Terminus Products Used
United Airlines and ABM
United for Business is a division of United Airlines that focuses on driving B2B opportunities. They focus on business relationships and how organizations use business travel. That might be in the form of a business travel program where organizations pay up front for discounts or other benefits.
United for Business uses ABM to target the small to midsize sector. They not only make this sector aware of product offerings and benefits of doing business with United, but also get them in front of their sales team, so they can convert them into opportunities.
Terminus helped United for Business evolve, post COVID
At the beginning of 2020, United went through a B2B transformation, focused on how they can drive and win new opportunities. As part of that transition, they knew they needed to implement marketing automation and focus on account-based marketing.
Then, like other organizations, things shifted after COVID. For United, though, the shift was even more dramatic. Airlines were hit hard. Business travel became non-existent. They had to change their strategy.
They were accustomed to having a ton of opportunities in the funnel. So, they had to change what they were doing, because it was now important to identify companies traveling again. Intent was a big part of that. Coming into the beginning of 2021, United saw that some small to mid-sized businesses were starting to travel again. That’s where they started with their ABM pilot. They focused on specific United hub areas and identified a target list of accounts.
While it was a bare bones strategy of testing and learning, they started to see results. ABM was making a difference. That’s when they implemented Terminus. Terminus helped fill the gaps in better targeting and reaching accounts in ways that they couldn’t previously. Before, United sent a lot of cold emails. Now, they advertise directly to their target accounts. Before they had no sense of interest. Now, they have data that highlights businesses searching for topics related to business travel. And, they filled the time and resource gaps they had.
Now, United better understands the accounts they are targeting and use intent to better prioritize the ones they hand off to their sales team. Intent is extremely important to their industry, especially now because the landscape has changed so much. Today, there are a lot of companies that don’t plan to travel as much for business. So, knowing what companies are interested in traveling is incredibly valuable. It also expands their ability to market their product differently. There are some companies going completely remote but convening their workforce from time to time from all over the country and even the world. They still need an airline partner, and that’s a fit for United’s travel offering.
The Terminus and United Airlines partnership
Terminus’ knowledge of ABM is one reason why United marketers are very comfortable working with our team. They also appreciate how customers get much more than just a platform. United has a dedicated customer success team that works with them and their unique scenarios while understanding what they are trying to achieve. Our support team works with United to generate ideas, while always providing support. We work together to form a true partnership.
The starting point with Terminus: Email Experiences
United started with Email Experiences. They rolled it out to their sales team, and there’s been nothing but great feedback. It has made things a lot easier, as Sales team members no longer have to update the banners themselves or even think about them. It’s all automated.
Sales team members at United have incredibly tough jobs, which include keeping customers up to date. With Email Experiences, they reduce their need to focus on this task and can still relay useful information to their accounts. Being able to build off of Email Experiences and connect it to their overall ABM strategy is a big factor to their ongoing and future success.
Terminus also helps United with their cold emails. They use Email Experiences in their direct outreach to personalize different messages to their targeted accounts.
They are now implementing the rest of the platform and look forward to expanding their ABM program with Terminus.
ABM and Terminus will help United scale
ABM is going to help United scale by increasing awareness and better targeting the small to midsize sector. These organizations don’t realize they can have a business relationship with United. They assume that’s just for enterprise level or consulting organizations. The reality is that they have product offerings for business of any size. So, to use more targeted marketing efforts, build awareness, and drive leads in a new segment … that’s going to be the future of B2B United.
