Businesses frequently find themselves lost in saturated markets and disconnected from the right customers. ABM – Account-Based Marketing – is one such marketing that moves away from a mass lead generation to a focused approach of high-valued accounts. This holistic strategy humanizes marketing to focus on key accounts, enabling businesses to build better relationships that result in better results.
This guide will help you improve your marketing efforts and better connect with your most important prospects as it covers everything you need to know to get started with the basics of ABM, woven together with actionable strategies.
Account-Based Marketing: Sound Complicated?
ABM is a very specific form of marketing that allows you to concentrate your sales and marketing resources on a narrow set of targeted accounts, rather than blanketing an entire territory with your marketing collateral. Rather than casting a wide net, ABM values quality over quantity and customizes campaigns for individual accounts.
When sales and marketing work together, ABM fosters strong connections, delivers custom experiences, and results in better ROI and customer retention. It should be no surprise that 87% of marketers who themselves are generating revenue from ABM agree that it delivers a higher ROI than any other type of marketing.
Find Your Sweet Spots
The initial move in creating a successful ABM plan is determining the accounts that are most important to your organization. These are your perfect prospects; they have the greatest potential value to your company. Here’s how to pinpoint them:
Create Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Begin with an Ideal Customer Profile, referred to as a description of the kind of company that would get the most value out of your product or service. When you’re building your ICP, some things to consider as inclusions are:
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Company size
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Industry or niche
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Annual revenue
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Location
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Buying behavior or challenges
For example, suppose you provide enterprise software solutions — your ICP could be centered around businesses with 500 or more employees, a tech team outlook, and a pain point that your software solves.
Use Data Analytics and Tools
Utilize analytical technology such as CRM, sales intelligence, and predictive analytics to help identify the most valuable accounts. Products like ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and HubSpot make it easier to analyze data and go after target accounts.
Collaborate With Sales Teams
Your salespeople are a goldmine of knowledge. Work with them to identify potential leads and make sure the sales and marketing teams are on the same page when it comes to which accounts to focus on.
Customizing Marketing Activities for Target Accounts
After you have identified your high-value accounts, the next step is developing personalized marketing campaigns that speak to each account’s specific needs and objectives. ABM is , at its core, a personalization play, and it is so important to create these relationships.
Segment Your Audience
Segment your target accounts into smaller sections using criteria like industry, challenges, or business objectives. By doing so, you’ll be able to cater your campaigns to various audience segments, which will increase the relevancy of your marketing.
Personalize Communication
From ads to email outreach, every touchpoint should feel personal. Personalization may include:
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Referring to decision-makers by name
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Addressing them specifically
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Explaining how your solution will help them scale their business
For instance, instead of running an email inserts program, you can now reach your decision makers with a video message.
Utilize All Channels
ABM is not confined to a single marketing channel. To be most effective, the personal campaign should occur on as many channels as possible, such as:
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Email marketing
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Social media ads
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LinkedIn direct messaging
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Webinars and virtual events
Providing a more unified, personalized journey on other platforms adds credibility and trust.
Creating Targeted Content
Content is the bedrock of any effective ABM campaign. “HVA [high-value accounts] want content woven specifically for them.” Here’s how you can craft effective content for your ABM campaigns:
Create Content for Specific Accounts
Personalize your content to the individual account. For instance, develop bespoke case studies, whitepapers, or blogs that show how your solutions map to their pain points. Use the jargon of their industry and cite examples to convey the impression that you know where they are coming from.
Give Instead of Take with Educational Content
Be a problem-solver. Create educational content that guides target accounts through their hurdles. Examples include:
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How-to guides
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Industry reports
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Video tutorials
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Infographics
Invest in Interactive Content
Engage high-value accounts through interactive content. Prospects are able to simulate with your solution before signing with virtual demos, ROI calculators, and personalized assessments.
Tailor Landing Pages
Bring personalization to another level by building specific landing pages for each account or a set of accounts. Leverage their name, logo, and industry-specific language to get them to engage with you and feel special.
Measuring ABM Success
What are the indicators that your ABM strategies are working? It’s very important to be able to measure the success of these efforts and show the value of these initiatives. Here are some important things to follow:
Account Engagement
Track levels of engagement with every target account. These metrics could be open rates for emails, visits to the website, attendance of a webinar, or engagement on social media. You are also more popular now, which is a good indicator that your campaigns are doing something right.
Velocity and Growth in Pipelines
Assess your sales pipeline and its size; how quickly deals are moving through the pipeline. Targeting Decision Makers Directly ABM should help to accelerate the sales cycle because its aim should be at the decision makers.
Revenue and ROI
At the end of the day, the success of your ABM campaign is measured by its capacity to generate revenue. Measure the revenue from your ABM campaigns against what you spend on them.
Feedback From Sales Teams
Sales teams are the foot soldiers, engaging target accounts in the trenches. Their responses can give you a sense of what’s working and what may need to change.
Gaining Campaign Traction with Account-Based Marketing
Account-based marketing is here to stay. Companies that embrace ABM will remain ahead of the game by building better relationships, offering customized experiences, and generating long-term value.
If you want to improve your marketing and start engaging with the right high-value accounts, it’s time to adjust your sails and start using ABM to capture new business today. Don’t forget the three main bastions of customer success: sales and marketing alignment, relentless optimization, and a dedication to knowing thy target accounts.
Looking to better understand or make the jump to ABM? Reach out to our experts or download our complimentary guide to ABM best practices to learn how to begin your program.
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