Challenge
Limelight Networks has been a Madison Logic client for over 6 years, first for content syndication campaigns then for more structured, account-based marketing programs as Madison Logic’s capabilities evolved.
“When we first started working with Madison Logic, we wanted to acquire leads that fit a specific customer profile based on industry, title, and other standard identifiers,” says Janice Merk, Senior Director of Global Marketing at Limelight.
As the market evolved, Merk realized that a lead-focused strategy was not going to be an effective solution for Limelight’s needs. She needed to take a full account-based approach and focus her efforts on engaging and accelerating the entire account, not any specific person or lead.
“We needed to refine our efforts…and to train the salespeople to respond…in a customized, personalized way.”
In addition, Merk knew that her marketing campaigns were working, but it was difficult to prove ROI by connecting campaign results to revenue or accelerated conversions.
“Often the person downloading a whitepaper is in the early stages of their journey and not ready to have a buying conversation. We needed to refine our efforts…and to train the salespeople to respond…in a customized, personalized way.”
Solution
Limelight leaned into ABM to solve their challenge of prioritizing their marketing and sales efforts to shorten the sales cycle and increase conversions. Merk worked with Madison Logic to implement a full account-based marketing strategy.
This enables Limelight to identify and prioritize the best accounts based on Madison Logic’s ML Data Cloud, which includes licensed co-op and technographic data, along with ML Intent, Madison Logic’s proprietary intent data based on registration and program insights. The ability to identify and seamlessly engage top accounts, and measure impact against those accounts across content syndication, display advertising and most recently LinkedIn through Madison Logic’s new integration with the LinkedIn Marketing Analytics API, greatly enhanced the impact of their ABM strategy.
“Working with Madison Logic has helped us solve our challenges because of the insight they provide into the accounts that are engaging with us.”
Limelight is now able to see key cross-channel insights to validate how the channels are influencing a set of accounts in one platform, and optimize their messaging through Journey Acceleration™ based on market and account-level trends. By leveraging website activity and email nurture campaigns, synchronized with their CRM and marketing automation platforms, Limelight can accelerate account velocity to convert their best accounts faster.
“Working with Madison Logic has helped us solve our challenges because of the insight they provide into the accounts that are engaging with us. We can highlight the accounts that are showing the most activity to Sales, so they can prioritize and customize their outreach,” says Merk. “It’s much easier to prove the value of marketing with Madison Logic and ABM. Now, we are able to create brand awareness and engagement throughout the sales cycle and show how our efforts are enabling Sales to find greater success.”
Beyond the improved leads, better ROI, and increased sales and marketing alignment that Madison Logic can deliver, the personalized service that Madison Logic provides proved to be a key aspect of the relationship.
“The service we receive from Madison Logic is exceptional. I feel like Madison Logic is our partner, rather than a vendor. There is always a sense that Madison Logic is helping us to be more creative and achieve our goals, rather than just trying to sell a service,” Merk continues. ”We work together to achieve our marketing goals and tackle the challenges that come along the way, and that’s something unique that Madison Logic has to offer. That’s a big part of why we continue to work with ML year after year.”
Results
Account-based marketing proved to be the perfect strategy for Limelight Networks. In the CDN business, customers typically sign annual contracts and engage new providers only when their current contract is approaching renewal. That means that a prospect may be starting preliminary research in February but will not be ready to buy until much later in the year.
“In 2019, 90% of the opportunities created with our target accounts had marketing influence… That’s the value of account-based marketing, especially with a powerful solution like Madison Logic.”
This makes ABM incredibly valuable, enabling Limelight to maintain a high level of brand awareness throughout the year while also generating new contacts by encouraging prospects to engage when they are ready. Limelight is confident it is reaching more people on prospect buying committees by delivering relevant, high-value content and targeted display and social advertising.
Limelight carefully tracks program ROI by measuring marketing influence on pipeline, and the latest analysis proves the focus on ABM is having a significant impact.
“In 2019, 90% of the opportunities created with our target accounts had marketing influence – and most of that was through Madison Logic.”
A recent high-profile win for Limelight highlights the value of a consistent ABM strategy. The first touch at the account through Madison Logic was in 2017. In the subsequent years, there were 25 different marketing touches with multiple people on the buying committee. Over the same period, Sales was staying in touch with their key contacts.
“Marketing was engaging with a lot of people through events, content syndication, display advertising, webinars, and so on. Sales had fewer touches, but their activities were high impact face-to-face meetings, demos, and technical briefings. In our analysis, we can clearly see how the two teams were working together to accomplish the same goal,” Merk explains.
“Madison Logic makes it easier for Sales to get their foot in the door at our key target accounts, because when Sales introduces themselves and our product, the prospect knows who we are and how we can help them achieve their business objectives. That’s the value of account-based marketing, especially with a powerful solution like Madison Logic.”
If you would like to learn more about how Madison Logic can help you convert your best accounts faster, contact us today.