Case study
From Scientific Stall to Commercial Scale-Up
How Isogenica Built Its Biggest-Ever Pipeline with 100+% Revenue Growth.
“Built for scientists. Powered by results.”
Isogenica, a Cambridge-based biotech pioneering synthetic VHH antibody discovery, went from passive sales and virtually no pipeline to global CRO partnerships, multiple biotech client wins, and the largest commercial pipeline in its history.
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The Challenge
By mid-2024, Isogenica knew its science was strong, but the commercial side was not keeping pace. There was no consistent lead generation, sales were reactive, and marketing was almost non-existent. Growth had stalled.
On the back of a personal recommendation, The Marketing Centre was brought in. Stephen Rumbelow, a fractional CMO, was appointed to design and execute a marketing strategy that would deliver visibility, qualified demand and real pipeline traction without adding pressure to the R&D team.
The Solution
The challenge was not capability, it was communication. Isogenica had exceptional science and a credible track record, but none of that was landing commercially.
So we took a clear, focused approach: target the right people, tell the right story, and create a clear path from interest to enquiry.
That meant three core shifts:
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Clarify the message – Move away from platform language and lead with what buyers care about: speed, flexibility, and partnership grounded in science.
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Focus on decision-makers – Scientific leaders in US biotech (R&D Directors, Heads of Discovery) are the ones who evaluate, recommend and choose partners. They became the centre of all our efforts.
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Use content to guide decisions – Every piece of content was purposeful: a white paper to explain relevance, a landing page to convert, a post to provoke action. No noise, just momentum.
Everything was rooted in one principle: great science, clearly communicated, to the right people, through the right channels.
Who We Targeted and Why It Worked
The entire strategy was designed around scientific decision-makers in US biotech. These are the people who assess discovery partners, lead evaluations, and make or strongly influence the final decision.
CEOs and VCs may hold the purse strings, but they rarely override the scientific recommendation. That is why all messaging, content and targeting was built to resonate with the needs, pressures and language of senior scientists.
From Leads to Pipeline
Early campaign activity began generating leads. But without structure, follow-up was patchy and hard to track.
Zoho CRM was already in place, but it was not being used effectively. We introduced a clear handover process between marketing and sales, ensuring every marketing-qualified lead (MQL) was tracked, followed up, and progressed to sales-qualified (SQL) stage.
We also supported the recruitment of a sales-oriented Director of Business Development with additional experience in Marketing, giving the business full ownership of the pipeline and creating a feedback loop between sales and marketing to continually improve targeting and lead quality.
This created a joined-up, scalable approach to demand generation and conversion.
Turning Content into Commercial Momentum
At the heart of the plan was a high-quality content engine that moved prospects from awareness to action.
Working with Magma Science, a PhD-led scientific marketing agency with the proposition “We turn science into sales”, we delivered a stream of content assets designed to build trust and drive enquiry.
These included:
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Application-led white papers, landing pages and CRO-targeted explainers
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SEO-optimised content and explainer animations for discoverability
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Thought leadership blogs that addressed scientific pain points
On LinkedIn, Magma replaced passive updates with scrollable carousels, short-form videos and scientist-focused storytelling. They launched Google Ads campaigns and improved SEO to ensure discoverability and conversion at key moments in the buyer journey.
The Takeaway
Isogenica did not need reinvention. It needed a smart, commercially focused marketing strategy rooted in what made its science valuable to others, and a way to communicate that with confidence and clarity.
Now, it has a marketing and sales engine that reflects its scientific integrity and a commercial pipeline to match.
Built for scientists. Powered by results.
The Results
By August 2025, twelve months into execution, Isogenica had transformed its commercial performance:
- Largest sales pipeline in company history
- Multiple high-value biotech client wins
- Over 100 marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) generated
- +60% growth in website traffic during peak months (Sep 2024–Aug 2025)
- 100+% growth in revenues (year-on-year)
- Quadruple the number of active clients
- Featured in Business Weekly’s Ones2Watch 2025
- New CRO partnerships signed, including strategic relationships with Charles River, Axxam and Cube.
"In January 2024, we had a small number of satisfied long-term customers but very little new business coming in. I was given the task of “making it all work”. Quickly, I identified Marketing as an area for improvement, but with no experience within the company at that time it was extremely difficult to know where to start. Asking around in my network led me to understand that we needed serious marketing support, but also that I was terrible at judging what good messaging looked like! On a personal recommendation, I contacted The Marketing Centre and have not looked back.
Stephen has provided the guidance to create a solid strategy, as well as interfacing effectively with our digital marketers and content creators at Magma Science, and helping me to communicate internally why it is worth putting some money in your Marketing budget! I am now confident that the foundations we have built are solid, not just a quick fix, and ready for scaling up to match the growth targets for our business."
Marion Cubitt, COO, Isogenica
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