The Goal
Performio wanted to expand into the US. The sales performance management market was growing quickly, and the opportunity was to establish the brand there before the category consolidated.
That meant two things: getting known among US buyers who had never heard of them, and making it obvious why the product solved their sales compensation problems better than the alternatives.
The Challenge
Performio was going up against Xactly, an established competitor running a well-funded content programme through HubSpot. Outspending them was not an option.
There were problems closer to home too. PerformanceCentre was hard to spell, used British spelling throughout, and read as an Australian company to an American buyer. The messaging led with features rather than what the software actually did for anyone. And sales compensation is a genuinely complicated subject, which makes it hard to write about clearly without losing the detail that makes it credible.
The Solution
In Motion Marketing expected the B2B buying process to shift toward self-directed research. We worked with Performio across four areas:
PerformanceCentre was a mouthful and hard to spell, and the British spelling gave it away as non-American. Our friends at Di Marca came up with the name and logo.
The rebrand was a deliberate move toward the US market. We produced new collateral and converted everything from UK to US English.
We also simplified the messaging. Nobody buys a product they cannot understand, so we moved Performio away from listing features and toward what the software does for the people using it: time saved through automation, better employee satisfaction, improved productivity.
Xactly was running HubSpot’s content strategy and it was working. We could not match their budget, so we used what they did not have: Performio’s founder, David Marshall, who knew sales compensation better than almost anyone writing about it. His expertise gave the content a perspective the target market could not get elsewhere.
From there we concentrated on SEO and LinkedIn organic posts, the two places Performio’s buyers were actually reading. Over the next three years that focus put the brand in front of a large share of the B2B decision-makers in the category.
The Results
LinkedIn followers grew 3,000%, and Performio now ranks across the search results that matter in the category. Their pages hold positions for high-intent keywords like “sales commission software” and informational ones like “ote” and “asc 606”.
Those rankings converted. Impressions, clicks and conversions rose together, and revenue followed.
Performio was acquired in 2019 by Stables Partners and grew 110% year on year in 2021. A later deal led by JMI Equity secured $75m in funding, which Performio is using to hire and to keep building in the sales commission space.
Examples
Here is how we took Performio from a bootstrapped startup to a business growing 70% year on year, channel by channel.
Digital Marketing Strategy
A digital marketing strategy starts with a clear objective. Defining the goals, KPIs and metrics up front is what lets you tell later whether any given decision worked.
We settled on two goals:
- Enter the US market
- Grow and scale the business
We worked with founder David Marshall on the approach to the US, and with Grayson Morris and Aimee Caton on where the brand could scale.
Brand & Messaging
The US move depended on a few things. One was the name. Performio replaced PerformanceCentre because it was short, distinctive and easy to say and spell.
The other was the messaging. Sales compensation is complex, and the job was to simplify it without losing the insight that comes from people who work in it every day.
Search Engine Marketing
Search marketing was mostly about lead generation. Google Ads brought in leads daily, and we ran on other channels alongside it. Capterra performed best: high-intent prospects, an 8% conversion rate, and the strongest ROI of anything we ran.
That result is the argument for testing less obvious channels. Once you know your audience properly, you can make reasonable guesses about where they already are.
Content Marketing
Content was how we positioned the brand. The goal was for Performio to be seen as a useful authority rather than a vendor.
We set a publishing schedule and planned content around what buyers were actually searching for, then had our copywriters produce articles aimed at the ideal customer’s interests.
Most of it addressed sales commission problems directly. Performio’s Insights section became the reference for automating incentive and sales plans, because it answered the questions nobody else was answering properly.
The blog did a second job as well: helping new Performio customers learn the platform.
Social Media Marketing
Social matters in B2B, but picking the right channel matters more than being everywhere. That decision comes back to knowing your audience.
LinkedIn was the obvious choice, given how concentrated B2B decision-makers are there. We produced a mix of business tips and insight posts that were worth reading on their own terms.
We also ran evergreen posts to keep the brand visible between campaigns and reinforce the positioning work.
Email Marketing
Email still returns more than any other digital channel. We used it to keep customers engaged and to establish authority, through newsletters, product announcements and software updates.
We worked with the sales team throughout the buyer journey too, sending case studies and white papers at the points where they helped move a deal along.
Video Marketing
Video is now the format most people consume online, so the strategy covered three uses.
Explainer videos helped onboard new users and increase adoption. We also cut webinars into shorter video content that kept earning views long after the live session.
Third, we produced audiograms carrying industry insight, which drove social engagement and leads.
Search Engine Optimization
Organic SEO underpinned everything else. We optimised the site and produced content aimed at educating the user base, which eventually put Performio ahead of Xactly on several of the keywords that mattered most in the category.
Customer Advocacy
We also ran campaigns specifically to generate customer reviews on G2 and Capterra, since both carry a high concentration of B2B decision-makers close to a buying decision.
That work moved Performio into the Leaders quadrant on G2’s Grid, which matters because G2 is where a lot of B2B SaaS buyers go before they shortlist.
