Various B2B marketers welcome the concept of account-Based marketing (ABM) within their overall marketing strategies. ABM complements the conventional short-term marketing objective of lead generation with efforts to encourage long-term revenue growth.
Understanding Account-Based Marketing?
At its core, ABM is a tactic that allocates marketing resources to engage a distinct set of target accounts. ABM not only requires collaboration between sales and marketing teams – it mandates alignment because delivering personalized messages at the account level necessitates synchronization between sales and marketing. The goal? Enhanced revenues within a shorter timeframe.
Instead of employing broad strategies for lead generation, marketers utilizing ABM collaborate closely with sales to pinpoint key prospects and tailor specialized programs and messages to the purchasing team within target accounts.
Why Opt for Implementing ABM?
As buying circles expand, marketing teams face greater pressure to directly impact revenue growth. This pressure is a core reason for the widespread adoption of the ABM approach. ABM directs your focus towards relationships within your most promising, high-value accounts.
For example, if you offer a high-end SaaS product or consulting service, rather than pursuing a broad approach by targeting small businesses, SMBs, and enterprises, you may opt to concentrate on accounts with the highest demand and financial capacity.
By merging efforts and resources, marketing and sales can effectively engage and convert accounts. This collaborative approach allows for a more deliberate strategy development that heightens the chances of driving engagement.
This meticulous strategy is crucial as buyers increasingly seek personalized outreach tailored to their business and even their industry-specific interests. ABM necessitates personalized engagement by marketing and sales with every individual in the buying team. Customization is vital for marketing and sales efforts focused on a select few high-value accounts.
Effective personalization increases the likelihood of successful outreach, reducing the chances of your content being overlooked or disregarded.
Who Gains from ABM and How?
Some argue that ABM is most beneficial for B2B firms that cater to a handful of significant core accounts or accounts within a specific sector. Others contend that ABM can be advantageous for B2B organizations of any scale as long as the focus remains on high-value accounts.
At a more detailed level, ABM serves as a mutual benefit for sales, marketing, and customers.
ABM seamlessly complements the account-centric approach long embraced by sales teams. With the active involvement of marketing, sales teams can enhance the personal touch in their outreach efforts. Tailoring marketing messages to targeted buying committee members often accelerates the sales process, leading to improved closure rates and faster deal closure.
Marketing also benefits from being perceived as a strategic collaborator by the sales team. Rather than providing leads that wither away, marketing collaborates with sales on a defined list of high-potential targets agreed upon by both teams. According to 84% of businesses leveraging ABM, it delivers superior ROI compared to other marketing initiatives.
An additional positive outcome is that ABM enhances the marketing team’s understanding of the broader target audience, empowering them to enhance the effectiveness of their other initiatives by recognizing which content and messages resonate best.
Customers benefit from ABM in the form of a more tailored experience. Buyers prefer personalized interactions, and ABM caters precisely to that preference. Delivering customized content and messages that resonate requires effort upfront, which customers will acknowledge and value – saving time by focusing on relevant content.
Aligning Sales and Marketing for an ABM Strategy
The ultimate secret to success lies in getting sales and marketing to function as a unified account team. Without this alignment, your target accounts may encounter a disjointed experience as marketing and sales collide instead of paving the way for effective engagement with key decision-makers.
The journey to success begins with clear communication between your sales representatives and marketers and proceeds as both groups execute their roles in the strategy throughout the buyer’s journey. Establishing alignment from the outset regarding the primary objective of the ABM program helps marketing and sales synchronize their efforts and determine the most suitable target accounts and strategies for engaging them effectively.
Although the primary goal is to acquire new accounts or expand business with existing ones, marketing and sales should establish smaller objectives aligned with the overarching goals, including:
- Identifying more decision-makers within each account
- Scheduling more senior-level appointments/meetings
- Shortening the sales cycle
- Fostering stronger customer loyalty or reducing attrition
- Closing a higher proportion of significant deals
- Boosting revenue within current accounts
Developing an Account-Based Marketing Strategy
When marketing and sales share a unified approach on how to target and acquire accounts, they can collaborate around a shared objective. The initial step involves co-creating an ABM strategy to enable sales and marketing to function as components of a unified "account team."
Initially, marketing concentrates its financial resources on the accounts identified as most crucial by the sales team. Sales and marketing mutually agree on common objectives, messaging, content, and the execution strategy, utilizing metrics to assess success. Let’s delve into the primary steps of formulating an ABM strategy.
Phase 1: Recognize high-value accounts
Examine your existing customer base to identify those that match your idea of an ideal customer. This definition may vary depending on factors such as industry and other overarching descriptors, often boiling down to profitable, loyal customers who engage well with your solutions and yield significant lifetime value.
Record the existing accounts that have shown an interest in expanding their relationship with your company and look out for new accounts that meet your strategic criteria. For new accounts, you may evaluate if they have an immediate need that compels them to invest a specific amount.
Phase 2: Connect Individuals to Accounts
In any significant B2B deal, your marketing and sales teams play a crucial role in fostering agreement among key stakeholders.
The initial step involves recognizing those capable of influencing the ultimate purchasing decision. Your task is to actively involve these committee members and convince them to initiate action.
For instance, if we consider a business that markets software for marketing purposes, they would pinpoint the crucial decision-making roles within specific accounts. This list may include the CMO, digital marketing managers, CIO, and CFO.
Keep in mind: Individually engaging contacts is crucial within the context of the overall account. Essentially, you should link the concerns and requirements of each individual on the purchasing committee back to their company’s strategic goals. Your primary objective when engaging each stakeholder should be to facilitate agreement towards a purchase decision.
Step 3: Define and craft targeted initiatives
Once your target accounts and individuals have been selected, it becomes imperative to formulate customized campaigns that resonate with them. It is important to remember that establishing and nurturing relationships are central to a thriving ABM program. Your chances of success increase by offering valuable advice and education that align with the account’s purchasing cycle.
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Many marketers may question whether to allocate resources to ABM or inbound marketing. However, it is not a matter of one or the other. Both are fundamental practices in the contemporary marketing toolkit and complement each other.
While involving individuals within target accounts with personalized content and interactions through outbound strategies, you can reinforce your messages through your digital presence, drawing upon inbound marketing best practices. Essentially, you aim to attract your target accounts through helpful, pertinent content. There is also the possibility of gaining a new target account through inbound marketing efforts – one that perfectly fits your ideal customer profile but was inadvertently omitted from your target list.
Given that the success of your inbound efforts relies on your content being discoverable online, you must create your content with search engine optimization (SEO) in consideration. Additionally, many B2B organizations find it beneficial to extend the reach of their content using online advertisements.
Account-Based Promotion
By utilizing account-based advertising, you can proactively select the audience for your display ads. Therefore, each marketer focusing on account-based strategies can utilize LinkedIn Account Targeting. When you upload a list of your target companies, Account Targeting compares them with the 13+ million Company Pages available on LinkedIn.
By reaching a wider audience, you can engage with key decision-makers within the target accounts by displaying ads customized according to their role and stage in the purchasing process. For the initial contact, you can use LinkedIn Sponsored Content campaigns to showcase relevant content to a specific audience segment. Following this, through Message Ads, you can directly connect with them by sending a personalized message from a sales representative.
While account-based advertising allows you to target any stakeholder, it is particularly effective in engaging decision-makers who may not be actively researching potential solutions, like the CFO or Procurement Officer. It presents a cost-effective means to expand your outreach within the targeted accounts.
In a trial of LinkedIn Matched Audience campaigns, marketers observed an average 32% rise in post-click conversion rates and a 4.7% drop in post-click cost-per-conversion.
Common Challenges in Achieving ABM Success
While launching an ABM program requires dedicated effort and groundwork, achieving success is attainable for every B2B organization. So, why do some businesses struggle to unlock their full revenue potential through ABM?
Failure to Agree on the Correct Target Accounts
It’s crucial for marketing and sales to be in sync regarding the target accounts. The effectiveness of ABM hinges on the synergy between marketing and sales, both focusing intensely on accounts with the highest potential. Failure to align on this fundamental aspect of your ABM program can render all your other tactics ineffective.
Deficiency in Accurate Shared Data
Having access to a shared data source that details target accounts is essential in aligning marketing and sales efforts. If marketing and sales are using different data sources to identify target accounts, such as marketing automation systems versus CRM tools, it’s inevitable that the two groups will be out of sync.
Unreasonable Expectations
Expecting your ABM program to revolutionize the sales cycle and revenue outcome overnight is unrealistic. It’s important to set achievable goals rather than anticipating miraculous results. Until you iron out the kinks and your ABM program gains momentum, you are likely to see gradual enhancements rather than dramatic transformations. Progress is evident as long as you maintain a positive trajectory.
Practical Examples of Account-Based Marketing
Various innovative tools and technologies have made ABM more feasible by enabling marketers to deliver targeted messages with enhanced precision. As mentioned earlier, LinkedIn offers a targeting feature that supports ABM: LinkedIn Account Targeting.
With LinkedIn Account Targeting, marketers can engage with the most important accounts for their business by customizing their LinkedIn Sponsored Content and Message Ads campaigns for a selection of top-priority accounts, and then utilizing profile-based targeting, such as job function or seniority, to reach the right individuals within a specific organization.
Enhancing Your ABM Strategy on LinkedIn
Besides the inherent capabilities like Account Targeting, LinkedIn also provides a range of partner solutions and integrations to elevate your ABM initiatives on the platform. Featured partners offer distinct LinkedIn-focused services and functionalities, including Terminus, Demandbase, Adobe, HubSpot, and more.
Explore more about ABM Marketing on Tenten Blog.
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