In today’s B2B marketing landscape, where personalization is paramount, account-based marketing (ABM) continues gaining momentum as a go-to marketing tactic. ABM is a powerful strategy that empowers B2B marketers to target high-value accounts with tailored content and messaging, resulting in high conversion rates and return on investment (ROI). In this article, we will explore the world of ABM, highlighting key components and valuable tips for success.
Understanding Account-Based Marketing
ABM stands apart from traditional marketing approaches. While some marketing strategies target a broad audience with general messaging, ABM is hyper-targeted. It starts with identifying specific businesses or accounts, followed by creating customized marketing campaigns. Unlike marketing strategies that cast a wide net to capture leads, ABM identifies and nurtures relationships with a select group of accounts likely to yield substantial revenue. Think of ABM as the needle in the haystack of traditional marketing.
Leveraging Data in ABM
ABM would not be possible without sales and marketing data. Marketers use data to select target accounts, craft personalized campaign content, and more. With the right data, marketers can gain insights into the behaviors and preferences of their target accounts to ensure they create compelling campaigns that drive conversions. For B2B account-based marketing campaign success, it is important to:
Collect Quality Data
It is critical to obtain high-quality, accurate data to gain insights into target accounts. Inaccurate data can lead to poor-performing campaigns and missed opportunities. Reports indicate that 30% of marketing data is inaccurate, leading to ineffective marketing campaigns. The inaccuracies can contribute to businesses losing as much as 20% of their revenue. Utilize research, data enrichment, web tracking and lead scoring to ensure records are accurate.
Segment Audiences with Precision
Accurate data enables precise audience segmentation, allowing marketers to understand and group their target accounts by shared pain points, needs and behaviors and address them directly. These insights provide the basis for creating content and messaging that resonates with these accounts. Without accurate or relevant segmentation, content and messaging can miss the mark.
Utilize a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
A CRM system plays a significant role in the organization of ABM data and ensures sales and marketing alignment. With crucial information in one place, sales and marketing can be on the same page. CRM data also helps in the ongoing segmentation and personalization efforts. Key fields such as job title, revenue size and challenges are collected and stored on the contact record. Accurate records help marketing when segmenting their audience for targeted content or email campaigns and ensure sales is using the right information in their outreach. The important thing about a CRM is that it keeps ABM campaign data organized and target accounts updated so sales and marketing have full transparency.
Identifying High-Value Accounts
Selecting and prioritizing high-value accounts is a critical step in ABM. It involves a combination of data analysis and aligning with sales teams to pinpoint accounts with significant revenue potential. These accounts must align with your ideal customer profile. To hone in on high-value accounts, marketers should:
Define Ideal Customer Profiles
Ideal customer profiles are important for understanding the types of accounts that would benefit from using your product or service offering. These profiles should include details such as the company industry, size, location and past purchasing behaviors and form a cohesive narrative for who your ideal customer is and how to reach them.
Prioritize Accounts
Once high-value accounts have been identified, the next step is to prioritize them. Some accounts may offer more immediate revenue potential while some may require a long-term investment and nurture process to generate a conversion. Prioritization ensures that resources are allocated appropriately.
Crafting Content and Messaging for ABM
ABM campaign success is heavily rooted in personalized content. Each target account should receive tailored messaging and content that speaks directly to their pain points and needs. The level of personalization for each target account is what sets B2B account-based marketing apart from other strategies.
Tailor Messaging
Take your prospect’s pain points, challenges and other characteristics and use these as the starting point to craft tailored messaging. For example, you are a software company looking to target a large enterprise. After defining their customer profile, create tailored messaging points that highlight how your solution can address their biggest challenges, such as streamlining complex workflows. If you have account-specific data, incorporate that into your messaging as it gives accounts a quantitative understanding of what your solution can offer.
Personalize Content
Personalization is about delivering content that resonates with a prospect’s specific role, industry and challenges. Personalization is so instrumental that 90% of marketers say personalization significantly contributes to business profitability. Content for target accounts should offer actionable insights that audiences can implement to address their unique challenges. Always provide personalized takeaways and ensure that you are highlighting the benefits of your solution.
Incorporating Multi-Channel Engagement
Successful ABM campaigns leverage a variety of channels to spark engagement with target accounts. The key to multi-channel engagement is to ensure messaging is consistent across each touchpoint and to choose the right channels. Knowing which channels to utilize comes from analyzing audience preferences and buying behaviors. This tells you how they consume information and content. Meeting your target accounts on the channels they utilize increases lead opportunities.
Another component of successful multi-channel engagement is connection. Digital marketing efforts should seamlessly connect across all channels. If a target account interacts with your content on your website, they should receive a follow-up email that builds upon that engagement. Building on initial engagement and nurturing prospects forms a strong relationship with target accounts.
Measuring ABM Success
Measuring the success of ABM campaigns involves tracking key metrics. On an account level, look at engagement, pipeline movement and conversion rates. Engagement shows marketing performance. Pipeline movement indicates to sales how quickly target accounts moved through the funnel. It can also shine a light on bottlenecks or roadblocks that halt prospect progress. Conversion rates show the overall success of ABM efforts. Looking at target accounts and their success at each stage of the buyer’s journey can highlight where accounts fell off or converted to the next stage.
With these insights, marketing and sales can adjust either during the ABM campaign or in preparation for the next one. It is always in the best interest to use data to make improvements that yield boosted performance.
Embracing ABM can generate many opportunities for B2B marketers. By prioritizing accurate data to identify accounts and tailoring messaging and content, organizations are set up for ABM and business success.
Ready to kick off your B2B account-based marketing campaign or wonder if it is the right marketing approach for your business? Contact us today or request a free marketing consultation!
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