How NetApp Scaled Strategic ABM with Social Selling on LinkedIn and Influenced ~$20M in Deals
In this case study, we share how NetApp integrated Social Selling into its existing strategic Account-Based Marketing approach with ModumUp as its Social Selling partner. The project started with a small pilot using one marketing profile around the NetApp Insight conference, then expanded to exclusive content, a Regional Director profile, and Business Development profiles on priority accounts. Across the target accounts, the project contributed to around $20M in deals tied to large AI deployments on the NetApp storage layer and roughly 3x lead growth compared with the previous approach.
Terms used in this case study
Social Selling is the use of a company expert's personal social media profile to attract customers, partners, and employees.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) - marketing and sales work a selected Target Account List account by account, with multi-level engagement inside each company.
SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) is a call or meeting with a potential customer.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) - marketing and sales work a selected Target Account List account by account, with multi-level engagement inside each company.
SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) is a call or meeting with a potential customer.
Why strategic ABM mattered for NetApp
NetApp sells intelligent data infrastructure: storage systems, software, and cloud services for enterprises that need to store, manage, protect, and use data at scale, including for AI.
NetApp's strategic ABM work covered both expanding within existing customers and penetrating new large enterprise accounts. As the company's solution portfolio grew, the team also needed to reach new roles inside the buying committee, including Big Data, AI, DevOps, and cloud leaders. Buying committees already included storage and infrastructure admins who know NetApp's product language. They also increasingly included Big Data, AI, DevOps, and cloud leaders. Those roles help decide or influence deals, but they care less about the storage stack itself. They need data resources that are secure, efficient, and available when their work depends on them. Deals still move slowly, and trust has to be built with the right people across those roles before purchase intent is clear.
NetApp's strategic ABM work covered both expanding within existing customers and penetrating new large enterprise accounts. As the company's solution portfolio grew, the team also needed to reach new roles inside the buying committee, including Big Data, AI, DevOps, and cloud leaders. Buying committees already included storage and infrastructure admins who know NetApp's product language. They also increasingly included Big Data, AI, DevOps, and cloud leaders. Those roles help decide or influence deals, but they care less about the storage stack itself. They need data resources that are secure, efficient, and available when their work depends on them. Deals still move slowly, and trust has to be built with the right people across those roles before purchase intent is clear.
A slide from the online event “NetApp and ModumUp on Social Selling and ABM for Enterprise Accounts” on NetApp business goals
For Irina Chernova, Demand Marketing Manager EMEA & LATAM at NetApp, strategic ABM was a cross-functional effort involving marketing, sales, executives, BDRs, and technical teams.
Account-Based Marketing is not marketing per se. It is customer experience, and marketing’s role is mostly orchestration. Account owners, sales, BDRs, and other teams are all actively involved
NetApp's strategic one-to-one ABM program focused on about 10 large target accounts in one EMEA region, across finance, oil and gas, services, and telco. Within that existing ABM setup, the team started testing Social Selling as a relationship-building channel: finding the right buying-committee members on LinkedIn, connecting them with the right NetApp profiles, and gradually opening conversations.
The key principle is to choose the right people and build trust instead of pushing product messages. We try to be useful, start conversations, and build real relationships with potential and existing clients
NetApp marketing orchestrated the ABM program and coordinated the customer-facing roles involved in it. Sales leaders, executives, and BDRs owned the relationships with their counterparts inside target accounts. ModumUp brought the Social Selling expertise and supported the team with profile strategy, audience growth, content and outreach mechanics, coaching, and day-to-day execution. The team started with Irina's profile and expanded to other profiles only after the pilot proved the approach.
Phase 1. NetApp Insight as the first Social Selling pilot
The first test used Social Selling around NetApp Insight, a major regional conference. In previous years the event averaged about 600 participants. The goal was not only to fill seats. The team wanted new job roles and accounts that rarely entered the usual event funnel, including people who influence AI and infrastructure projects without buying storage as their primary job.
A slide from the online event “NetApp and ModumUp on Social Selling and ABM for Enterprise Accounts” on NetApp Insight conference
Before the event, the team worked on Irina's LinkedIn profile: connected with people from target accounts, published posts about event preparation, and sent personal invitations. During the event Irina published short situational posts from the conference (session moments, organizer and attendee observations) and helped people navigate the venue - many already recognized her from LinkedIn. Afterward the team followed up with attendees and with people who could not come, shared materials, and kept conversations open.
That year the conference reached about 1,000 participants. Social Selling helped warm and widen the relevant audience from the Target Account List. Total attendance still depends on many channels, so 1,000 is not a pure Social Selling KPI. LinkedIn gave the team an additional way to stay in contact with relevant IT professionals before, during, and after the event.
That year the conference reached about 1,000 participants. Social Selling helped warm and widen the relevant audience from the Target Account List. Total attendance still depends on many channels, so 1,000 is not a pure Social Selling KPI. LinkedIn gave the team an additional way to stay in contact with relevant IT professionals before, during, and after the event.
For me, the human touch was especially important. Social media became an extra step between formal marketing communication and a more personalized conversation with the customer. It helped us build a personal connection
Irina also began receiving inbound messages from potential and existing clients. They asked for sales or engineering contacts and for deeper technology conversations. Audiences were already reaching back.
With a warmer network and event material in hand, the same marketing profile could take a next step that pure cold outreach rarely supports: soft lead generation with exclusive research.
With a warmer network and event material in hand, the same marketing profile could take a next step that pure cold outreach rarely supports: soft lead generation with exclusive research.
Phase 2. Exclusive content for soft lead generation
After Insight, Irina's profile moved from event warm-up to lead generation without a hard pitch in the feed. The mechanic was plain: offer exclusive research (for example IDC and NetApp research on digital transformation), ask for a comment or message to receive the file, and deliver it in private messages or email.
A slide from the online event “NetApp and ModumUp on Social Selling and ABM for Enterprise Accounts” on lead generation
Results on that post:
Eighteen percent is a strong conversion for exclusive-content posts on LinkedIn. Targeting was already narrow, conference content had built trust, the research was useful, and delivery stayed personal. Not every commenter was relevant - LinkedIn always brings extra interest - but enough responses came from target companies to prove the model for sales.
People also wrote Irina with practical questions about the venue and sessions. Marketing and sales stayed close in those conversations instead of living only behind forms.
The successful pilot justified the next step: adding an executive profile for peer-to-peer engagement with senior decision-makers. BDR profiles came later, once the team was ready to move closer to sales. Each role had a different goal and a different set of KPIs.
- 79 responses
- 44 from target companies
- 8 SQLs handed to sales
- 18% conversion from responses at target companies to SQLs
Eighteen percent is a strong conversion for exclusive-content posts on LinkedIn. Targeting was already narrow, conference content had built trust, the research was useful, and delivery stayed personal. Not every commenter was relevant - LinkedIn always brings extra interest - but enough responses came from target companies to prove the model for sales.
People also wrote Irina with practical questions about the venue and sessions. Marketing and sales stayed close in those conversations instead of living only behind forms.
The successful pilot justified the next step: adding an executive profile for peer-to-peer engagement with senior decision-makers. BDR profiles came later, once the team was ready to move closer to sales. Each role had a different goal and a different set of KPIs.
Phase 3. Executive profile: reaching accounts from the top
A BDR rarely opens a peer conversation with a CTO the same way another senior executive can. NetApp added a Regional Director profile to reach decision-makers as peers: visibility, thought leadership, and private senior-level dialogue. Hard lead gen was not the goal for this profile. Recognition and a warm path for sales follow-up were.
A slide from the online event “NetApp and ModumUp on Social Selling and ABM for Enterprise Accounts” on NetApp using executive profiles to reach target accounts
ModumUp set profile goals, segmented the audience (mid-size and large data-intensive companies, system integrators, government organizations, industry media), rebuilt positioning and content themes, and grew the target network under a consulting rhythm that matched a senior leader's calendar.
Results on that profile:
Many senior people from target companies never commented in public. They moved to direct messages after a post. Those conversations became commercial entry points: first recognition, then a conversation the executive could continue or hand to sales.
By the time sales stepped in, the account often already knew a NetApp leader as a person, not only as a brand name. The next step was to put the people who own opportunities on LinkedIn as well.
Results on that profile:
- Relevant connections grew from about 800 to 5,000
- Average reactions per post rose from 34 to 85
- Average comments per post rose from 10 to 31
Many senior people from target companies never commented in public. They moved to direct messages after a post. Those conversations became commercial entry points: first recognition, then a conversation the executive could continue or hand to sales.
By the time sales stepped in, the account often already knew a NetApp leader as a person, not only as a brand name. The next step was to put the people who own opportunities on LinkedIn as well.
Phase 4. BDR profiles closer to sales
Business Development managers then joined the project. Each worked strategic accounts in energy, financial services, or telco - accounts tied to their sales goals, not optional LinkedIn activity. Profile work focused on covering those accounts, not on posting for the sake of posting.
A slide from the online event “NetApp and ModumUp on Social Selling and ABM for Enterprise Accounts” on using BDR profiles
This stage required close support because BDRs were busy with their core sales work. NetApp marketing and ModumUp stayed close to the team with coaching, content support, regular reminders, and guidance on step-by-step engagement, from likes and comments to private conversations and meeting requests.
Personal engagement from sales is very important. If sales are not engaged, don’t even start. ModumUp was our guide, providing advice and hands-on support and helping the team keep the process moving
One NetApp BDR noted that social media helped him reach people he could not simply call. Prospects could see what he did, understand why he was reaching out, and become familiar with him before a direct sales conversation.
The path is gradual: show up in the feed, engage with the prospect's posts, then open a private conversation with context. On a short strategic account list that discipline matters. There are only a few companies, so every first message has to be careful - a weak or pushy opener can damage a relationship the team cannot easily replace.
The path is gradual: show up in the feed, engage with the prospect's posts, then open a private conversation with context. On a short strategic account list that discipline matters. There are only a few companies, so every first message has to be careful - a weak or pushy opener can damage a relationship the team cannot easily replace.
Key takeaways
The NetApp project highlighted several practical lessons for Social Selling within strategic ABM:
- Start with the ABM strategy before moving to LinkedIn mechanics
- Begin with a pilot project as proof of concept
- Give each role a different goal and KPI set
- Use events and content as natural reasons to start conversations
- Measure relationship signals and progress within target accounts
- Build an engaged internal team: Social Selling works when sales and executives are committed
Results of the strategic account pilot
Social Selling does not close enterprise infrastructure deals by itself. Sales still ran the live work outside LinkedIn. Multi-profile presence expanded contacts, kept NetApp visible across the buying committee, and supported trust earlier in the cycle.
The team tracked progress on three levels so LinkedIn work stayed tied to the pipeline: activity (profiles in use, connections from priority accounts), relationship signals (accepts, replies, DM quality, warm reactions from people on the list), and business signals (SQLs, handoffs, pipeline, revenue influence). Contacts entered NetApp's marketing automation and CRM under named campaigns with proper opt-in, so activity could be linked to opportunities as sourced or influenced work - including open deals that still needed multi-level trust and information to move.
The team tracked progress on three levels so LinkedIn work stayed tied to the pipeline: activity (profiles in use, connections from priority accounts), relationship signals (accepts, replies, DM quality, warm reactions from people on the list), and business signals (SQLs, handoffs, pipeline, revenue influence). Contacts entered NetApp's marketing automation and CRM under named campaigns with proper opt-in, so activity could be linked to opportunities as sourced or influenced work - including open deals that still needed multi-level trust and information to move.
Results of the pilot
- Regional Director network: about 800 to 5,000 relevant connections; average reactions 34 to 85; average comments 10 to 31
- Exclusive-content mechanic: 79 responses, 44 from target companies, 8 SQLs, 18% targeted conversion
- The project contributed to around $20M in deals tied to large AI deployments on the NetApp storage layer
- Roughly 3x lead growth compared with the previous approach
- At least one relevant contact at every buying-committee level on the target list (executive, IT infrastructure leadership, users, and in some accounts finance)
- NetApp Insight: about 1,000 participants that year versus ~600 historically. Social Selling helped warm up and widen the relevant audience, although total attendance was influenced by multiple channels and was not a direct Social Selling KPI
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