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4 Account-Based Marketing Technologies That Will Matter in 2021

The disruption from 2020 has forced many companies across different industries and verticals to improve their digital potential, including technology adoption. Among the industries, account-based marketing practitioners had to adapt to change in 2020 – and fast because it created a host of challenges in B2B. Industries and businesses had to find the right technologies that allow growth, as companies now have to operate in the only digital world.

But, even in the time of uncertainty, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has gained traction. This is good news for enterprise tech vendors. Gartner estimates that expenditure on technology will rebound in 2021, with the enterprise software market predicted to surge by 7.2%. This seems to be a year of growth, improvement, and success for those organizations deploying account-based marketing as part of their B2B strategy.

In addition, one of the global data leaders, Acxiom, has experienced rapid sales growth from its technologically blended ABM program. Before considering a fully technology-based ABM strategy for 2021, it is crucial to understand how technologies fuel ABM growth.

Technologies are Fueling ABM Growth

Well, it's easy to understand and see how and why the technology-fuelled revival of ABM is taking hold. Let's see where B2B marketers are gaining profits. They are :
  • Driving improved deals, higher close rates, and earning more revenue
  • Winning strategic accounts in their industries
  • Getting higher ROI
  • Reaping benefits from additional marketing strategies

The 2019 State of ABM study by SiriusDecisions validates this trend in ABM results in:
  • 91% of the B2B companies realizing larger deals by adopting technology in ABM.
  • 92% seeing a higher percentage of qualified opportunities in ABM accounts than in non-ABM accounts.
  • More B2B marketers are moving towards tech-enabled ABM programs, where it was 62% in 2020 compared to 40% in 2018.
  • ABM in the overall marketing budget of companies surging rapidly.

With the rise in internet usage, which accelerated digital marketing, it was challenging to understand individual behavior. Now, marketers are empowered with account-centric targeting, measurement, and personalization across all their digital channels. Because marketers dedicate more budget to their ABM programs by upgrading technology stacks. It plays a significant role in making ABM scalable.

So, explore the critical technology trends propelling ABM today and shaping its future for marketing purposes in this blog.

How much does your tech stack matter?

The most influential tech marketing programs invest more in data, insight, and analytics. And that's because you have no hope of successfully engaging with your target accounts.

Despite the rapid acceleration of digital transformation in 2020, few organizations already have a mature tech stack. 25-39% of them used it for content syndication, sales automation, evaluation as third-party data, and reporting software.

By this, you must have understood that investing in technologies or technology that is attributing results supporting your ABM efforts is essential. But this doesn't mean the more tech you have, the more successful you will be. It's more a case of having the proper fundamentals (tech-wise) in place that deliver value.

Likewise, other tech fundamentals like intent data fully functioning (and ABM-ready) CRM are perhaps the most important tech pieces to have in place. They are listed under the top planned investments for 2021.

Here are five tech trends for ABM that will make a tangible difference in your business.

Automation Reduces Risks

To execute account-based marketing, marketers need to introduce automation to engage accounts through a handful of channels. Marketers can engage all the named accounts of the sales team and their long tail of target accounts through automation. This allows the marketing team to create demand in the accounts they're pursuing and alleviate the risk of putting all sales requirements in one place. This is possible by continuous demand generation through different channels, probably the less expensive ones (and alerting accounts from time to time to decrease the risk of missing out).

This way, your business will witness a more consistent and coordinated engagement of accounts between sales and marketing. So, ABM automation is a crucial aspect in reducing risks.

AI Introduces Personalized Customer Understanding

Businesses are witnessing the transformational impact of AI throughout the process, particularly in marketing. While marketers can easily get started with ABM by targeting a list of accounts, AI puts more power enabling them to confidently and precisely identify the accounts to pursue.

With AI, marketers can get their ideal customer profile (ICP) at a granular level. Tech-savvy marketers are using AI to analyze their historical sales and implement new strategies to achieve more in the coming years. In other words, AI helps marketers to leverage more information significantly from both internal and external sources to draw more precise models for their ideal customers.

AI is also enhancing engagement. According to The State of Engagement, 72% of marketers are expected to prioritize personalized messages and content to engage with customers. Nearly 40% of marketers plan to leverage AI and machine learning to enhance content used throughout the customer journey. So, through AI, marketers can personalize communications in a one-to-one way. This way, they can predict the content that most likely to convert readers across multiple channels.

As marketers continue to realize the potential of AI, you will see more rules-based ABM activities that AI enhances. This way, your marketers can efficiently target the proper accounts, engage accounts across channels to get insights to optimize programs.

Advanced Analytics Provide Attribution

Is your ABM strategy working? One way to find out this is by measuring its impact on the business through advanced analytics. With automated attribution reporting, marketers can find more opportunities, a longer pipeline of accounts, and higher revenue generation in the ABM context.

But why? Here are three reasons:
  • Marketers need to show that their partnership with sales to the target audience is working efficiently.
  • Advanced analytics will allow you to compare the efforts and results of one account vs. another to optimize the ABM program.
  • Most marketers plan multiple or blended marketing strategies. So, marketers running an ABM or practicing a blend of it, such as inbound marketing, need to know which investments are working. Advanced analytics can help them to allocate a budget for strategies being used for their business.
Therefore, it is expected to witness more touchpoints and data brought into advanced analytics becoming increasingly easier for marketers to consume in the future.

Chatbots' Demand in ABM

As per Salesforce, 69% of U.S. consumers prefer using chatbots when engaging with brands as it yields a prompt response.

A chatbot on your website can answer customers' basic questions every time. AI-powered chatbots can be used for customer support, expanding contact strategy dramatically with a controlled message. These chatbots have become so lifelike that many customers don't even know the difference. And chatbots offer the added benefit of gathering, analyzing, and providing actionable data to improve the customer experience.


How Can Marketers Harness This Potential?

As per SiriusDecisions' survey, more marketers are doubling their budgets and moving their ABM journey effortlessly. So, irrespective of where you are on your journey, you also need to make sure you always move ahead.

When it's time to include technology, be sure to select an ABM platform that supports your marketing journey now and in the future, as well. This means it should support multiple channels and marketing strategies, giving the flexibility to adapt and discover what works best for your organization.

Conclusively, look for a platform that can serve as the hub of your ABM technology stack. The ablest place to start is from a platform that will give you the ABM essentials and connect a wide range of technologies to encourage you to grow over time.  This way, you can shape your future in account-based marketing in the best possible ways.

Frequently Asked Questions


How does ABM work?

Identifying which accounts (companies) you can target is the first step after creating a buyer persona. The next step is to market them using campaigns to attract potential clients. And then, measure the activities of your account-based marketing campaigns. Metrics, such as clicks, impressions, and page views, are easily measured.

Why is account-based marketing important?

ABM helps to assemble marketing efforts through multi-channels and analyses key accounts' status to drive more revenue. It also maximizes the efficiency of your B2B marketing resources and aligns sales accordingly.

How is AI used in ABM?

AI solutions in ABM can help the marketing team to make firm data-based decisions faster than before. The usage of chatbots helps to answer many common questions about marketing efforts and benefits. Also, AI tools can be used to track intent data as well.

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Demand Science Team, Inc. - A Pure Incubation

Demand Science Team, Inc. is a Philippine-based firm under the Pure Incubation group of companies serving its subsidiary firms headquartered in the United States. Incorporated in the Philippines in January 2014, it has grown into several robust practice areas that are fully integrated into the overall operations of its main firm.

OTHER ARTICLES
Core ABM

Conversational ABM: Bolstering Revenue through Engagement

Article | July 27, 2022

Personalized engagements are the foundation of account-based marketing. Without customized and relevant content, B2B marketers cannot steer target accounts towards conversion, nor can they create a lasting relationship with them. That said, tailoring messaging for every contact on a target account’s buying committee can be overwhelming because each contact is at a different stage in the buyer journey. Marketing teams struggle to achieve optimal success at ABM because they cannot scale their content personalization efforts to create engagement to ease the work of the sales teams. You can easily overcome these challenges with conversational ABM. Let us take a look at how: Creates Meaningful Engagement Buyers have evolved from engaging with marketing emails, ads, whitepapers, and webinars. They expect personalized two-way conversations that focus on their requirements and pain points. So it is no surprise that 90% of customers want to use messaging to communicate with businesses (Source: Twilio Customer Survey). How does conversational ABM create meaningful engagement? Did you know that when you contact a lead within the first hour, you are seven times more likely to qualify the prospect? (Source: Harvard Business Review) Conversational ABM engages customers with real-time conversations using chat bots, voice bots, or interactive web pages. B2B companies engage in conversational ABM through social media, websites and paid advertising. These AI-powered conversations replace static lead capture forms with one-on-one conversations with target accounts. Target accounts can get in touch with your business and receive instantaneous responses. As they move through the funnel, they can have a seamless, personalized, consistent experience, thus increasing the likeliness of conversion and ensuring a holistic customer experience. Accelerates ABM Revenue Conversational ABM drives engagement towards revenue-generating actions. It fuels your pipeline with leads who want to take the next step. Apart from doing this, conversational ABM also brings your sales and marketing teams together and enhances the personalization quotient of your content. It routes your leads effectively through instantaneous responses and increases annual contract value (ACV) because your sales reps understand exactly what your customers want. Additionally, it automates messaging based on specific account attributes. These features help you put your ABM strategy into action and get the sales you want. TLDR: Game-changing Attributes of Conversational ABM Helps you know the moment a target buyer arrives on your website Alerts your sales team for immediate conversation Supports live chat, voice calls and screen sharing option Scales your personalization strategy for content It is available around the clock Increases ABM revenue through meaningful engagement Ideal Conversational ABM Solution Features Matches contacts to best personalized conversation Validates contact’s interest and qualifies them Initiates a prompt, two-way dialog; takes regular follow-up Uses insights to improve account segmentation and personalize content accordingly Summing It Up While implementing ABM, building thousands of messages and managing hundreds of workflows can be tiring. Conversational ABM can save you time and let you tailor key parts of your conversation with a specific account to make your ABM strategy work better.

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Core ABM

Buying Group Marketing: Another Evolution of ABM

Article | June 21, 2022

B2B marketers use account-based marketing (ABM) to generate business because it allows them to drive focused account-level interactions. These interactions are a result of relevant and customized messaging. Today, the messaging focuses on not just one decision-maker but a group within the target account that green lights a buying decision. This natural evolution in ABM implementation is called buying group marketing (BGM). It isn’t a new concept but keeps evolving. B2B marketers are religiously implementing BGM in their ABM strategy to get a competitive edge and to keep up with the changing trends in the ABM industry. Carefully created buyer personas are used to create hyper-personalized campaigns for buying group members. In this sense, BGM is a person-centric marketing approach, differentiating it from an account-based marketing approach. While talking about buying group marketing, Dmitri Lisitski, CEO and Co-Founder, Influ2, a B2B targeted advertising solutions provider, said, "Buying Group Marketing will empower B2B marketers to achieve greater precision by extending this approach more holistically across their programs." How Does BGM Drive Revenue? Revenue factors into every effort that aims to increase sales numbers, retain customers, and engage prospective customers. Let us look into how BGM drives revenue in the B2B domain. Closing the Gap Between Sales and Marketing Organizations struggle to bring sales and marketing teams together. They max out their budgets to make it happen, but more often than not, they do not get the expected results. Additionally, their marketing automation platform doesn’t make the connection between the multiple leads coming from the same account. This lack of insight can affect the performance of the entire demand management process, such as sales, revenue development, and customer organization. Buying behaviors are constantly shifting. It is crucial to use a fresh approach that enables the teams to connect directly with the target accounts’ decision-makers, offering them just what they need through effective campaigns and driving revenue is crucial. In the buying group framework, marketing and sales align their goals and operations, share important insights on buyer personas, orchestrate messaging for campaigns, and collate data from platforms such as CRM and sales engagement tools to successfully find common ground for approaching a buying group. They are no longer stuck on one side of the MQL wall but are involved in every stage of the conversion process. As a result, they guide specific buying group members to make a buying decision and generate revenue. Putting Buyer Experience on Top In a Forrester survey, 94% of respondents said they sold to buying groups that had three or more individuals, while 38% said that they sold to groups of 10 or more. Purchase decisions in large enterprises are never restricted to one individual. The bigger the purchase decision, the bigger the buying committee. The bigger the buying committee, the larger the pool of buyer personas that need targeting. For example, if the HR department of a growing organization realizes that it needs a new human capital resource management system (HCRM) to manage its HR-related processes, then a buying group is created to choose a new system. When this group goes to the market to find a solution, it becomes a potential lead for HCRM providers, and the lead is called a demand unit. Targeting this demand unit with not just the HCRM but also a travel and expense solution (T & E) is possible with BGM. In BGM: Every step in the buyer’s journey is based on buyer personas and presents value to the buying group. Every demand management process focuses on the buying group. Through this approach, multiple types of selling opportunities can be explored. All this effort appeals to different buying group members in different ways and will push them to get in touch with the sales team and make a purchase decision. Offering Solutions to Pain Points Information designed precisely to complete the purchase should be provided to every member of the buying group committee. Interestingly, before making a purchase decision, members of the buying group will explore the content of different solution providers. According to a recent study by Dimensional Research, 90% of buyers thought that positive online reviews of a product or service influenced their buying decision. This is just one type of information that the buying group members will consume before they make a buying decision. With the help of real-time intent targeting or cognitive product targeting, it is easier to understand the customer’s intent through channels like websites, apps, and email. The terms searched, specific or broad, can point to the needs and requirements of a member of the committee. Once the intent is clear, buyer personas can be segmented and targeted with prescriptive content that talks about solutions to their pain points and how the expected results are achieved. For example, if a C-level buying committee member displays a high level of intent activity, then it is highly likely that he or she is looking to make a strategic investment. Such an opportunity will be ready for sales conversion in a couple of months. How Should You Implement BGM on Sales Funnel? We have already established the importance of buying group engagement in driving leads through the sales funnel. When sales and marketing teams share insights, marketing becomes effective and tangible. Now, let us take a look at BGM implementation in the sales funnel: Top of the Funnel While targeting a buying group at the top of the funnel, the focus should be on creating awareness and understanding the demand of the target account. Social media ads and relevant landing pages that act as lead magnets can help achieve this goal. Middle of the Funnel For buying groups in the middle of the funnel, engaging and educating the groups is imperative. Posting relevant content on social media handles can foster interaction with the members. LinkedIn messages from sales development representatives with ad and landing page support are effective. Bottom of the Funnel Conversations that lead to conversion start when the buying group is at the bottom of the funnel. In this stage, the account executives present members with compelling content that addresses their pain points and influences them enough to make a purchase decision. While executing BGM, B2B marketers should begin by understanding the business needs of the target account and create a comprehensive marketing strategy to address these needs. Orchestrating a holistic experience for the buying committee through high-quality, relevant content is the next step. Achieving a strategic, operational and practical alignment with sales will ensure success and higher conversions. Amplitude Drives 5.6x ROI on Ad Spend with Influ2’s Help With Influ2’s person-based advertising, Amplitude, a digital optimization system provider, focused 100% on advertising to key decision-makers within its target accounts. Influ2 used engagement insights to create and execute personalized and attributable B2B marketing. The result was a 5.6x ROI on ad spend. Last Word ABM marketing has evolved with the help of buying group marketing. Implementing BGM with an account-based marketing strategy can create lasting relationships with target accounts, retain existing clients and bring new leads. FAQ What are the three important tenets of buying group marketing? The three important tenets of buying group marketing are understanding the needs of the target account, attaining sales and marketing alignment, and creating a holistic marketing strategy that addresses the pain points of the target account. How is buyer experience different than customer experience? Customer experience focuses on the existing customers in the pipeline, while buyer experience focuses on the prospective customers’ complete buyer journey. How can you engage top-of-the-funnel audiences in buying group marketing? You can engage top-of-the-funnel audiences through social media ads and relevant landing pages that display content relevant to the needs of the target account.

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Core ABM

5 Trend-Setting Examples of Account-Based Marketing

Article | July 5, 2022

These days the challenges that the marketing and the sales team face are tremendous. The pressure to meet targets, deadlines, achieve revenue, and at the same time keep the clients satisfied is not an easy task. And to add to the woes, there is massive competition in the industry. But there is one way to overcome all the obstacles and achieve targets while keeping clients happy and satisfied. This strategy is ABM- Account-Based Marketing. ABM campaigns have been a trendsetter in the B2B marketing field for a long time. As it ensures successful marketing, businesses are turning towards this thriving approach. What Exactly Is Account-Based Marketing? Account-based marketing is identifying the target, high-value customers and selling your product/service to them. This ABM approach allows you to concentrate on exclusive clients and guarantees the best ROI. What Is B2B Account-Based Marketing? B2B account-based marketing is targeting an organization with specific and personalized marketing campaigns. When you target the decision-makers of an organization, you need to tread with caution. When you design a marketing strategy for them, personalize it, and deliver everything to increase their brand value. Thus, ABM is a marketing strategy wherein the sales and the marketing team have to put their heads together to deliver an impeccable buying experience for the best and valuable clients. Tactics to Implement a Successful Account-Based Marketing According to the Pardot site survey, 89% of businesses reported higher ROI in ABM than traditional marketing methods. If you develop an account-based marketing plan, here are some tips to follow: Collaborate working of the marketing and sales team to identify high-value clients and gather maximum data about them. Use social media to gather data and create a personalized approach for the clients. Try to sync in with the brand of the target company to develop relatable content and graphics. Recognize the expertise, pain points, and challenges of the target account and frame communication. Send personalized emails addressing the challenges your target account faces. Host face to face or virtual events 5 Trend-setting Examples of Account-Based Marketing ABM is a marketing strategy that has shown guaranteed success in the B2B industry. You have to sculpt unique ideas and have a personalized approach towards your targeted clients. The clients should feel that you have made efforts to know them, understand them, and address the challenges that they face. Some companies have achieved an altogether different benchmark in ABM strategy. As a result, these are prominent examples of B2B account-based marketing. Let us go through their account-based marketing case study and learn their ways of execution. Snowflake- Excellent Use of Content Creation “We needed to make sure that when you see an ABM campaign, it’s reflective of not only sales input but also product marketing, partner marketing, field marketing, and our SDRs. We needed a way to co-create one cohesive message for our key accounts.” — Hillary Carpio, Director of ABM, Snowflake. Snowflake, a cloud-based data warehousing company, utilized its in-house services in the best way to create a library of high-quality content. This content is used to create personalized experiences for high-valued and targeted accounts. Then, this personalized content creates account-based marketing campaigns customized to reach the target customers. Gumgum- Using Technology the Right Way. GumGum collaborated and created an effective marketing product for the Clorox brand. They showcased this product at the Clorox annual iConnect Conference. The product they created was turning a temporary tattoo into a fascinating 3D animation while incorporating logos of the concerned brands. It was a hit among the Clorox brand, and almost 200 attendees downloaded the GumGum app. Intridea- Making the Right Confrontational Approach Intridea did take a risk by implementing the direct approach of ABM advertising. They rented a billboard right across the advertising giant Ogilvy’s Manhattan office. The billboard said, “Ogle this, Ogilvy.” Intridea also placed its logo and company URL at the bottom of the quirky line. And they succeeded in fixing a meeting with Ogilvy’s CEO. Payscale- Utilizing Data to Gain Profits Payscale helps employers manage compensations in the right way. They also aid employees know their correct market value. Payscale collaborated with their sales and marketing team to gather the correct information about ABM target accounts. Once they had ample information about the company’s decision-makers, they targeted the client with their best ad campaigns. As a result, their ROI was six times more compared to any other marketing strategy! O2- Gathered Data to Create Personalized Reports. O2 is a leading ICT service provider. The organization targeted many high-value clients and created personalized reports for them. Their modus operandi was to curate personalized reports on how the organization will benefit by utilizing O2 for their ICT services. The dedicated teams also emphasized on face to face meetings for customized strategies. As a result, O2 had a successful ABM strategy as they achieved 313% of their target pipeline. The Bottom Line Account-based marketing strategies are incorporated in unique ways. As a result, there are many ideas where you can implement account-based marketing to stand out and gain maximum ROI. All you have to do is gather data and make the correct use of it. So gear up and come up with uncommon ideas and, you never know your company could make it to the list of trendsetting examples of B2B account-based marketing! Frequently Asked Questions What are the best strategies for successful account-based marketing? Enlist your high-value clients and gather maximum data about them(Social media can be of great help.) Address their pain points and portray how well you know the organization Collaborate with the marketing and sales team in the best way to provide appropriate solutions Deliver 100% relevance in communication What are the advantages of incorporating ABM? Faster sales process Guaranteed maximum ROI Cost Efficiency Shorter sales cycle Deliver excellent value to high-value customers When should you implement ABM? ABM should be used in the B2B industry to sell to clients with high-value accounts. ABM should be implemented when an organization notices that certain exclusive clients can be easily converted with personalized strategies. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What are the best strategies for successful account-based marketing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Enlist your high-value clients and gather maximum data about them(Social media can be of great help.) Address their pain points and portray how well you know the organization Collaborate with the marketing and sales team in the best way to provide appropriate solutions Deliver 100% relevance in communication" } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What are the advantages of incorporating ABM?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Faster sales process Guaranteed maximum ROI Cost Efficiency Shorter sales cycle Deliver excellent value to high-value customers" } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "When should you implement ABM?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "ABM should be used in the B2B industry to sell to clients with high-value accounts. ABM should be implemented when an organization notices that certain exclusive clients can be easily converted with personalized strategies." } }] }

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Account Based Data

How Predictive Analytics Contributes to Pipeline and Revenue Growth

Article | August 4, 2022

For B2B marketers like you, wouldn’t it be great to know which buyers are ready to purchase and when? It would be, but this doesn’t generally happen. Marketing and sales teams across businesses spend their time trying to find the perfect prospects instead of focusing on selling to the accounts that actually want to buy. What Goes into Prospecting? Prospecting is an entire process that is not only time-consuming but might not lead to anything worthwhile. Common steps involved in prospecting include: Finding accounts that fit your target account profile Zeroing in on the point of contact to get in touch with the account Creating messaging to influence prospect’s buying decision Wait for the prospect to answer calls It is no wonder that prospecting is the most difficult part of sales. According to research by Sales Insights Lab, 50% of the prospects you go after aren’t a good fit for your product. To add to the mix, sorting through incomplete forms, questionnaires, anonymous web visits, and event attendee lists is backbreaking work. Predictive Analytics: Pipeline Growth and Revenue Covered ABM relies heavily on high-quality data management and analysis. It is based on quality and, not quantity. It can succeed only if the prospect account’s data like management hierarchy, business practices, pain points, requirements, etc. is interpreted, analyzed and utilized properly. This is where predictive analytics comes in. A predictive analytics model looks at how different parts of an account relate to each other and ranks them. A large amount of data can be successfully interpreted this way. Data mining, statistics, and text analytics uncover different patterns and relationships to give insights into an account’s behavior and outcomes based on data. A Predictive Analytics Model Boosts Your ABM Strategy Here is how predictive analytics can boost your ABM strategy: Prioritizing Accounts Based on Rating Marketing representatives need to approach prospects at the right time to capture expected revenue. Predictive analytics gives real-time data, forecasts into when to approach a prospect to get the conversion. With deep data insights, predictive analytics optimizes ABM and the allocated marketing budget. Personalized Messaging Personalized messaging is possible only when the data at hand goes beyond account intelligence-based numbers. Predictive analytics goes a step ahead, forecasts buyer behavior and gives marketers a tool to create content that appeals to every individual in the prospect account’s buying group and leads to conversion. Objective Scoring As accounts near the end of the sales funnel, predictive analytics forecasts the best time for sales overview, so risks like data deletion are bypassed. Getting Ready to Adopt Predictive Analytics To adopt predictive analytics in your ABM strategy, you need to follow these steps: Create an ABM-centric organization where content marketers apply ABM Marketing and sales teams need to understand predictive insights and its implementation in ABM Align your marketing and sales teams Decision makers understand predictive insights and how they are used at the grass-root level Wrapping It Up! Focus your investments on an intent data set based on predictive analytics and AI learning to make the most of the high-quality data insights without worrying about underlying technologies.

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Core ABM

4 Metrics to Measure ABM Impact on Sales

Article | July 27, 2022

Personalized engagements are the foundation of account-based marketing. Without customized and relevant content, B2B marketers cannot steer target accounts towards conversion, nor can they create a lasting relationship with them. That said, tailoring messaging for every contact on a target account’s buying committee can be overwhelming because each contact is at a different stage in the buyer journey. Marketing teams struggle to achieve optimal success at ABM because they cannot scale their content personalization efforts to create engagement to ease the work of the sales teams. You can easily overcome these challenges with conversational ABM. Let us take a look at how: Creates Meaningful Engagement Buyers have evolved from engaging with marketing emails, ads, whitepapers, and webinars. They expect personalized two-way conversations that focus on their requirements and pain points. So it is no surprise that 90% of customers want to use messaging to communicate with businesses (Source: Twilio Customer Survey). How does conversational ABM create meaningful engagement? Did you know that when you contact a lead within the first hour, you are seven times more likely to qualify the prospect? (Source: Harvard Business Review) Conversational ABM engages customers with real-time conversations using chat bots, voice bots, or interactive web pages. B2B companies engage in conversational ABM through social media, websites and paid advertising. These AI-powered conversations replace static lead capture forms with one-on-one conversations with target accounts. Target accounts can get in touch with your business and receive instantaneous responses. As they move through the funnel, they can have a seamless, personalized, consistent experience, thus increasing the likeliness of conversion and ensuring a holistic customer experience. Accelerates ABM Revenue Conversational ABM drives engagement towards revenue-generating actions. It fuels your pipeline with leads who want to take the next step. Apart from doing this, conversational ABM also brings your sales and marketing teams together and enhances the personalization quotient of your content. It routes your leads effectively through instantaneous responses and increases annual contract value (ACV) because your sales reps understand exactly what your customers want. Additionally, it automates messaging based on specific account attributes. These features help you put your ABM strategy into action and get the sales you want. TLDR: Game-changing Attributes of Conversational ABM Helps you know the moment a target buyer arrives on your website Alerts your sales team for immediate conversation Supports live chat, voice calls and screen sharing option Scales your personalization strategy for content It is available around the clock Increases ABM revenue through meaningful engagement Ideal Conversational ABM Solution Features Matches contacts to best personalized conversation Validates contact’s interest and qualifies them Initiates a prompt, two-way dialog; takes regular follow-up Uses insights to improve account segmentation and personalize content accordingly Summing It Up While implementing ABM, building thousands of messages and managing hundreds of workflows can be tiring. Conversational ABM can save you time and let you tailor key parts of your conversation with a specific account to make your ABM strategy work better.

Read More
Core ABM

Conversational ABM: Bolstering Revenue through Engagement

Article | June 21, 2022

B2B marketers use account-based marketing (ABM) to generate business because it allows them to drive focused account-level interactions. These interactions are a result of relevant and customized messaging. Today, the messaging focuses on not just one decision-maker but a group within the target account that green lights a buying decision. This natural evolution in ABM implementation is called buying group marketing (BGM). It isn’t a new concept but keeps evolving. B2B marketers are religiously implementing BGM in their ABM strategy to get a competitive edge and to keep up with the changing trends in the ABM industry. Carefully created buyer personas are used to create hyper-personalized campaigns for buying group members. In this sense, BGM is a person-centric marketing approach, differentiating it from an account-based marketing approach. While talking about buying group marketing, Dmitri Lisitski, CEO and Co-Founder, Influ2, a B2B targeted advertising solutions provider, said, "Buying Group Marketing will empower B2B marketers to achieve greater precision by extending this approach more holistically across their programs." How Does BGM Drive Revenue? Revenue factors into every effort that aims to increase sales numbers, retain customers, and engage prospective customers. Let us look into how BGM drives revenue in the B2B domain. Closing the Gap Between Sales and Marketing Organizations struggle to bring sales and marketing teams together. They max out their budgets to make it happen, but more often than not, they do not get the expected results. Additionally, their marketing automation platform doesn’t make the connection between the multiple leads coming from the same account. This lack of insight can affect the performance of the entire demand management process, such as sales, revenue development, and customer organization. Buying behaviors are constantly shifting. It is crucial to use a fresh approach that enables the teams to connect directly with the target accounts’ decision-makers, offering them just what they need through effective campaigns and driving revenue is crucial. In the buying group framework, marketing and sales align their goals and operations, share important insights on buyer personas, orchestrate messaging for campaigns, and collate data from platforms such as CRM and sales engagement tools to successfully find common ground for approaching a buying group. They are no longer stuck on one side of the MQL wall but are involved in every stage of the conversion process. As a result, they guide specific buying group members to make a buying decision and generate revenue. Putting Buyer Experience on Top In a Forrester survey, 94% of respondents said they sold to buying groups that had three or more individuals, while 38% said that they sold to groups of 10 or more. Purchase decisions in large enterprises are never restricted to one individual. The bigger the purchase decision, the bigger the buying committee. The bigger the buying committee, the larger the pool of buyer personas that need targeting. For example, if the HR department of a growing organization realizes that it needs a new human capital resource management system (HCRM) to manage its HR-related processes, then a buying group is created to choose a new system. When this group goes to the market to find a solution, it becomes a potential lead for HCRM providers, and the lead is called a demand unit. Targeting this demand unit with not just the HCRM but also a travel and expense solution (T & E) is possible with BGM. In BGM: Every step in the buyer’s journey is based on buyer personas and presents value to the buying group. Every demand management process focuses on the buying group. Through this approach, multiple types of selling opportunities can be explored. All this effort appeals to different buying group members in different ways and will push them to get in touch with the sales team and make a purchase decision. Offering Solutions to Pain Points Information designed precisely to complete the purchase should be provided to every member of the buying group committee. Interestingly, before making a purchase decision, members of the buying group will explore the content of different solution providers. According to a recent study by Dimensional Research, 90% of buyers thought that positive online reviews of a product or service influenced their buying decision. This is just one type of information that the buying group members will consume before they make a buying decision. With the help of real-time intent targeting or cognitive product targeting, it is easier to understand the customer’s intent through channels like websites, apps, and email. The terms searched, specific or broad, can point to the needs and requirements of a member of the committee. Once the intent is clear, buyer personas can be segmented and targeted with prescriptive content that talks about solutions to their pain points and how the expected results are achieved. For example, if a C-level buying committee member displays a high level of intent activity, then it is highly likely that he or she is looking to make a strategic investment. Such an opportunity will be ready for sales conversion in a couple of months. How Should You Implement BGM on Sales Funnel? We have already established the importance of buying group engagement in driving leads through the sales funnel. When sales and marketing teams share insights, marketing becomes effective and tangible. Now, let us take a look at BGM implementation in the sales funnel: Top of the Funnel While targeting a buying group at the top of the funnel, the focus should be on creating awareness and understanding the demand of the target account. Social media ads and relevant landing pages that act as lead magnets can help achieve this goal. Middle of the Funnel For buying groups in the middle of the funnel, engaging and educating the groups is imperative. Posting relevant content on social media handles can foster interaction with the members. LinkedIn messages from sales development representatives with ad and landing page support are effective. Bottom of the Funnel Conversations that lead to conversion start when the buying group is at the bottom of the funnel. In this stage, the account executives present members with compelling content that addresses their pain points and influences them enough to make a purchase decision. While executing BGM, B2B marketers should begin by understanding the business needs of the target account and create a comprehensive marketing strategy to address these needs. Orchestrating a holistic experience for the buying committee through high-quality, relevant content is the next step. Achieving a strategic, operational and practical alignment with sales will ensure success and higher conversions. Amplitude Drives 5.6x ROI on Ad Spend with Influ2’s Help With Influ2’s person-based advertising, Amplitude, a digital optimization system provider, focused 100% on advertising to key decision-makers within its target accounts. Influ2 used engagement insights to create and execute personalized and attributable B2B marketing. The result was a 5.6x ROI on ad spend. Last Word ABM marketing has evolved with the help of buying group marketing. Implementing BGM with an account-based marketing strategy can create lasting relationships with target accounts, retain existing clients and bring new leads. FAQ What are the three important tenets of buying group marketing? The three important tenets of buying group marketing are understanding the needs of the target account, attaining sales and marketing alignment, and creating a holistic marketing strategy that addresses the pain points of the target account. How is buyer experience different than customer experience? Customer experience focuses on the existing customers in the pipeline, while buyer experience focuses on the prospective customers’ complete buyer journey. How can you engage top-of-the-funnel audiences in buying group marketing? You can engage top-of-the-funnel audiences through social media ads and relevant landing pages that display content relevant to the needs of the target account.

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Core ABM

Building an Account-centric Organization Part II

Article | July 5, 2022

These days the challenges that the marketing and the sales team face are tremendous. The pressure to meet targets, deadlines, achieve revenue, and at the same time keep the clients satisfied is not an easy task. And to add to the woes, there is massive competition in the industry. But there is one way to overcome all the obstacles and achieve targets while keeping clients happy and satisfied. This strategy is ABM- Account-Based Marketing. ABM campaigns have been a trendsetter in the B2B marketing field for a long time. As it ensures successful marketing, businesses are turning towards this thriving approach. What Exactly Is Account-Based Marketing? Account-based marketing is identifying the target, high-value customers and selling your product/service to them. This ABM approach allows you to concentrate on exclusive clients and guarantees the best ROI. What Is B2B Account-Based Marketing? B2B account-based marketing is targeting an organization with specific and personalized marketing campaigns. When you target the decision-makers of an organization, you need to tread with caution. When you design a marketing strategy for them, personalize it, and deliver everything to increase their brand value. Thus, ABM is a marketing strategy wherein the sales and the marketing team have to put their heads together to deliver an impeccable buying experience for the best and valuable clients. Tactics to Implement a Successful Account-Based Marketing According to the Pardot site survey, 89% of businesses reported higher ROI in ABM than traditional marketing methods. If you develop an account-based marketing plan, here are some tips to follow: Collaborate working of the marketing and sales team to identify high-value clients and gather maximum data about them. Use social media to gather data and create a personalized approach for the clients. Try to sync in with the brand of the target company to develop relatable content and graphics. Recognize the expertise, pain points, and challenges of the target account and frame communication. Send personalized emails addressing the challenges your target account faces. Host face to face or virtual events 5 Trend-setting Examples of Account-Based Marketing ABM is a marketing strategy that has shown guaranteed success in the B2B industry. You have to sculpt unique ideas and have a personalized approach towards your targeted clients. The clients should feel that you have made efforts to know them, understand them, and address the challenges that they face. Some companies have achieved an altogether different benchmark in ABM strategy. As a result, these are prominent examples of B2B account-based marketing. Let us go through their account-based marketing case study and learn their ways of execution. Snowflake- Excellent Use of Content Creation “We needed to make sure that when you see an ABM campaign, it’s reflective of not only sales input but also product marketing, partner marketing, field marketing, and our SDRs. We needed a way to co-create one cohesive message for our key accounts.” — Hillary Carpio, Director of ABM, Snowflake. Snowflake, a cloud-based data warehousing company, utilized its in-house services in the best way to create a library of high-quality content. This content is used to create personalized experiences for high-valued and targeted accounts. Then, this personalized content creates account-based marketing campaigns customized to reach the target customers. Gumgum- Using Technology the Right Way. GumGum collaborated and created an effective marketing product for the Clorox brand. They showcased this product at the Clorox annual iConnect Conference. The product they created was turning a temporary tattoo into a fascinating 3D animation while incorporating logos of the concerned brands. It was a hit among the Clorox brand, and almost 200 attendees downloaded the GumGum app. Intridea- Making the Right Confrontational Approach Intridea did take a risk by implementing the direct approach of ABM advertising. They rented a billboard right across the advertising giant Ogilvy’s Manhattan office. The billboard said, “Ogle this, Ogilvy.” Intridea also placed its logo and company URL at the bottom of the quirky line. And they succeeded in fixing a meeting with Ogilvy’s CEO. Payscale- Utilizing Data to Gain Profits Payscale helps employers manage compensations in the right way. They also aid employees know their correct market value. Payscale collaborated with their sales and marketing team to gather the correct information about ABM target accounts. Once they had ample information about the company’s decision-makers, they targeted the client with their best ad campaigns. As a result, their ROI was six times more compared to any other marketing strategy! O2- Gathered Data to Create Personalized Reports. O2 is a leading ICT service provider. The organization targeted many high-value clients and created personalized reports for them. Their modus operandi was to curate personalized reports on how the organization will benefit by utilizing O2 for their ICT services. The dedicated teams also emphasized on face to face meetings for customized strategies. As a result, O2 had a successful ABM strategy as they achieved 313% of their target pipeline. The Bottom Line Account-based marketing strategies are incorporated in unique ways. As a result, there are many ideas where you can implement account-based marketing to stand out and gain maximum ROI. All you have to do is gather data and make the correct use of it. So gear up and come up with uncommon ideas and, you never know your company could make it to the list of trendsetting examples of B2B account-based marketing! Frequently Asked Questions What are the best strategies for successful account-based marketing? Enlist your high-value clients and gather maximum data about them(Social media can be of great help.) Address their pain points and portray how well you know the organization Collaborate with the marketing and sales team in the best way to provide appropriate solutions Deliver 100% relevance in communication What are the advantages of incorporating ABM? Faster sales process Guaranteed maximum ROI Cost Efficiency Shorter sales cycle Deliver excellent value to high-value customers When should you implement ABM? ABM should be used in the B2B industry to sell to clients with high-value accounts. ABM should be implemented when an organization notices that certain exclusive clients can be easily converted with personalized strategies. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What are the best strategies for successful account-based marketing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Enlist your high-value clients and gather maximum data about them(Social media can be of great help.) Address their pain points and portray how well you know the organization Collaborate with the marketing and sales team in the best way to provide appropriate solutions Deliver 100% relevance in communication" } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What are the advantages of incorporating ABM?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Faster sales process Guaranteed maximum ROI Cost Efficiency Shorter sales cycle Deliver excellent value to high-value customers" } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "When should you implement ABM?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "ABM should be used in the B2B industry to sell to clients with high-value accounts. ABM should be implemented when an organization notices that certain exclusive clients can be easily converted with personalized strategies." } }] }

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Account Based Data

How Predictive Analytics Contributes to Pipeline and Revenue Growth

Article | August 4, 2022

For B2B marketers like you, wouldn’t it be great to know which buyers are ready to purchase and when? It would be, but this doesn’t generally happen. Marketing and sales teams across businesses spend their time trying to find the perfect prospects instead of focusing on selling to the accounts that actually want to buy. What Goes into Prospecting? Prospecting is an entire process that is not only time-consuming but might not lead to anything worthwhile. Common steps involved in prospecting include: Finding accounts that fit your target account profile Zeroing in on the point of contact to get in touch with the account Creating messaging to influence prospect’s buying decision Wait for the prospect to answer calls It is no wonder that prospecting is the most difficult part of sales. According to research by Sales Insights Lab, 50% of the prospects you go after aren’t a good fit for your product. To add to the mix, sorting through incomplete forms, questionnaires, anonymous web visits, and event attendee lists is backbreaking work. Predictive Analytics: Pipeline Growth and Revenue Covered ABM relies heavily on high-quality data management and analysis. It is based on quality and, not quantity. It can succeed only if the prospect account’s data like management hierarchy, business practices, pain points, requirements, etc. is interpreted, analyzed and utilized properly. This is where predictive analytics comes in. A predictive analytics model looks at how different parts of an account relate to each other and ranks them. A large amount of data can be successfully interpreted this way. Data mining, statistics, and text analytics uncover different patterns and relationships to give insights into an account’s behavior and outcomes based on data. A Predictive Analytics Model Boosts Your ABM Strategy Here is how predictive analytics can boost your ABM strategy: Prioritizing Accounts Based on Rating Marketing representatives need to approach prospects at the right time to capture expected revenue. Predictive analytics gives real-time data, forecasts into when to approach a prospect to get the conversion. With deep data insights, predictive analytics optimizes ABM and the allocated marketing budget. Personalized Messaging Personalized messaging is possible only when the data at hand goes beyond account intelligence-based numbers. Predictive analytics goes a step ahead, forecasts buyer behavior and gives marketers a tool to create content that appeals to every individual in the prospect account’s buying group and leads to conversion. Objective Scoring As accounts near the end of the sales funnel, predictive analytics forecasts the best time for sales overview, so risks like data deletion are bypassed. Getting Ready to Adopt Predictive Analytics To adopt predictive analytics in your ABM strategy, you need to follow these steps: Create an ABM-centric organization where content marketers apply ABM Marketing and sales teams need to understand predictive insights and its implementation in ABM Align your marketing and sales teams Decision makers understand predictive insights and how they are used at the grass-root level Wrapping It Up! Focus your investments on an intent data set based on predictive analytics and AI learning to make the most of the high-quality data insights without worrying about underlying technologies.

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Demand Science Team, Inc. - A Pure Incubation

Demand Science Team, Inc. is a Philippine-based firm under the Pure Incubation group of companies serving its subsidiary firms headquartered in the United States. Incorporated in the Philippines in January 2014, it has grown into several robust practice areas that are fully integrated into the overall operations of its main firm.

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Core ABM

Marketers Given Marginal Grades for ABM-Driven Revenue Growth

GlobeNewswire | January 25, 2024

Seeding and harvesting the sales pipeline — the process of acquiring, capturing, qualifying and converting business opportunities — are essential to the growth and profitability of B2B marketers across every industry and geographic sector. Marketing is largely responsible for driving this business process, yet nearly two-thirds of lead gen and engagement strategies are underperforming. A new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council report, produced in collaboration with WM America, entitled “Fire Up Your Revenue Generation Engine,” covers critical aspects of lead generation and engagement. This includes models and metrics for tracking and measuring performance, best practice demand-gen execution, ways to score effectiveness, and more. The latest CMO Council research finds scores of marketers falling behind in lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing. Key findings from a Q4 survey of over 170 B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen and campaign execution leaders include: 63% say marketing must own and optimize a company’s revenue-generation engine 64% say their lead gen and engagement strategy underperforms 78% of highly evolved marketers are satisfied with their accelerated pipeline, compared to only 15% of lesser evolved marketers “In today’s competitive data-driven environment, marketers should no longer be satisfied with paltry returns on their sizable lead-gen and ABM investments,” the report notes. “It’s time to turn the tables on inefficient, ineffective, and outdated practices for anticipating, adapting, and responding to customer needs and opportunities.” “Marketers must climb the evolutionary ladder and leave behind outmoded and dated practices,” notes CMO Council executive director, Donovan Neale-May. “Using AI-derived, intention-based buyer data and advanced sales intelligence are among the ways growth marketers bring more precision, predictability, and performance to B2B account marketing investments.” The CMO Council’s research revealed the top five skill sets contributing to improved ABM-driven business outcomes: Better segmentation and precision targeting of buyers and influencers On-demand customer business intelligence and personal buyer insights Tighter integration of demand gen, channel, direct sales, and support teams Greater utilization of tools and data sources for richer prospect profiling Proactive and timely pre-sales follow up and cultivation strategies The CMO Council has uncovered widening gaps in performance between highly evolved marketers and lesser evolved marketers. Gaps are occurring in four core capabilities: lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing. This report tiers factors that make up a model for better identification, engagement and conversion. The model coincides with the CMO Council and WM America’s thought leadership initiative to advance lead revenue science practices through a certified Lead Evaluation and Assurance Process, or LEAP model. “Marketers will need to take a few LEAPs of faith in the coming months, because sticking to the status quo is just not practical or possible anymore. As data becomes more critical than ever before, CMOs need to extend their visions for innovation and forward-thinking strategies,” according to Lee Salem, WM America’s Vice President of Sales. Methodology The report is based on a survey of over 170 heads of B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen and campaign execution in Q4 2023. It also included content from in-depth interviews with executives from Netline, Autodesk, T-Mobile, NTT, ABM Consortium, TechTarget, IBM, B2B Marketing, Reachdesk, Momentum ITSMA, and Xometry. About the CMO Council The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The CMO Council’s 16,000+ members control more than $1 trillion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 65,000 global marketing and sales executives in over 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council’s strategic interest groups include the Customer Experience Board, Digital Marketing Performance Center, Brand Inspiration Center, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, GeoBranding Center, and the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE). To learn more, visit https://www.cmocouncil.org. About WM America WM America is a leading B2B marketing company specializing in targeted in-market demand generation. The intent database at WMA tracks the intent behavior of over 75 million business professionals globally, 24X7. The database is segmented into 3,300 categories. WMA keeps around-the-clock track of buying signals from each category in this database. Based on this extremely strong foundation of data points, the company delivers precisely targeted prospects for focused marketing. Accurate keyword search enables deriving of active content consumption and opt-in content downloads. WMA's deep search ensures accurate and targeted information delivery that helps craft successful, cutting-edge marketing strategies. For more information, visit www.wmamerica.com

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Buyer Intent Data

ON24 Recognizes 2023’s Leaders in Digital Engagement

Business Wire | January 24, 2024

A recent Forrester survey found that more than 60% of B2B buyers base their final purchase decision solely on the digital content and experiences companies provide. That’s why thousands of B2B companies choose ON24 (NYSE: ONTF), a leading digital engagement platform for B2B sales and marketing that helps enterprises generate data-driven insights and deliver cost-effective revenue growth. Today, ON24, announced the industry-leading digital experiences of 2023 that drove ROI for their organizations. “At ON24, our goal is to propel business success through digital engagement, with our customers at the core. We take pride in helping our customers drive deeper engagement with their target audiences and extract meaningful insights that result in revenue growth,” said Callan Young, CMO, ON24. “It is our honor to recognize the leading organizations that exemplify excellence in leveraging our platform to create digital experiences that not only meet but surpass their audience’s expectations.” The following organizations were recognized for delivering outstanding digital experiences on the ON24 platform in 2023: Danfossdrove product growth and customer retention by leveraging distributor, reseller and customer data to optimize its webinar and digital engagement program. FloQastinfluenced 82% of event pipeline in Q3 and created 120+ new active opportunities by routing high-quality leads from in-experience demo requests directly to sales. Global X ETFsincreased qualified, high-value leads in Australia by 22%, by integrating ON24 engagement data with their CRM and using the platform’s personalization capabilities. Informaticascaled a live event into a hybrid experience across three key regions simultaneously, driving registration and delivering a consistent customer experience on a global scale. Infopro Digitalincreased conversion rates and registrations by automating processes on the ON24 platform and making real-time adjustments based on customer feedback. Kasperskydrove product adoption and business growth by creating new relationships with prospects and fostering existing relationships with customers. KnowBe4generated over $300k in pipeline through an ON24-powered digital experience. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA)achieved 100% participant satisfaction for its unique and impactful digital experience powered by the ON24 platform. PowerSchoolachieved record-breaking registration rates, 75 CTA clicks, over 400 poll responses and 300+ content downloads during an educational experience with ON24. S&P Globaldoubled marketing qualified leads and boosted engagement by designing an ON24 digital experience personalized to different customer segments. Tata Consultancy Servicesdrove revenue growth with record-high registrations for their webinar on ON24, resulting in 70% attendee participation across 30 countries. Texthelpsourced leads during a webinar series and converted at least 70% of them into marketing-qualified leads within 30 days. TOPdeskincreased revenue and improved its customer engagement by 7% YoY and extended the shelf life of its content with an on-demand hub. TravelMediaGroupclosed three deals from a single digital experience by creating a seamless and engaging customer experience on ON24. UCBachieved a 50%+ attendee conversion rate by enhancing the HCP’s experience and integrating ON24 engagement data with its business intelligence system. UnitedHealthcareachieved an 80% cost savings, increased attendee score and engagement with a new digital engagement strategy and an always-on content hub. Wood PLCsourced leads, increased audience engagement and automated continuing professional education credits on ON24, across different time zones. ZoomInfosurpassed webinar benchmarks by generating a record number of marketing-qualified leads and 190 scheduled demos, resulting in 10 closed-won deals. To learn more about 2023’s leaders in digital engagement, watch the on-demand webinar here. About ON24 ON24 is on a mission to re-imagine how companies engage, understand and build relationships with their audience in a digital world. Through our leading sales and marketing platform for digital engagement integrated with generative AI, businesses use our portfolio of webinar, virtual event and content experiences to drive engagement and generate first-party data, delivering ​revenue growth across the enterprise – from demand generation to customer success to partner enablement. ON24 powers digital engagement for industry-leading customers worldwide, including 3 of the 5 largest global technology companies, 3 of the 6 largest US banks, 3 of the 5 largest global healthcare companies, and 3 of the 5 largest global industrial manufacturers, enabling organizations to reach millions of professionals a month for billions of engagement minutes per year with all the first-party data being captured, generated and integrated from one place. ON24 is headquartered in San Francisco with global offices in North America, EMEA, and APAC. For more information, visit www.ON24.com.

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ABM Accounts

Bloomreach and Sonepar to Power Continued Search Relevance for Customers

Business Wire | January 12, 2024

Bloomreach, the platform fueling limitless e-commerce experiences, today announced Bloomreach Discovery will continue to power product discovery for Sonepar, the global world leader in B-to-B distribution of electrical products, solutions, and related services, as the companies renew their existing partnership. With Bloomreach Discovery’s AI-driven search and merchandising capabilities, Sonepar enables customers around the world to find what they want to buy — when, where, and how they want. “Sonepar is pleased to partner with Bloomreach as we continue to pursue our next stage of digital transformation,” said Fabrice del Aguila, SVP Digital Factory, Sonepar. “We look forward to leveraging Bloomreach’s expertise in product discovery as we become the first global B2B electrical distributor in the world to offer the best omnichannel experience to all our customers.” Sonepar leverages Bloomreach Discovery to drive personalized experiences across its omnichannel platform. Using rich data to refine search results, Bloomreach Discovery helps customers easily discover the products they want. It also accounts for a range of attributes and quantitative search queries, creating a search experience that is not only personalized, but personalized to the unique needs of B-to-B buyers. “We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Sonepar,” said Jordan Roper, General Manager and Head of Product, Bloomreach Discovery. “The B-to-B space has so much to gain from digital transformation, and Sonepar is a leader in making that transformation a reality. We’re proud to join them on this journey and look forward to continuing to support their omnichannel experience with the fast ROI and relevance of Bloomreach Discovery.” Learn more about how Bloomreach Discovery and Sonepar are working together to drive success. About Bloomreach Bloomreach personalizes the e-commerce experience. Its data engine unifies real-time customer and product data so businesses understand what customers really want. By connecting that understanding to every channel, the e-commerce experience becomes limitless — reflecting a changing customer as they shop. Amplified by the speed and scale of Loomi, Bloomreach's AI for e-commerce, this creates endless new paths to purchase, greater profitability, and fast business growth. Bloomreach products include: Engagement, a marketing automation platform; Discovery, an e-commerce search solution; Content, a headless CMS; and Clarity, AI-powered conversational shopping. The company has multiple AI patents and serves 850+ global brands including: Albertsons, Bosch, Puma, and Marks & Spencer. About Sonepar Sonepar is an independent family-owned company with global market leadership in B-to-B distribution of electrical products, solutions and related services. Through a dense network of brands spanning 40 countries, the Group has an ambitious transformation agenda to become the first global B-to-B electrical distributor to provide a fully digitalized and synchronized omnichannel experience to all customers. Drawing on the skill and passion of its 44,000 associates, Sonepar had sales of €32.4 billion in 2022. www.sonepar.com

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Core ABM

Marketers Given Marginal Grades for ABM-Driven Revenue Growth

GlobeNewswire | January 25, 2024

Seeding and harvesting the sales pipeline — the process of acquiring, capturing, qualifying and converting business opportunities — are essential to the growth and profitability of B2B marketers across every industry and geographic sector. Marketing is largely responsible for driving this business process, yet nearly two-thirds of lead gen and engagement strategies are underperforming. A new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council report, produced in collaboration with WM America, entitled “Fire Up Your Revenue Generation Engine,” covers critical aspects of lead generation and engagement. This includes models and metrics for tracking and measuring performance, best practice demand-gen execution, ways to score effectiveness, and more. The latest CMO Council research finds scores of marketers falling behind in lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing. Key findings from a Q4 survey of over 170 B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen and campaign execution leaders include: 63% say marketing must own and optimize a company’s revenue-generation engine 64% say their lead gen and engagement strategy underperforms 78% of highly evolved marketers are satisfied with their accelerated pipeline, compared to only 15% of lesser evolved marketers “In today’s competitive data-driven environment, marketers should no longer be satisfied with paltry returns on their sizable lead-gen and ABM investments,” the report notes. “It’s time to turn the tables on inefficient, ineffective, and outdated practices for anticipating, adapting, and responding to customer needs and opportunities.” “Marketers must climb the evolutionary ladder and leave behind outmoded and dated practices,” notes CMO Council executive director, Donovan Neale-May. “Using AI-derived, intention-based buyer data and advanced sales intelligence are among the ways growth marketers bring more precision, predictability, and performance to B2B account marketing investments.” The CMO Council’s research revealed the top five skill sets contributing to improved ABM-driven business outcomes: Better segmentation and precision targeting of buyers and influencers On-demand customer business intelligence and personal buyer insights Tighter integration of demand gen, channel, direct sales, and support teams Greater utilization of tools and data sources for richer prospect profiling Proactive and timely pre-sales follow up and cultivation strategies The CMO Council has uncovered widening gaps in performance between highly evolved marketers and lesser evolved marketers. Gaps are occurring in four core capabilities: lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing. This report tiers factors that make up a model for better identification, engagement and conversion. The model coincides with the CMO Council and WM America’s thought leadership initiative to advance lead revenue science practices through a certified Lead Evaluation and Assurance Process, or LEAP model. “Marketers will need to take a few LEAPs of faith in the coming months, because sticking to the status quo is just not practical or possible anymore. As data becomes more critical than ever before, CMOs need to extend their visions for innovation and forward-thinking strategies,” according to Lee Salem, WM America’s Vice President of Sales. Methodology The report is based on a survey of over 170 heads of B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen and campaign execution in Q4 2023. It also included content from in-depth interviews with executives from Netline, Autodesk, T-Mobile, NTT, ABM Consortium, TechTarget, IBM, B2B Marketing, Reachdesk, Momentum ITSMA, and Xometry. About the CMO Council The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The CMO Council’s 16,000+ members control more than $1 trillion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 65,000 global marketing and sales executives in over 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council’s strategic interest groups include the Customer Experience Board, Digital Marketing Performance Center, Brand Inspiration Center, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, GeoBranding Center, and the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE). To learn more, visit https://www.cmocouncil.org. About WM America WM America is a leading B2B marketing company specializing in targeted in-market demand generation. The intent database at WMA tracks the intent behavior of over 75 million business professionals globally, 24X7. The database is segmented into 3,300 categories. WMA keeps around-the-clock track of buying signals from each category in this database. Based on this extremely strong foundation of data points, the company delivers precisely targeted prospects for focused marketing. Accurate keyword search enables deriving of active content consumption and opt-in content downloads. WMA's deep search ensures accurate and targeted information delivery that helps craft successful, cutting-edge marketing strategies. For more information, visit www.wmamerica.com

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Buyer Intent Data

ON24 Recognizes 2023’s Leaders in Digital Engagement

Business Wire | January 24, 2024

A recent Forrester survey found that more than 60% of B2B buyers base their final purchase decision solely on the digital content and experiences companies provide. That’s why thousands of B2B companies choose ON24 (NYSE: ONTF), a leading digital engagement platform for B2B sales and marketing that helps enterprises generate data-driven insights and deliver cost-effective revenue growth. Today, ON24, announced the industry-leading digital experiences of 2023 that drove ROI for their organizations. “At ON24, our goal is to propel business success through digital engagement, with our customers at the core. We take pride in helping our customers drive deeper engagement with their target audiences and extract meaningful insights that result in revenue growth,” said Callan Young, CMO, ON24. “It is our honor to recognize the leading organizations that exemplify excellence in leveraging our platform to create digital experiences that not only meet but surpass their audience’s expectations.” The following organizations were recognized for delivering outstanding digital experiences on the ON24 platform in 2023: Danfossdrove product growth and customer retention by leveraging distributor, reseller and customer data to optimize its webinar and digital engagement program. FloQastinfluenced 82% of event pipeline in Q3 and created 120+ new active opportunities by routing high-quality leads from in-experience demo requests directly to sales. Global X ETFsincreased qualified, high-value leads in Australia by 22%, by integrating ON24 engagement data with their CRM and using the platform’s personalization capabilities. Informaticascaled a live event into a hybrid experience across three key regions simultaneously, driving registration and delivering a consistent customer experience on a global scale. Infopro Digitalincreased conversion rates and registrations by automating processes on the ON24 platform and making real-time adjustments based on customer feedback. Kasperskydrove product adoption and business growth by creating new relationships with prospects and fostering existing relationships with customers. KnowBe4generated over $300k in pipeline through an ON24-powered digital experience. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA)achieved 100% participant satisfaction for its unique and impactful digital experience powered by the ON24 platform. PowerSchoolachieved record-breaking registration rates, 75 CTA clicks, over 400 poll responses and 300+ content downloads during an educational experience with ON24. S&P Globaldoubled marketing qualified leads and boosted engagement by designing an ON24 digital experience personalized to different customer segments. Tata Consultancy Servicesdrove revenue growth with record-high registrations for their webinar on ON24, resulting in 70% attendee participation across 30 countries. Texthelpsourced leads during a webinar series and converted at least 70% of them into marketing-qualified leads within 30 days. TOPdeskincreased revenue and improved its customer engagement by 7% YoY and extended the shelf life of its content with an on-demand hub. TravelMediaGroupclosed three deals from a single digital experience by creating a seamless and engaging customer experience on ON24. UCBachieved a 50%+ attendee conversion rate by enhancing the HCP’s experience and integrating ON24 engagement data with its business intelligence system. UnitedHealthcareachieved an 80% cost savings, increased attendee score and engagement with a new digital engagement strategy and an always-on content hub. Wood PLCsourced leads, increased audience engagement and automated continuing professional education credits on ON24, across different time zones. ZoomInfosurpassed webinar benchmarks by generating a record number of marketing-qualified leads and 190 scheduled demos, resulting in 10 closed-won deals. To learn more about 2023’s leaders in digital engagement, watch the on-demand webinar here. About ON24 ON24 is on a mission to re-imagine how companies engage, understand and build relationships with their audience in a digital world. Through our leading sales and marketing platform for digital engagement integrated with generative AI, businesses use our portfolio of webinar, virtual event and content experiences to drive engagement and generate first-party data, delivering ​revenue growth across the enterprise – from demand generation to customer success to partner enablement. ON24 powers digital engagement for industry-leading customers worldwide, including 3 of the 5 largest global technology companies, 3 of the 6 largest US banks, 3 of the 5 largest global healthcare companies, and 3 of the 5 largest global industrial manufacturers, enabling organizations to reach millions of professionals a month for billions of engagement minutes per year with all the first-party data being captured, generated and integrated from one place. ON24 is headquartered in San Francisco with global offices in North America, EMEA, and APAC. For more information, visit www.ON24.com.

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ABM Accounts

Bloomreach and Sonepar to Power Continued Search Relevance for Customers

Business Wire | January 12, 2024

Bloomreach, the platform fueling limitless e-commerce experiences, today announced Bloomreach Discovery will continue to power product discovery for Sonepar, the global world leader in B-to-B distribution of electrical products, solutions, and related services, as the companies renew their existing partnership. With Bloomreach Discovery’s AI-driven search and merchandising capabilities, Sonepar enables customers around the world to find what they want to buy — when, where, and how they want. “Sonepar is pleased to partner with Bloomreach as we continue to pursue our next stage of digital transformation,” said Fabrice del Aguila, SVP Digital Factory, Sonepar. “We look forward to leveraging Bloomreach’s expertise in product discovery as we become the first global B2B electrical distributor in the world to offer the best omnichannel experience to all our customers.” Sonepar leverages Bloomreach Discovery to drive personalized experiences across its omnichannel platform. Using rich data to refine search results, Bloomreach Discovery helps customers easily discover the products they want. It also accounts for a range of attributes and quantitative search queries, creating a search experience that is not only personalized, but personalized to the unique needs of B-to-B buyers. “We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Sonepar,” said Jordan Roper, General Manager and Head of Product, Bloomreach Discovery. “The B-to-B space has so much to gain from digital transformation, and Sonepar is a leader in making that transformation a reality. We’re proud to join them on this journey and look forward to continuing to support their omnichannel experience with the fast ROI and relevance of Bloomreach Discovery.” Learn more about how Bloomreach Discovery and Sonepar are working together to drive success. About Bloomreach Bloomreach personalizes the e-commerce experience. Its data engine unifies real-time customer and product data so businesses understand what customers really want. By connecting that understanding to every channel, the e-commerce experience becomes limitless — reflecting a changing customer as they shop. Amplified by the speed and scale of Loomi, Bloomreach's AI for e-commerce, this creates endless new paths to purchase, greater profitability, and fast business growth. Bloomreach products include: Engagement, a marketing automation platform; Discovery, an e-commerce search solution; Content, a headless CMS; and Clarity, AI-powered conversational shopping. The company has multiple AI patents and serves 850+ global brands including: Albertsons, Bosch, Puma, and Marks & Spencer. About Sonepar Sonepar is an independent family-owned company with global market leadership in B-to-B distribution of electrical products, solutions and related services. Through a dense network of brands spanning 40 countries, the Group has an ambitious transformation agenda to become the first global B-to-B electrical distributor to provide a fully digitalized and synchronized omnichannel experience to all customers. Drawing on the skill and passion of its 44,000 associates, Sonepar had sales of €32.4 billion in 2022. www.sonepar.com

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Events