heavy black shadow? This is a throwback dream. A round of applause to Gong for mixing fun retro elements with more modern fonts to create a fun (but readable) banner.
Company: Gong Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Persona-Based Targeting
Engaged Accounts: Demo or Meeting Request
Sometimes you just have to cut to the chase. You know what you want and maybe there’s no need to beat around the bush. Once a prospect has engaged with your brand...BOOM. Hit ‘em with the demo or meeting request so they can progress to the next sales stage. These teams capitalized on early engagement from their target accounts and asked them to commit to the next step. And they did it beautifully, we might add.
With this example from A Cloud Guru, we could teach an entire campaign design masterclass. Bright colors against dark, sleek background: Check. Overflow graphics to make it look like the element is jumping off the page: Check. Consistency across multiple channels for a memorable brand impression: CHECK.
Company: A Cloud Guru Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Demo
In the case of CTAs, copy becomes a bit of a design choice–the right phrase can draw in more eyeballs and clicks. Look no further than LogDNA for inspiration! Much respect for their unconventional CTA copy.
Company: LogDNA Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Demo
Explaining the value prop of your product AND how it works in 160 x 600 dimensions is...no easy task. But Redox nailed it with this teal and pink color combo. We also commend the subtle texture they placed at the top and bottom of the ad. It adds a dimension that can’t be missed.
Company: Redox Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Demo
Gradient demo buttons are SO in right now. And we very much appreciate iOFFICE’s use of cool blues and purples for a very zen feel.
Company: iOFFICE Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Demo
Electric blues and greens against a dark background work together nicely here to make the ad stand out. We also have a crush on LogMeIn Rescue’s linear illustrations – very modern and fun.
Company: LogMeIn Rescue Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Demo
SpendHQ could have listed four different dates...but no, they’re smarter than that. We absolutely adore this use of a gif to promote this multi-date event. It’s pleasantly noticeable AND space-saving–the perfect gif use case!
Company: SpendHQ Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Demo
If it wasn’t clear by now, we dig dark backgrounds with bursts of color. But ExtraHop goes the extra mile by adding an eye-catching gradient bar to the bottom of the ad.
Company: ExtraHop Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts Use Case: Demo
Engaged Accounts: Case Study Content
Is there anything more telling than happy customers? If you’ve got ‘em, you’re golden. And if you can get them to gush about you in a case study, then you’d better spread that success story far and wide. These brilliant marketers created compelling campaigns to show their engaged prospects that they’re ready to make them a happy customer, too.
Company: Lumavate
Sales Stage: Engaged Accounts
Use Case: Pricing
Lumavate leans heavily on the linear illustration style on their website, so working it into their banner design is an A+ practice for brand recognition. *Chef’s kiss*
Company: Invoca
Use Case: Content - Case Study
Is it a trick of the eye, or are there two cursors on my screen? Invoca’s brilliant use of a cursor in their gif-powered banner is the ultimate attention-grabber (and literally shows the user what to do...click here, please!)
Company: G2
The G2 team are brand masters. Their bold colors and block fonts are uber recognizable. So it’s no surprise they leaned on their brand recognition to make this banner come to life.
Company: Proship
If you have access to custom illustrations that go with your branding, an ad is the place to put it. ProShip drives their brand home with fun illustrations and a small dose of their signature green.
Company: WP Engine
Talk about EYE...CATCHING (see what we did there?). WP Engine cleverly pairs striking imagery with a captivating color palette.
Engaged Accounts: Pricing
Instead of playing the long game with pricing, these brands decided to get that awkward conversation out of the way up front, and they let their ads and email banners do all the talking. Because we know this topic is top of mind for both sides of the equation — so why not use it to drive engagement?
Company: Seven Corners
Seven Corners proved that sometimes you don’t have to choose just one. Why not include two images in a banner and crop them into chic circular shapes? Who says you can’t have it all?
Company: Sharpen
Blue and purple are top-performers when it comes to engagement, so Sharpen’s combo of the two couldn’t be smarter. Especially for this stage of the sales funnel.
Do you have any accounts who have engaged with your brand and maybe even had a first demo or call, yet they’re still not progressing towards becoming a customer? Here’s where having a scrappy, never-give-up attitude really pays off. Shout out to these persistent (and consistent) revenue teams that know how to appeal to the tougher crowd. They’re thinking up riveting campaigns around creative deals, competitive advantages, and other hard-hitting use cases.
Open Opportunities: Discount
It’s time to appeal to the coupon clippers. Here are a few admirable campaigns around clever deals and discounts that are aimed to win the attention of those wishy-washy accounts. Right on the money, if you ask us.
Company: Anaconda
Sales Stage: Open Opportunities
Use Case: Discount
There’s no need to get envious about this ad–green is the color of the season (a green CTA is proven to be the most clicked CTA, BTW), and you can use it just as well as Anaconda!
Company: Workhuman
There isn’t a background color much more noticeable than a bright red. LogDNA combines bold red hues with a cool geometric pattern for this ad that promotes free use of a few popular features.
Discount
Competitive
Free Trial
Personalized Content Destination
Newsletter Sign-Up
Customer Reviews
Open Opportunities: Competitive
Of course, you don’t want to be braggadocious right out of the gate, but...open opportunities call for a different playbook. These brands weren’t afraid to pit themselves against their competition to show that they stack up. Bold moves. Bold designs. We love it.
Company: Arena Solutions
Use Case: Competitive
Sometimes less really is more. Arena Solutions packs a big punch with a smaller word count. Plus, we think highly of the letter-by-letter gif animation.
Company: InsightSquared
Review site tokens aren’t just for your website anymore. InsightSquared designed a banner around their G2 Leader recognition to tout their latest accolade in each of their emails. Brilliant!
Open Opportunities: Free Trial
Sometimes seeing is believing. These campaigns are pulling back the curtain and letting their open opportunities take a look at the product or service for free. It’s a great tactic to prove that you mean business, and your product is ready to shine all on its own.
Company: Bedroc
Use Case: Free Trial
Neutrals are always in style, but they’re not used very often in banners. Which is why right now is the best time to use a neutral to stand out. Well done, Bedroc team.
Company: Nuspire
Imagery doesn’t have to be complex to tell a good story. We adore Nuspire’s little bug illustration–it’s clearly visible and leads them to wonder what the ad might be about. (Oh! Cybersecurity! Like, debugging! Cute.)
Company: Split
There’s nothing we’re obsessed with more than a suite of amazing designs that unify an ABM campaign. Split is nailing brand recognition by using similar color palettes and graphic styles across multiple channels (in this case, ads and email banners) to make sure they can’t be missed, no matter where they’re seen.
Open Opportunities: Personalized Content Destination
When what you need is put right in front of you, it’s hard to say no. That’s exactly the intention behind these brilliant campaigns.The brands here created personalized content that they knew their prospects would find useful, and then made them pop with dazzling ads and banners to serve them up with style. If that doesn’t prove you’re vying for their attention, we don’t know what will.
Company: Upwork
Use Case: Personalized Content Destination
Fun graphics and bright colors. What isn’t there to like about this Uberflip banner? Plus, we especially admire the unconventional “Open” as the CTA copy. This would definitely earn our click through.
Company: Exabeam
There’s nothing more chic than a black and white contrast. Throw in some vibrant neon hues like Exabeam did with this ad and you have a solid brand impression that can’t be ignored.
Company: Townsend Security
This CTA is unmissable— and isn’t that the whole point? Townsend put extra emphasis on the CTA with a color outside of their palette, and extended it across the bottom border of the ad. Nice touch!
Open Opportunities: Newsletter Sign-Up
Ah, newsletters. A labor of love that many marketers pour their hearts and souls into, but fail to get the valuable sign-ups their creativity deserve. But where better to promote that sign up than an email itself? Here’s what we mean:
Company: Lev
Use Case: Content - Newsletter
Bold fonts. Dreamy pink gradients. Fun color swaps. Plus, one of our favorite, least-used design tricks: overflow design elements over a transparent background for that “floating” effect. What’s not to Lev?!
Use Case: Customer Reviews
Upwork showcases their very impressive satisfaction rating and a real customer quote with smooth animation, well coordinated colors, and a few simple design elements on the corners and sides to make it more interesting. They all work together well as a great visual to show open opportunities.
Open Opportunities: Customer Reviews
We could tell you how great we are...OR we could have our customers tell you how great we are. (Hint: the latter typically works better. Especially when paired with a rush of color and some delightful graphics.)
Company: VersaPay
What’s better than hearing a customer say they achieved their goal by using product or service? It’s the perfect quote to get in front of an open opportunity — especially when it’s accompanied by a good-looking illustration and solid logo placement. Hat tip to the VersaPay team!
Targeted advertising shouldn’t stop after an account signs as a new customer. Keep the momentum going and delight them with personalized messaging that jumpstarts a wonderful customer experience — starting on day one!
New Deals Won: Welcome Message and Customer Community
The best way to do this is with timely messaging and stage-based targeting. The teams in this lineup automate these email banners to appear anytime someone from their team emails a brand new customer. It allows the account to feel welcomed and supported on day one, and get them connected with the rest of the customer community. And as you can see, it’s never a bad thing to wow new customers with a little animated GIF action.
Company: Chatmeter
Sales Stage: New Deals Won
Use Case: Welcome Message
Two words — FALLING CONFETTI! This is the ultimate “Welcome!” party in a banner. The best part? It automatically displays after a new customer signs. Aside from the animation, we appreciate the sketch illustration and bright orange background. Looking for a personalized way to impress customers? This is it.
Company: Bluecat Networks
Use Case: Customer Community
We applaud this move from Bluecat Networks. Shortly after a prospect signs as a new customer, they automatically invite them to join the VIP customer slack channel. What a great way to get new customers involved with other rockstar customers. And what a great banner design! Especially that animated shine on the CTA button.
Customer Retention or Expansion
Account-based marketing isn’t just for prospects and new customers. Full-funnel revenue teams are designing and launching creative campaigns for current customers, too. Because marketing teams are now measured on revenue, they’re no longer just primarily focused on the top of the funnel. Marketers in this year’s issue are getting their brand in front of high-value customers while driving engagement with personalized and relevant messages across multiple channels. As you may have already heard this year, “retention is the new acquisition!” And these teams are doing it best by asking for feedback, promoting new product features, providing additional resources or training, and celebrating accomplishments with their most important customers.
Customer Retention or Expansion: Feedback
We’re probably restating the obvious here, but customer feedback is so, so important. It helps your CS and support teams gauge which customers are happiest and possibly most frustrated or at-risk. It also helps your product team prioritize the roadmap. So many good things can come out of customer feedback surveys, but first you need a beautiful ad design and a few effective channels to drive engagement.
Company: Black Mountain HR
Use Case: Customer Feedback
What’s the best way to get customer feedback? Fully utilize the email channel AND let your customers know it’s not a huge time commitment. Black Mountain HR achieved both with this creative customer survey banner.
Sales Stage: Customer Retention or Expansion
Company: CrowdRiff
On the left side, you see professional. Good logo placement, solid headline, a CTA button, and relatively neutral colors. On the right side? A burst of color that immediately catches your attention. Both sides come together nicely to form one banner that effectively promotes customer reviews for CrowdRiff.
Customer Feedback
Additional Resources
New Feature or Offering
Customer Recognition
Customer Retention or Expansion: Additional Resources or Training
“Helping is the new selling!” This is a term we have consistently heard this year and we’re seeing it in action with a lot of our customers helping their customers. Whether it’s a timely piece of content or an extra virtual training session, sometimes a little extra help or hands-on support can go a long way.
Company: Emtrain Sales Stage: Customer Retention or Expansion
Use Case: Additional Resources or Training
Especially during a year like this one, providing a little extra help to customers with timely resources is so important. We admire the good intentions behind this Emtrain banner, in addition to the unique shape and combination of photography with illustrations. Job well done, Emtrain team!
Company: Pathfactory Sales Stage: Customer Retention or Expansion
PathFactory offers a “Marketing Masterminds” virtual class to their customers with direct access to their own marketing team so they can answer any questions or brainstorm ideas. Amazing use case, amazing design. PathFactory ALWAYS represents well on the September Issue runway and this year is no different.
Customer Retention or Expansion: New Feature or Offering
Did you just introduce a new product feature or service offering that might benefit customers not already using it? Account-based advertising provides a great way to get the word out and promote it to the customers who need it most. These ads and banners do it best by creatively showcasing the new offering and including call-to-action text to drive engagement.
It doesn’t always have to be about the brightest colors or an action-packed design. SOC Telemed does a tremendous job here of using a white background with light colors to promote their newest product offering. The illustration represents the combination of healthcare and tech and the floating squares in the background intelligently match their logo.
Use Case: New Feature or Offering
Who knew REPO (repurchase agreement— we had to google it) could look so cool?! Props to the Tradeweb team for this banner design with a big, bold headline, a nice coordination of unique colors, and of course that killer pattern in the top right.
Company: Tradeweb Sales Stage: Customer Retention or Expansion
Company: UserTesting Sales Stage: Customer Retention or Expansion
We’re HUGE fans of using this channel to promote a product release - and UserTesting brought their July 2020 product release to life with bright colors, sleek icons, and even some photography. It’s a cool, clean, and modern look that represents their brand very well.
Company: Motorola Sales Stage: Customer Retention or Expansion
Motorola Solutions found a way to incorporate movement and animation with text for the ultimate eye-catching effect. Simply brilliant! This new smart radio for public safety communications never looked so cool.
Company: Sonatype Sales Stage: Customer Retention or Expansion
How do you visualize identifying open source risk? The Sonatype design team did it with a digital radar screen complete with a pulsating locator. We also have to honor the use of purple as a background color and pink as a CTA color — both of which were top performing colors in email banners this year.
Company: Scale Computing Sales Stage: Customer Retention or Expansion
What’s the best way for Scale Computing to promote their new HC3 Move offering? How about a killer animated GIF that shows movement, complemented by a “Move More” CTA button. The consistent purple to blue gradient theme found in multiple elements is also a nice touch!
Company: SOC Telemed
Customer Retention or Expansion: Recognition
There’s nothing better than recognizing customer accomplishments and celebrating their success. They feel valued and further invested in your product or brand (especially if you helped them achieve a particular goal). The go-to play for this is a traditional case study, but you could also just showcase their work on your brand’s social channels. Either way, do whatever you can to make your customers feel like rockstars!
Company: Touchplan
Ah, the power of combining multiple channels (email and Instagram) to recruit and then showcase real customer examples. We absolutely love this creative use case — celebrating your customers’ work is so important! Touchplan thought outside of the box (or in this case the email banner) and combined various shapes with different shades of color to form this masterpiece.
Use Case: Customer Recognition
Win Back or Reengage
Pretty much every B2B organization and sales team has a list of accounts that were once qualified opportunities, but either went silent, signed with a competitor, and didn’t get budget approval. Embrace this list! Rally around these accounts and see how you can reengage or get them back into your funnel. The best place to start? Targeted ads across your best engagement channels.
Win Back or Reengage: Big Product Update
Promoting your latest product release or feature announcement is the perfect use case for this situation. It shows that your company continues to innovate and the product or service is improving. Use these ad designs for inspiration, then launch your own campaign and couple it with a “I’d love to show you what we’ve been up to lately” message from your sales team!
Company: Pondurance
The subtle, photographic background with a white overlay allows the Pondurance red and product screenshot to really stand out here. Not only that, the 3D angled perspective of the screenshot makes it look extra cool. We’re big fans!
Sales Stage: Win Back or Reengage
Use Case: Big Product Update
Company: BCD Travel
Need ideas on how to “wow” old prospects or customers and show them how your product continues to innovate and add new features? BCD Travel nails it here with wavy bursts of color, a simple (yet effective) headline, and a product screenshot front and center.
Aside from account-based marketing, there are so many other use cases for web or social ads and email banners. Although we’re obviously fans of the ABM category, we’re even bigger fans of just really good marketing. So we wanted to shine a light on a few, less obvious use cases that still deserve some big-time recognition. From employee-specific targeting to announcing a rebrand to promoting a good cause, there are so many brilliant ideas and designs in this section. A big round of applause to these amazing customers!
Other: Internal Company Events, Culture, Employee Feedback
Let’s step off the runway for a minute to talk about employee engagement. It affects every team member inside your company - and every team member affects your bottom line! When employees feel more connected to their team and the larger organization, good things happen. That’s why it’s so important to effectively promote internal initiatives and keep employees engaged. Teams use internal-only targeted banners for this, as each email sent from one coworker to another can now become an opportunity to promote an upcoming company event or any other type of internal announcement. Here are the internal comm teams that are doing it best!
The retro, pixelated vibe of this CS Disco banner is amazing. The team used this banner to promote their company kickoff with employee-only targeting. If their kickoff event was anything like this “arcade” banner design, it was probably a pretty awesome party. Kudos to CS Disco and their company culture!
Company: CS Disco
Use Case: Internal - Company Kickoff Event
If you’re looking for teams who use this channel best for company culture, look no further than Net Health. They truly are the OGs of this use case and use internal email banners (like this one) to rally employee engagement. In this example, they’re celebrating a rebrand and beautiful new swag!
Company: Net Health
Use Case: Internal - Company Culture
Glassdoor is an important platform to use to showcase real employee reviews for recruitment and potential new hires. Employee feedback is equally as important, especially this year with virtual work environments and so much uncertainty. Polyglot uses this channel for both initiatives, and put together this super creative banner to represent Glassdoor ratings. Which door is your favorite?!
Company: Polyglot Group
Use Case: Company Culture
Okay, this cute little robot may have just stole the show. “Parker” here represents the Park Place Technologies brand and is proudly displayed in this bright internal banner that’s hard to ignore. It’s asking for training requests from employees, which supports continuous skill development and growth for Park Place team members. Two thumbs up for this use case (and of course Parker)!
Company: Park Place Technologies
Use Case: Internal - Employee Training
Internal Targeting
The Best of the Rest
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OTHER USE CASES
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Other: The Best of the Rest
To round out this year’s issue, we have a VIP exhibit of several other use cases with awe-inspiring designs. This includes recruitment, promoting a good cause, a rebrand announcement, and PR or company news.
Company: Greenhouse Use Case: Rebrand
Email is a perfect channel to get the word out about a new look or rebrand. And that’s exactly what the Greenhouse team did with this beautifully designed banner. We didn’t know fingerprint vegetation was a thing until now, and we’re big fans.
Company: Indiana Pacers Use Case: Ticket Sales
Just like a billboard, radio ad, or commercial, email banners can help sell tickets for your favorite sports franchise. The Terminus Indy office loves their Pacers and we REALLY love this animated banner.
Company: Symplr Use Case: PR/News
The symplr team was proud about their newest acquisition and used this banner to announce the news in every email sent by their employees. The different shapes with shades of blue and teal work together here to form an innovative, yet friendly design.
Aside from ABM, event promotion, or general brand awareness, using this channel for a good should be celebrated the most! We not only love how Mersive is promoting Internal Women’s Day, we’re also in awe of the strong messaging, illustration, and overall layout.
Company: Mersive Use Case: For A Good Cause
ParkMobile wedged in a black quote box between two different photographic backgrounds, each with bright blue and green overlays. And you know what? It all works together beautifully. The best part? This burst of color is being used to promote a noble cause.
Company: ParkMobile Use Case: For A Good Cause
The headline. The different patterns and visual elements working together in the background. The lanyard and ID illustration saying, “this could be you!” We applaud it all! Kforce has always represented well in past issues of the September Issue — and they did it again this year.
Company: Kforce Use Case: Recruitment
Closing Remarks
107 dynamic ads and signature banners. Every single one of them totally unique, with different color combos, CTA styles, font choices, graphic treatments. Each one of them a reminder that there is no “right” way to do marketing. And that’s kind of why we love it, isn’t it? You inspire us to: Think Outside the Box Experiment Practice Resilience Be Bold Make A Change Pave the Way We can’t wait to see what you create in the next 365 days. Until next year… —The Terminus Team
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