Are you having trouble selling your products or services to high-value clients? If so, account-based marketing (ABM) might help.
ABM is a highly effective strategy for B2B companies looking to target and convert high-value accounts. It works by focusing on a specific set of accounts rather than a broad audience to allow companies to maximize the value and return on investment from their marketing campaigns.
Whether you’re a small startup or a large enterprise, ABM can help you drive better results for your business. We’ll show you how.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
Account-based marketing (commonly known as ABM) is a marketing strategy for the B2B market which focuses on target accounts within a specific market. While most marketing campaigns have a broad scope and focus on gathering the most prospective customers, ABM marketing is strictly focused on a fixed, predetermined set of accounts. The strategy is focused solely on converting these accounts into sales or paying customers.
ABM is typically very efficient because the entire resources of the marketing team are focused on converting the accounts. It allows marketers to weed out less-valuable potential clients early on. Both the marketing and sales teams are focused on engaging with the predetermined accounts, leading to better overall conversions. Because of this, ABM leads to better ROIs and a massive boost in customer loyalty.
Why is Account-Based Marketing Important?
ABM marketing is vital for companies with a prospective list of high-value clients who want to convert them. As opposed to the one-to-many marketing approach (such as a TV or radio ad), ABM is focused only on cementing professional relationships with high-value clients. Its primary goals are to provide an excellent customer experience and tailored services to these clients. This type of marketing maximizes the value and return on investment from marketing campaigns and is typically focused on long-term relationships.
How to Implement Account-Based Marketing
Implementing an ABM strategy can be complex and requires careful planning. Here are the key steps and best practices for successfully implementing an ABM strategy.
1 . Create a Robust Account Selection Process
The success of ABM strategies starts with the selection process. The system relies on having a deep, reliable understanding of your high-value clients. You will target these clients in your campaigns, and your marketing efforts will have to focus on them. Evaluate your potential clients, what they need, their objectives and values, and how you can help them achieve them.
2. Coordinate Your Marketing and Sales Teams
ABM is all about focusing all your marketing and sales efforts on a small group of clients. This is why it’s essential to coordinate your teams towards a single goal (or client). In account-based marketing, your marketers and sales reps work together to build a personalized marketing campaign for the specific client across multiple channels. This joint effort should continue throughout the whole sales process.
3. Use the Right Tools to Reach Your Goals
Using the right software tools and technology is critical if you want to be successful with account-based marketing. Equip your marketing and sales team with software tools that help you with anything from account selection, research, engagement, nurturing, lead scoring, prospecting, analysis, and marketing automation.
4. Run and Track Customized Marketing Campaigns
After you set up the campaigns, it’s time to launch them. You must carefully track how they perform, make adjustments, and change parameters accordingly. Always keep an open communication line with your clients and see how their objectives change over time. Ensure to continuously update your clients about the campaign and keep your marketing and sales teams in the loop.
5. Get Help If You Need It
If you don’t have the time, know-how, or resources to implement your own account-based marketing campaign, there are B2B lead generation companies like KEOMarketing that specialize in ABM strategy.
Account-Based Marketing Tactics
To be successful with ABM, you’ve got to get the tactical side of things right. In this section, we will explore the different tactics that can be used to effectively execute an ABM strategy and drive better results for your business.
Analyze the data
Generating data for reports, graphics, and other types of content is a goldmine for your ABM strategies. Gather data during the research phase and segment it to understand it better. Analyze the data carefully, explain it to your client, and include it in the campaign.
Create Specific Content Topics for Your Campaigns
Tailor the content topics to your target audience’s needs. This includes all the written content, like blogs, eBooks, webinars, guides, reports, podcasts, and videos. Use them to build an attractive way to capture their attention. Don’t focus on general topics – drill down deeper into specific topics that are relevant to your client and make them attractive. That’s what high-value clients care about.
Use Video to Boost Your ABM Campaigns
Video is immensely powerful for your ABM campaigns. Focus on creating personalized videos, and send them as direct video messages. It’s an amazing way to build trust and put a face to your relationship with the client. Including videos in your emails also nurtures your relationship with clients, creates engagement, and increases response rates. Videos can also be used to showcase how a product or service works; they can explain to clients how a product can help them and provide value.
Account-Based Marketing Tools and Software
Tools and software are critical in account-based marketing strategies. You can use these to focus on the client base you wish to reach. The use of high-demand ABM tools and software can mean the difference between strategies that work and those that don’t.
High Demand ABM Tools and Software
Demandbase is a tool named the leader in ABM by Gartner in 2022. It provides excellent research and analysis tools for marketers, sales reps, and numerous communication channels. It has powerful ad creation tools but also tracking and measuring features.
Terminus is an excellent ABM tool used by over 1,000 large customers globally, including Dow Jones and Autodesk. It allows marketers to do their research, communicate with clients, and create a marketing pipeline. It features a powerful data studio that lets you segment, build, test, run, and track your ABM campaigns.
6sense is the complete software package for your marketing and sales team. It automatically finds high-value accounts and helps you contact them with personalized messages. It’s the perfect tool if you want to create a personalized experience for your clients, from the first touch and all the way to cross-selling.
Account-Based Marketing Examples
Here are a few examples of account-based marketing tactics:
Events
In-person events, like conferences, have always been highly effective for persuading decision-makers; a good ABM strategy is to provide personalized invitations to key decision-makers in large companies, special VIP dinners, customized gifts, and a personalized follow-up after the event.
Webinars
A webinar is similar to in-person events, but everything happens online. The key is to create a tailored webinar for the specific company and its audience. Of course, personalized follow-up is very important to secure the deal.
Direct Mail
Even in the digital world, direct mail is a great way to reach decision-makers within a company. Implementing gifts and personalized mail will set you apart from other marketers.
Email Campaigns
Email is a valuable marketing channel for ABM campaigns. Of course, you will have to tailor your email messages to the company you are interacting with and its audience.
Using ABM to Change Your Marketing Strategies
To sum it up, account-based marketing helps you connect with the best clients in your industry, has a higher ROI when compared to traditional marketing, and will help your business expand more quickly. It’s the perfect strategy to get high-value clients and build a strong and lasting relationship with them.
Contact LeadPost at contact@leadpost.com or call us at (866) 456-6674 to turn more visitors into leads and boost your ABM campaign now!