Marketing Innovation in Construction Software | Melissa Esbenshade from InEight

Ernesto Quezada: Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments. With relevant micro experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more, stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Let the AI do all the work and get access to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us out at pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Melissa Esbenshade from InEight, Senior Vice President of Marketing. How are you doing today, Melissa?

Melissa Esbenshade: I’m doing great. How about you?

Ernesto: I’m doing great. Great. Thank you so much for asking. Well, I’m sure our listeners are tuning in, Melissa, wondering what InEight is all about. So let’s kick it off with that. In your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

Melissa: Sure. InEight provides enterprise software to the construction industry. Our software is specifically built to help manage and control some of the most important infrastructure projects across the world. Think about offshore wind farms, water infrastructure, and semiconductor projects. The real differentiator we provide is that we connect data across all of the construction teams involved in those types of projects. That connected information helps those teams make better decisions so that they can improve productivity, maintain their margins in a relatively low-margin space, and reduce risk.

Ernesto: Great to hear that from you, Melissa. So our listeners can get a good understanding of your company. What would be the key problem that you guys like to solve for your clients?

Melissa: It’s really about those most complicated construction projects. A great example would be the Frederick Douglass Tunnel in Baltimore on the East Coast, a project that’ll be kicking off in a couple of years. They have to replace a tunnel that’s over 150 years old. It has a sinking floor, water infiltration, and is a huge transportation bottleneck on the East Coast. So Amtrak has to build a new tunnel. AECOM is the company managing the delivery of the project, and Kiewit is one of the contractors doing the actual construction work. Our software helps all of those people on that project keep communication flowing so that the project stays on schedule and on budget. It’s a huge task, anticipated to run until 2035. Keeping something on schedule and on budget over that long period, over nine years, is a huge task. That’s what we’re all about.

Ernesto: That’s a huge task. So, is InEight only for construction, or is there another vertical segment you guys target as well?

Melissa: We’re focused on construction and some of those most complicated construction projects.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Great to hear that. If I were in the construction business, how would I usually find out about InEight? Is there a top client acquisition strategy you use?

Melissa: Yes, like many software organizations that sell to large enterprise companies, we have a long buying cycle and significantly large buying committees. Our marketing job is to build engagement throughout that journey and do it efficiently. We think a lot about who the audience should be and the intent signals they give us. We have a graphic in our marketing plan that starts at the very core of those audience priorities. At the center are our strategic pursuits identified in conjunction with our sales team. We maximize paid investment to reach and engage that audience. The next concentric circle is our ICP showing intent. We maximize investment there, then our SAM showing intent. We focus our investment on the highest priority accounts and optimize different channels based on their performance to reach those accounts. LinkedIn and webinars are significant drivers of engagement for us. We see a lot of progress in the buying journey through those channels, and of course, our website. We recently changed our metrics to be more aligned with business outcomes instead of just focusing on marketing qualified leads. We’re now focusing on getting the right people to the website, nurturing the buying committee signals they give us, with the goal of contributing directly to the pipeline with new pipeline opportunities. So, less lead-focused and more pipeline-focused.

Ernesto: Definitely important. Great to hear that. You mentioned websites. How does the website play a part in client acquisition for you?

Melissa: It’s critical for our journey. We emphasize supporting researchers on the buying committee, the people tasked with finding the right software to address their pain points. We have 16 separate products we’re trying to represent. It’s a fine line on the website of providing enough information versus overwhelming someone. We’ve iterated over the years and are now embarking on another iteration of the website. In the past, much of our content and navigation has been product-led versus buying journey-led. We’re undertaking the hard work of aligning to the buying journey and the buying committee on the site.

Ernesto: Definitely important. On that note, are there any other types of tools, methods, or tips you would recommend to our listeners?

Melissa: Yes, it may be counterintuitive for more traditional marketers, but giving our visitors multiple paths that don’t always include filling out a traditional lead form is crucial. We’re trying to give them opportunities to signal they’re ready. We focus the content on information that answers their questions without forcing them to book a demo. Some successful tests we’ve run include giving visitors the choice on which signal to give, whether they want to get in deeper and learn more or raise their hand to talk to someone and get their hands on our product. This has given us a great bump in overall engagement. I know Pathmonk on your site does a great job of that as well. Another thing is not forgetting the basics. We recently repositioned a rogue form on our website and saw dramatic increases in conversion. Sometimes standard maintenance and upkeep can have a significant impact too.

Ernesto: Definitely. Thank you so much for that plug. Let’s talk about you as a leader. As the Senior Vice President of Marketing for InEight, what are some key tasks you focus on in your day-to-day work?

Melissa: I have a great team, so I can split my time nicely on a few areas. One is stepping back and assessing if we’re hitting our goals, what’s getting in our way, scanning the market, talking with customers, or viewing competitors to find gaps in our strategy. I spend a significant amount of time doing that. Secondly, I focus on strategic projects with our team. Right now, we’re finishing a CRM migration, so I’ve been spending a good chunk of time on that. The other areas are more day-to-day, working with the team on decisions, making optimizations to our plan, and partnering cross-functionally to ensure we’re all in lockstep on our go-to-market strategy.

Ernesto: Definitely important. It sounds like you have a full plate but are really organized. How do you stay up to date with all the marketing news, trends, and strategies out there? Is there a preferred channel you like?

Melissa: Yes, I do have one. It’s a bit of a plug, but I think it’s worth it. We partner with a company called 6sense for our ABM efforts. They have a forum called CMO Coffee Talk and a Slack channel. The forum happens every Friday, and the content is so good with such candid dialogue. It’s 250+ CMOs every Friday, live on video, talking together. We’ve recently discussed forecasting and improving forecasting efforts, positioning, and the change management associated with positioning. I try not to miss a single week because there’s such a great level of depth in the conversation. It’s been timely for us as we’re in the midst of refreshed product positioning work. It helped us think about the change management approach for our business and how we engage the entire business in that positioning work. So, everyone is bought into that.

Ernesto: It’s not the first time I hear about that coffee talk and that community. It sounds like a great channel for all CMOs. Awesome to hear that.

Melissa: Yes, awesome.

Ernesto: Let’s jump into our next section, which is our rapid-fire question round. Are you ready?

Melissa: Sure.

Ernesto: Awesome. What is the last book you read?

Melissa: It came out of that CMO Coffee Talk. It’s called “Obviously Awesome” by April Dunford. It offers a nice defined approach to rethink your sales presentation. Our sales leaders have all read it too, and our team in EMEA is implementing some recommendations and road-testing a new sales presentation with their prospective customers. It’s been a great read and a great tool for us.

Ernesto: Great to hear that. What is one single thing your company is focused on the most at the moment?

Melissa: We recently launched a new product called InEight Schedule. It’s a unique software that addresses the challenges in complicated construction scheduling efforts. There’s been tools out there forever, but our tool brings a nice blend of inclusiveness across an organization to reduce risk and improve accuracy in the scheduling process. We’re excited about the momentum we’re seeing with that product release and the marketing effort behind it. It’s game-changing in the space, and as a marketer, it’s fun to work on a product that’s so differentiated and helps improve important work in our infrastructure projects.

Ernesto: Definitely important. Great to hear that. Good luck with the competition, going after giants like Oracle.

Melissa: That’s right.

Ernesto: If there were no boundaries in technology, what is one thing you would want to fix for your role as a marketer today?

Melissa: One thing we’re struggling with is making sense of all our marketing technology point solutions, ensuring we’re using all the functionality of each solution and integrating them where it makes sense. It’s a pain point, but also something InEight solves for our customers. We’re actively assessing it all, understanding where we need to add tech, particularly AI, because we know it could be an advantage. Competing against large companies like Oracle, we need to be faster, smarter, and more nimble. But it also takes resources to manage all the tech and requires a growing technical skill set for our marketing team. It’s a challenge we work through every day. If there were a magic wand to help make that easier and better, I’d love it.

Ernesto: Definitely. If there’s one repetitive task you could automate, what would that be?

Melissa: It’s probably top of mind because of our CRM migration, but if we could automate campaign setup, it would remove redundancy and labor and improve quality and accuracy. When we set up a new campaign in our CRM, we’re creating it, connecting it to a parent campaign, assigning UTMs, setting up tracking in GA4, and the list goes on. We’re really specific with our approach because we’re so data-driven, but it takes a lot of time and energy to do that.

Ernesto: Definitely does. Perfect. Thank you so much for sharing that. Lastly, you have tons of experience already in the marketing world. What is one piece of advice you would give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?

Melissa: There are two things, actually, if that’s okay. First, don’t shy away from a turnaround or a startup. You can learn so much so quickly in that dynamic environment. I always recommend that. Take the risk, go for it. Second, when you reach a fork in your career road or personal road, any choice is your choice, and it’s not a bad choice, but knowing why you make that choice and being overt about it is important. You could say you made the choice or did the thing that was safe, brave, fun, unique, or risky. By reflecting on why you made that choice, you can then do the best with it. Ignoring why you made that choice misses out on the opportunity to make it the best next step for you.

Ernesto: Great advice, not just for yourself but for all our listeners. Thanks so much, Melissa. We’re coming to the end of the show, but before we end, I want to give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is the one thing they should remember about InEight?

Melissa: That we’re the only software out there that can really meet the needs of the complicated construction projects that make the world go around.

Ernesto: You heard it. Check them out at ineight.com, the integrated construction management software. Get complete project visibility and confidence. Melissa, thank you so much for being with us today. To our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. I’m looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Melissa.

Melissa: Thank you.