Lately, Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a word that has been doing the rounds in the B2B community with greater frequency. ABM also known as key account targeting, is a strategic approach to B2B marketing that targets specific high-value accounts.
This approach combines B2B lead management and relationship management to grow the life time value of specific target accounts by engaging specific accounts and individuals across various stages of the buyer journey. The main idea behind the application of the Account based marketing strategy is to create demand at the handful of companies/ client accounts that contribute heavily to the revenue.
Is Account Based Marketing Right For You?
ABM had higher ROI than other marketing activities, according to 97 percent of marketers in a survey. (Alterra Group)
Basically, the concept of Account-Based Marketing revolves around marketing to high-value prospect accounts that hold the promise of delivering larger revenue once the deals are closed. If the number of such high-value accounts is limited, then due to the high specificity of the buyer the target account list is fairly obvious. But ABM can also be applicable if your overall client base is big in number.
That being said, the fact remains that you would want to get the most out of profitable prospect accounts. In this case, customizing content & messages to target, nurture & convert these prospects definitely makes sense & will guarantee a good amount of revenue. So if you aim to target specific high-value prospect accounts and win deals that are sure revenue generators then ABM is the marketing strategy that you should be focusing on!
How To Develop An Effective ABM Strategy
An effective account-based marketing strategy enables marketers to engage key personas at their target companies, thus 80% B2B marketers say that ABM outperforms other marketing initiatives.(ITSMA)
Now that you are sure ABM is right for you. I am positive you would want to know how to execute it effectively. There are 5 basic steps to an effective ABM strategy:
ABM Should Work Even After Conversions Happen:
A small increase in customer retention can cause a significant rise in profitability. To design a successful ABM strategy it is important to have a process in place that goes well beyond the conversion stage. It has been estimated that a 5% increase in customer retention can cause an increase in profitability of about 25% to 50%.
Integrated & Coordinated Approach
Companies are 67% better at closing deals when sales and marketing are in sync (Marketo)
Individual initiatives from the marketing or sales teams may sometimes lead to lost deals. Account development & enrichment requires a cooperative effort from both the marketing and sales teams for effective conversions and better retention.
Locate & Connect Customer Data
The customer data is widely spread out across the organizational structure with some data being held by the marketing department & and some by the sales team. This data needs to be located and collected to get a clear view of the data so as to derive actionable insights from the data of various stages of the buyer journey.
Discover Account Influencers
Use the accumulated customer data to increase outreach. Locate key account influencers for better prospecting of target accounts.
Deliver Better Experiences With Personalized Content
Content that is personalized according to the target account profile can serve as an important tool in better prospecting & faster customer acquisition. Moreover, personalized content also helps in improving customer experience.
How effective Account Based Marketing benefits you?
Once you are sure that all the required efforts have been put into developing an effective ABM strategy, the knowledge of the benefits you may reap becomes essential. So let’s look into the 5 major benefits that ABM can fetch:
Design a focused sales and marketing strategy
With ABM, the main objective is to focus precisely on target accounts. Account and lead level scoring can be utilized to easily focus on the right accounts and right people within those accounts with targeted marketing campaigns. This precise targeting also helps to enhance the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.
Achieve a shorter sales cycle
Targeted marketing campaigns which form the main feature of an ABM program, help to build a strong brand image. Additionally, these campaigns also help in reaching key decision makers within these target accounts, thus shortening the sales cycle.
Greater alignment between sales and marketing teams
Since effective Account based marketing requires greater cooperation between the sales and marketing teams, these two teams need to work together with greater transparency. The goals of these two teams are the same, and with ABM, these two teams can not only target the high-value accounts better but their combined effort can help win larger revenue.
Provide a better customer experience
Account based marketing tactics such as precise targeting and personalization can help build a better customer experience for the target accounts.
Drive more revenue
Account based marketing mainly means focusing on the most revenue fetching accounts, thus, if the marketing and sales teams work together to make conversions happen then you will surely see those precious dollars pouring in!
Conclusively, although ABM is not a new form of marketing yet it holds an ocean worth of potential to be explored and what’s more you build loyalty among your most high-value clients!
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