In today's fast-paced business environment, it's crucial to leverage every opportunity to grow and expand your customer base. One effective strategy to achieve this is through a land and expand campaign, which focuses on reaching out to new contacts within your existing customer accounts. In this post, I'll guide you through the process of setting up such a campaign using Apollo.io, a powerful sales intelligence and engagement platform.
Step 1: Create an Account List
The first step is to build a list of your current customer accounts. This list will serve as the foundation for your campaign, helping you identify where to focus your efforts.
Step 2: Set Up a Play
Once you have your account list, you can set up a play in Apollo.io. The goal here is to find new contacts within your existing customer accounts who match your target persona. You can do this by setting criteria such as:
- The contact is in the account list.
- The contact has been in their position for less than one month.
By targeting new contacts who have recently joined your customer's organization, you can tap into fresh opportunities for expansion.
Step 3: Create Personas
It's essential to define the types of contacts you want to reach out to within your accounts. Create personas that represent your ideal targets, such as decision-makers or influencers in specific departments.
Step 4: Add Contacts to a List and Sequence
Once you identify new contacts that match your criteria, add them to a new contact list. Then, create a task for your sales reps to reach out to these contacts. Additionally, you can add these contacts to a sequence specifically designed for current customers. This sequence should include personalized outreach messages acknowledging the existing relationship and exploring opportunities for further collaboration.
Step 5: Customize Sequence Rule Sets
By default, Apollo.io is configured to avoid emailing current clients as it's primarily used for cold outreach. However, in the case of a land and expand campaign, you want to reach out to your current customers. Therefore, set up a separate sequence rule set that allows emailing current clients. Ensure that this rule set is applied only to the specific sequence targeting new contacts at current customer accounts.
Step 6: Launch and Monitor the Campaign
With your play set up and your sequence in place, Apollo.io will automatically identify new employees matching your persona at your customer accounts. These contacts will be added to the outbound sequence, and tasks will be created for your reps to initiate contact. Your sales team can then focus on expanding these accounts by engaging with the new contacts and exploring additional opportunities for collaboration.
Conclusion
A land and expand campaign is a powerful strategy to deepen your relationships with existing customers and uncover new opportunities within their organizations. By leveraging Apollo.io, you can streamline this process, ensuring that your sales team is equipped with the right tools and information to successfully grow your accounts.
