Getting Started with Account-Based-Marketing (ABM)

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September 24, 2021  |  Category: Digital Marketing, Resource
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If you’ve been in the B2B marketing world, you’ve likely come across the term account-based marketing or ABM. So, what exactly does ABM entail? ABM is a focused approach to B2B marketing where the sales and marketing team creates a personalized buying experience for best fit accounts to turn them into customers.

With an ABM strategy, your marketing team interacts with high-level accounts as if they are individual markets. They achieve this by personalizing the accounts’ buying journey and tailoring all the relevant communications, campaigns, and content to the accounts.

ABM offers an impressive ROI compared to most other marketing strategies. Recent research by the ABM leadership Alliance and ITSMA indicated that those organizations that had adopted ABM as their primary marketing strategy in 2020 had a 71% increase in business relationships, 55% increase in revenue and 34% increase in brand/reputation.

What Are the Benefits of Account-Based-Marketing?

  • Short sales cycles. Multiple stakeholders make the purchase decisions in most companies and this slows the sales process. ABM helps to shorten the sales cycle as all the stakeholders are nurtured at once.
  • Alignment between sales and marketing. Typically, an ABM program is formed through a collaboration between the sales and marketing executives. The teams work together in selecting the best fit accounts, and they also collaborate in creating strategies to attract the target accounts.
  • Marketing is tailored for the unique needs of the customer. Instead of a generic approach, ABM enables the marketing team only to make personalized communication with their target accounts. This includes meaningful and relevant campaigns.
  • Clear cost of sales. ABM focuses time and resources only on high-value accounts that are most likely to close deals.
  • Better customer experience. ABM enables you to contact the clients who need your products and services. These clients are responsive and collaborative and this, in the end, helps create a good customer relationship.

Examples of ABM

Events

In-person events enable the sales and marketing team to interact with prospects directly. In the ABM approach, the marketing team can create personalized invitations for best fit accounts. The team can also invite the clients to special VIP dinners or offer them customized gifts. Keep in mind that it’s vital to carry out a personalized follow-up after the event.

Webinars and Virtual Events

Just like in-person events, you can use ABM’s marketing strategy for webinars and virtual events. The marketing team creates webinars and virtual events that are tailored for a specific group. The content should be timely and relevant to the audience, similar to in-person events it’s also important to do a follow-up after the event.

Email Marketing

One of the most popular methods of communication today is through email. Using the ABM approach, you can create tailored email messages for the best-fit accounts.

Paid advertising

Most of the social media sites today allow free posts and paid ads. Your marketing team creates ads tailored towards a particular group of prospects by using the ABM approach. The social media platforms enable you to select the target location, and through this, you can target your campaigns towards the area of the prospects rather than casting a wide net.

Getting started with ABM

Step 1: Identify Your Key Accounts

The first step is for your marketing team to use all their business intelligence to identify the key accounts that align with your organization’s business goals. When selecting those accounts, some of the factors to consider are the potential of the account to generate higher than average profit margins, the possibilities of making repeat purchases, and their market influence.

Step 2: Create Personas (Or Refresh Your Existing Personas) And Map Out Customers’ Journeys

Gaining insights into the customer’s journey enables you to learn about the challenges they have been facing. This helps you optimize and personalize their experience in the future. At this stage, identify how your target accounts are structured, including where they gather their information, who their decision-makers are. As mentioned earlier, the sales and purchase decisions in a large company involve more than one stakeholder. Through ABM, the marketing team can identify the stakeholder involved in the buying decision at this stage.

Step 3: Segment Your Audience Data

The success of your ABM program largely depends on segmentation. It involves identifying subgroups within the target accounts to deliver more tailored communication for stronger relations. You can segment your target accounts based on factors such as the sales stage, the customer’s lifecycle, or by industry.

Step 4: Determine Channels and Budgets

Segmenting your audience in terms of sales stage, purchase behaviors, and industry will help you determine the most effective communication medium to use. You can also research the channel of communications that your target audience likes using. Depending on the channel, identify the budget you will need to give the campaign a chance to work.

Step 5: Create Content and Messaging

Create the right content that addresses the business challenges that your audience could be facing.

Step 6: Set Up Your Campaigns

Launch your campaigns to the target customers through the communication channels you selected. Avoid making any significant changes to the campaigns within the first two weeks. With time, you will be able to learn what’s working and what’s not.

Step 7: Measure effectiveness and refine

Be sure to test and measure the effectiveness of your ABM marketing campaigns. You can use the data at the account level to determine what worked and what to improve in your next campaign.

What Are the Elements of a Complete Featured ABM Platform?

A full-featured ABM platform has;

  • Account targeting and selection
  • Audience segmentation
  • Account-based web personalization
  • Account-based advertising
  • Sales intelligence
  • Real-time behavioral data
  • Reporting and analytics

Examples of Full-Featured ABM Platforms

Some of the standard full features of ABM platforms include;

  1. HubSpot. You can use HubSpot’s software to create a campaign in your CRM. This involves creating a customer profile (ICP). The software then automatically selects the prospects that match your profile. The platform contains other valuable tools, like ads, social media posts, and web pages essential when creating campaigns.
  2. Terminus. The platform comprises ABM software that enables you to build account lists and create vital, personalized data. Terminus also allows you to locate accounts and send personalized campaigns.
  3. Demandbase. Demandbase is another platform that is compatible with ABM programs. It has a user-friendly interface and thus makes it easy to identify potential accounts and launch personalized campaigns.

Last Thoughts

ABM offers a personalized and focused approach to marketing and sales. The strategy also has a more significant ROI than other market strategies. Contact us today to learn about the account-based market!