Market View
Beyond MQLs: Reframing success in B2B marketing
Sponsored by:
Produced by:
Alyssa Maker
Global Director of Growth Marketing at Sana Commerce
About Alyssa Maker
Alyssa Maker is the Global Director of Growth Marketing at Sana Commerce. With extensive experience in B2B marketing, she leads strategic initiatives focused on driving business growth through innovative marketing strategies. Alyssa specialises in account-based marketing, leveraging AI and intent data to create highly personalised campaigns. Her expertise lies in aligning marketing and sales efforts to achieve revenue goals and enhance market presence.
How has the shift towards account-based marketing (ABM) influenced how marketing performance is measured in your organisation?
We've seen a significant shift in how we measure marketing performance. Previously, we focused on engagement metrics specific to individual channels, like email open rates or LinkedIn interactions. Now, we emphasise how these channels collectively work to engage and reach target accounts.
It's no longer about blasting out campaigns and counting clicks. We ensure those clicks come from our ideal customer profile or targeted account list. This shift has led us to focus on revenue metrics like MRR and ARR, as well as how many of our ideal customer profiles we're reaching and engaging.
We recently ran a six-month "Enterprise One-to-One Campaign" targeting our manufacturing ICP. If we had based success solely on traditional metrics like engaged sessions and high-intent requests, the campaign might have appeared unsuccessful. However, by leveraging intent data from 6sense, we saw that we'd influenced the number of accounts moving into the decision phase by over a thousand percent.
This campaign exemplifies our new approach. We still set KPIs like high-intent requests, but we also look at account movement. How many accounts did this campaign influence in terms of Sales Qualified Accounts (SQAs)? How much engagement did we get from our target accounts? This holistic view gives us a much clearer picture of our marketing performance and impact on the sales pipeline.
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It's no longer about blasting out campaigns and counting clicks. We ensure those clicks come from our ideal customer profile or targeted account list.
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Without AI and intent data, we might have bought a list from a vendor and hoped for the best. Instead, we precisely targeted and retargeted people engaging with the campaign, moving them into higher stages of the funnel.
How are you leveraging AI and intent data to create personalised campaigns, and what results have you seen?
We're using AI and intent data from 6sense to create highly personalised campaigns. By analysing the keywords our prospects are exploring, we can understand their interests and tailor our messaging accordingly. For instance, if a prospect is searching for solutions to a specific problem, we craft content that directly addresses that issue.
In Q1 and Q2, we ran a campaign after discovering a competitor's product was going end-of-life, particularly impacting the EMEA market. Using 6sense, we identified accounts showing intent on keywords related to this competitor or their specific product version. We targeted these accounts with a tailored campaign.
The results were impressive. Not only did we move many accounts through the funnel, but we also created an opportunity worth 9K MRR and created another significant opportunity. Without AI and intent data, we might have bought a list from a vendor and hoped for the best. Instead, we precisely targeted and retargeted people engaging with the campaign, moving them into higher stages of the funnel.
For our upcoming Q3 campaigns, we're analysing keywords from our closed-won accounts in Q1 and Q2. We'll target accounts showing intent on these keywords, further refining our approach based on proven success factors.
How are you working to bridge the gap between marketing's focus on quality and sales' volume-driven approach?
Bridging this gap has been an ongoing effort, but we've made significant progress. We've implemented weekly meetings between sales and marketing to discuss campaigns, review marketing's contributions, get updates from BDRs, and gather feedback from AEs and partners.
A recent success story was a high-value webinar targeting all our 6QAs from the last 6 months. The sales team was struggling to get these 6QAs on the phone and needed more inbound leads. In response, we organised a webinar specifically for these high-intent accounts. We tasked the BDRs with personally inviting them, while marketing handled the emails and landing pages.
We provided incentives for both BDRs and the accounts to register. This approach allowed BDRs to initiate conversations that weren't directly about demos, creating a more engaging and less pressured environment.
The results exceeded our expectations. We doubled our registration numbers and surpassed our expected attendee rate. It was one of our most successful event campaigns this year, showcasing the power of collaboration between marketing and sales.
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Brand building and establishing ourselves as industry thought leaders are crucial for us. This would include more co-sponsored reports and publishing our own research to gain authority in our industry.
If you had an unlimited budget, what investments would you make to enhance your B2B marketing efforts?
With an unlimited budget, I'd focus on several key areas. First, I'd invest heavily in speaking opportunities and thought leadership initiatives. Brand building and establishing ourselves as industry thought leaders are crucial for us. This would include more co-sponsored reports and publishing our own research to gain authority in our industry.
Secondly, I'd put more resources into events, particularly roundtables and one-to-one meetings rather than large trade shows. People are becoming tired of virtual interactions, so these smaller, more targeted engagements allow for deeper connections with our prospects.
I'd also allocate more budget to gaining deeper insights into the industries we target. Often, marketing organisations don't invest enough in truly understanding the pain points of their target industries. Having this depth of industry knowledge would be invaluable for crafting more effective, resonant campaigns.
Lastly, I'd develop a comprehensive ABX (Account-Based Experience) program that integrates sales and marketing strategies across the entire organisation. Ensuring everyone is aligned with this approach would significantly enhance our effectiveness in the market and drive more meaningful engagements with our target accounts.
About Sana Commerce
Sana Commerce is a leading software company providing an integrated e-commerce platform for businesses. Their solution seamlessly integrates with ERP systems, facilitating efficient online sales processes. By helping businesses leverage existing business logic and data, Sana Commerce enables improved customer experiences and streamlined operations across various industries.
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations 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 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.
