How 6sense Achieved Organic Growth

How 6sense Mastered Organic Growth

Ever wonder how some companies seem to effortlessly attract a flood of visitors to their websites? 6sense, a leading account engagement platform, is one of those companies. They've become masters of organic growth, and it's paid off big time: they recently secured a whopping $200 million in funding, doubling their valuation to $5.2 billion!

So, what's their secret? Let's dive deep into the strategies and tactics that fueled 6sense's incredible rise in organic traffic. We'll explore their content marketing magic, their savvy link-building strategies, and how they've even managed to navigate those tricky Google core updates.

Content Marketing: The 6sense Way

6sense understands that in today's digital world, valuable content is king. They've built their content marketing strategy around consistently delivering top-notch, relevant content that their target audience craves.

Their blog is a treasure trove of in-depth articles, helpful guides, and valuable resources that address the challenges faced by B2B revenue teams. It's not just about pushing products; it's about educating, informing, and engaging their audience. This approach has established 6sense as a true thought leader in their industry.

The Power of Personalization

One of the things that sets 6sense apart is their commitment to personalization. They don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, they use their platform's ability to track buyer intent and behavior to tailor their content to the specific needs and interests of each individual. This personalized approach makes their audience feel heard and understood, leading to higher engagement and more conversions.

Guiding Buyers on Their Journey

Another key element of 6sense's content strategy is their focus on the buyer's journey. They know that potential customers have different needs at different stages, so they create content that aligns with each step of the process, from the initial awareness stage to the final decision.

For example, they use blog posts and ebooks to educate those who are just becoming aware of their needs. As buyers move into the consideration stage, they offer webinars and case studies to help them evaluate their options. And finally, for those who are ready to make a decision, they provide product demos and free trials. This strategic approach helps nurture leads and guide them smoothly through the sales funnel.

Data-Driven Content: Always Relevant

6sense doesn't just rely on intuition when it comes to content creation. They leverage their own platform to track the keywords and topics that their target accounts are researching. This allows them to identify content gaps and create resources that address those specific needs. It's a data-driven approach that ensures their content is always relevant and aligned with the interests of their audience.

The Benefits of 6sense for Content Marketing

This approach to content marketing has yielded impressive results for 6sense. By tracking keywords and topics, they've been able to create content that truly resonates with their audience, leading to higher engagement rates and increased buyer satisfaction.

And when used in conjunction with a journey orchestration solution like Trendemon, 6sense can even help move more anonymous visitors into the sales pipeline, increasing sales opportunities.

Important Considerations for Content Marketing

Of course, content marketing isn't without its challenges. It takes time for a blog post to gain traction, and consistency is key. It's essential to create high-quality content that truly addresses the needs of your target audience and to publish regularly to see the best results.

A real-world example of this is a side project by members of the Nectafy team, who saw an incredible 17,600% increase in monthly traffic within a year by using a proven content marketing strategy and consistent publishing.

6sense's Global Expansion

6sense's success isn't limited to one region. They've expanded their employee count by 30% globally, with a significant presence in key markets like London and the Asia-Pacific region.

Key Concepts in 6sense's ABM Strategy

6sense is a big believer in account-based marketing (ABM), and they have some key concepts that drive their strategy:

• 6QA (6sense Qualified Account): This is an account that 6sense has identified as a good fit for their products or services, showing high intent to purchase.
• ABX Team (Account-Based Experience Team): This team focuses on delivering personalized experiences to target accounts through events, webinars, and content.

Link-Building: A Multifaceted Approach

6sense understands that backlinks are crucial for boosting visibility and attracting potential customers. Their link-building strategy is multifaceted, combining technical expertise with relationship-focused outreach.

They actively seek to acquire high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant sources. One of their key tactics is the creation of data-driven industry reports that provide valuable insights and attract backlinks from reputable websites and publications.

But it's not just about creating great content. 6sense also focuses on building strategic partnerships that generate consistent referral traffic. By collaborating with other businesses and organizations, they expand their reach and attract backlinks from a wider range of sources.

They also utilize technical approaches like broken link replacement and unlinked mention recovery to further enhance their link-building efforts. This involves identifying and replacing broken links on other websites with links to their own relevant content and monitoring mentions of their brand or products that aren't linked to their website.

Buying Maturity

Another important concept in 6sense's strategy is buying maturity. This is a data point they use to assess the readiness of an account to make a purchase. This information helps them tailor their outreach and content to the specific needs of each account.

Navigating Google Core Updates

Google's core updates can be a source of anxiety for website owners, as they can significantly impact organic traffic. But 6sense has successfully navigated these updates by focusing on creating high-quality, user-centric content.

Their commitment to providing valuable information and a positive user experience has helped them maintain and even improve their organic rankings despite algorithm changes.

The Dark Funnel Advantage

One of 6sense's secret weapons is their access to "dark funnel" data. This refers to the anonymous behavior of their target accounts before they identify themselves. By understanding this behavior, 6sense can create content and campaigns that are more likely to resonate with these buyers, even if they haven't yet revealed themselves. This allows them to stay ahead of the curve and maintain their organic visibility.

They also leverage their own platform to monitor the impact of Google's core updates, tracking keyword rankings and organic traffic to identify any fluctuations and adjust their SEO strategy accordingly.

Measuring Account-Based Success

6sense uses a combination of leading and lagging indicators to measure the success of its account-based marketing (ABM) efforts. Leading indicators are predictive metrics that provide insights into future performance, while lagging indicators are retrospective metrics that measure past performance.

Examples of leading indicators include engagement score (measuring the level of interaction that target accounts have with 6sense's content and campaigns) and intent score (measuring the likelihood that target accounts will make a purchase).

Examples of lagging indicators include revenue (measuring the total income generated from sales activities), win rate (measuring the percentage of deals that are closed successfully), and deal size (measuring the average value of closed deals).

Testing and Iterating

When integrating 6sense with Google Analytics and Google Ads, it's essential to thoroughly test the implementation and continuously analyze data to ensure optimal performance.

Real-World Examples

There are many examples of companies that have successfully navigated Google's core updates and adapted their SEO strategies. For example, after a core update, Tremors saw an increase in traffic and rankings by using Google Search Console (GSC) data.

Pacific54 uses SEO tools like AHREFS and SEMRush to monitor website traffic and rankings.

The March 2024 core update led to the deindexing of some websites, highlighting the need to adapt SEO strategies.

Advertising and Social Media Strategies

6sense doesn't just rely on organic traffic. They also utilize a variety of paid media and social media tools to complement their organic growth efforts.

Paid Media Tools

6sense's advertising platform allows them to reach target buyers with display, video, retargeting, and social ad campaigns.

Their custom demand-side platform (DSP) gives them access to inventory across thousands of publishers, delivering scale and cost-efficiency.

The platform also integrates with LinkedIn and Facebook, making dynamic 6sense audiences available as part of any LinkedIn or Facebook campaign.

Data-Driven Paid Media

6sense's paid media strategy is data-driven, focusing on targeting the accounts and buyers that are most likely to engage and purchase.

By leveraging buyer intelligence, intent data, and predictive analytics, they can create highly targeted campaigns that maximize impact and investment.

Attribution Models

6sense uses various attribution models to measure the effectiveness of its campaigns. These models assign credit to different touchpoints in the customer journey, such as first-touch, last-touch, and multi-touch.

It's important to align attribution models with customer behavior to accurately measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Social Media Tools

6sense leverages social media platforms to build customer relationships, generate leads, and increase sales. They maintain a strong presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, sharing valuable content and engaging with their audience.

They also utilize social media monitoring tools to track mentions and conversations about their brand and industry.

Some of the tools used by 6sense include Facebook Pixel, Agile CRM, and Hootsuite. This helps them stay informed about what people are saying about their products and services and identify potential opportunities for engagement.

In addition to organic social media activities, 6sense also incorporates social media advertising into its marketing mix.

Benefits of Using 6sense for Social Media

6sense's platform offers several benefits for social media marketing, including targeted advertising, audience building and research, conversational email, social media data tracking, and integration with content marketing tools.

High-Intent Keywords

High-intent keywords are search terms that indicate a user's readiness to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or requesting a demo.

These keywords are valuable for driving conversions and generating leads.

Some of the high-intent keywords that 6sense tracks include "email personalization," "predictive analytics," and "account engagement."

By creating content that addresses these topics and optimizing its website for these keywords, 6sense can attract potential customers who are actively searching for solutions like its platform.

Challenges and Setbacks

Like any growing company, 6sense has faced challenges and setbacks in its organic growth journey.

Adapting to Google's Evolving Algorithm

One of the main challenges has been the need to adapt to Google's constantly evolving algorithm.

Google's core updates can cause fluctuations in rankings and traffic, and websites that don't adapt risk losing visibility.

6sense has addressed this challenge by staying informed about algorithm updates, creating high-quality content, and focusing on user experience.

Increasing Complexity of the B2B Buying Process

Another challenge has been the increasing complexity of the B2B buying process.

With more decision-makers and longer sales cycles, it has become more difficult to identify and engage with potential customers.

6sense has addressed this challenge by leveraging its AI-powered platform to prioritize accounts and uncover buying signals.

Organizational Capacity and Skills Gaps

6sense has also faced challenges related to organizational capacity and skills gaps.

Enterprise marketing organizations often struggle with labor shortages and budget constraints, making it difficult to find and retain qualified talent.

6sense has addressed these challenges by investing in training and development programs for its employees and partnering with external agencies to supplement its internal resources.

Expanding into New Industry Verticals

6sense faced challenges in personalizing its website content for different industries.

The company initially focused on the tech industry, but as it expanded into new verticals, it realized the need to tailor its website experience to the specific needs of each industry.

By creating targeted website experiences for different personas, 6sense was able to increase qualified leads and meetings booked.

The Limitations of "1990s Marketing"

Traditional marketing tactics, such as relying on mass emails and generic campaigns, are no longer effective in the evolving B2B landscape.

Buyers prefer personalized experiences and are increasingly turning to the dark funnel to conduct research anonymously.

6sense has addressed this challenge by leveraging AI and intent data to create personalized campaigns that reach buyers at the right time with the right message.

Integrating with Google Ads

6sense faced challenges in integrating with Google Ads to target ABM ad campaigns.

Traditional Google Ads campaigns are based on keywords, making it difficult to ensure that ad spend is directed exclusively toward the intended audience.

6sense overcame this challenge by enhancing its integration with Google Ads to allow for dynamic segmentation and improved targeting.

Aligning Sales and Marketing Teams

A common challenge in B2B organizations is the lack of alignment between sales and marketing teams.

This can lead to disconnected efforts and a negative customer experience.

6sense promotes the concept of ABX (Account-Based Experience) to encourage alignment between sales, marketing, and customer success teams.

Conclusion

6sense's organic growth is a testament to its commitment to providing valuable content, building strong relationships, and leveraging data-driven insights.

By combining a robust content marketing strategy with a multifaceted link-building approach, 6sense has successfully attracted a large and engaged audience.

The company's use of paid media and social media tools has further amplified its reach and helped it achieve its marketing goals.

Data-Driven Decision-Making

6sense's success in organic growth highlights the importance of data-driven decision-making in modern B2B marketing.

By using data to inform its content strategy, link-building efforts, and paid media campaigns, 6sense can create personalized experiences that resonate with its target audience and drive conversions.

Agility and Resilience

6sense's ability to adapt to Google's core updates and overcome challenges related to the evolving B2B landscape demonstrates its agility and resilience.

By staying ahead of the curve and continuously refining its strategies, 6sense is well-positioned for continued organic growth and success in the years to come.

Benefits of Using 6sense

Companies using the 6sense platform experience a variety of benefits, including improved revenue effectiveness, increased pipeline generation, revenue growth, conversion rate optimization (CRO), data enrichment, predictive analytics, buyer intent data, account-based marketing (ABM), and intent and engagement scores.

Looking Ahead

The broader implications of 6sense's organic growth strategies for other B2B organizations are significant.

As the B2B landscape continues to evolve, companies need to adopt a more data-driven and customer-centric approach to marketing.

By leveraging AI, intent data, and personalization, B2B organizations can create more effective campaigns, improve customer experiences, and drive revenue growth.