BetterWorks, a human capital management platform, has a very specific ABM messaging strategy. The company offers its 1,000+ named accounts—mainly enterprise-level operational business and HR leaders—with relevant content based on where they are in the funnel.
When the ABM program kicked off approximately 18 months ago, the company started its outreach via email, followed by the addition of display ads through Terminus. Accounts were segmented by the technologies they were utilizing. For example, Finkelstein said a lot of their customers use SuccessFactors or Workday HRIS, as well as JIRA and Salesforce—tools that integrate well with BetterWorks. “We do outreach email campaigns mentioning those integrations and target companies that way,” she said.
“Targeting [the accounts] with display ads was nice for creating awareness,” said Masha Finkelstein, BetterWorks’ Demand Generation Lead. “One of the early indicators this was working was an increase of traffic from our target accounts to our site—from 0.8% to 7% in the first few months of display.”
Following the success of the email outreach and display ads, BetterWorks expanded its ABM tech stack by adding LeanData to help convert leads to accounts. Next, the company applied Bizible for overall attribution tracking— “we were able to measure the effectiveness of our campaigns better with that,” said Finkelstein.
BetterWorks’ content messaging is separated into three areas:
- Accounts in the early-funnel stage: “We show them thought leadership-type pieces like blog posts and reports from analysts,” said Finkelstein. “Second-party reports work very well, especially for higher level people. It’s mainly about providing the tools to get educated at first and how others are doing it.”
- Accounts in the mid-funnel stage: “Moving along the funnel, we start giving product-specific information—but not too deep yet, more like an overview and data sheets, some white papers about methodology and how things work. We also have some overview videos and videos from customers talking about how they’re using the products. Those do very well for us.”
- Late-stage accounts: “Later, it’s all about the ROI. We send white papers we wrote, such as: ‘The Impact of BetterWorks’ or ‘See How the CEO of BetterWorks Uses BetterWorks.’ Some more in depth videos, as well.”
Finkelstein said the company also added direct mail through PFL for higher level, mid-to-late funnel prospects, which has proven positive. “We send them a printed out white paper printed and then, we follow up with emails targeted with display ads,” she said. “We also show LinkedIn sponsored updates and send them a mug that’s just cool. People love it. The campaign has done very well. It’s very high touch, low volume, but it works.”
When it comes to measuring its efforts, BetterWorks assesses each piece of content as a separate campaign. “The primary thing we care about is bottom line, but pipeline is also a pretty good indicator,” said Finkelstein. “Campaign influence on pipeline matters a lot. For example, our top-three pieces of content generated 38 opportunities this year to date, and created $250,000 in pipeline.”
Another strategy that has shown great results further down the funnel is the use of content to drive prospects to free trials, which Finkelstein said is the company’s biggest source of revenue influence.
“We might start with a white paper or blog post, but eventually, somewhere in nurture funnel, [the prospect] will start to get trial offers,” she said. “Free trails have been invaluable. This year, for example, they drove $1.7 million of pipeline for us as a lead source. And comparing to other lead sources, trials are the highest converting one. It’s on par with inbound content and converts 25% to 35% from MQL to SQL.”
Finkelstein credits alignment with account executives and SDRs for the success of the company’s ABM efforts, with help from the BetterWorks solution. “It helps us get visibility into what other departments are doing, whether we all align on top company goals,” she said. “We also give each other real-time feedback along the way.”
“Setting up a regular synch with account executives and SDRs for feedback on what they hear in the field has helped me quite a bit,” she said. “And sitting in on their calls because it allows me to zoom in on the pain points that prospects care most about. Then, we can target the content based on those conversations. Sales and marketing alignment is key in ABM. We have to be in it together or it won’t work.”
