When RollWorks was spun out of AdRoll in 2018, we knew that we had to continue our heritage and passion to level the playing field for ambitious marketers; this meant when we launched our account-based marketing (ABM) platform, we deliberately designed it to be accessible for all B2B companies. We call this concept "ABM for All" and we articulated our mission to "Democratize ABM."
We wanted to create a future where the promise of ABM was not limited to just large enterprises or organizations with sizable resources, technology investments, or a high level of ABM expertise.
In recent times, this mission has become even more important. Economic ebbs and flows often disproportionately impact businesses that need access to technology the most to thrive in an uncertain world.
As we celebrate RollWorks’ 5-year anniversary, it’s with great pride that I can say we are well on our way to making this mission a reality. And this has become increasingly clear within the markets we serve; ABM is now an established component of marketing strategies for any B2B organization. We are heartened to see that reinforced by analysts, thought leaders, and even our competitors.
How we pioneered a future that made ‘ABM for All’ a reality
To achieve our mission of democratizing ABM, we focused on 5 strategic pillars:
- Customers: We built relationships with customers across a wide spectrum of size and ABM readiness. We listened intently to their circumstances, probed them about their goals, and built a deep understanding of their problems that can be solved uniquely by our platform. As a result, we are proud to count established leaders like Snowflake and Okta as our customers, as well as emerging, growing companies such as Calendly and Greenhouse.
- Partnerships: We wanted to intentionally create a win-win relationship with other players in the ecosystem, and get our combined message in front of mutual customers. We knew we had to partner with like-minded companies to make ABM accessible to a large number of B2B companies. We built deep partnerships with dozens of companies in our market, with established leaders such as HubSpot and LinkedIn on one hand, and emerging partners such as Bombora and G2 on the other hand.
- Offerings: Democratizing ABM meant we had to make our offerings easily accessible for companies early in their ABM journey. We were the first ABM platform to offer a pricing plan below $1,000/month to help emerging companies get a complete view of the capabilities of an ABM platform. At the same time, we designed our offerings specifically to help customers pick and choose their expansion paths once they got started. As our customers evolve and grow in their own journey, so does their utilization of our platform.
- Products: One of our product principles we are passionate about is to sweat the details and care deeply about the design of the product. We know that when we make our products easy to use and get started with, our customers find value quickly with very little hand holding. We strongly believe that customers don’t need to trade off ease-of-use with depth of functionality. We’re proud of our customers recognizing us as an industry leader in well designed products on peer review sites such as G2.
- Expertise: We built a strong team of knowledgeable ABM experts who helped our customers craft their use of our platform in accordance with their specific goals. While we have “ABM best practices” which we share with our customers, we recognize that sometimes those need to be customized for circumstances that may be specific to our customers.
A future shaped for the market
Trends in the market serve as proof for RollWorks’ claim to have democratized access to ABM. ABM is now in the top 3 marketing tactics currently used by small business marketers worldwide. Google search volume for the term 'account-based marketing’ has doubled over the past two years, indicating an expansion of interest beyond just the companies with means. Various industry analysts now recognize and publish ABM-specific reports and insights.
The reinforcement that we’ve reached a critical inflection point in our journey only motivated us to push progress further: account-based everything is the future. For RollWorks, that means pushing through a new frontier and bringing the entire revenue team along for the journey.
Mission Accelerated: Where We’re Going
It's no longer just about marketing and the impact it’s having on building and progressing accounts in the sales pipeline. As the economy has compressed resources for many organizations, it’s even more important to fuel the entire revenue team with all the capabilities an account-based approach can unlock.
It is abundantly clear through the past year that all B2B organizations will need to become more efficient in their revenue generation activities. This will require even tighter alignment between marketing, sales, operations and customer success teams, with a technology platform specifically designed to align ideal customer profile (ICP), customer segments, target accounts, and buying committees all while orchestrating multi-channel campaigns to get their message across buyers in a cost effective manner. We are committed to expand our pioneering roots into a future where all go-to-market functions in revenue teams will have access to the data and insights required of a modern business.
We have already made progress by bringing account intelligence to sales, marketing, and operations teams, and have delivered products such as Sales Insights and integrations with Sales Automation tools to extend our platform’s value to sales professionals. Now, we are clearer than ever that revenue teams of all sizes, team structures, sophistication, and goals can have a future of efficient growth. As we continue into 2023, we know one thing to be certain: account-based platforms will become non-negotiable in the modern revenue team’s tech stack, and we’re here to pave the way.
This wouldn’t, and won’t, be possible without our #1 priority: our customers. Thanks for joining us as we take off into the next phase of growth.
About the Author
More Content by Mihir Nanavati, President of RollWorks
