As the world’s only truly fully-integrated B2B marketing communications agency, Transmission likes to stay on the bleeding edge. That’s why Sales Enablement Director, Ashley Evans, isn’t afraid to think outside the box. 

When he started asking himself how they could better turn organic site traffic into one-on-one engagement, he didn’t settle for the usual tactics. He wanted dynamic personalization that drew on traditional ABM strategy, but in a way that was fluid, scalable, and let him reach accounts organically as they showed interest. 

He thought there was a way to introduce the level of personalization ABM provided, but in real time—as opposed to working off a rigid list of target accounts decided on once a year or quarter.

There are two main problems with set account lists:

• They rely on your data being up-to-date and absolutely correct.

• They neglect to recognize that needs change as situations change. Static data sets rarely reflect that fluidity. 

As an example, imagine you have accounts in your list who have recently brought on a different vendor. Should they stay in your account list? Sure. Should they be prioritized by marketing and sales? Probably not. Keep them on your radar and have assets ready for them when they need them, but focus your efforts on accounts actively looking for a solution.

Ashley’s mission: To become the world’s first digital SDR, intelligently acting on real-time 1st & 3rd-party intent data to engage with prospects in a relevant, resonant and value-adding way.

“I got fascinated by all of the reverse IP information that I could pull from a company, and started triangulating between several sources like Cyance, Lead Forensics, HubSpot and Drift.”

He saw an opportunity to better understand Transmission’s target audience using the data that resulted. Then, by adding Mutiny to their technology stack, Transmission could execute on their personalization strategy at scale.

Ashley's hypothesis:

“If we can engage customers when they are on our site, when they are leaning forward, actively trying to solve a problem, we have their undivided attention and can talk to them about the right thing at the right time.”

Define your account tiers ... as a starting point

While Ashley knew he wanted a reactive and flexible approach to account identification, he wanted to build a base of always-on experiences for priority accounts. Like most companies, that meant working with sales to define account tiers. Tier 1 accounts would get fully personalized, one-to-one content. Tier 2 accounts would be clustered based on predetermined commonalities, while still getting elements of a one-to-one experience. 

Start with scale by creating a one-to-few experience 

Ashley wanted to get the most bang for his buck as quickly as possible. He started with the scaled one-to-few experience for his Tier 2 accounts.

With 300 companies already in the Tier 2 bucket, Ashley needed to create a personalized experience that he could also build to scale. He used variables to dynamically insert the company’s name, and personalized the page content to focus on common pain points. It’s scalable but relevant—and powered by Mutiny.

Ashley's one-to-few personalized experience built in Mutiny

“The number of accounts we target in this group has grown because with Mutiny I am able to build the personalization at scale, set and forget it. I can always tweak it based on those changing circumstances, but it's there for organic web traffic, and the ‘lights are on’ any time somebody comes to the site from these companies.”

Dive deeper into your inbound traffic 

“The real key to our success with account tiers is to keep the lists fluid. With Drift and Mutiny, I watch the companies that keep coming back to the site multiple times. Sometimes they aren't part of our one-to-few accounts, but I can easily add them to the targeting in Mutiny and they can start getting the scaled personalized experience right away.”

For example, when Ashley first noticed Cisco was showing 3rd party intent signals and checking out transmissionagency.com, he quickly added them to his one-to-few experience so they immediately started seeing the above experience. 

While that experience is running in the background, he goes to work to learn as much about who is visiting Transmission’s site and why as possible. He uses Drift to get a real-time view of who is visiting —where they’re located, the company they work for and their journey through the site. He then uses LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator to pinpoint the actual people most likely to be visiting from the account

“I can usually narrow it down to one or two people. That's sex for a salesperson.”

Do your research

Look into third-party systems to understand what the company might be struggling with. Ashley uses Cyance, which shows him the most relevant intent topics based on a customized list of keywords for Transmission. In the example below, we can see the account has some immediate tactical challenges (direct mail), but also overarching strategic planning issues (ABM), and are currently researching digital agencies.

Ashley also uses installed-base data (Wappalyzer is a free one you can use) to identify the tech stack running on clients’ websites. This can help you understand if the company is researching a new solution, or if they already have the solution and need help making it work. 

With this granular level of insight into the prospect’s primary struggles, he can craft resonant messaging through various channels. 

Launch a Drift playbook to start a conversation

Now that he knows exactly who is on the site and what they are looking for, he can proactively start a conversation focused on the problems they are looking to solve. 

Send a LinkedIn request with a Smart Link 

A multi-channel approach is the best way to engage visitors. They may not reply on Drift, but Ashley also connects with them on LinkedIn. He finds relevant content to share with them based on all of his research so far, and with LinkedIn’s Smart Links he can see exactly who is engaging, for how long and on which pages—even more insight to fuel his personalization strategies. 

Create a one-to-one experience with personalized video

As engagement continues, so does the level of personalization. With all of the insight he’s gained through his research and by watching the prospect engage, Ashley sets up a one-to-one Mutiny experience and a personalized video, so as these companies continue to come back to Transmission’s site they get a highly relevant, custom experience.

“Mutiny’s side pops work really well. I put the videos into the side pop so they're front and center, and make sure that the side pop fires across all pages of the site, not just the homepage.”

He shoots about 20 videos at a time, recorded on his tablet. While the basic script is always similar, they’re each nuanced for the client and each has the unique company’s logo embedded. The idea is to give their experience on the site a humanized feel.  

Learn from Thomas Maremaa at Brex how to build personalized 1:1 outbound pages, and verticalize your messaging to resonate with target accounts.