0 to Acquired in 6 StepsAn AlchemyAPI Case Study

Sonya HansenProgram Director, WW Demand Gen

SONYA HANSEN@sonya_hansen

Past lives include: • VP of Marketing, AlchemyAPI (now IBM)• Customer Marketing, inContact (NASDAQ:

SAAS)• Sr. Manager, Field Marketing, Rally

Software (now CA Technologies)

Long Story Short…Goals• Trial Users• Generate Revenue• Attract a Buyer

Challenges• Accelerate lead gen & funnel flow• Improve lead-to-sales process• Better segmentation• Reduce time-to-market• Improve visibility• Demonstrate market leadership

4

How we went from 0 to acquired in 6 stepswith inbound

S l o w down to speed up

Aligntocompanygoals

Performamarketingaudit

Knowyourbuyer

Start!

Testyourjourney

Reviewandoptimize

1

2

3

4

6

5

6 Steps

Step 1: Align to company goalsWhy do you exist?What is the end goal?What value do you provide? Who are your customers? What do they want?

Get Started with a Focus Canvas

• Timeframe• Our Meaning Beyond Money• Why We’re Different• The Value We Provide• What We’re Trying to Accomplish• Who Our Customers Are• How We’re Helping Them• What’s Important Now

Step 2: Perform a marketing auditWhat drives people to your company now? Which tactics are performing best? Worst? What’s missing completely?

credit:marekuliasz/Shutterstock

Step 3: Know your buyerLeverage your current customer listUse social mediaDon’t spend too much time on this!

becomes

Research from:• Current customers• Analyst reports• Linkedin profiles• Customer interviews• Trial user

demographics• And more…

Step 4: Start!Pick something. Content, nurtures, anythingGet your marketing automation on point. Don’t do it all yourself. You don’t scale.

Build Thought Leadership to Generate Leads

Use Marketing Automation to Your Advantage

Tips & Tricks• Have a plan• Include your whole company• Take the time to do training• Pick one campaign to start• Learn by doing

Step 5: Test your journeyConnect the dots. Think like your customer.Test, test, test.

How Inbound Works

Sentiment analysis api

Developer Brandon wants to understand how consumers feel about his company. He Googles it.

Search Online

Brandon tries the demo and gets a free trial.

Grab that Lead

Leadwithcontentthatteaches.Nurture to MQL

DeveloperBrandon

NoFluff!Practical,howtocontent.

Pass to sales

Step 6: Review and optimizeIf it can’t be measured, it didn’t happen.

Inspect and Adapt

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Results• 90% faster go-to-market• 20% increase organic traffic• 1 week HubSpot ROI• 2 week blog migration• 64 new workflows in 6 months• 90,000 trial users• Acquired by IBM in Mar 2015

Aligntocompanygoals

Performamarketingaudit

Knowyourbuyer

Start!

Testyourjourney

Reviewandoptimize

1

2

3

4

6

5

6 Steps

SONYA HANSENFollow me on Twitter:@sonya_hansen

Connect on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonyahansen56

Email me:sonya.hansen56@gmail.com

Step 1: Align to your company’s goals• Moz Blog: How to Align Your Entire Business with Your Marketing Strategy

Step 2: Perform a marketing audit• Hubspot Blog: How to Run a Simple Audit to Fix the Gaps in your Marketing• Hubspot Download: The 3 Step Marketing Audit• Hubspot Template: SWOT Analysis Cheat Sheet

Step 3: Know your buyer• Hubspot Blog: How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas [Free Template]• Hubspot Webinar Series: Marketing Personas That Tell a Story

Step 4: Start• Hubspot Blog: Editorial Calendar Templates

Resources

Resources

Step 5: Optimize the journey• Kissmetrics Blog: How to Optimize your Site for Every Stage of the Buying Cycle• MarketingLand Blog: How to Optimize your Content for Each Step of the Buyer’s Journey

Step 6: Inspect and adapt• Marketo: The Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics• Check out:

• Google Analytics• Kissmetrics• Heap Analytics