Challenge

  • IFS contends with long sales cycles that can stretch well beyond 12 months. This has, historically, made it a challenge for its digital marketing team to prove their impact on the business.
  • The team also needed a more efficient way to drive high-quality leads for its industry-specific products within a handful of niche sectors while raising its brand profile.

Solution

  • IFS introduced a lead scoring and attribution system, then prepared to launch an ABM strategy on LinkedIn. Bringing its target account lists onto the platform, the team worked closely with LinkedIn Marketing Solutions to design an always-on approach for maximum resonance and campaign budget efficiency. 
  • IFS ran brand awareness campaigns to build top-of-mind recall among broad audiences and, concurrently, launched highly-targeted lead generation campaigns to drive bottom-funnel results.
  • With this approach, the team was able to exceed all its internal benchmarks relating to impressions, Marketing Qualified Leads and high-value engagement, all while delivering high-quality leads for sales follow-up.

   Success Factors

  1. A brand-to-demand approach: As part of its ABM strategy, IFS saw the need to invest in top-funnel content to raise brand awareness and position itself as an industry thought leader.
  2. Engaging the full buying committee: IFS recognised the need to engage not only decision-makers, but also the full buying committee. It developed persona-based campaigns to speak directly to different stakeholders and tracked impact through the Company Engagement Report and Campaign Demographics in LinkedIn Campaign Manager.