The results of a
recent survey showed that 92 percent of B2B companies consider account-based marketing
(also known as ABM) to be a very important part of their overall marketing
strategy.
At the same time,
though, only about 20 percent of these businesses have had an ABM strategy in
place for more than one year.
If you’re part of
the majority of businesses that aren’t utilizing ABM, now is the time to start.
Read on to learn
more about account-based marketing and why you might want to implement this
kind of strategy into your marketing plan.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
Account-based
marketing is a highly focused marketing strategy. It involves collaboration
between sales and marketing teams to identify and target specific accounts and
work toward turning them into customers.
Instead of casting out a wide net to generate as many leads as possible, marketers and salespeople who utilize ABM work hard to narrow their search and tailor their marketing campaigns using various strategies (social media, email marketing, etc.) to target those ideal customers.
Benefits of Account-Based Marketing
Account-based
marketing involves a lot of effort, research, and money in order to put
together highly targeted marketing campaigns.
Why
would businesses want to put in so much work? Because the results from
well-planned and executed ABM campaigns are so impressive!
There are a lot
of benefits that come from utilizing ABM for your business, including the
following:
Shorter Sales Cycle
Account-based
marketing is highly efficient. When you use it the right way, you’re able to
get the right messages in front of the key decision-makers at your target
accounts.
This, in turn,
speeds up the sales process and leads to conversions much sooner since you
don’t have to deal with the sticking points associated with other, more
traditional marketing strategies.
Clearer ROI
Many people
utilize ABM because of the high returns it yields.
In addition to
yielding high returns in general, ABM also makes it clear which investments are
yielding the best returns.
Because ABM is so
specific and targeted, it’s easy to see where your money is coming from.
More Successful Conversions
It takes a little
more work upfront to put together an ABM strategy. But, that hard work pays
off.
ABM campaigns
tend to yield more successful conversions that other marketing strategies.
There’s no more
need to cold call, and you can rest easy knowing that buyers will already have
been exposed to your businesses before your sales reps reach out to them.
Better Customer Experience
Account-based marketing
is all about the customer. And, customers love when a marketing campaign is all
about them.
By putting out
highly targeted, personalized marketing campaigns, you’ll increase customer
satisfaction and experience greater returns and increased sales.
Fewer Wasted Resources
When you utilize
ABM as part of your marketing and sales strategy, nothing gets wasted. All of
your resources go toward targeting specific accounts, and you don’t have to
worry about hiring or firing people based on one account’s performance.
Easier Goal Setting
With ABM, it’s
easy to set clear goals for your campaigns. You can also measure the
performance of your campaigns more easily and make adjustments as needed.
When you focus on
ABM, you have less data that you have to sift through since you’re only
targeting a few key accounts.
You won’t feel
overwhelmed by all the data coming your way, and it’ll be easier to interpret
that data and figure out where you need to make changes to your campaigns.
Tips for Getting Started
Clearly, there
are a lot of benefits that come from implementing an ABM marketing strategy. How do you start with this kind of
strategy, though?
Here are some
tips to help you make ABM work for you:
Identify High-Value Accounts
The first step is
to spend some time identifying high-value accounts.
Which potential
customers are going to yield the greatest returns and the highest number of
conversions for your business?
Use all the
resources you have available to identify these accounts.
Be sure to
consider factors like the customer’s influence on the market, how likely they
are to make repeat purchases, and the potential for higher profit margins.
Identify Key Internal Players
Once you’ve identified
the key accounts, your next step is to identify the key internal players within
those accounts.
At those
companies, who are the people who make the decisions? These are the specific
people you’re going to be advertising to with your campaigns.
Create Personalized Content
Now that you know
whom you’re going to be addressing, it’s time to create content that will
appeal to those key internal players.
Think about how
you can craft your message to ensure that it resonates with them and increases
the likelihood that they’ll be willing to work with your company.
Choose the Right Channels
When you’re
creating content, it’s important to think about where you’ll be sharing it,
too.
In order to
choose the right marketing channels, you need to think about where the key
internal players at your target accounts hang out.
For example, are
they on social media? If so, which social media platforms?
Execute Campaigns
Now, it’s time to
execute your ABM campaigns. You’ve put in all the work created these
personalized campaigns, it’s time to put them into action!
Measure and Optimize Performance
Once you’ve
executed your campaigns, you need to measure their performance and make
adjustments as needed to optimize them for maximum returns.
Remember, the
hard work’s not over just you’ve launched the campaign — in fact, it’s only
just begun.
Learn More Marketing Tips Today
You now know a
lot more about account-based marketing and why it matters to the long-term
success of your business.
Now, it’s time to
start working with your marketing and sales teams to put together a strategy.
Do you want to
learn more about ABM — or about general business marketing strategies and
tools? Either way, there are lots of resources available to you.
Check out the Startup Marketing section of our website today for helpful articles on
social media marketing, conversion optimization, and more.
