Looking for the right ABM demand generation solution

To help streamline alignment between marketing and sales at Genesys, Bhavisha Oza, Director of Digital Marketing, was asked to refocus her team’s efforts on account-based marketing (ABM), expanding the company’s database of contacts within both existing customer accounts as well as with new key clients identified by sales. When the Genesys digital marketing team surveyed the landscape of available ABM solutions to help make this happen, LinkedIn was the obvious choice. “The typical third-party online publishers and social platforms we’ve worked with did not offer ABM demand gen,” says Bhavisha. “LinkedIn, with its massive professional network, was unique, as it offered an ABM program targeting IT and support functions, our core buyer personas.”

Speaking to the audience in their own language

Genesys leaned on LinkedIn’s highly accurate account targeting capabilities to help drive brand awareness and acquire new contacts from a list of more than 10,000 companies – including 7 ABM accounts, 1,000 focus accounts, and more than 9,000 target accounts the sales team had identified. Leveraging thought-leadership content – including partnered-reports from Forrester and Gartner, as well as e-books and playbooks created by Genesys – the team worked to educate their audience and generate top-of-funnel leads. In addition to using targeted account lists, Genesys also layered on demographic targeting (by job function) to further drill down their Sponsored Content campaigns. This allowed Genesys to build credibility with their target audiences by delivering highly relevant content that spoke specifically to their challenges and pain points. “LinkedIn Sponsored Content helps put our brand in front of our audience in a more direct and personal manner,” says Alyssa Sarmiento, Senior Digital Marketing Manager. “We can talk directly to business and IT buyers in their own language. No other channel gives us that opportunity.”

Always be optimizing

There’s a big difference in content strategy with ABM as compared to content designed for outside leads. When you’re working with established or key prospective accounts, it’s a double-edged sword: On the one hand, you’re working with prospects who are already familiar with your brand and business, and who you have likely reached out to already. On the other hand, expectations for content are higher; your audiences expect you to know them, so there is more scrutiny on the content you’re sharing with them. As a result, optimizing content for specialized audiences has been a key factor in the success of the Genesys team’s ABM strategy. Genesys works with LinkedIn’s account team to specifically optimize campaigns based on conversions. “We meet on a biweekly basis, and we look at the numbers to see what’s converting, so we can better identify our audience and better understand which content they’re responding to,” says Alyssa. “We then tweak our campaigns based on those results.” Optimization also helped the Genesys digital marketing team uncover best practices for their ABM campaigns. Genesys had previously divided their list of target accounts into small segments, such as cross-sell, focus, and target accounts. However, they discovered that microtargeting wasn’t a cost-effective approach. “You need a critical mass – even for ABM,” says Bhavisha. “You can’t target 1,000 companies and expect your campaign to deliver optimal cost per acquisition (CPA). The smaller your list is, the higher your CPA gets.” In future campaigns, Genesys plans to target the list of 10,000 companies as a whole. “For ABM campaigns, it’s better to start with a large audience and whittle away until you find your key targets.”

Reaching those who matter most

Thanks to this combination of targeting and optimization, the team’s ABM efforts have yielded encouraging results. In one quarter, the Genesys team achieved an average clickthrough rate of 0.43% for IT professionals and 0.47% for support personnel – both well above LinkedIn benchmarks. In addition, 60% of all leads generated were marketingcaptured leads, or net new leads. “This means marketing was able to help with account mapping and sourcing new contacts within ABM accounts the sales team was trying to scope,” says Bhavisha. “B2B enterprise sales is a complex process that requires a team of multiple buyer personas. LinkedIn helps us source the right contacts.” Bhavisha credits their success to a willingness to experiment and to learn from the results of those experiments. “You learn by trying new things. And in doing so, you may make mistakes. But my mantra is: Fail fast, fail forward, until you succeed,” says Bhavisha. “If a campaign is performing below expectations, we take the time to understand why, and work with LinkedIn to optimize and test new offers, creative, and targeting.” As their audience and industry change over the coming years, the team’s commitment to experimentation, optimization, and best practices will continue to serve Genesys well. And with LinkedIn’s targeting and tracking features, they’re sure to gain the insight they need to drive even more impressive results.

Challenge

 Develop an effective ABM strategy

 Fine-tune specifi c target audience

Solution

 LinkedIn Sponsored Content

Results

 60% net new Marketing Captured Leads

 0.43% CTR for IT target audience

 0.47% CTR for support target audience

 2.7% average conversion rate; 4% conversation rate for top-performing offer