Land & Expand with Current Customers
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(upbeat music)
- Hey everybody, my name is Hannah Jordan
and I am the Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Demand Base.
And today I wanna talk about one of our big initiatives
in our pipeline strategy,
which is how to land and expand with our current customers.
So, super excited to talk to you guys through
kind of like what we're thinking about doing,
what we've seen work really well from us.
Those were our demand base.
So, first I wanna talk about the customer lifecycle,
marketing strategy as a whole,
and kind of how the setup of our campaign looks
in kind of the three different phases
that I sort of do establish
and that I found kind of resonate well
in terms of timing around messaging.
So, the first one is really gonna be education focused.
And here is where you wanna offer that customer support
and really just some certification courses.
You're trying to get them ramped on your company.
This is a newer customer.
If you're thinking about like a timeframe here,
I would say like, the first one to four months.
So, our sales cycles or contracts are about 12 months.
So, I'm doing it on a rolling 12 month basis.
But definitely looking at the first four months,
like let's get that customer ramped.
What would they need to be able to go into that,
this tool like our software and services
and kind of be able to reusing it?
The next one would be really that adoption phase.
So now that we see a few people are using it,
but how do we get really sticking in that account?
And the biggest way that we found to reduce current
is actually making sure that we have
the higher percentage of active users
that we have at platform generally this to hear it is.
So, once people are aware that they have it,
they're logging in like make sure
that they're going in there every day
and that what your platform is doing for them
is ingrained in their day to day.
And so, if someone were to take it away from them,
they'd be like, "No, I need that some first of that."
So, we do this, you know,
which just like remind people like,
"Hey, you have access to this amazing tool
"like one-to-one page for here's how you can actually,
"you know, go and use it directly within like your company
"and here's some use cases we just try."
So really just making sure that people are getting
the most out of that tool that they can.
So then, I think that's when we start to, you know,
in the eight to 12 month time period,
that's when we can start to introduce
some of those expansions placed.
And so here's when it, you know,
it's probably as appropriate to start bringing in
those cross-zone, upsell initiatives.
And so, kind of the reason I want to talk through
this originally is because I think when we think about
like customer expanding campaigns,
it's like, "Oh, I have a customer
"and they're showing intent, so let's get out of that."
'Cause that's how we were thinking about it,
to be totally honest.
But some of the feedback that we got was some was like,
"I've been a customer for a month.
"I guess some when, you know, it's showing intent
"on advertising and then I started getting ads
"for advertising when, you know,
"I wasn't even using the part of your platform
"that I just purchased, I want to go."
So it's not a great customer experience for them,
which is why we started to add in these sort of, you know,
time blockers to make sure that that customer
actually is seeing value with us and they are, you know,
liking the platform that they already bought
before we try to get in there and push something else
that they should buy with us to.
So it's making sure that the customer sees value
and we, you know, see our customers as customers
rather than just, you know, a way that we can
$1.00 out of it.
So another kind of look at that view that I just explained.
So this is, you know, we're testing this out in LinkedIn
to work kind of like, how does this, you know,
monthly based approach kind of looks,
you can see in those zero to four months,
that's really when we're in that education stage, you know,
we're trying to get people involved in the user groups
that we have.
So start talking to other demand based users,
like kind of getting in our community.
Adoption is really like, take your skills to the next level.
Like we have a latest digital marketing certification course.
It's all around how digital marketers can really enhance
their strategy with demand based.
And then finally, in the age of 12 months is that expansion.
So now we're seeing like, okay, they're a customer
that's coming up on renewal in the next four months.
And by the way, oh, they're showing, you know,
intent on advertising and they don't own advertising.
What if we could kind of loop that into the renewal somehow?
So this is really how we're thinking about our customer
life cycle marketing strategies here as a whole
over here at demand based.
So just thought, you know, one to paint the picture
and lay the groundwork for you guys as we start to think
about like, okay, this is our always on strategy,
but what are some of the targeted plays we can start running.
So focusing really in that, you know,
identifying cross-sell and upsell opportunities.
So once your customers have seen value,
how do we then start to expand those accounts?
And so one of the first ways that we started doing this
over here is really through our intent data,
and sure it's something that, you know,
we're all pretty familiar with how we can layer on intent
to see like, okay, this company's starting to research
this solution or that solution.
And so it can be really helpful to start to identify
the very early indicators of this cross-sell and upsell
opportunities.
So if you have a customer and they own
for demand based example at ABX,
but they don't own advertising,
and then I can start to see that like,
oh, they're starting to show intent on advertising,
then well, that might be something that we want to alert
their customer success manager about.
Maybe just asking, you know,
passing like, hey, is advertising something?
You guys would ever be interested in learning more about,
you know, just really great way there too.
Another way that we have been looking at using intent
is actually intent surges.
So demand based captures its own intent based on, you know,
the activity that we're seeing that our accounts are taking,
you know, as they're going through other journeys online,
what content are they consuming,
what keywords and topics seem to come up in that content.
But another way that we can actually look at intent
is we partner with a bunch of other platforms
that are getting their own intent too.
So this is like Bomb 4atch, Sready SG2,
and we're actually able to import that intent data
into demand based as well.
So I think when we're thinking about it from, let's say,
like another website like G2,
it's really informational data that typically
we wouldn't be able to see.
And it can kind of indicate, you know,
if they're on this self-review platform,
like TrustRadius, where, okay,
they're going to look at like peer reviews
for a particular piece of software.
That is a really big indicator
that these people are likely in market, you know,
for that type of solution.
And so we've actually even thought about, you know, okay,
if they're just looking at a certain category,
like maybe they're a little earlier on,
they're just starting to get a feel for,
okay, what companies are even in this category.
Then once they start looking at reviews
and comparison reports, like, okay,
now they're really progressing in their buying journey.
Once they're actually on your profile,
like they're probably pretty ready to reach out to.
So being able to leverage those insights for, you know,
if we don't want to scare the customer away, right,
they're just, you know, starting their research.
But if they're kind of slightly raising their hand being
like, hey, I'm pretty interested in this,
then now would be a good time to maybe facilitate
that conversation.
So this all brings me to my first play
that I want to share with you guys today,
which is how to capitalize on G2 in tech.
So what we are looking at here,
what demand based on the G2 integration does
is it's going to pass over the account level data
for the activities that they're doing on the G2 site.
So we're kind of matching up like,
okay, we know at the account of this,
since that's managed to demand based to the account record.
And then we can actually see like,
hey, account A, you know, went on G2
and looked at the category for best account based
advertising software.
And like did the user reviews account B then
and wanted to look at, you know,
what were the highest rated account based advertising
softwares in 2024.
And so then we can really start to get kind of like
those deeper level insights into one,
like where is the account at when they're looking at G2?
And when should we be reaching out?
So one of the fun things that we did with this,
because when I was thinking like, wow,
this is really great.
How can we start kind of like,
if we know that they're starting that research
how to capitalize on it?
So what we're looking at here is the account
is in the customer drainage stage.
So there are customer bars,
but they don't own any additive advertising products.
So the total active advertising products does not exist
because they're not an ads customer,
but they are customer bar somewhere.
And so we know that they are starting to look at,
you know, what are the best advertising softwares?
Like what are the peer reviews?
And so what we did is we actually kind of pulled out
some of our G2 reviews.
We're like, hey, like we know you guys are interested
in this.
So, you know, if you're looking for what the best
account based advertising software is,
like here's the actual grid for it right here.
We actually did feel like our really big customers too,
that had, you know, a high deal propensity
built them out a custom one to one page.
And so we'll actually call that out and display ad
and say, you know, hey, you're a big deal to us.
We love a partnership.
We've actually made you a customized page.
And there will actually go into that nitty-gritty
about like how with that particular account,
like based on how our existing customer relationship is,
what advertising looked like if we added it for them.
So it's that very like their customer,
we have a lot of data and insights on them.
We know they're interested in a product
that we could also, you know, help them with.
And so how do we really convey how by going through
to MAM based for all of these things,
you know, you would get the most benefit from it.
So this has been a really important initiative for us
as we're thinking about, you know,
our customers are, you know, high priority to us.
So how can we really like make the most
of our relationship with them?
And we've seen this be very, very successful
because I think again, like we have that first mover advantage
where yes, these accounts are going on G2 and looking at them.
And if we're the first company
that he already a customer of ours and look like we may choose
his whole customized page, like it's probably gonna leave
a pretty good feeling in their minds
when they think about MAM based.
So the next level down, I think after just intent
and then the G2 intent is actually something
called the product interest segments that we have built out.
And essentially what this does is it goes just a step farther
than just intent because intent is great
but there's also so many other activities
that our accounts are doing.
And so we wanna make sure that we're getting
a holistic picture of these activities.
So what it does is it groups together a bunch
of different types of activities that they can do
such as the intent, but also the Salesforce campaign responses
or their webpage visits.
And basically this can kind of show us like,
hey, yes, they're engaging with a lot of different products
but this is the product that they're most engaged with.
So what we're doing is we're looking at, okay,
I have an ABX cloud customer.
They don't have orchestration as part of that solution
but they are starting to show activities
with product interest around orchestration.
So it's not just intent but maybe they downloaded
a white paper on orchestration
or they attended a webinar that was, you know,
orchestration-based practices.
So we kind of know that they're starting to be like,
okay, like I could be interested in that as well.
So we seemed that to LinkedIn
and then we set up a conversation
that was all automated on the back end
but it did look like it was coming from our CMO
at the time John Miller.
And it was actually acknowledging like,
hey, we know you're a customer of ABX
but we also know that you aren't using orchestration yet.
We just had published an orchestration playbook
so the call to action was really for them
to check it out there.
And I think the fun part of this
and it got a little meta
but we were using orchestration
to power this conversation that
that was promoting orchestration.
So they're also getting the benefit
of seeing how this works in real time
and hey, isn't this really cool touch point
that you could actually set up yourself.
So the next thing that I want to share with you guys
that we're testing out over here at demand base
is how to expand within our current accounts.
So breaking into new business units
or how do we leverage the success we've had
with say a parent customer
and then break into the subsidiary account.
So first, if we're looking to kind of break
into new business units within our current customers,
this is one thing that we've tried
that's actually worked really well for us.
So what we did was we created an account list
and a known context list
of all of our enterprise customers.
And we think that over to a bunch of different destinations
but in this example, it was linked in.
And so what we were doing is we were targeting
the account list of our current enterprise customers
and then we were actually suppressing the contact list
for those enterprise customers.
So we were only going after net new names
within these customer accounts
with the idea that if there are these big enterprise accounts,
there's definitely business units there
that we're not yet working with
that could be a new source of rep before us.
So that was kind of the campaign,
they thought processed behind it.
And then what we did is we used personalization
to then say like, okay, if this company visits,
then we want this message to show
because we've already worked with,
their product development team.
We helped you hire over 20 contractors.
This was an example that we helped the customer with
but it was basically like depending
on the account that visited,
it was calling out the other team
so they'd worked on and the other success
that they'd already had.
And hey, you should see how we can now help your department.
So it's establishing really a lot of that credibility
and trust and like we've already worked with people
at your company, we understand how your business works,
there's no need to go through procurement,
again, we're already a trusted vendor.
So it would be a really easy lift for you
just to see like how our services might benefit
you work with your product.
So kind of similar to that
and leveraging the existing relationships
that you have to break into new areas
is one thing that we're really focused on here for FY24
is how can we use our existing relationships
with these customers that we have
at these parent accounts
and actually kind of use that messaging
to break into their subsidiary accounts
or vice versa sometimes we're in the subsidiary
and breaking into the parent
but it's really all about like, you know,
at the end of the day, we just really want to help
our customers.
So if we're seeing really, really big success
in a certain area and we're understanding
their business processes and we're already fully integrated
and we could kind of get right to work
in that subsidiary account and help them
see that same success and like the implementation
on boarding time next to nothing,
like that's a no-brainer for us
to like help them get to value faster.
And so that's what we've been doing currently.
So we have worked alongside with sales team
and really identified like we're our current customers
where we're seeing a lot of success
and you know, we're in the parent
but we're not the subsidiary.
The next thing that we do is we then connect with them,
the account owners and the CSM teams to understand like,
okay, like what exactly is that success that we're seeing?
What are the use cases that are unique to their business
and how do we specifically help solve for it?
And what are some key messages to highlight?
Like when you guys have TBRs,
like what are they just raving about?
We then take that and create a custom page
for the subsidiary parent accounts.
And then we also go as far as to creating a video message
from one of our executives that will also use an ad
we're launching display campaign, CTV.
There's a ton of channels that we're going through
just to release around the account
and kind of get all this goodness kind of uplifted to that.
So here's just a quick timeline
of what that process looks like.
We do, you know, start to finish.
It's about four weeks,
but you can see we have the kickoff meeting.
We get a ton of insights there.
I then take that information and go create their custom page
along with the script that we kind of, you know,
both have the executives record.
So then send those things back to the AEs
so they can review and edit them.
Then once we have approval for the page,
that's when the display is going to launch.
And now that the one to one page is live,
sales can also include in their outreach.
Then once the executive is done recording their video,
we actually use that video as an ad in LinkedIn
and target that account individually as well in there.
And so the script will say something like, you know,
hey, I'm so and so from demand base.
I'm probably investing in a relationship personally,
super excited about the opportunity to work together.
Here's how we seen success with others
and how we really think we can help you.
And oh, by the way, this is such a big deal
to us, the team also made you a customized page.
You should check it out.
So super friendly, but also kind of provides more
of that like yes, room B2B,
but we understand that there's people on the other end too.
And then finally, just following up
with some marketing launch emails,
you know, if we have any events going on,
if there's any direct meal that we can do
to kind of like push that relationship over the edge.
So when it all comes together,
like this is an example of what it would look like.
So here is the custom page over on the left.
This is actually some of their terminology inside
around like the ready initiative that they have.
So get ready to hit your revenue goals.
You know, we're already integrated with your parent account.
So it's going to be super easy to roll us out.
We actually found a quote from their CEO
about how, you know, combining systems
and working on automation efficiency
was his big priorities.
So we're calling that up too.
And then, hey, here's how we've helped the other companies
that, you know, we're already in.
So we'll actually go into their key VRs
and call it the exact ways that we are seeing success.
Then for the video script,
it kind of goes over what I was saying earlier.
It's really conversational, you know,
just to introduce themselves,
provide that like personal touchpoint.
And then also just again, speak to what's on the page.
Here's how we're already seeing a lot of success
and we would love to help you.
And then finally, bringing it all together.
Here is one that we did.
So this is the video from the executive.
It's going and targeting that account in LinkedIn.
With the video pointing to the custom page,
we're surrounding that account
with a one to one display campaign as well.
Going to the customize page, they're getting CTV,
the reps are emailing them outreach.
So again, just wherever that account is,
we are showing up there too.
So this has been really fun to work on for me personally.
I just think again, like the messaging there is, you know,
it's not like a shot in the dark
and we're hoping these are use cases.
Like we know that we can help you
and we actually have success points that we can point to.
So then it really does just become a conversation
of like once that door is open,
like these deals move so fast
because we know exactly like what that account is looking
for like we're already speaking their language.
So once we land that first meeting,
it's just like off to the races.
And so next up, this isn't exactly like customer related
but just in the vein of, you know,
kind of if you have opportunities with these accounts
and I don't know if some of it felt similar to me too.
And it's one of my favorites
why this I do include it anyway.
But essentially as a win back campaign.
So in our industry, a lot of our contracts
are typically about a year in duration.
So what we decided to do was, okay, if we go
and we look at opportunities that we lost a year ago today
and we lost those to a competitor,
then that means that they're coming up on that renewal
with that competitor.
And so now, wow, like what a great time to get in front of them
to see like, hey, are you happy with the option
that you went with?
Like we were in that opportunity too.
You guys didn't choose us, but like,
is there any buyers remorse there?
Do you maybe wish you would like look at us a little harder?
So we have been using those in a variety of ways.
But again, the audience is that we lost
a sales intelligence opportunity to, you know,
a competitor a year ago.
So now like let's get in front of that account with like,
hey, unlike on their vendors and the one that you went with
and might experience pain with, like here's how we're different.
So if that's, you know, something that's resonating with them,
if they're like, oh, that is a pain point that I'm feeling,
then they would, you know, click on that ad and go to our page.
We're also following that up then
with once they click on that ad,
there's a specific UTM that's associated with it
that's going to fire a customer experience.
So then that is then going to talk to you to like,
hey, here's, you know, how we're different
from the competitor that you went with
and maybe some of the differentiators there too
and oh, do you want to connect with someone
and learn more about it?
So it's a great way to kind of like get in front of them,
get their interest peak, they go to the website
and then we can kind of convert them to chat
to sales right then and there.
And again, just due to the timing,
like their options are probably open.
They are doing their due diligence.
So again, it just makes it, it's an easier win
'cause they're already obviously bought into what you're saying
if they're with your competitor.
It's just making the switch over to you.
Okay.
So those I say would be my top campaigns
that we have been using to drive revenue here
and then to connect to the fan base.
And then just to close it out too
because, you know, the campaigns, the pipeline
and everything is great, but, you know,
sometimes I feel like we forget to look at
what are some of the insights that we could be looking at
to just improve customer experience as a whole.
So that's what I like to use demand-based for
just to get some good insights.
So even if I'm not trying to like open an opportunity,
like where can I make my content land for with my customers?
So that way, you know, they're always just gonna be
satisfied with the experience that we're giving them.
So one thing that I'm really looking at is site analytics.
So I'm seeing like, is there a resource article
that customers are continuously going to
that maybe we need to provide more content on?
Because if that many customers need to go
to that resource center article,
then they probably like a lot of customers have questions on it.
We need to do a better job in our enablement
and then they're onboarding to make sure
that those questions get answered.
The next one is like, what are some common use cases?
Like what are we seeing as a trend across all customers
that maybe like if we just make a quick like
how to video for these use cases
would be super easy to reference for them
and just, you know, helpful
and how they're feeling as customer.
We're also looking just like their website journey
as a whole.
Again, like if they start to really dig into
what are the products on our website that they don't own yet,
like is there an opportunity there
to start to expand our business?
And really just a lot of great insights
that we can get looking at how they're engaging
with the current content on our website.
The next one that I love is looking at journey stages.
So here at demand base,
we're really, really big about journey stages.
But a lot of times I think people think about them
where it's like, okay, like they start at the top funnel
and they go to the bottom funnel
and you know, there's stages in between there
and that kind of stops.
But I think there's a lot that we miss out on
when we are looking at that like post-seal journey stage.
So how are we seeing if customers are engaged with us
and how is an early indicator of either a churn
or if there's an opportunity there that we can sell into?
And so, you know, if someone becomes a customer
and they're just like staying there,
they're not becoming engaged with you,
then that's probably gonna indicate
some errors coming up there.
And so how do we get those customers
a little extra love?
And what products are we seeing
where we're seeing a higher conversion
of customer engaged to opportunity?
Like should that be something where our product team
looks at like the pricing and packaging?
Like if we're always selling one product
and then we come back, you know,
and the renewal we're always selling the next one,
is that something we think about when we think about,
you know, how the products are working together
or how we're structuring our deals.
So again, just being able to use the customer insights
to better inform your overall marketing strategy.
And finally, it looked at up program impact too.
So, you know, when you are rolling out these cross-seal
and upsell campaigns and, you know,
the expansion campaigns into subsidiaries
or new business units, understand what's working
with your customers based on the customer type that they are.
So, you know, if you have multiple different products,
what's resonating with the customer of one product
might not be the same as what's resonating with another.
So always just like going with the mindset of,
I'm gonna meet my customer where they're at.
So if I'm trying to, you know,
upsell an ABX customer with advertising,
well, I see that product education and internal content
is, you know, what's I'm seeing a lot of closed one,
closed one revenue with.
Versus if I'm looking at my sales intelligence customers,
well, they actually prefer to go to events
or attend webinars.
So when I'm thinking about the content
that I wanna use and those campaigns,
I can also help use this as a guide to see like,
okay, what's gonna resonate with them?
What channels do they like to see?
What content channels do they like to see?
To where they're gonna digest the information
that I'm putting in front of them?
In a way that's most helpful to them.
So that's a lot of my tips and how we're looking at kind of
like landing, expanding our current customers
over here at Acton Manbase.
So I wanna thank you guys for listening to me,
share my insights, use cases and key studies,
and hopefully it sparked an idea or two
or you learned something new.
Thank you so much.
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