How a new marketing model generated 30% more leads while lowering costs
Pivoting from trade shows to digital marketing
For businesses that get significant value in terms of leads and sales from trade shows and physical events, 2020 was the year they had to rethink everything.
That was the situation for 3SI Security Systems, a leading provider of GPS tracking and security solutions for asset protection and recovery. Industry trade shows are common in loss prevention and security, and those physical events were 3SI’s ideal channel to reach target prospects.
3SI’s marketing team was able to consistently generate great impact and results thanks to experienced tradeshow marketing management and a rigorous post-event follow-up process. When the pandemic struck, the team knew that replacing events as a contribution to pipeline would mean quickly ramping up and expanding digital marketing initiatives. Where other businesses chose to pause and take a wait-and-see approach, 3SI acted decisively, leaning into and investing in new opportunities and digital channels to successfully navigate uncertain waters.
3SI needed to quickly generate demand and accelerate the sales cycle to account for the sudden shortfall in events. Enter marketing as a service (MaaS), a new operating model that allows businesses to rapidly scale marketing engines and add new capabilities for greater impact.
Leveraging digital ABM for high-quality leads
As an industry leader for almost 50 years at that point in time, 3SI had already honed a crisp brand message and value proposition—it was just a matter of getting that message in front of the right prospects quickly. So in Q3 of 2020, 3SI turned to 2X, a B2B-focused MaaS firm, to generate demand and high-quality leads. 3SI had already identified a selection of suitable industries they wanted to target, so 2X proposed an account-based marketing (ABM) program to deliver personalized messaging based on those industries and prospects’ job titles.
For this ABM program to truly succeed, 2X and 3SI had to work together, adding more digital capabilities and channels, developing new content, and implementing fresh tactics and more comprehensive reporting.
Marketing capability evolved for scale
Demand generation
- Launched ABM campaigns for each target industry
- Distributed new content consistently to generate interest in target personas
Database size and hygiene
- Built a new total addressable market database
- Scrubbed the previous database to enhance relevancy and completeness of information
- Thoroughly researched job titles in the contact database to develop personalized messaging
Content marketing
- Repackaged and refreshed content to cater to target personas
- Atomized content for each stage of the funnel to maximize conversions
Personalized messaging
- Personalized campaigns to the target personas
- Optimized messaging after each campaign to improve open rates and click through rates
A snapshot of the results MaaS achieved
3SI successfully generated more leads in six months with ABM in 2020 than their entire marketing program in 2019. 3SI even managed to close a deal within one week of generating a lead.
In 2X, 3SI saw the same innovative energy and drive to create impact—proving to be the right opportunity for partnership. 3SI gained an entire external team at the fraction of the cost of hiring new FTE marketers: the teams would work hand-in-hand, with 3SI focusing on high-value strategy and 2X on highly skilled marketing execution, like running and optimizing demand generation campaigns.
The additional resources and expertise that MaaS provides allowed 3SI to leverage new marketing capabilities at scale, helping to penetrate new markets, generate more pipeline, and ultimately increase revenue—and all at a lower cost compared to alternatives like hiring freelancers or onshore agencies.
Within just six months, the campaigns led by 2X achieved significant results for 3SI:
- 30% increase in leads generated
- 75% reduction in cost per MQL
- 66% reduction in cost between MaaS vs. trade shows
