We are proud to announce that one of our valued customers, Ayla Networks, has just launched a new marketing/sales initiative for their IoT solution for ISPs called TransformAI.
Why they did it.
Ayla Networks have seen the statistics and understand what today’s B2B Buyers are doing and what they want. For example, they know that Buyers will have completed 60% of their research before engaging with a vendor (Demand Gen Report). And once they do engage, Ayla also knows the following:
Knowing these things, it then became a question of how to deliver on these Buyer demands.
How they did it.
Ayla started the process by leveraging our Splashmetrics Buyer Journey Intelligence platform to strategically plan the initiative via the Manage component – a process that involved critical stakeholders across the company including executives, marketing and sales team members, and content creators.
The automated planning in Splashmetrics provided clear direction to each of the downstream stakeholders (tactical marketing/sales teams, ops teams, content creators) to execute their respective parts of the initiative. It automatically calculated the benchmarks, KPIs, and quotas required to reach the revenue target for the initiative in the timeframe allotted, as well as provided integration with Marketo and Salesforce.
From there the stage-aligned smart content for each journey flow stage was built and integrated – and the initiative was launched.
The Splashmetrics Analyze component will now use these benchmarks, KPIs, and quotas from the plan to provide 360° CMO-level measurement across the entire initiative. It’s simply a matter of measuring whether the required number of Buyers are moving through the journey flow to ensure success against that revenue target. There is full clarity on these analytics for all the above stakeholders because the numbers tie back to the plan everyone worked on together.
Finally, because Ayla also leveraged our SplashMaker smart content product, their buyers will not only get fully personalized experiences B2B Buyers demand, but Ayla itself will also be provided full data integration with Splashmetrics, Marketo, and Salesforce.
If you’re interested in more detail, take a look below where we break down the above graphic and process Ayla followed…
What kind of initiative will it be?
The first thing to be decided was what kind of marketing/sales initiative this would be. As you can see in the image, it was determined that it would be both a Demand Gen and ABM initiative (with a focus on the latter). In other words, digital marketing and social channels would be used to target ISP-specific companies and direct them to the custom landing page (S1- Active stage) which, in turn, is designed to invite these ISP Buyers into the personalized journey. But also, the intent was to bring existing Ayla customers who can benefit from TransformAI directly into the journey via the personalized eBook (S2 – Engaged stage). The advantage here is that these known Buyers don’t have to deal with any forms or cookies, yet still have fully customized content just for them.
Now, Splashmetrics can work with virtually any sales or marketing model because it’s primarily geared toward the Buyer’s “last mile” content demands (i.e. – it is “model agnostic”). But because this was going to be an ABM-focused initiative, the Sirius Decisions Demand Waterfall was used to label the 5 stages of the journey from engagement to won-customer.
Who is the audience?
The next critical item in the process was defining who the targeted buyers are, what their specific needs are, and what solutions Ayla offers to each. In the case of this initiative, Ayla chose to use the following ABM Buyer Roles: End User, Influencer, and Decision Maker. Personas were then defined under each using typical job titles for these roles.
Though all obviously working in the same general area, each role has different pain-points in regards to a solution. So knowing what these pain-points are, and how the product solves those challenges is critical to building the right messaging and sequencing to fully personalize the content – both for new Buyers and existing Ayla customers.
Therefore, based on the strategic direction, the smart content was built to automatically serve up and personalize 3 different versions of the messaging and graphics based on these Buyer Roles, thereby providing a fully bespoke experience for each Buyer.
How does the content work?
The next major consideration that was addressed in the planning is how the content will engage the Buyer, and then as they move through the journey, how it will work to educate, compel, and convince the Buyer to purchase. In this regard, it is important to think about a couple of things; 1) How the content aligns with the journey stages, and, 2) What the content does to accomplish this sales conversation in each stage.
Obviously, before you have any information on new Buyers, it’s about getting them to that landing page in the “Active” Stage 1 section (image above) and compelling them to move into the personalized journey you’ve built for them. This landing page, therefore, is critical in measuring the effectiveness of your targeted “top of funnel” marketing/advertising efforts for the initiative, but just as importantly, in gauging the appeal of the journey itself.
After this first stage, we move on to educating these Buyers about Ayla’s TransformAI solution. Hence, the personalized eBook is in the “Engaged” Stage 2 section.
Then it’s about discussing specific pain-points the Buyer might have and showing how the product can help solve them. So we move them to the personalized assessment in the “Prioritized” Stage 3 section.
From here it’s about proving the business case. In this initiative, this means putting the Buyers directly in touch with a dedicated sales person in the “Pipeline” Stage 5 section to schedule a meeting and discuss those pain-points.
Finally, in each smart content asset, strategic interactions are defined (e.g. – a survey in the eBook, the assessment itself, etc.) such that the Buyer can get feedback on where they stand in regards to their pain-points. Additionally, the sales team can also have specific information to conduct that personalized one-to-one conversation with the Buyer when he/she is ready. And that leads to the integrations…
How do the integrations work?
As mentioned previously, SplashMaker content integrates directly with many leading MA/CRM platforms. In this case, those platforms are Marketo and Salesforce. But what you get from SplashMaker is not your typical “content data”.
Instead of generalized metrics in Marketo such as how much time a Buyer might have spent looking at a PDF, how many “pages” they turned in a flipbook, etc. – SplashMaker provides both specific engagement data (what various interactions within the content the Buyers are engaging with) – AND invaluable Buyer Data (the actual information from the Buyer that your marketing and sales teams receive through these strategically planned interactions).
For example, certain selections in the eBook survey indicate a more immediate need than others. In that case, not only is the selection pushed through to Marketo but a Buyer Action Alert is also pushed through so that things like an automated nurture program or sales playbook action can be triggered to facilitate a deeper conversation.
Additionally, links to Buyer Data Reports are pushed into Marketo and/or Salesforce from the SplashMaker content to provide comprehensive Buyer-provided information to the sales team. For example, the answers provided in the assessment asset can be reviewed for each Buyer to prepare for their requested meeting. And that follow-up from sales or marketing can even be reported back into Splashmetrics to ensure no Buyer ever falls through the cracks.
Bridging that sales and marketing divide.
So with the above Splashmetrics-driven planning and execution, you can now see how Ayla Networks is giving its Buyers the exact sales content journey they demand, and how it is ensuring that every Buyer who reaches out to sales is not only fully qualified but will receive the personalized, fully informed one-to-one conversation they deserve.
Want to know more?
Click here for more information on both Splashmetrics and SplashMaker.