For established B2B software companies, moving beyond broad marketing approaches to targeted account-based strategies can feel like an overwhelming transformation. PaperCut Software, a leader in print management technology, faced this challenge and turned to 6sense to bridge the gap.
Adam Byer, PaperCut’s performance marketing lead, shares how they made the transition from “hoping we’re hitting the right accounts” to precisely engaging prospects at every stage of the buying journey.
The Challenge
Despite being a leader in their industry for years, PaperCut’s marketing approach had room to mature.
“We were executing campaigns efficiently, but knew we could improve targeting and measurement,” says Adam. “We’d receive campaign ideas from outside the team and execute them with a fairly untargeted approach.”
The team knew they could do better. With a niche but broad IT audience to reach, they recognized the need to move beyond broad-spectrum campaigns toward something more focused and strategic. Their existing model meant limited visibility into the customer journey, with metrics primarily centered around click-through rates and initial conversions rather than full-funnel attribution.
As marketing developed more sophisticated campaign structures, they reached an inflection point. They had established their target audiences, developed persona maps, and created solid campaign frameworks. Now they needed a tool to put these elements into action and connect them with the right accounts at precisely the right time.
The Solution
In 2023, PaperCut implemented 6sense, starting with ABM and orchestrations capabilities. Rather than viewing it as a single solution to all their challenges, they approached 6sense as the central nervous system.
“6sense is a tool that enables you to connect all these other tools and ideas across your marketing stack and your business,” Adam says.
This philosophy guided their implementation strategy. The team quickly developed six distinct segments across their key verticals in the US and mapped campaigns to every stage of the buying journey. From awareness to consideration to decision and purchase, PaperCut created touchpoints throughout the entire customer journey.
The approach incorporated:
- Integrated website personalization: By connecting 6sense with a marketing automation platform, PaperCut personalizes website content based on account segments and buying stages, delivering tailored messaging to visitors.
- Cross-functional buying stage framework: The team uses 6sense’s buying stages and adapts them to match their unique industry positioning, creating a shared language for marketing and sales.
- Custom data reporting: Using 6sense’s data packs, they built custom reporting dashboards through Power BI to connect marketing engagement with sales outcomes
- Foundation for outbound: Perhaps most significantly, 6sense has enabled PaperCut to enhance their outbound capabilities — a major evolution for a company that had previously relied exclusively on inbound marketing.
The Results
Implementing 6sense has helped PaperCut mature its marketing strategy. Key results include:
- 9x ROI on marketing spend through targeted ABM campaigns
- Enhanced website personalization tailored to specific verticals and buying stages
- Better internal alignment between marketing and sales teams
- Data-driven customer journey insights providing visibility into account progression
6sense has also enabled the PaperCut marketing team to showcase their strategy across the organization. “The biggest impact has been the framework to talk to the rest of the company internally and our stakeholders about what we’re doing,” says Adam. “We can say, ‘This is exactly what we’re doing for this customer.’ Being able to tell that story has been massive for us to get buy-in from stakeholders and the leadership team.”