A B2B account-based marketing (ABM) strategy identifies and targets specific accounts most likely to convert into high-value customers.
It involves a personalized and targeted approach to marketing and sales, intending to build strong relationships with key decision-makers within the target accounts.
B2B account-based marketing is rapidly gaining popularity among businesses as it has proven to be a highly effective way to increase revenue, enhance customer loyalty, and improve overall business performance. Let us dig deeper into it.
What is Account-based Marketing?
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a sales strategy channeling its resources on specific best-fit accounts: high-revenue prospects or accounts expressing interest in the company’s offerings.
This approach differs from traditional lead-based strategies that cast a wide net to generate as many leads as possible.
A successful ABM strategy typically combines prospects and existing clients to complement a lead-based approach.
ABM campaigns are designed to target the right people at the right time, with account-specific campaigns that deliver highly personalized messaging and content that’s relevant to the contact.
Effective ABM requires in-depth knowledge of the targeted account, including its pain points, decision-making process, and preferred communication channels.
By leveraging this knowledge, businesses can create campaigns that build strong relationships with high-value accounts, increase customer loyalty, and drive revenue growth.
If you’re wondering where to begin, Binary Demand has collated a list of strategies and steps to implement them.
How Do You Create and Implement the Best Account-based Strategy for Your Business?
Creating and implementing the best account-based marketing strategy involves thoroughly understanding your target accounts, a well-defined plan, and the appropriate tools and resources to execute it effectively.
It requires collaboration between sales and marketing teams, leveraging data and analytics to inform decision-making and ongoing optimization and refinement based on results.
Here are the steps that you can use to create an ABM strategy:
1. Align your sales and marketing teams
Aligning marketing and sales is essential for implementing account-based marketing successfully. A lead acquisition transitions into a customer through the final sale.
Both your teams must commit to open communication to ensure that the marketing team generates leads that the sales team can effectively target.
2. Identify account personas through research
Once sales and marketing teams agree on a strategy, the two departments can collaborate to ensure your company focuses on the right account personas.
Research is typically done first to decide which accounts to pursue. Marketers should take into account the following when creating customer personas for a B2B account-based marketing strategy:
- The ideal client’s mission, vision, and corporate goals.
- If any high-value clients are already using your business’s inbound strategy.
- The size of the business, its size today, and its growth trajectory.
- Spending habits and revenue model.
- The current programs and platforms that their ideal client uses.
There are many ways to identify key accounts, but your marketing and sales teams must agree on which accounts to target.
3. Create strategies for tapping these accounts
Now that you know which accounts to target, you can now create a strategy for these accounts. Your teams can contact the identified targets with the content generated per their interests.
Keep these best B2B account-based marketing practices in mind when developing an account plan for your account-based marketing strategy:
- Despite some similarities between account strategies for different customers, each should be customized to suit the requirements of that specific account.
- Each account plan should cover these issues: Who is involved in this sale’s purchasing decision (decision maker, influencer, legal, blockers, end-users, etc.)? And what information is required for each person on this purchasing committee?
4. Attract people who are connected to the target accounts
Employing the inbound methodology will assist you in luring contacts related to your target accounts. If you need more contacts, your next move should be to figure out where your ideal contacts are currently looking for solutions to the problems you solve.
Also Read: The Definitive Guide to Account-Based Marketing
Make sure your business is present and well-represented there. Events, trade publications like newsletters and blogs, and targeted ad placements are all possibilities for getting noticed by contacts.
While increasing your company’s visibility through all possible channels may be tempting, focus on the most pertinent to your target accounts and contacts.
5. Engage the purchasing committee
Make sure sales and marketing actively involve everyone involved in the buying decision as you develop relationships with key contacts.
Although sales usually take the lead at this stage of the purchasing process, marketing should be prepared to assist by producing pertinent materials to support messaging.
The following metrics can be used by marketing and sales teams to gauge the effectiveness of a B2B ABM strategy:
- Tracking interactions with target accounts’ associated buyers and identifying these buyers.
- Date of creation, velocity, and close rate data are indicators of the deal’s health.
- Target accounts’ share of the revenue.
After implementing this strategy, your marketing and sales teams can use it again with new and existing key accounts to attract high-value clients.
6. Boost your tech infrastructure and use external targeting tools
Success with account-based marketing depends on choosing the right technology investments and software stack.
ABM software helps to strengthen every critical stage of an ABM B2B strategy. Account selection through engagement and nurturing can be done with the help of reporting and analytics tools. As the strategy develops and matures, it helps you make the necessary adjustments.
Are you on the lookout for B2B ABM strategies and tactics that can be useful for your business? Let’s learn how.
Effective B2B Account-based Marketing Tactics That You Should Try
In recent years, technology has enabled businesses to scale and execute ABM tactics more efficiently. Let us explore some of the best B2B Account-based Marketing strategies that you can try to boost your sales and revenue.
Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just getting started with ABM, these tactics can help you achieve your goals and drive growth for your business:
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Sync up your marketing and sales teams
When implementing ABM, your marketing and sales teams must collaborate to identify, engage, and convert targeted customers. This collaboration is essential for ABM to succeed.
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Analyze data to enable precise targeting
A thorough examination of customer data is necessary for account-based marketing. Slice and dice your data to find high-potential targets based on a range of traits: industry, activity, location, size, and maturity level.
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Analyze data to comprehend client requirements
The best ABM B2B strategy is all about connecting with targeted customers. To do this, you must analyze your customer data and the data from other sources to determine what customers need. Understanding customers is the only way to personalize their experiences.
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Customize your content marketing strategy
Personalize your content for your ideal customer. No matter the medium—emails, blogs, webinars, eBooks, white papers—you must personalize content for each customer. Account-based marketing requires specific information for your customers.
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Create customized offers
It would help if you additionally tailor the offers you make to your target audience in addition to your content. This could involve exclusive pricing, individualized offers, packages, or even individualized goods or services.
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Website landing pages should be customized
You may think websites offer a single and uniform experience. That isn’t the case. Targeted customers can get personalized landing pages with the content they like. Account-specific pages can display custom content, offers, and other information, including the customer’s name and logo, to meet targeted customers’ needs.
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Use specialized online advertising
ABM avoids waste and inefficiency. Targeting your marketing campaigns to specific audiences is simple and beneficial. Instead of blanketing the web with generic ads, target specific groups or businesses.
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Welcome retargeting
Retargeting, which uses cookies to show your ads to customers who’ve visited your site, is a smart way to keep your brand in front of interested customers. Retargeting lets you find targeted accounts online and shows them your ads.
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Use client endorsements
Targeted customers enjoy hearing from people who are similar to them. Use case studies and testimonials from satisfied clients to win over similar target customers and establish your legitimacy.
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Gifts can go a long way
It’s not high-tech, but showering targeted customers with physical gifts tends to capture their attention and shorten the sales cycle. Make the gifts personalized. Of course, this requires getting to know these people well enough to make the gifts personal, but the effort will pay off in establishing a solid relationship.
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Pay attention to direct mail
Many executives need to open their emails or spend more time on social media; however, they pay attention to the mail arriving at their desks. Ensure your direct mail is highly personalized and individually addressed to the appropriate person — and you might be surprised by the results.
Direct mail can supplement your other marketing efforts and still significantly impact a campaign’s performance.
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Begin small and work your way up
You do not have to abandon your marketing efforts to embrace ABM. Many businesses often use ABM and traditional B2B demand generation marketing in tandem. Begin your ABM process with a few key accounts and then scale up as you see success.
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Obtain contact information from high-quality accounts
Depending on how long you’ve been in business and executed any prior ABM work, you might or might not already have contacts for specific accounts.
Also Read: The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing
Personalizing content for those accounts is the secret to drawing in high-quality accounts; doing so will increase audience members’ awareness of your brand and make your content more relevant.
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Create a team for ABM
Marketing and sales leaders should coordinate their efforts to create an ABM team. You need to designate at least one marketer and salesperson who will devote their entire time to your accounts.
These people will work to manage and close business deals with each account’s buying committee and produce and publish content for the said accounts.
Remember to name any additional internal key players who should know about and support your Account-based Marketing strategies in B2B, such as customer success representatives and the marketers and sales representatives.
Conclusion
Account-based Marketing (ABM) is a targeted approach to marketing that focuses on specific accounts and personalized communication. It involves a deep understanding of the needs and preferences of individual accounts and creating tailored messages and experiences for them.
An Account-based Marketing B2B strategy can help companies to build stronger relationships with their most valuable customers and prospects, increase revenue, and drive growth.
To succeed with ABM, companies need to clearly understand their target accounts, align their sales and marketing teams, create customized content, and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.
With the right approach, ABM can be a powerful tool for B2B companies looking to drive growth and build lasting customer relationships.
If you need help executing this valuable strategy, contact Binary Demand today!
