How to build a high value ABM pipeline in less than 4 months

The brand Lenovo is well known for its PC business, but within the data center segment the brand is virtually unknown in Denmark. Add to this that the company had virtually no traffic on their various web sites from their all-important key accounts, no engagement from marketing automation activities and virtually no GDPR compliant contacts from these accounts in their marketing automation platform.

The solution was to launch a strategic initiative aimed at 38 named accounts. With ABA (Account Based Advertising) it is possible to serve ads to key decision makers working for these key accounts.

Campaign development and set-up: Blue Business developed a number of banners and dedicated landing pages highlighting the advantages of the Lenovo solutions. The set-up of the ABA campaign program took around one month and was done together with our strategic partner AccountBase. AccountBase was responsible for adding various tracking codes to the Lenovo web sites, activating programmatic advertising to the target audience and reporting account specific engagement.

A few weeks after the campaign launch Blue Business presented the first detailed reporting on key account engagement. It was clear that the campaign was working well and the number of impressions per account was adjusted to optimize media spending.

LinkedIn Content Sharing:
At the latter part of the campaign LinkedIn Content Sharing was introduced. LinkedIn Content Sharing is a unique and very powerful way to reach your target audience in a personal way. The Sharing on LinkedIn generated a number of highly relevant leads for the sales department.

Results:
After 12 weeks of account based advertising the results were very conclusive:

  • 7 accounts are now in the Sales Ready Quadrant. In addition, the campaign review has concluded the following:
  • Account engagement on the Lenovo corporate web pages has increased from 0 engagement to 76% of the key accounts are now engaging
  • The time spent on landing pages went up by 50%
  • The time spent on landing pages is now higher for campaign traffic (i.e target accounts) than from non-campaign traffic
  • The combination of ABA and Social Media provides leads
  • Lenovo reports that two major opportunities are now locked in the pipeline as a result of the campaign
  • Bridging the gap between sales and marketing: ABM is a strong tool for sales planning

The theory behind the campaign:
Most marketeers will subscribe to the idea that there is a relationship between awareness and sales, but which channels do you activate to optimize the customer journey?

In the REACT model you start with creating awareness and engagement using ABA (Account Based Advertising). In the latter phases of the customer journey you shift to ABSA (Account Based Social Advertising) and after conversion your marketing automation platform is used to intelligently nurture accounts further and feed your pipeline.

The future:
The ABM strategy has been expanded to the Nordics region during 2018 and results are even better than the Danish pilot. This is due to Lenovo and Blue Business working with content and messaging.  In the EMEA region several Lenovo business units  are showing a huge interest in following in the footsteps of the Nordics region.

Let’s talk

Phone: +45 2085 3377
Email: @Morten Kornerup

Download The Definitive Guide to Account Based Advertising” here:

Let’s talk

Phone: +45 2085 3377
Email: @Morten Kornerup

Let’s talk

Phone: +45 2085 3377
Email: @Morten Kornerup

Download The Definitive Guide to Account Based Advertising