Trapeze Expands 1:1 Account Personalization into Multi-Tier ABM Program

Trapeze Group is a software and services provider for transportation agencies. At about 800 employees, the company helps streamline and integrate transportation operations from bus stops to finance departments. Trapeze Group’s marketing and sales departments have embraced account-based marketing to help win large deals and long sales cycles. Deals can reach several million dollars and require input from dozens of stakeholders.

Award-Winning ABM Campaign

Trapeze launched its first ABM campaign to a list of 10 target accounts, which included a mix of prospects and customers. The success of its deep 1:1 account targeting was recognized by Demand Gen Report, winning Best Account Based Marketing Campaign in 2018.

Target Account Selection and Segmentation

Trapeze Group decided on its first 10 target accounts by soliciting feedback from sales representatives and executives. One prospect account in particular, the Los Angeles Transit Authority, was chosen because the sales team had been trying for months to schedule a meeting. Sales wanted to see if account based marketing could help get that meeting with the LA Transit Authority.

Nurture top tier accounts with 1:1 account targeting

For Tier 1 accounts like the LA Transit Authority, marketing and sales work together to develop unique, account-specific messaging. Each of the 10 accounts is set up to interact with a uniquely compelling ABM campaign. Each campaign employs a different set of channel tactics, messaging, and calls-to-action.

For the LA Transit Authority, Trapeze designed “innovation” centered creative to match LA Transit authority’s own “innovation” brand message.Key stakeholders experienced highly integrated campaigns that coordinated messaging and creative across events, print ads, direct mail, email, account based advertising, and web personalization. All communications pointed to how Trapeze Group could help LA Transit authority deliver innovation. This messaging was followed by a call-to-action to talk to the Trapeze Group sales executive assigned to the LA Transit Authority account.

Trapeze uses Triblio to automate digital advertising and calls-to-action foreach of its top 10 accounts. Each top tier account sees a personalized view of the website, from home page messaging to case studies and resources pages, also powered by Triblio. Personalized views of landing pages display calendars, where prospects can book meetings with their assigned rep.

Award-Winning ABM Campaign

Both the marketing and sales teams at Trapeze Group found success in omnichannel 1:1 account targeting. Since winning Best ABM Campaign from Demand Gen Report on this first go at account-based marketing, Trapeze has built out a sophisticated ABM program that encompasses 100 target accounts, divided into 3 account tiers. The expanded program includes not only its largest new logos but also dozens of smaller accounts, upsell, and cross sell opportunities. Top tier accounts continue to receive 1:1 marketing and sales attention across the web and throughout the purchase journey. Tier 2 and Tier 3 accounts receive segment-specific personalizations like industry-based popups and event-specific CTAs.

From an engagement perspective, Trapeze compared its 10 Tier 1 accounts that received ABM campaigns with those equivalent accounts that didn’t. The results show a 240% improvement in pages/session, a 243% improvement in session duration, a 140% reduction in bounce rate, and a 314% increase in form-fill conversions. Plus, they finally got that meeting with the LA Transit Authority. One meeting led to the next, and eventually, Trapeze Group arrived at the opportunity to bid on a multimillion dollar proposal.