Account-based marketing gives you the ability to weed out companies that are not as valuable early on and ensures that Marketing and Sales are in complete alignment. As a result, your team is able to leap into the essential techniques of engaging and exulting those accounts much more quickly. Companies of all sizes need to develop and implement ABM strategies or risk losing customers to more innovative rivals.
According to a study by Demand Metric, nearly all (97%) of ABM practice leaders surveyed felt that ABM provided a higher return on investment (ROI) than conventional marketing channels.
However, there is no secret to ABM. It’s neither a gimmick nor a panacea for all marketing ills. It’s a process, the same as any other in business-to-business advertising. Although ABM has the potential to yield many rewards for a company, realizing those rewards requires an investment of time, expertise, and energy.
We’ll cut through the jargon and give you actionable guidance for incorporating ABM into your current marketing strategy. We have put together a top-notch ABM team that will share their knowledge and experience with you.
The term “practice leaders” is particularly relevant here. This indicates that companies with the most advanced account-based marketing strategies and the best execution are reaping the greatest rewards. What about people who aren’t considered “practice leaders,” though? Success in tracking and reporting on progress is often a defining characteristic of leaders. Businesses of all sizes need to implement ABM strategies or risk losing customers to more innovative rivals.
With ABM, you can cut down on the lengthy duration of the sales cycle for B2B transactions, which can range from 6-12 months (or even 2 years at the enterprise level). The average number of approvers for business purchases is 5.4, according to the CEB. If you’re in the business of closing lengthy, complicated deals, you need to know that you’re on the right path at all times.
Following this checklist will help your sales and marketing teams develop and implement an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy.
Everything about account-based marketing hinges on having an accurate and comprehensive picture of your target accounts and consumers. To implement ABM, marketing and sales teams must carefully pick accounts to focus on and grow through targeted, individualized efforts.
Marketers should create target company personas based on high-value clients most likely to convert and/or grow as a formal part of the account selection process. Analyze the commonalities between these target accounts, such as their business goals and values, and the differences, such as the key decisions they make before making a purchase.
The more detailed and accurate your target company personas are, the more confidently your marketing team can select promising leads. The data can be gathered from customer relationship management systems and by polling current customers.
Having developed convincing, data-driven target company personas, the next step is to plot out a strategy for the pipeline. The structure of an account-based marketing strategy is very different from that of a standard lead generation campaign.
When a lead is accepted by sales, marketing typically stops making further contact with the potential customer and sales takes over from there. On the other hand, ABM strategies necessitate constant, proactive communication between marketing and sales to ensure account engagement success.
Marketers and salespeople need to work together from the very beginning to develop an advanced, individualized campaign across various platforms. The longer they are in contact, the more chances your marketing team will have to provide them with opportunities to provide personalized content as their intended buyers continue to research their purchases and ask questions.
Have a look at our explainer on what ABM means for software marketers to learn more. The marketing and sales departments should collaborate to assess the effectiveness of existing marketing and communication channels and determine which ones are most suitable for ongoing personalized outreach, communication, and retargeting.
A successful account-based marketing strategy requires the right software stack and investments in technology.
The purpose of account-based marketing software is to support the entire ABM process, from initial account selection to ongoing engagement and nurturing, as well as reporting and analysis to guide course corrections as the strategy develops and matures.
Two approaches exist for providing marketing and sales departments with the resources they need to implement an effective ABM strategy. Establish an ABM program utilizing your current martech stack, and as your program grows, add additional tools as needed, or adopt an end-to-end ABM platform that provides all necessary functions across each step of the process.
To be effective, ABM must be personalized to each individual prospect. Be on the lookout for repeating patterns in their actions. Is there a preference for certain mediums over others? When did you find that they responded the fastest? Is there a certain kind of communication or kind of interaction that gets the best response from them?
ABM encompasses a wide variety of methods. You need to maintain consistent communication with your target audience across various platforms. It’s the only way to maintain the quality of that connection.
ABM doesn’t have to be complicated to yield results. By going through the steps we’ve outlined above and putting them into action, you’ll be able to more quickly and accurately pinpoint high-value accounts, thereby minimizing drag on your growth engine’s flywheel.
Time to start using ABMs. It’s the same with any kind of purchase you make; the longer you browse a store, for example, the higher the probability that you’ll make a purchase.
This is also true of B2B customers. The more they engage with your brand, the more likely they are to make a purchase.
The success of ABM can first be gauged by monitoring levels of customer involvement. This metric is straightforward to analyze and monitor, and it can provide valuable early-stage insights. Use our tracking template to make things even easier on yourself.
Boost your results with Account-Based Marketing and Modifying strategies to specific accounts for more effective success.