Martech Chats Series

ABM/ABX: Real-World Insights

B2B sales and marketing is moving towards ABM (account-based marketing) and the even more advanced ABX (account-based experience) as their go-to revenue-driving strategy. Learn more about how to plan, implement and measure ABM/ABX campaigns in our first Martech Chat.

Overview

December 8, 2023 – Marketing leaders Jordan Liebman of BlueJeans by Verizon and Laura Stevenson of Ascend Marketing discussed their recent campaign collaboration—which included ABM and ABX to achieve key business goals. Hear how developing more personalized, highly targeted conversations between the BlueJeans brand, prospective customers and sales leaders resulted in improved sales enablement and performance.  

Featured Experts

Laura Stevenson

Laura Stevenson

Account Lead, Customer Experience and Communications

Ascend marketing

Jordan Liebman

Jordan Liebman

Vice President, Global Brand Marketing and Demand Generation

BlueJeans by Verizon

Meet the Experts

Laura Stevenson 

Account Lead Customer Experience and Communications, Ascend Marketing 

Laura has more than 25 years of experience in the advertising and marketing field, including corporate roles at Verizon, and has partnered with a diverse set of companies, including Nissan, Verizon, BlueJeans by Verizon, Alkami and SAP. Her primary focus is helping clients with journey and ABX demand generation strategies, including content to support the appropriate sales funnel and customer stages. She is especially adept in working across various company resources, plus staying on top of the latest tools, technologies, and industry best practices to attain next-level marketing effectiveness.  

Jordan Liebman 

Vice President, Global Brand Marketing and Demand Generation, BlueJeans by Verizon

Jordan is an ex-creative agency leader turned brand leader who now serves as the Global Head of Brand Marketing and Demand Generation for BlueJeans by Verizon. In his role, Jordan oversees all lead generation and brand awareness/engagement activity for the $250M product portfolio. Before BlueJeans, Jordan led consumer wireless creative marketing for Verizon, in which he oversaw brand strategy for the company’s holiday campaign and brand partnerships with the NBA, NFL, Disney, Apple, and various other content partners.  

December 8, 2023 – Jordan Liebman, Vice President, Global Brand Marketing and Demand Generation for BlueJeans by Verizon and Laura Stevenson, Customer Experience and Communications Account Lead for Ascend Marketing, discussed the role of ABM (Account-Based Marketing) and ABX (Account-Based Experience) in their recent campaign collaboration.

Laura delved into the nuances of refining brand image and shifting towards performance marketing. She highlighted the integration of brand and performance marketing, a strategy that transitioned the business from a broad approach to a more targeted, one-to-one marketing strategy.

Jordan focused on the key business objectives of accelerating the marketing and sales funnel and enhancing customer engagement. He emphasized the significance of nurturing leads to a point where they are deeply engaged, highly receptive, and purchase-ready, which drives greater sales enablement.

Key Insights Included:

Core Strategies and Implementation of ABM/ABX

  • Data Management and Quality: Laura and Jordan both stressed the importance of data quality and organizational alignment and readiness to support a new strategy.
  • ABM and ABX Hybrid Approach: The BlueJeans and Ascend Marketing teams took a hybrid approach to the overall campaign, focusing on marketing to qualified accounts and creating a tiered account list for different market segments.
  • Collaborative Sales Strategy: Keeping the campaign on track throughout every phase was essential to its success. Both teams stayed in close communication throughout the campaign, holding regular performance reviews and leveraging real-time data for dynamic account prioritization. This drove more immediate signs of achievement.

Challenges and Adaptive Solutions

  • Flexibility and Adaptability: Expecting the unexpected and adapting to surprises or hurdles was key to keeping the campaign on course and was vital to its success.
  • Technology Integration Challenges: Utilizing multiple platforms to generate enhanced data insights was crucial for the campaign’s highly-targeted marketing efforts—it was what powered the greater personalization of marketing touchpoints. One significant challenge was ensuring the seamless integration of various platforms and maintaining data integrity.

Results and Impact

  • Performance Metrics: The campaign achieved significant improvements in MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) performance and conversion rates.
  • Accurate and Actionable Data: For the first time, marketing and sales had data they could trust and the ability to leverage it to target prospects more effectively.
  • Improved Sales Enablement and Performance: ABM drove greater sales opportunity performance and higher overall revenue performance.

Expert Tips for Launching Successful ABM/ABX Campaigns

  • Don’t wait to get organizational support—make sure to get alignment and advocacy from leadership all the way down to the front line as early as possible.
  • Ensure awareness and understanding of KPIs and differences in how executives and sales team leaders define a QL (Qualified Lead) and an MQL—and how each group measures the marketing efforts.
  • Commit to full immersion in the tools, know how to leverage the platforms, and understand all of the data they make available to run a truly successful campaign.
  • Emphasize the importance of agility and collaboration in cross-functional teams. Keep in constant communication and be sure to report out campaign progress and signs of success quickly and regularly across the organization.

Throughout the Martech Chat, Jordan and Laura shared real-world experience with ABM and ABX strategy and implementation with an approach that can be applied to organizations of any size or type. Their valuable insights included the importance of building a comprehensive campaign that involves close collaboration between sales, marketing and technology teams to drive success.

Stay tuned for more expert discussions and insights in upcoming Martechify events!

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