There are different types of marketing available to all of us who are heavily involved in B2B marketing, and more often than not, it all becomes a blur. However, there is one tried and tested form of marketing that we should always devote our attention to, and that is account-based marketing.
It sounds fancy we’ll agree, but it is such a simple principle if you think about it. Account-based marketing (or ABM) is the opposite of what marketers are almost always guilty of doing. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, it aims to try to target valuable time and resources towards a specific niched out audience.
Ready to enter the world of ABM? This article will run you down with the basics and how you can utilize this form of marketing to maximize conversions and efficiency.
The Benefits of Account-based Marketing
There are a lot of benefits to account-based marketing, and some people fail to recognize all of these benefits.
Resource use is efficient
Forget about blasting every single prospect that you might have and start focusing your efforts on one particular segment, niche or group of people. This makes more sense fiscally, and it minimizes resource wastage, whether it is time or money.
The response rate is better
Account-based marketing involves specialty marketing and sales. This helps you create campaigns that resonate better with your targets. A campaign that appeals to your target converts better than a more generalized one.
You can align your sales and marketing teams better
Smarketing is not just a buzzword that has been around since 2007, it is considered the future. One of the predicted ways that you can pursue growth is through the proper alignment of sales and marketing. It allows for enhanced directives and clear funnels for leads.
The feedback system is more accessible to track
There is a certain sense of clarity that can be obtained with ABM and it is usually because everything is focused narrowly. The analytics is clearer, and it is naturally structured in a way where you can quickly check tracking and feedback.
As you can see, there are a lot of benefits to employing an account-based marketing system and getting your sales alignment in check for maximum streamlined conversions.
How Do You Move Towards ABM?
You don’t have to devote the entire resources of your firm to ABM, but having a certain number of resources working towards an ABM goal can be extremely helpful in generating revenue. There are a couple of things that you have to keep in mind when starting with account-based marketing.
#1 Identification of Key Accounts
There are plenty of ways to go about this, and there are a couple of key takeaways in this first step of ABM. First of all, it is not just the purchase potential that you have to look at; the potential for repeat purchases also has to be taken into consideration. The regular things to look out for are their influence in the market and how you can position yourself to make better margins.
Related: Savvy Ways to Identify and Qualify B2B Decision Makers
#2 Establish The Aim of Personalized Content
ABM thrives in personalizing campaigns for specific groups of people, what is generally appealing cannot accurately be described as individually attractive and you should take your time in crafting content that is targeted towards your segment. This is not just about making people feel a certain way, but it is gauged towards solving problems and challenges in the workplace.
#3 Channels Are Important
The truth is everyone is going to be tuned on a specific “channel” depending on his or her position. Ensuring that you are hitting a particular market in the channel that they frequent – mobile, email, web, etc. – is as important as creating the proper content for their niche. Make sure that you are hitting the channels that they frequent.
Related: Understanding Multi-channel, Cross-channel and Omnichannel Marketing
#4 Pay Close Attention To Your Campaign
You have to make sure that the campaign that you are targeting is adequately tweaked and coordinated to ensure that you are achieving maximum results. This means being able to reply on time, automating the other aspects of your campaign, and making sure that everything is on schedule.
#5 The Feedback System is Going to Matter
We cannot stress this enough, for anything to be effective, you have to look at how it has been performing and adjust it accordingly. Results matter and they paint a picture of what works and what doesn’t.
Is ABM Right For My Business?
Switching on full ABM-mode will not necessarily guarantee that your business will always make a sale, but there has been enough evidence of it being useful in the degree of growth in the potential revenue of a company.
