OVERVIEW
When account-based engagement company 6sense partnered with PANBlast, it was a mostly-unknown player in a crowded, account-based marketing space. Over one year, PR for 6sense significantly increased awareness and market influence, demonstrated by web traffic trends, media mentions and industry share of voice.
CHALLENGE
6sense emerged in the ABM space as a contender amongst industry veterans like Demandbase and Terminus. Confident in the quality of its solution, 6sense was seeking more opportunities to insert itself into media conversations around ABM. Eventually, 6sense wanted to own the industry’s share of voice.
But, the company also needed to bring value to the industry’s many discussions. How could the company separate itself as the industry expert without simply adding to the noise?
STRATEGY
PANBlast has expertise in developing and executing strategies to fulfill the B2B SaaS coverage mix through media-relations tactics extending beyond company announcements. After benchmarking and setting goals around share of voice against competitors, PANBlast deployed a comprehensive PR strategy to significantly ramp-up media coverage for 6sense and create a consistent narrative:
Establishing recurring-content opportunities
Creating a consistent media presence is imperative when building share of voice. To facilitate this, PANBlast identified several media outlets and partner blogs open to receiving monthly, contributed bylined articles from 6sense thought leaders, including:
- Forbes Communication Council
- AdAge
- MarTech Series
- Drift blog
PANBlast collaborated with 6sense’s subject matter experts to draft and deliver content relevant to each outlet’s audience that also promoted the company’s industry expertise.
Capitalizing on reactive news opportunities
Establishing 6sense as a serious category competitor required getting the brand in front of the media consistently writing about competitors and the ABM space. To achieve this awareness, PANBlast focused its targeted press effort by:
- Tracking competitor announcements and offering 6sense commentary on what it means for the industry
- Monitoring key ABM themes appearing in the sales and marketing press, pitching interviews supporting or debunking the trend
- Tracking all competitor coverage and making media introductions to the 6sense brand and thought leadership topics for future story opportunities
Increasing thought leadership for 6sense CMO
To create a consistent narrative and voice for 6sense, PANBlast centered thought-leadership campaigns on its CMO, Latané Conant, and the theme of “ABM Is Just Good Marketing.” This included pitching Latané for:
- Executive quotes in media outlets like Forbes, AdAge and Inc. commenting on critical industry topics or news
- Bylined article opportunities, ghostwriting pieces for her following in-depth storymining sessions
- Industry podcast interviews
RESULTS
After one year of partnering with PANBlast, 6sense owned share of voice for the first time compared to its competitive set — closing the gap by 30 percentage points. In addition, organic media mentions for 6sense increased by more than 30%, demonstrating brand traction in the category and being mentioned alongside competitors more often. An increase in brand awareness was also evidenced by a more than 90% increase in new website users and sessions from the year prior, with 65% of secured articles containing a backlink to 6sense.com.