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ABM Success Starts with Data

Far from a flavor-of-the-month sales technique, account-based marketing (ABM) has proven to be a viable, valuable strategy for turning leads into buyers and maximizing your marketing and sales resources. But if your organization is like most, the shift from your traditional sales and marketing operations to your ABM focus has incurred a few extra costs along the way personalizing and delivering customized messages to specific prospects comes at a price. Combine this with the increasing pressure to show return on every dollar of your investment, and it’s easy to see why it’s so important to ensure you’re giving your ABM program every advantage it needs to be successful. And that success starts with your data.

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Buyer Intent Data

ABM: Looking beyond the buzzword!

Article | June 20, 2023

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is not a new concept in B2B marketing. However, as an important integrated B2B marketing and sales approach, we don’t think it is widely understood or used as it should be in B2B media/events businesses and professional membership organisations. Regardless of the size of your organisation, product types, or the sectors you serve, every senior business leader and marketer should be embracing ABM and integrating it as part of their overall marketing strategy. If you’re keen to learn more about ABM – what it is, why it is important and how you put it into practice, read on!

Read More
Programmatic ABM

How Sales and Marketing Can Work Together to Form an Effective B2B Sales Funnel.

Article | June 9, 2022

In any company, there is a sales function and a marketing function. They are supposed to work together to help the organization secure business, earn revenue, and facilitate growth. Oftentimes, because of the nature of their business, sales and marketing work at cross purposes and they lose focus on their ultimate objective of identifying, creating, and retaining customers. In this article, we will discuss how sales and marketing can work together to form an effective B2B sales funnel. But first, let’s explore the roles of sales and marketing within an organization. Sales are the function of driving revenue with salespeople who follow a defined sales process. A typical sales process involves a research phase to ensure that the intended customer is a good fit to the company’s Ideal Customer Profile, a discovery phase where the salesperson gets to know the customer, understand their needs, and see where their solution can help solve the customer’s problem, a demonstration phase where the seller lets the buyer envision how their solution for a product or service can satisfy the buyer’s need. A proposal phase is proactive and where the seller provides the customer with an outline of the work they will undertake and at what price. Sometimes a seller will instead be responding to a buyer’s request for a proposal (RFP). Up until this point in the sales process, prospective customers are referred to as “suspects,” meaning that they may be a good fit, but they have not expressed any interest in the company’s solutions and the company has not proposed any ways in which it could be of service. However, once a salesperson provides the prospective customer with a proposal, that prospective customer becomes known as a “prospect.” In sales, the measurement of potential revenue and its progress towards realization is called a sales “funnel.” In a sales funnel, the probability of the salesperson closing the sale is now weighted with percentages demonstrating the likelihood of success. In the sales process, opportunities are weighted based on their probability of closing. This is called opportunity management and it looks something like this: 0% of the prospect is identified by researching the intended sales target company. 10% of the prospect is prequalified as a potential good fit in alignment with the company’s Ideal Customer Profile (I.D.C.). 25% of the prospect is qualified via a discovery call, and the opportunity is loaded into the sales funnel. 40% is when the buyer agrees to a demonstration, shows genuine buying interest, and is open to receiving a proposal. 50% is the assessment phase where the seller determines if the buyer has Budget, Authority, Need, and the Timeframe for implementation, (B.A.N.T.). Another component of the sale to be addressed at this phase is “why,” as in, “Why is the buyer making this purchase decision, why is my company being considered, and why is this timeframe for implementation important?” 60% is when a proposal is submitted to the buyer for consideration. (Pro tip: A good salesperson will have the boilerplate components of the contract pre-vetted by legal and IT when the proposal is initially submitted to the buyer so that the contract does not get held up at the bottom of the funnel by any issues not within the buyer’s control when it is ready to close). 75% is the negotiation phase where the buyer/decision-maker(s) asks clarifying questions that show an intent to purchase or express some objections that the seller will need to overcome to move the sale forward. 90% is when both parties agree to all the conditions of the purchase and the final contract is submitted for signature. 100% is when the sale is closed and the revenue can be recognized. If the funnel can be trusted, and oftentimes that’s a big “if” because salespeople are not always disciplined in opportunity management, then revenue recognized can be forecasted beginning at 75% of probability. At every phase of the sales funnel, sales are conducted by calling, emailing, texting, or other outreach to prospective and existing customers to guide them towards making a purchase. The process might be consultative, taking place over a long period and involving multiple decision-makers in which the salesperson learns about the customer and their pain points, and then helps them understand how their product or service offering can provide a solution. Sales could also be tactical and a very short process involving just a single conversation with a salesperson before an agreement is finalized. Although technology and social media have certainly influenced how sales are conducted, the essential steps of the sales process have pretty much remained the same. Whereas sales are hands-on, marketing is a much more comprehensive process that does not generally interact with an individual customer but is designed to increase awareness of a brand or product to target customers as a group. Unlike sales, the methods, tactics, and channels used by marketers have evolved tremendously over the last fifteen years. Marketing today is primarily digital and includes content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, organic website traffic, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and the use of influencers and brand ambassadors. The objective of the marketing department is to generate leads for the sales department. These leads start as “marketing qualified leads” (MQLs) and although these prospective buyers are not yet ready to purchase, they have expressed interest in a company’s product. When properly nurtured by the marketing department, these prospects become “sales qualified leads” (SQL’s) and are handed off by the marketing team to the sales team when they are likely to make a purchase. This nurturing can occur via social media, email distribution, or other communication from the marketing team to keep the prospective client interested and engaged. It would seem so easy for marketing to cultivate leads and hand them off to the sales team. However, this is often not the case. Too frequently marketing and sales are simply misaligned. Just consider these statistics: According to Upland, 55% of marketers don’t know which collateral their sales colleagues are most likely to use. LinkedIn reports that only 46% of marketers describe sales and marketing as “highly aligned” at their company. The Precision Marketing Group states that 25% of businesses describe their sales and marketing as either “misaligned” or “rarely aligned”. This lack of synchronization between marketing and sales causes poor execution and lost opportunities. According to LinkedIn’s Art of Winning Report, an estimated $1 trillion a year is lost due to a lack of sales and marketing coordination in the US alone. An industry survey by InsideView found that the six biggest obstacles to sales and marketing working together were: Lack of accurate/shared data on target accounts and prospects (43%) Communication (43%) Use of different metrics (41%) Broken/flawed processes (37%) Lack of accountability on both sides (25%) Reporting challenges (21%) Simply put, marketing and sales need to collaborate more effectively to better manage today’s sales funnel. But how? According to digital marketing strategist, Sujan Patel, there are three levels of marketing alignment: The Emotional Level: Your Sales and Marketing teams should be working cohesively together and supporting each other. They should not be working at cross-purposes. The Process Level: There need to be clear, measurable, sustainable, and repeatable processes in place to ensure that everyone within both the marketing and sales teams is pulling in the same direction and working in the same way. The Feedback Loop Level: Marketing doesn’t always produce awesome leads. Sometimes they might suck. Nobody’s perfect. That’s why sales need to communicate back to marketing so there is a feedback loop between the two teams to either encourage good leads or stop wasting company resources on bad ones. An effective partnership between sales and marketing is the #1 success factor attributed to achieving revenue goals. (Source: Heinz Marketing - Performance Management Report) So, how can we get sales and marketing to work better together? It starts with having a project plan in place. The first step is for sales and marketing to agree on what the ideal customer profile (I.D.C.) of a target customer should be. They need to agree on the characteristics that define the type of company (not the individual buyer or end-user) that will find the most value in their product or service offering. If done correctly, prospects that are aligned to the company’s IDC are most likely to become long-term customers who will give significant value back to the business in the form of possible subscription fees, upsells, and referrals. An easy way to identify the IDC of a company is to look at a list of their current best-performing customers and determine what attributes they have in common. The next step is for sales to explain to marketing the steps of the sales funnel, how it works and what marketing resources are needed to migrate the prospective customer through it. Too often, marketing is concerned with branding and outreach, and they do not allocate sufficient resources to the sales team to give them the resources and collateral they need to expedite their sales. Once sales and marketing are aligned regarding who the IDC of a company is and what marketing resources should be allocated to support the sales team, an organization can take its game up a level and begin to pursue account-based marketing (A.B.M.) opportunities. Account-based marketing is when marketing and sales teams work together in a focused approach to target best-fit accounts and turn them into customers. When done correctly, marketing and sales teams meld their expertise to locate, engage with, and close deals with high-value accounts that offer a high ROI to their company. The primary components of account-based marketing include: Reaching the right accounts Engaging across marketing channels Determining effective metrics and measurements According to LinkedIn research, businesses with strong sales and marketing alignment are 67% more effective at closing deals, 58% more effective at retaining customers, and drive 208% more revenue as a result of their marketing efforts. So, whether an organization is pursuing a traditional marketing approach or a more targeted account-based marketing strategy, it is essential for marketing to work more closely with sales in vigorous and meaningful ways. Today’s buyer is more knowledgeable and has access to more information about a prospective seller, their competition, and the marketplace than ever before. As a result, sales leaders need to demonstrate subject matter expertise in their area of commerce and leverage the content, tools, and resources that the marketing department can provide them to enhance their sales efforts. Although good salespeople will find a way to close business, having the support of a well-synchronized marketing team behind them will help accelerate the sales process, increase revenue, boost profitability and facilitate greater customer satisfaction.

Read More
Buyer Intent Data

7 Result-oriented Marketing Automation Workflows

Article | October 7, 2022

Introduction: Lead Nurturing The leads in your database are there because your brand or service offers them a solution to a particular problem they are facing. Developing and reinforcing relationships with leads is critical at every stage of the sales funnel. How can you do this? By fostering leads. To effectively nurture leads, you must first understand their wants, then address their problems, build brand recognition, and follow up until they become buyers. Campaigns for Lead Nurturing Lead nurturing campaigns accelerate the process of deepening your connection with a prospect. A lead nurturing campaign has elements like: Lead Magnets Offering relevant content, solutions to pain points, and other enticing content like whitepapers, ebooks, and newsletters in exchange for the visitor’s contact information, mostly email, can get you a lead. Website Landing Pages Lead magnets are hosted on landing pages to attract visitors and collect their contact information. Personalized Content Personalized content engages and holds the visitor's attention. Marketing software generates this tailored material. Data Segmentation Every marketing software allows you to segment your lead data based on differentiating metrics like geography, age, and behavior. So, you can understand and analyze your users better. Content Development Using case studies and whitepapers to build credibility throughout the buyer's journey shows your capacity to aid customers you can relate to. This type of content nurturing can turn a visitor into a buyer. Emailers Engaging and educating your leads via periodic emails can help maintain a consistent communication chain. Your marketing software will send emails through the lead nurturing workflow you choose. Marketing Automation Marketing automation, much like robotic process automation, leverages software to automate marketing tasks. Remember those survey and feedback emails you receive now and then? Marketing automation software sends them. This software helps marketers align processes, technology, and people to achieve marketing goals. It automates and measures marketing tasks like email campaigns or content schedules into workflows to increase operational efficiency and revenue growth. It sends out marketing emails, grows your database, and collects data that helps with your marketing strategy. It is used in lead generation, lead nurturing, scoring, relationship marketing, cross-selling and upselling, retention, segmentation, ROI measurement, and ABM. Choosing a Good Marketing Automation Workflow Software There are thousands of marketing automation software on the market. Consider the following factors to find the best fit: Features The more features your software has, the more you can do to entice a prospect to buy your product or service. Features like email campaigns, real-time alerts, lead management, and personalized messaging are great to have. Budget-Friendly The software should be affordable so you can easily implement your strategy without creating a hole in your pocket. Customizable Ensure the software can be customized to your needs. This may impact usability. However, customization is an important attribute if you want to track any proprietary data. Channel Integration It should easily integrate with other channels so it obtains relevant data to send out selected workflows. Easy to Use The software should be easy to use and not require any special training so that the execution process is seamless across teams in an agile environment. Among the most widely used tools, some notable marketing automation tools are HubSpot, Pardot, Demandbase, and Marketo. 7 Result-oriented Marketing Automation Workflows Revealed After you choose a marketing automation software that meets the above criteria, it gives you access to various marketing automation workflows that help you nurture your leads. By using specific triggers, you can create different workflows to nurture different kinds of leads. A marketing automation trigger is a unique input that activates a certain workflow when specific conditions are met. Check out these seven effective marketing automation lead nurturing workflows that you should definitely create: Hot Lead Workflow This workflow is crucial for your sales team to bag a lead. Set the criteria for a hot lead workflow by considering the lead’s engagement with your content. This workflow falls into the bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFU) phase, where the lead is very close to being converted to a customer. Lost Opportunity Workflow If you have lost a lead due to budget restrictions, competitors, or misalignment of your product, design a workflow that gets the lead back into the sales funnel. You can send such leads special offers or discounts, information on your product’s USP, and a regular update on your products to recapture them. Re-engagement Notification Workflow Losing hope when engaged leads go cold on you is not an option. Remind them of your brand to wake them from their slumber. Create a trigger when the lead has spent a specific amount of time not interacting with your content. Your workflow will send this lead an email to get it back into the sales funnel. Special offers, new products or services updates, and company news can get the lead’s attention. New Subscriber Nurture Workflow This kind of workflow is crucial for gaining new subscribers and moving your existing subscribers through the funnel. It gets new subscribers to engage with your content. Your new subscribers should receive your newest content first, not just regular subscriber emails. Topic-based Workflow If you have a variety of content, create a workflow of the most relevant content that might entice your leads. Once a customer visits your website or downloads an ebook or whitepaper about a certain topic, emails with related content on that topic are sent to them regularly. Event Workflow Today, remotely conducted events like webinars or seminars have gained immense popularity. Engaging your target audience with the help of events is not a new trick. A pre-event and post-event workflow can help you remain in touch with event registrants. Important information like event details, agendas, and reminders can be sent to them to keep them in the loop. Lead Nurturing Workflow A lead nurturing workflow converts leads into marketing qualified leads (MQLs), leads that have responded to your marketing efforts. If a lead comes and fills up a form on your website, requests a demo, or subscribes to a product launch event, then sending them related content can get them closer to being a marketing-qualified lead. How Utah-based Start-up Chatbooks Grew Their Customer Engagement by 100% Using Blueshift’s AI-based cross-channel marketing platform, Chatbooks increased their customer engagement by 100%. They achieved higher conversion rates by engaging with customers 1:1 through personalized content and event-triggered campaigns. “Blueshift enabled us to up-level our campaigns and provide 1-to-1 personalization using dynamic user information. We can now focus on high-intent customers that want to hear my message rather than email blasting and annoying my whole customer base. The results? A +100% increase in email engagement.” - Stephen Cruz,Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Chatbooks Wrapping It Up Leveraging marketing automation in ABM by creating marketing workflows can do wonders for your ABM marketing strategy. 57% of marketers stated that lead nurturing is the most advantageous feature out of all the features of marketing automation software. FAQ Why are marketing automation workflows important for lead nurturing? Marketing automation workflows make sure that your leads get appropriate engagement based on their type so that they get converted into marketing qualified leads. How to choose a marketing automation software? Consider factors like UI, ease of use, features, easy integration, and customization before choosing a marketing automation software. What factors are important for the success of a marketing automation workflow? Designing workflows for each type of lead is crucial. Other factors include creating appropriate triggers, mapping customer behavior, and maintaining CRM and technology stack. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "Why are marketing automation workflows important for lead nurturing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Marketing automation workflows make sure that your leads get appropriate engagement based on their type so that they get converted into marketing qualified leads." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How to choose a marketing automation software?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Consider factors like UI, ease of use, features, easy integration, and customization before choosing a marketing automation software." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What factors are important for the success of a marketing automation workflow?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Designing workflows for each type of lead is crucial. Other factors include creating appropriate triggers, mapping customer behavior, and maintaining CRM and technology stack." } }] }

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How the right content wins in account-based marketing

Article | April 20, 2020

Account-based marketing (ABM) has been around for long enough now that most companies have either rolled out strategies or are actively exploring their options. Looking at the ABM adoption model produced by the ITSMA, an industry association for technology-based marketing and services, many companies are in the experimentation stage and looking to further refine their initial pilot programs. As you begin to experiment and expand your ABM programs, there are many complexities that you can introduce like content personalization, website personalization, scaling accounts and channels, and additional technology and automation, to name a few.

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Buyer Intent Data

Boosting Marketing Acumen: Top 7 Buyer Intent Data Books for 2023

Article | June 20, 2023

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is not a new concept in B2B marketing. However, as an important integrated B2B marketing and sales approach, we don’t think it is widely understood or used as it should be in B2B media/events businesses and professional membership organisations. Regardless of the size of your organisation, product types, or the sectors you serve, every senior business leader and marketer should be embracing ABM and integrating it as part of their overall marketing strategy. If you’re keen to learn more about ABM – what it is, why it is important and how you put it into practice, read on!

Read More
Programmatic ABM

A short history of Pride Month

Article | June 9, 2022

In any company, there is a sales function and a marketing function. They are supposed to work together to help the organization secure business, earn revenue, and facilitate growth. Oftentimes, because of the nature of their business, sales and marketing work at cross purposes and they lose focus on their ultimate objective of identifying, creating, and retaining customers. In this article, we will discuss how sales and marketing can work together to form an effective B2B sales funnel. But first, let’s explore the roles of sales and marketing within an organization. Sales are the function of driving revenue with salespeople who follow a defined sales process. A typical sales process involves a research phase to ensure that the intended customer is a good fit to the company’s Ideal Customer Profile, a discovery phase where the salesperson gets to know the customer, understand their needs, and see where their solution can help solve the customer’s problem, a demonstration phase where the seller lets the buyer envision how their solution for a product or service can satisfy the buyer’s need. A proposal phase is proactive and where the seller provides the customer with an outline of the work they will undertake and at what price. Sometimes a seller will instead be responding to a buyer’s request for a proposal (RFP). Up until this point in the sales process, prospective customers are referred to as “suspects,” meaning that they may be a good fit, but they have not expressed any interest in the company’s solutions and the company has not proposed any ways in which it could be of service. However, once a salesperson provides the prospective customer with a proposal, that prospective customer becomes known as a “prospect.” In sales, the measurement of potential revenue and its progress towards realization is called a sales “funnel.” In a sales funnel, the probability of the salesperson closing the sale is now weighted with percentages demonstrating the likelihood of success. In the sales process, opportunities are weighted based on their probability of closing. This is called opportunity management and it looks something like this: 0% of the prospect is identified by researching the intended sales target company. 10% of the prospect is prequalified as a potential good fit in alignment with the company’s Ideal Customer Profile (I.D.C.). 25% of the prospect is qualified via a discovery call, and the opportunity is loaded into the sales funnel. 40% is when the buyer agrees to a demonstration, shows genuine buying interest, and is open to receiving a proposal. 50% is the assessment phase where the seller determines if the buyer has Budget, Authority, Need, and the Timeframe for implementation, (B.A.N.T.). Another component of the sale to be addressed at this phase is “why,” as in, “Why is the buyer making this purchase decision, why is my company being considered, and why is this timeframe for implementation important?” 60% is when a proposal is submitted to the buyer for consideration. (Pro tip: A good salesperson will have the boilerplate components of the contract pre-vetted by legal and IT when the proposal is initially submitted to the buyer so that the contract does not get held up at the bottom of the funnel by any issues not within the buyer’s control when it is ready to close). 75% is the negotiation phase where the buyer/decision-maker(s) asks clarifying questions that show an intent to purchase or express some objections that the seller will need to overcome to move the sale forward. 90% is when both parties agree to all the conditions of the purchase and the final contract is submitted for signature. 100% is when the sale is closed and the revenue can be recognized. If the funnel can be trusted, and oftentimes that’s a big “if” because salespeople are not always disciplined in opportunity management, then revenue recognized can be forecasted beginning at 75% of probability. At every phase of the sales funnel, sales are conducted by calling, emailing, texting, or other outreach to prospective and existing customers to guide them towards making a purchase. The process might be consultative, taking place over a long period and involving multiple decision-makers in which the salesperson learns about the customer and their pain points, and then helps them understand how their product or service offering can provide a solution. Sales could also be tactical and a very short process involving just a single conversation with a salesperson before an agreement is finalized. Although technology and social media have certainly influenced how sales are conducted, the essential steps of the sales process have pretty much remained the same. Whereas sales are hands-on, marketing is a much more comprehensive process that does not generally interact with an individual customer but is designed to increase awareness of a brand or product to target customers as a group. Unlike sales, the methods, tactics, and channels used by marketers have evolved tremendously over the last fifteen years. Marketing today is primarily digital and includes content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, organic website traffic, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and the use of influencers and brand ambassadors. The objective of the marketing department is to generate leads for the sales department. These leads start as “marketing qualified leads” (MQLs) and although these prospective buyers are not yet ready to purchase, they have expressed interest in a company’s product. When properly nurtured by the marketing department, these prospects become “sales qualified leads” (SQL’s) and are handed off by the marketing team to the sales team when they are likely to make a purchase. This nurturing can occur via social media, email distribution, or other communication from the marketing team to keep the prospective client interested and engaged. It would seem so easy for marketing to cultivate leads and hand them off to the sales team. However, this is often not the case. Too frequently marketing and sales are simply misaligned. Just consider these statistics: According to Upland, 55% of marketers don’t know which collateral their sales colleagues are most likely to use. LinkedIn reports that only 46% of marketers describe sales and marketing as “highly aligned” at their company. The Precision Marketing Group states that 25% of businesses describe their sales and marketing as either “misaligned” or “rarely aligned”. This lack of synchronization between marketing and sales causes poor execution and lost opportunities. According to LinkedIn’s Art of Winning Report, an estimated $1 trillion a year is lost due to a lack of sales and marketing coordination in the US alone. An industry survey by InsideView found that the six biggest obstacles to sales and marketing working together were: Lack of accurate/shared data on target accounts and prospects (43%) Communication (43%) Use of different metrics (41%) Broken/flawed processes (37%) Lack of accountability on both sides (25%) Reporting challenges (21%) Simply put, marketing and sales need to collaborate more effectively to better manage today’s sales funnel. But how? According to digital marketing strategist, Sujan Patel, there are three levels of marketing alignment: The Emotional Level: Your Sales and Marketing teams should be working cohesively together and supporting each other. They should not be working at cross-purposes. The Process Level: There need to be clear, measurable, sustainable, and repeatable processes in place to ensure that everyone within both the marketing and sales teams is pulling in the same direction and working in the same way. The Feedback Loop Level: Marketing doesn’t always produce awesome leads. Sometimes they might suck. Nobody’s perfect. That’s why sales need to communicate back to marketing so there is a feedback loop between the two teams to either encourage good leads or stop wasting company resources on bad ones. An effective partnership between sales and marketing is the #1 success factor attributed to achieving revenue goals. (Source: Heinz Marketing - Performance Management Report) So, how can we get sales and marketing to work better together? It starts with having a project plan in place. The first step is for sales and marketing to agree on what the ideal customer profile (I.D.C.) of a target customer should be. They need to agree on the characteristics that define the type of company (not the individual buyer or end-user) that will find the most value in their product or service offering. If done correctly, prospects that are aligned to the company’s IDC are most likely to become long-term customers who will give significant value back to the business in the form of possible subscription fees, upsells, and referrals. An easy way to identify the IDC of a company is to look at a list of their current best-performing customers and determine what attributes they have in common. The next step is for sales to explain to marketing the steps of the sales funnel, how it works and what marketing resources are needed to migrate the prospective customer through it. Too often, marketing is concerned with branding and outreach, and they do not allocate sufficient resources to the sales team to give them the resources and collateral they need to expedite their sales. Once sales and marketing are aligned regarding who the IDC of a company is and what marketing resources should be allocated to support the sales team, an organization can take its game up a level and begin to pursue account-based marketing (A.B.M.) opportunities. Account-based marketing is when marketing and sales teams work together in a focused approach to target best-fit accounts and turn them into customers. When done correctly, marketing and sales teams meld their expertise to locate, engage with, and close deals with high-value accounts that offer a high ROI to their company. The primary components of account-based marketing include: Reaching the right accounts Engaging across marketing channels Determining effective metrics and measurements According to LinkedIn research, businesses with strong sales and marketing alignment are 67% more effective at closing deals, 58% more effective at retaining customers, and drive 208% more revenue as a result of their marketing efforts. So, whether an organization is pursuing a traditional marketing approach or a more targeted account-based marketing strategy, it is essential for marketing to work more closely with sales in vigorous and meaningful ways. Today’s buyer is more knowledgeable and has access to more information about a prospective seller, their competition, and the marketplace than ever before. As a result, sales leaders need to demonstrate subject matter expertise in their area of commerce and leverage the content, tools, and resources that the marketing department can provide them to enhance their sales efforts. Although good salespeople will find a way to close business, having the support of a well-synchronized marketing team behind them will help accelerate the sales process, increase revenue, boost profitability and facilitate greater customer satisfaction.

Read More
Buyer Intent Data

Intent Marketing: Removing Guesswork Out of Marketing

Article | October 7, 2022

Introduction: Lead Nurturing The leads in your database are there because your brand or service offers them a solution to a particular problem they are facing. Developing and reinforcing relationships with leads is critical at every stage of the sales funnel. How can you do this? By fostering leads. To effectively nurture leads, you must first understand their wants, then address their problems, build brand recognition, and follow up until they become buyers. Campaigns for Lead Nurturing Lead nurturing campaigns accelerate the process of deepening your connection with a prospect. A lead nurturing campaign has elements like: Lead Magnets Offering relevant content, solutions to pain points, and other enticing content like whitepapers, ebooks, and newsletters in exchange for the visitor’s contact information, mostly email, can get you a lead. Website Landing Pages Lead magnets are hosted on landing pages to attract visitors and collect their contact information. Personalized Content Personalized content engages and holds the visitor's attention. Marketing software generates this tailored material. Data Segmentation Every marketing software allows you to segment your lead data based on differentiating metrics like geography, age, and behavior. So, you can understand and analyze your users better. Content Development Using case studies and whitepapers to build credibility throughout the buyer's journey shows your capacity to aid customers you can relate to. This type of content nurturing can turn a visitor into a buyer. Emailers Engaging and educating your leads via periodic emails can help maintain a consistent communication chain. Your marketing software will send emails through the lead nurturing workflow you choose. Marketing Automation Marketing automation, much like robotic process automation, leverages software to automate marketing tasks. Remember those survey and feedback emails you receive now and then? Marketing automation software sends them. This software helps marketers align processes, technology, and people to achieve marketing goals. It automates and measures marketing tasks like email campaigns or content schedules into workflows to increase operational efficiency and revenue growth. It sends out marketing emails, grows your database, and collects data that helps with your marketing strategy. It is used in lead generation, lead nurturing, scoring, relationship marketing, cross-selling and upselling, retention, segmentation, ROI measurement, and ABM. Choosing a Good Marketing Automation Workflow Software There are thousands of marketing automation software on the market. Consider the following factors to find the best fit: Features The more features your software has, the more you can do to entice a prospect to buy your product or service. Features like email campaigns, real-time alerts, lead management, and personalized messaging are great to have. Budget-Friendly The software should be affordable so you can easily implement your strategy without creating a hole in your pocket. Customizable Ensure the software can be customized to your needs. This may impact usability. However, customization is an important attribute if you want to track any proprietary data. Channel Integration It should easily integrate with other channels so it obtains relevant data to send out selected workflows. Easy to Use The software should be easy to use and not require any special training so that the execution process is seamless across teams in an agile environment. Among the most widely used tools, some notable marketing automation tools are HubSpot, Pardot, Demandbase, and Marketo. 7 Result-oriented Marketing Automation Workflows Revealed After you choose a marketing automation software that meets the above criteria, it gives you access to various marketing automation workflows that help you nurture your leads. By using specific triggers, you can create different workflows to nurture different kinds of leads. A marketing automation trigger is a unique input that activates a certain workflow when specific conditions are met. Check out these seven effective marketing automation lead nurturing workflows that you should definitely create: Hot Lead Workflow This workflow is crucial for your sales team to bag a lead. Set the criteria for a hot lead workflow by considering the lead’s engagement with your content. This workflow falls into the bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFU) phase, where the lead is very close to being converted to a customer. Lost Opportunity Workflow If you have lost a lead due to budget restrictions, competitors, or misalignment of your product, design a workflow that gets the lead back into the sales funnel. You can send such leads special offers or discounts, information on your product’s USP, and a regular update on your products to recapture them. Re-engagement Notification Workflow Losing hope when engaged leads go cold on you is not an option. Remind them of your brand to wake them from their slumber. Create a trigger when the lead has spent a specific amount of time not interacting with your content. Your workflow will send this lead an email to get it back into the sales funnel. Special offers, new products or services updates, and company news can get the lead’s attention. New Subscriber Nurture Workflow This kind of workflow is crucial for gaining new subscribers and moving your existing subscribers through the funnel. It gets new subscribers to engage with your content. Your new subscribers should receive your newest content first, not just regular subscriber emails. Topic-based Workflow If you have a variety of content, create a workflow of the most relevant content that might entice your leads. Once a customer visits your website or downloads an ebook or whitepaper about a certain topic, emails with related content on that topic are sent to them regularly. Event Workflow Today, remotely conducted events like webinars or seminars have gained immense popularity. Engaging your target audience with the help of events is not a new trick. A pre-event and post-event workflow can help you remain in touch with event registrants. Important information like event details, agendas, and reminders can be sent to them to keep them in the loop. Lead Nurturing Workflow A lead nurturing workflow converts leads into marketing qualified leads (MQLs), leads that have responded to your marketing efforts. If a lead comes and fills up a form on your website, requests a demo, or subscribes to a product launch event, then sending them related content can get them closer to being a marketing-qualified lead. How Utah-based Start-up Chatbooks Grew Their Customer Engagement by 100% Using Blueshift’s AI-based cross-channel marketing platform, Chatbooks increased their customer engagement by 100%. They achieved higher conversion rates by engaging with customers 1:1 through personalized content and event-triggered campaigns. “Blueshift enabled us to up-level our campaigns and provide 1-to-1 personalization using dynamic user information. We can now focus on high-intent customers that want to hear my message rather than email blasting and annoying my whole customer base. The results? A +100% increase in email engagement.” - Stephen Cruz,Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Chatbooks Wrapping It Up Leveraging marketing automation in ABM by creating marketing workflows can do wonders for your ABM marketing strategy. 57% of marketers stated that lead nurturing is the most advantageous feature out of all the features of marketing automation software. FAQ Why are marketing automation workflows important for lead nurturing? Marketing automation workflows make sure that your leads get appropriate engagement based on their type so that they get converted into marketing qualified leads. How to choose a marketing automation software? Consider factors like UI, ease of use, features, easy integration, and customization before choosing a marketing automation software. What factors are important for the success of a marketing automation workflow? Designing workflows for each type of lead is crucial. Other factors include creating appropriate triggers, mapping customer behavior, and maintaining CRM and technology stack. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "Why are marketing automation workflows important for lead nurturing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Marketing automation workflows make sure that your leads get appropriate engagement based on their type so that they get converted into marketing qualified leads." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How to choose a marketing automation software?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Consider factors like UI, ease of use, features, easy integration, and customization before choosing a marketing automation software." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What factors are important for the success of a marketing automation workflow?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Designing workflows for each type of lead is crucial. Other factors include creating appropriate triggers, mapping customer behavior, and maintaining CRM and technology stack." } }] }

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How the right content wins in account-based marketing

Article | April 20, 2020

Account-based marketing (ABM) has been around for long enough now that most companies have either rolled out strategies or are actively exploring their options. Looking at the ABM adoption model produced by the ITSMA, an industry association for technology-based marketing and services, many companies are in the experimentation stage and looking to further refine their initial pilot programs. As you begin to experiment and expand your ABM programs, there are many complexities that you can introduce like content personalization, website personalization, scaling accounts and channels, and additional technology and automation, to name a few.

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Netplus is an independent, full-service digital marketing agency headquartered in Philadelphia. Our focus boils down to one mantra: be the place where our people and clients can thrive.

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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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Core ABM

Demandbase Gets Named 2023 ABM Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant

Demandbase | November 06, 2023

Demandbase, an AI-driven account-based go-to-market (GTM) leader, has been named a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Platforms. The recognition is based on Demandbase's completeness of vision and ability to execute and follows being named a Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for ABM earlier this year. Demandbase's CEO, Gabe Rogol, attributes the recognition to product innovations and positive customer reviews. Demandbase, a pioneer in AI-driven account-based go-to-market (GTM), announces its recognition as a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Platforms. This honor, which follows a comprehensive evaluation of nine vendors, is a testament to Demandbase’s comprehensive vision and its ability to execute effectively. Earlier this year, the company also received the Gartner Peer Insight Customers’ Choice for ABM. Gartner defines ABM platforms as software that empowers B2B marketing and sales teams to implement ABM programs at scale, including account selection, planning, engagement, and reporting. These platforms facilitate the creation of target account lists by integrating first- and third-party data. Additionally, they may engage audiences by activating channels such as display advertising, social advertising, email, and sales engagement, using a combination of native capabilities and integrations. Gabe Rogol, CEO of Demandbase, expressed his praise for the innovations the team had worked on by exclaiming, We are honored to be recognized as a leader in the Gartner ABM Magic Quadrant once again this year. We believe this recognition is a reflection of the dedication and effort we’ve invested in our product over the past year, including innovations in connected TV advertising, non-English intent, new integrations, continuous improvement of our account intelligence, the release of workspaces for enterprises, simplified dashboards, UI improvements, and more. We also believe this recognition mirrors the consistently positive reviews we receive from customers through Gartner Peer Insights and on G2. We extend our gratitude to Gartner, our customers, and our entire team. [Source – Cision PR Newswire] According to the Magic Quadrant report, the essential capabilities of ABM platforms include: Account-level intent data (proprietary and/or licensed) to understand customer behavior and buyer interest. Multi-channel campaign orchestration and activation drive engagement and progression in the buyer’s journey. Monitoring accounts and measuring analytics to quantify progress and performance across channels, campaigns, and programs On the downside, Demandbase may face stiff competition from other vendors in the ABM market, such as 6sense, Terminus, and Roll Works. It may need to invest more in product development, marketing, and customer support to maintain its leadership position and customer satisfaction. Additionally, it may encounter challenges in integrating its platform with other systems and data sources, such as CRM, marketing automation, and analytics tools. On the upside, Demandbase can leverage its recognition as a leader and a customer’s choice to attract new customers and retain existing ones. It can also showcase its product innovations and customer reviews as proof of its value proposition and differentiation in the market.

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ABM Accounts

6sense Recognized as a Leader in 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing Platforms for the Third Consecutive Year

Business Wire | November 03, 2023

6sense, the leading platform for B2B organizations generating predictable revenue, announced today that it has been named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for ABM Platforms report for the third consecutive time. 6sense is positioned highest for Ability to Execute and highest score for Completeness of Vision in the Leaders’ Quadrant. For the Account-Based Marketing Platforms report, 6sense received the highest score for all three Use Cases evaluated by Gartner, including New Account Acquisition, Account Retention, and Account Expansion. This recognition, we feel, validates what we hear from our customers every day: 6sense is integral to executing ABM in an ever-evolving B2B buying environment, said Latane Conant, CRO of 6sense. For more than a decade, we’ve obsessed over perfecting a revenue platform that delivers the highest-quality data and AI to sellers and marketers so they can confidently build pipeline and revenue. Being named a Leader for the third year in a row fuels our drive to keep raising the bar. 6sense leaders believe notable product launches this year contributed to the company’s ability to remain a Leader and strengthen its ability to deliver significant value for both marketing and sales teams, including 6sense Revenue AI for Sales and Conversational Email's AI Writer. The company's dedication to product innovation and customer-driven roadmaps solidifies its standing as the premier Revenue AI platform for go-to-market teams. “Over the past decade, 6sense has been at the forefront of the data and AI revolution, and we're proud to have played a pivotal role in helping our customers drive revenue growth with efficiency,” said Viral Bajaria, CTO and co-founder of 6sense. “Our unwavering commitment to uniting data and AI has empowered businesses to make smarter, data-driven decisions and achieve remarkable results. We look forward to continuing to lead the way in this space, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enable our customers to stay ahead of the curve and maximize their success.” “6sense has more than a decade of experience offering AI-backed solutions, including generative AI, to support our customer’s go-to-market success. Our AI solutions not only provide a multitude of possibilities for revenue strategy but also enhance long-term success for our customers,” stated Viral Bajaria, CTO and co-founder of 6sense. “We are committed to a clear and inspiring vision, focusing on driving efficient revenue growth that is customer-driven and achieved through our utilization of superior data and proven AI innovation.” Customer Satisfaction in the Market In addition to being named a Leader in this Magic Quadrant, 6sense also holds the highest overall rating (4.6 out of 5) based on 53 reviews as of April 30, 2023 and the most 5-star reviews –on Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer for Account-Based Marketing Platforms. Highlights from customers who shared their experience of using the 6sense platform in the past year include: “Best martech AI tool to empower sales and marketing team for informed decision making.” – Sales and Business Development Strategy Manager in the healthcare and biotech industry “The alignment of marketing and sales priorities, processes, and accounts provides clarity into our total revenue funnel. We've identified new opportunities, accelerated existing opportunities, and learned more about the interests of existing relationships because of 6sense.” – CMO in the IT services industry “Choose 6sense and get ready for one of the best SaaS experiences you will ever have.” – VP of Global GTM Operations in the software industry. Gartner states in the report that “Leaders demonstrate broad support for all ABM critical capabilities and consistently meet customer needs across the three core ABM use cases (acquisition, renewal, and expansion). They have high market visibility, high market penetration, strong market momentum, and a clear, long-term strategic vision and roadmap for growing their ABM platform business. Their customers report high levels of satisfaction and success with their implementations. Leaders also have initiated plans for geographic and industry expansion.” In September 2023, 6sense was honored as a Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice in the Voice of the Customer for Account-Based Marketing Platforms. The recognized vendors meet or exceed both the market average Overall Experience and the market average User Interest and Adoption. Additionally, 6sense was named a leader in the Cloud Ratings Category Report for ABM Software Platforms based on over 4,000 customer ratings. These accolades highlight the exceptional value and satisfaction that B2B sales and marketing professionals find in the 6sense Revenue AI platform. About 6sense 6sense is on a mission to revolutionize the way B2B organizations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and a 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything. Do anything, with 6sense.

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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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Core ABM

Demandbase Gets Named 2023 ABM Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant

Demandbase | November 06, 2023

Demandbase, an AI-driven account-based go-to-market (GTM) leader, has been named a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Platforms. The recognition is based on Demandbase's completeness of vision and ability to execute and follows being named a Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for ABM earlier this year. Demandbase's CEO, Gabe Rogol, attributes the recognition to product innovations and positive customer reviews. Demandbase, a pioneer in AI-driven account-based go-to-market (GTM), announces its recognition as a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Platforms. This honor, which follows a comprehensive evaluation of nine vendors, is a testament to Demandbase’s comprehensive vision and its ability to execute effectively. Earlier this year, the company also received the Gartner Peer Insight Customers’ Choice for ABM. Gartner defines ABM platforms as software that empowers B2B marketing and sales teams to implement ABM programs at scale, including account selection, planning, engagement, and reporting. These platforms facilitate the creation of target account lists by integrating first- and third-party data. Additionally, they may engage audiences by activating channels such as display advertising, social advertising, email, and sales engagement, using a combination of native capabilities and integrations. Gabe Rogol, CEO of Demandbase, expressed his praise for the innovations the team had worked on by exclaiming, We are honored to be recognized as a leader in the Gartner ABM Magic Quadrant once again this year. We believe this recognition is a reflection of the dedication and effort we’ve invested in our product over the past year, including innovations in connected TV advertising, non-English intent, new integrations, continuous improvement of our account intelligence, the release of workspaces for enterprises, simplified dashboards, UI improvements, and more. We also believe this recognition mirrors the consistently positive reviews we receive from customers through Gartner Peer Insights and on G2. We extend our gratitude to Gartner, our customers, and our entire team. [Source – Cision PR Newswire] According to the Magic Quadrant report, the essential capabilities of ABM platforms include: Account-level intent data (proprietary and/or licensed) to understand customer behavior and buyer interest. Multi-channel campaign orchestration and activation drive engagement and progression in the buyer’s journey. Monitoring accounts and measuring analytics to quantify progress and performance across channels, campaigns, and programs On the downside, Demandbase may face stiff competition from other vendors in the ABM market, such as 6sense, Terminus, and Roll Works. It may need to invest more in product development, marketing, and customer support to maintain its leadership position and customer satisfaction. Additionally, it may encounter challenges in integrating its platform with other systems and data sources, such as CRM, marketing automation, and analytics tools. On the upside, Demandbase can leverage its recognition as a leader and a customer’s choice to attract new customers and retain existing ones. It can also showcase its product innovations and customer reviews as proof of its value proposition and differentiation in the market.

Read More

ABM Accounts

6sense Recognized as a Leader in 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing Platforms for the Third Consecutive Year

Business Wire | November 03, 2023

6sense, the leading platform for B2B organizations generating predictable revenue, announced today that it has been named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for ABM Platforms report for the third consecutive time. 6sense is positioned highest for Ability to Execute and highest score for Completeness of Vision in the Leaders’ Quadrant. For the Account-Based Marketing Platforms report, 6sense received the highest score for all three Use Cases evaluated by Gartner, including New Account Acquisition, Account Retention, and Account Expansion. This recognition, we feel, validates what we hear from our customers every day: 6sense is integral to executing ABM in an ever-evolving B2B buying environment, said Latane Conant, CRO of 6sense. For more than a decade, we’ve obsessed over perfecting a revenue platform that delivers the highest-quality data and AI to sellers and marketers so they can confidently build pipeline and revenue. Being named a Leader for the third year in a row fuels our drive to keep raising the bar. 6sense leaders believe notable product launches this year contributed to the company’s ability to remain a Leader and strengthen its ability to deliver significant value for both marketing and sales teams, including 6sense Revenue AI for Sales and Conversational Email's AI Writer. The company's dedication to product innovation and customer-driven roadmaps solidifies its standing as the premier Revenue AI platform for go-to-market teams. “Over the past decade, 6sense has been at the forefront of the data and AI revolution, and we're proud to have played a pivotal role in helping our customers drive revenue growth with efficiency,” said Viral Bajaria, CTO and co-founder of 6sense. “Our unwavering commitment to uniting data and AI has empowered businesses to make smarter, data-driven decisions and achieve remarkable results. We look forward to continuing to lead the way in this space, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enable our customers to stay ahead of the curve and maximize their success.” “6sense has more than a decade of experience offering AI-backed solutions, including generative AI, to support our customer’s go-to-market success. Our AI solutions not only provide a multitude of possibilities for revenue strategy but also enhance long-term success for our customers,” stated Viral Bajaria, CTO and co-founder of 6sense. “We are committed to a clear and inspiring vision, focusing on driving efficient revenue growth that is customer-driven and achieved through our utilization of superior data and proven AI innovation.” Customer Satisfaction in the Market In addition to being named a Leader in this Magic Quadrant, 6sense also holds the highest overall rating (4.6 out of 5) based on 53 reviews as of April 30, 2023 and the most 5-star reviews –on Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer for Account-Based Marketing Platforms. Highlights from customers who shared their experience of using the 6sense platform in the past year include: “Best martech AI tool to empower sales and marketing team for informed decision making.” – Sales and Business Development Strategy Manager in the healthcare and biotech industry “The alignment of marketing and sales priorities, processes, and accounts provides clarity into our total revenue funnel. We've identified new opportunities, accelerated existing opportunities, and learned more about the interests of existing relationships because of 6sense.” – CMO in the IT services industry “Choose 6sense and get ready for one of the best SaaS experiences you will ever have.” – VP of Global GTM Operations in the software industry. Gartner states in the report that “Leaders demonstrate broad support for all ABM critical capabilities and consistently meet customer needs across the three core ABM use cases (acquisition, renewal, and expansion). They have high market visibility, high market penetration, strong market momentum, and a clear, long-term strategic vision and roadmap for growing their ABM platform business. Their customers report high levels of satisfaction and success with their implementations. Leaders also have initiated plans for geographic and industry expansion.” In September 2023, 6sense was honored as a Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice in the Voice of the Customer for Account-Based Marketing Platforms. The recognized vendors meet or exceed both the market average Overall Experience and the market average User Interest and Adoption. Additionally, 6sense was named a leader in the Cloud Ratings Category Report for ABM Software Platforms based on over 4,000 customer ratings. These accolades highlight the exceptional value and satisfaction that B2B sales and marketing professionals find in the 6sense Revenue AI platform. About 6sense 6sense is on a mission to revolutionize the way B2B organizations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and a 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything. Do anything, with 6sense.

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