Triblio_TR001_IP_RevenueSuccess

Rewriting the Rules for Revenue Success

An Inside Look at How B2B Brands Are Delivering Account-Based Plays That Impact Pipeline

The strategies that B2B marketers employ to generate revenue are continuously evolving, and the rules are being rewritten to adjust to changing world events. As such, an account-based model has never been more important, as B2B marketers look for ways to align their messaging with not only the current intent of buyers, but their plans for the future. The growing importance of account-based marketing (ABM) to marketing and business strategy is reflected clearly in the budgets being allocated to this strategy, according to the Raising the Game with ABM report from ITSMA and the ABM Leadership Alliance. Five years ago, companies practicing ABM dedicated 15% of their marketing budgets to it. Today, that percentage has nearly doubled to 28%. An overwhelming majority (80%) of companies with three or more years of ABM experience are realizing “significantly higher” ROI compared with less than half of those with less experience, according to the ITSMA report.

An overwhelming majority (80%) of companies with three or more years of ABM experience are realizing “significantly higher” ROI compared with less than half of those with less experience.

ITSMA & ABM Leadership Alliance "Raising the Game with ABM" report

Account-based marketing has become even more essential as many companies have had to pivot to a remote workforce and look for other ways to generate brand awareness without the option to meet with buyers face-to-face at events. Account-based ads allow marketing teams to make up for that lack of exposure by delivering personalized interactions on channels buyers frequent most. Furthermore, marketers are under pressure to do more with less due to sudden budget cuts and staff reductions. With ABM, they are positioned to be more efficient with their targeting and spend. While ABM is clearly the future, there are some challenges to implementing the strategy across the enterprise. While advertising is a common starting point, relatively low satisfaction with ad campaigns reflects in part the fact that many organizations are adopting account-based advertising before effectively establishing an overall account-based strategy, according to TOPO’s 2019 Account-Based Benchmark Report. Tight budgets and small staffs can also present a challenge for some companies as they work to ramp up ABM during this time. Templates and automation tools can help ease the process. This iPaper will provide actionable tips and best practices on how modern ABM practitioners across teams can drive revenue success together through account-based advertising, personalization and the use of intent data.

Making the Case for Account-Based Advertising

In what key pipeline metrics have ABM programs outperformed traditional marketing programs?

Marketing/sales alignment Win rate Upsell/cross sell

LTV Deal size All of the above

All of the above! According to TOPO research, account-based programs significantly outperform traditional go-to-market (GTM) results.

Digital advertising is playing a significant role as companies continue to adopt ABM. According to the ITSMA report, three-quarters of respondents are either currently using or plan to add digital advertising and retargeting platforms to their ABM technology stack going forward. In fact, advertising has emerged as one of the first account-based executions many organizations deploy, according to TOPO’s Account-Based Technology: Key Trends and Takeaways report. However, companies still struggle to make the best use of ads and find success. Account-based advertising can also help reach key stakeholders that may have otherwise gone untapped. "Sales teams were only able to work about 25% of leads and doing more with less was a trend before the current business disruption,” said Andrew Mahr, Chief Customer Officer at Triblio. However, if you’re expecting account-based ads to immediately increase the number of leads you generate, you need to take a broader view. Realistically, with click-through rates running at around 0.5%, you’re not going to get many direct conversions. Instead, ads are better used to build brand awareness among target accounts and boost engagement when combined with other marketing and sales activities. One marketing practitioner saw email perform 8X better and organic search improve by 5X when paired with ABM ads. The case to be made for account-based ads lies in the ability to reinforce and align messaging with sales outreach. ABM-based advertising offers the opportunity to fuel current GTM strategies with targeted ads that stand out against the competition. “It really enables you to identify growth opportunities in the highest-performing segments of all addressable segments in your market,” said Jon Russo, Founder and CMO of B2B Fusion.

ITSMA & ABM Leadership Alliance "Raising the Game with ABM" report

Three-quarters of respondents are either currently using or plan to add digital advertising and retargeting platforms to their ABM technology stack going forward.

The benefits are magnified through a consistent message, Mahr noted. “The customer experience is enhanced because all channels are on the same page in terms of message and timing.” Because today’s buyers spend an enormous amount of time online, account-based advertising is most impactful when it is part of a wider strategy. “Like many tactics, it is not the tactic itself that matters, it’s the quality and relevance of the execution as part of a broader plan,” said Rob Leavitt, SVP of Consulting at ITSMA. The true value of digital ads is revealed when they are implemented as part of a broader account-based strategy. BlueYonder, a provider of a digital fulfillment platform and supply chain solutions, noted that one of the key factors in their success was that they measured the pipeline value of their ad strategy rather than tracking how many new leads were delivered to sales. They were able to convert awareness to consideration and consideration to purchase and generate close to $10 million in pipeline over the year. Many companies are using digital advertising as a way to explore new GTM strategies, noted Kellie de Leon, Vice President of Marketing & Strategy for The Mx Group. “This is a great way to test the interest of your product in a new market or among a new industry segment.” Account-based advertising not only works to build awareness among potential targets, but it is also an effective tool at all stages of the buyer’s journey. It is important to sequence messaging throughout the top, middle and bottom of the funnel, depending on how far the prospect is in their research. Customer retention shouldn’t be ignored, as account-based advertising can be used to target existing customers for new or upgraded products or services.

CASE STUDY:

ABM's Impact on Sales' Pipeline

CASE STUDY:

ABM's Impact on Sales' Pipeline

Like many B2B organizations, DLT Solutions, a provider of IT solutions to the federal government and higher education institutions, is continuously seeking ways to measure the impact of marketing programs. The company implemented Triblio’s ABM solution about four years ago to “get in front of the right eyeballs at the right time,” according to Tom Mahoney, Sr. Director of Corporate Marketing Operations for DLT Solutions. The company focuses on three segments: technology companies, partners and public sector customers. “We have messages across all three segments that address different stages of the buying cycle and we vary the messages depending on the time of year and other factors.” The result: Better engagement to accelerate the sales pipeline. “Because of that strategy, we’re seeing a 3X to 4X lift over our own benchmarks from past years,” Mahoney said.

The Power of Personalization

What percent of B2B marketers are currently using or planning to use web personalization tools to support their ABM initiatives?

Less than 25%

More than 25%

85% of marketers who responded to Demand Gen Report’s 2019 ABM Benchmark Survey Report are either currently using (50%) or planning to use (35%) web and content personalization tools.

More than 50%

When an organization provides more personalized experiences throughout customers’ buying journeys, it has a significant impact on the bottom line. Organizations that tailor messaging to high-value accounts are more likely to reap the benefits of ABM. “High-performing ABM teams are 30% more likely to customize content for their target accounts,” said Bob Peterson, Sr. Research Director & Analyst of Account-Based Marketing at Forrester. There are essentially two types of personalization tactics: by account and by segment. When personalizing by account, it makes sense to run unique, account-specific campaigns for your highest-value opportunities. Some examples include:

An email with a video or photo that speaks directly to the prospect about a company milestone — a merger or opening a new office — and offering ways to partner.

An invitation to a video meeting to discuss ways that your company can help fulfill a new contract that your prospect recently signed.

A custom website with content tailored to the prospect’s intent topic and branded with their logo.

While some organizations can devote entire teams to creating personalized content/reports/pitches for the major accounts they're going after, not all teams have those kinds of resources. But that doesn’t mean that you have to scrap personalization plans because you don’t have the ability to do one-to-one account personalization. There are opportunities to tailor content at scale. A few examples:

Instead of a rotating banner when an ad drives a potential lead to your website, use website personalization to immediately show them industry-specific messaging and display relevant CTAs/overlays.

A link to a replay of a recent webinar that is relevant based on industry, company size, geography or intent topic.

Landing pages and URLs that sales can generate at scale using templates and merge fields.

Inundating people with content isn't the most effective way to engage people. You'll send them into choice paralysis rather than answer their questions and address their needs. Instead, you want to present messaging/offers/content that are most relevant to the audience/viewer/reader's needs. Sales teams are most successful when they know the best content to reach out with in every situation. At what point in a buyer’s journey should a salesperson be sharing thought-leadership content versus information on how the company’s offerings compare with competitors? Sales are more robust when the team has the answers.

CASE STUDY:

ABM's Impact on Reputation

CASE STUDY:

Averna is a leading provider of test and quality solutions serving a wide variety of industries — from consumer devices to life sciences, automotive and more. The company was faced with the challenges of showcasing its expertise in a range of industry verticals. The first ABM campaign implemented at Averna using Triblio aimed to grow trust from various stakeholders in its expertise. “We needed to appeal to many different types of people, in different languages and in very different markets,” explained Myriam Duchaine, Marketing Director at Averna. “We want to communicate to all our customers that we are the best at what we do, and this has to be recognized instantly and needs to be relatable.” The result: Averna’s campaigns were effective enough to make prospects feel confident that the company was only focused on the specific technology they were looking for. The company achieved consistent and sustained messaging, as well as more engagement with personalized content boards by vertical.

ABM's Impact on Reputation

Driving ABM With Intent

What percent of B2B marketers are currently leveraging intent data to support sales and marketing initiatives?

40%

50%

60%

80% of B2B brands surveyed by Demand Gen Report are currently leveraging intent data.

More than 60%

Intent data can help identify the key problems that accounts and buyers are trying to solve, so marketers can deliver the right message at the right time. Recent Demand Gen Report research demonstrated the value of intent data. Most (80%) of respondents said it helped with account prioritization and data for scoring initiatives. Nearly three-quarters (73%) pointed to the ability of intent data to accelerate the pipeline.

When considering the most valuable benefits that intent data has had on their business, respondents cited the following wide variety of impacts:

80%

73%

53%

52%

Helped with account prioritization and scoring for ABM initiatives

Pointed to the ability to accelerate pipeline

Called out the ability to better define their ideal customer profile

Helped to provide insights into targeting their advertising

Offered insights into their content marketing initiatives

Intent data can be gathered from a variety of sources — from anywhere you can collect account-based information. This includes third-party intent (searches on other websites), first-party intent (engagement with your own website) and keyword data from review sites, as well as LinkedIn and other social media platforms. “Intent data helps you understand which prospects are most likely to engage with a particular topic and help prioritize what areas to work on, whether that is an existing product or service or something new,” Russo said. Russo noted there are a number of challenges to collecting intent data into today’s environment. With everyone working from home, it is difficult to match IP addresses with business prospects as they search the web remotely. Also, there are a number of people with varying roles and interests in today’s B2B buying committees, making it more complex to nail down intent. Redpoint Global, a customer data platform provider, has developed a strategy that targets the correct persona based on intent. The company discovered that if a potential lead is examining features, they are usually close to a decision. Redpoint targeted tech buyers with "customer data platform" messaging, and marketing/customer success buyers with "customer experience platform” content. Intent data is just one piece of data. By itself, intent data provides key insights, but becomes more valuable with the addition of other data points to provide a broader picture. “When you add firmographic, technographic and persona data to intent data, it provides a more complete view of the buyer’s plans,” said de Leon. How can companies leverage intent data to fuel their account-based campaigns?

CASE STUDY:

ABM's Impact on Purchase Intent

CASE STUDY:

Dodge Data & Analytics is North America’s leading provider of construction intelligence. Its analytics and workflow solutions help customers identify business opportunities and use these insights to drive growth. When it came to driving its own growth, the company turned to Triblio’s ABM solution to help with one-to-one ads and web personalization. To make an even bigger impact on pipeline, Hasaan Brown, the company’s Performance Marketing Director, used Triblio to run one-to-one campaigns targeting specific accounts that had gone cold in the sales process. These campaigns were completely personalized across multiple channels — from digital display ads to website messaging and sales scripts. Instead of driving form-fills, the strategy relied on Triblio’s first-party intent to monitor account engagement and trigger sales plays. “We use Triblio for display campaigns, and it’s very targeted,” said Brown. “The beautiful thing is that I don’t feel the urge the reach out to get somebody to fill out the form. I want to look at Triblio and see that these people are engaging.” The result: Equipped with first-party intent data, marketing and sales found much more success with strategic accounts.

ABM's Impact on Purchase Intent

Generating more poor-quality leads at an increasingly higher volume every year is no recipe for success, Triblio’s Founder & CEO wrote in a Forbes post. “The challenge for the modern B2B marketer is determining how to engage buyers closer to the initial point of interest instead of waiting for the prospective buyer to fill out a form.” That’s where account-based advertising can make its mark. Targeting your top accounts with ads that mirror their challenges and concerns — not just immediately, but in the long term — is the way to break through. Stay ahead of the customer so you know what will be the next thing keeping them up at night. Once a buyer has committed to filling out a form to download content or initiate contact, they’ve already completed about 70% of the buying journey. Serving up personalized content based on intent data puts your message in front of them earlier in the cycle with a greater chance of influencing their decision.

888.328.8667 sales@triblio.com

888.603.3626 info@demandgenreport.com

Making the Case for Account-Based Advertising

ABM's Impact on Sales' Pipeline

The Power of Personalization

ABM's Impact on Reputation

Driving ABM with Intent

ABM's Impact on Purchase Intent

Conclusion & About Us

At the top of the funnel, they can begin by launching ads based on intent topic. They can progress to website personalization by intent topic. And they can perform outreach through the sales development representatives.

Further down the funnel, they can activate sales by equipping sales representatives with insights, reinforce messaging with display ads and present personalized websites that speak to the specific needs of the buyer.

As the buyers’ journey continues, competitive comparisons identify specific topics of interest based on engagement and customize content and follow-up.

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