If you run a B2B company and have never considered account-based marketing before, now is the time to start.
Ninety-two percent of B2B companies say that account-based marketing — also known as ABM — is either “extremely” beneficial or “very” beneficial to their marketing efforts as a whole.
Never heard of ABM before? Not sure whether or not it’ll work for you?
Read on to learn more about account-based marketing and what you need to do to create a great ABM campaign.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
Before you start trying to create an ABM campaign, it’s important to learn more about what account-based marketing actually is.
Account-based marketing is all about marketing directly to key business accounts. Your team will place all their energy on a few large, select accounts, rather than trying to cast a wide net and appeal to as many people as possible.
In order for an ABM campaign to be successful, you will need to do lots of research to identify the best accounts to target. You’ll also need to create marketing strategies that appeal directly to these accounts.
Benefits of Account-Based Marketing
There are a number of benefits that come with taking an account-based marketing approach. Some of the greatest benefits include:
- Eliminate poor leads and focus on customers that are most likely to work with you
- Create personalized messages and provide more value to customers
- Faster sales and increased revenue growth
- Create more targeted, measurable campaigns
- More cost-effective than other marketing approaches
- Use resources more efficiently
If any of these benefits appeal to you, you may want to consider giving account-based marketing a try.
9 Steps to the Perfect ABM Campaign
Now that you know more about what account-based marketing is and why you ought to be using it, let’s go over how to create a great ABM campaign.
These steps will help you put together an effective, profitable campaign before you know it.
1. Assemble Your Team
Start by taking the time to assemble the right team of people to handle this campaign.
If you want your ABM campaign to succeed, you’ll need to make sure that members of your sales and marketing teams are involved in the process.
Assemble a core team of your most competent individuals — you’ll want people you know you can trust handling this project.
2. Know Your Audience
Next, figure out which accounts you’re going to pursue with your ABM campaign.
Take a look at the organizations that bring in the greatest amount of monthly recurring revenue for your company. Then take a closer look and figure out what these organizations have in common.
Are they part of the same industry? Are they companies of a certain size? Do they have a similar annual revenue?
Once you can define the types of organizations that bring in the most revenue, you’ll have an idea of which kinds of accounts you need to pursue.
3. Choose Your Technology
There are a lot of different types of technology out there that can help you to ensure to ABM campaign is a success.
ABM technology can help you engage with your customers directly via a variety of digital channels. It also makes it possible for you to communicate with the entire organization, rather than just with an individual lead.
ABM technology makes it easy for you to personalize marketing campaigns through every stage of the process.
4. Do Your Research
Once you’ve found the accounts you want to target, your next step is to do plenty of research and get to know these accounts inside and out.
You’ll need to learn how decisions get made at these specific organizations.
Find out who makes the decisions so you know who you need to focus your energy on when creating the campaign.
The more you know about the inner workings of an organization, the easier it will be to win them over.
5. Create Personalized Content
Now, it’s time for the fun part. You need to work on creating personalized content for each account you’re targeting.
Make sure the content is visually appealing, but you’ll also need to make sure that it sends the right message and reflects the organization’s brand and values.
6. Choose the Right Campaign Channels
Another important part of creating an ABM campaign is deciding on the right channels to use to promote these campaigns.
Figure out where stakeholders of your target accounts spend the greatest amount of time when they’re online — is it Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest?
The more you know about their habits when they’re online, the greater your chances of success.
7. Execute Your Campaigns
Now that you’ve done your research and put in the hard work involved in creating these campaigns, it’s time to execute them.
Remember not to bombard your targets with tons of advertising all at once. This will likely overwhelm them and could turn them off from your company altogether.
8. Measure Your Results
Once you’ve executed your campaigns, you need to monitor them.
This is true of any type of marketing approach, but it’s especially important for ABM campaigns.
Pay careful attention to how the campaign is performing and how engaging it appears to be. Take stock, too, and notice if any of your targets are moving further down the sales funnel.
9. Optimize as Necessary
Once you’ve measured your results, make adjustments to further optimize your campaigns and ensure they’re as effective as possible.
ABM is an ongoing process — there’s always something new you can do to better appeal to your targets and increase your conversions.
Need More Marketing Advice?
As you can see, account-based marketing can be a very beneficial practice for certain types of businesses.
Do you think your business could benefit from ABM? You now have the tools you need to create an ABM campaign that yields great results and helps you establish long-lasting partnerships.
Do you want to learn more about other types of marketing and how you can use them to grow your business?
If so, we’ve got lots of articles available for you. Start with this one on the benefits of digital marketing.
