From Corporate to Creative: How Innovaxis Marketing Fuels B2B Growth

Innovaxis Marketing founder Sean Parnell shares how his agency helps B2B companies grow with strategy-first marketing, brand storytelling, and Blue Ocean Strategy.

In a recent episode of Insights and Action with Orange 142, host Shiv Walia sat down with Sean Parnell, co-founder and president of Innovaxis Marketing, to talk about how his Chicago-based marketing consulting agency helps B2B companies and nonprofits transform their marketing into a growth engine by aligning marketing with sales and business strategy.

Watch the full episode or read the recap below.

Sean and Lina Parnell launched Innovaxis in 2007, just as the Great Recession began. After being laid off from a product management role, Sean started freelancing with a former colleague. “I liked being out of the corporate environment,” he said.

That short-term gig sparked a bigger idea: what if he could build a business around helping companies grow using the marketing skills he’d developed in product management and market research? With encouragement from his wife and business partner, Lina, and support from a business coach he still works with today, Innovaxis was born.

From Goals to Growth

Since the beginning, Innovaxis has focused on one thing: helping established B2B companies grow—intentionally and sustainably. But that growth doesn’t start with tactics. It starts with clearly understanding the client’s business goals and how to translate those into effective marketing strategies.

Whether a client is aiming for steady 5% annual growth or going after aggressive double-digit gains, Sean and his team begin by digging into the target market, competitive landscape, and the client’s unique value proposition. “If you want to grow, you have to do something different,” he noted. “It starts with an open mind and a willingness to rethink how you show up.”

That often includes Innovaxis’ brand storytelling process: a structured approach to uncovering who the client serves, what problems they solve, and why their solution matters. Instead of starting with product features and benefits, Innovaxis focuses on customer needs and their language to describe them. “We want prospects to immediately understand, ‘This is for me,’” said Sean.

Why Messaging Matters

One of the biggest challenges Innovaxis helps companies overcome is translating technical capabilities into resonant messaging. Especially in B2B, using the wrong terminology—or leaning too heavily on industry jargon—can turn off prospects. Innovaxis focuses on speaking to customers in their language while helping clients position themselves as thought leaders.

That balance of clarity and authority is key. “Our clients are experts in what they do, but their prospects aren’t,” Sean explained. “We help bridge that gap.”

The Right Fit for the Right Clients

Innovaxis typically works with small to midsize B2B companies, often in the $10 to $100 million revenue range. These companies fall into two broad categories: traditional “old school” sectors like manufacturing and construction, and more digitally savvy “new school” sectors like software, technology integration, and professional services.

What unites their best-fit clients isn’t industry, but mindset. The businesses Innovaxis works with offer real value, aim for growth, and are open to doing things differently.

“There’s this golden thread that runs through all our clients: they know they provide something unique, but they need help articulating it in a way that clicks with their market,” said Sean.

Where Blue Ocean Meets SEO

Innovaxis also integrates Blue Ocean Strategy principles into its work, helping clients find uncontested and uncongested market spaces where they can thrive. Sean sees this as the natural complement to SEO: while SEO captures existing demand, Blue Ocean helps uncover new opportunities.

It often starts by identifying adjacent markets — segments that aren’t currently being served but that would value the client’s offering just as much.

In one example, Innovaxis helped a display design company serving warehouse clubs like Costco break into new accounts by offering consulting services to brands with underperforming vendors. Instead of going after the entire order, they built value as project managers first, opening the door to deeper engagements.

This kind of thinking is what sets Innovaxis apart. “Sometimes your customers see value in what you do that you don’t even realize,” said Sean. “Our job is to help surface that and turn it into an opportunity.”

Repeatable Process, Agile Execution

While creativity is important, Innovaxis believes results come from structure. The agency relies on repeatable processes — like its brand storytelling and Blue Ocean frameworks — to uncover insights and guide strategy, evolving them with an agile, iterative approach.

That combination of a straightforward process, strategic insight, and practical execution keeps Innovaxis on the radar of B2B companies ready to level up.

To learn more about how Innovaxis helps clients drive real growth through smarter marketing, talk to Sean – or, as Sean joked: “Just Google ‘B2B marketing agency.’ We’re on the first page.”