Signature Story Interview
Case Study
Scale Computing offers an IT virtualization infrastructure platform that is changing the way IT runs from the ground up in the data center and at the edge. Combining servers, storage, hypervisor, and backup, Scale Computing helps IT administrators transform infrastructures to be more scalable, more highly available, and more affordable.
Scale Computing’s Marketing team turned to Sigstr to take control over a new channel opportunity and to inform their ABM strategy with account insights.
Scale Computing’s Marketing Philosophy
With a focus on the bottom line, Scale Computing’s Marketing department runs a lean team for maximum efficiency. They are measured on pipeline generated, inbound leads generated, cost per lead, and lead conversion. Over the past year, the team has focused on building out an advanced ABM program to help them meet and exceed their goals.
“For our business, inbound leads are usually really expensive to create. It was my job to find a way to create more inbound opportunities at a drastically reduced cost per lead,” explains Brent Patrick, Senior Marketing Manager at Scale Computing, “Traditionally, we are a 100% inbound organization. We turned to ABM because we wanted to keep our Business Development Reps busy chasing the best fit prospects at a lower cost.”
In order to build a successful ABM strategy, Scale Computing created a Business Development role dedicated to ABM efforts, hired Account-Based Marketing Strategists, worked directly with Sales to establish processes, and began building a world class ABM tech stack (with Sigstr included).
First Came Signatures…
“When we first came to Sigstr, it was because we saw the value in signatures as an owned channel,” explains Brent, “As an inbound organization, the idea of controlling the content and message shared by our sales team was too good to pass up. Plus, the fact that Sigstr campaigns support advanced targeting lined up perfectly with our ABM initiatives.”
Honing in on the philosophy that all roads should lead to a product demo, the Marketing team first rolled Sigstr out to 50 users to start driving more demo requests. The boost in traffic sourced from Sigstr doubled the number of demo registrations. And within 90 days, they saw a return on their investment. With so much success, Scale Computing rolled out Sigstr out to their whole team, taking full ownership of the channel and disseminating their message through every employee.
Then Came Relationships…
As Scale Computing built out their ABM program, they realized there were some key challenges. Putting account-based marketing in action means personalizing outreach to top tier accounts, but the Sales and Marketing team didn’t know who their top tier accounts were or how to prioritize them.
“We realized early on that we needed more data to decide which accounts we should be targeting with ABM efforts,” explains Brent, “We had an extremely powerful tech stack for ABM execution, but without knowing how to prioritize our top accounts, it was useless.”
It was during this time period that Scale Computing learned of Sigstr’s relationship intelligence functionality. By analyzing the email and calendar patterns of all employees within an organization, Sigstr Relationships identifies and quantifies the entire universe of relationships that a company’s employees have. Teams gain a true understanding of the quality of relationships they have within target accounts, locations, or customizable segments.
“When I first heard about Sigstr Relationships, I immediately recognized it was something we needed,” says Brent, “The functionality works by providing insight into information you already have, email and calendar data. By analyzing and scoring relationships, we finally knew which accounts and contacts we should be prioritizing.”
Scale Computing’s ABM Tech Stack: Sigstr, Terminus, Bombora, and Salesforce
With the help of Sigstr Relationships, Scale Computing developed a whole new approach to tiering accounts. By leveraging Sigstr alongside Salesforce, Terminus, and Bombora, Scale Computing’s Marketing team was able to understand who they should be targeting, which accounts were easiest to penetrate, and what methods they should use to do so. They were able to take a list of 70,000 accounts and narrow it down to the top 125 companies that were ready to buy.
The Scale Computing team had great ABM tools, but Sigstr Relationships is what brought everything together. By integrating Sigstr with Terminus, Scale Computing was able to create a single Account-Based Marketing user interface to organize and prioritize accounts as well as monitor how relationships within those accounts changed over time.
“Prioritizing accounts is the most important part of an ABM strategy and Sigstr Relationships is the best tool to help you identify which accounts will be easiest to penetrate,” says Brent, “As a marketer, how can you not understand the power of scoring your company’s relationships? Relationships are at the core of every major business decision.”
The Scale Computing team has done something that many marketers strive for, but few achieve. They’ve developed a successful ABM program. In addition to the Scale Computing team’s many talents, part of that success can be attributed to Sigstr.
