If you ask five marketers what account-based marketing is, you will probably get five different answers.
That’s right.
The term ABM has been thrown around loosely. Many people are unsure of what branding really means and how to create an effective strategy for it.
This article provides an overview of account-based marketing, including its definition and different types. In this class, you will learn about the best strategies, tactics, and see examples of these in action.
Ready? Let’s go.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
What is all the buzz about Account-based marketing (ABM)? How is this different from conventional B2B marketing? Is this just another marketing fad?
ABM has been claimed by many experts to help land bigger deals quicker. Really?
Let’s dive deeper into what makes ABM effective.
Traditional B2B Marketing focuses on verticals. This means Marketers will prospect anybody within these verticals.
Let’s say you are selling HR Software. Finance is the primary target market for this product. This includes banking and insurance companies.
Advertising that targets all departments within the finance vertical using one message.
Since it’s not effective to target everyone with the same message,
Enter Account-Based marketing (ABM).
It is a strategic approach to targeting specific accounts in order to engage with them, close deals, and grow the relationship. There are three types of account-based marketing, each targeting a different number of accounts.
In other words, account-based marketing is just one tool that marketing teams can use as part of their overall strategy.
Many successful companies use a combination of traditional marketing techniques with account-based marketing in order to achieve success. There are three different segments of account-based marketing in order to target different types of accounts.
You can’t just market to a few companies each year. Or even in a quarter.
Even though you are aware that those accounts have the greatest likelihood of closing and would be the ideal customers for your product, companies cannot merely exist on a handful of closed deals and targets.
If you only market to a small group of companies, your company won’t be able to grow. It doesn’t sense.
While big B2B brands like Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle do use account-based marketing, they don’t rely solely on it. The amount of branding and awareness campaigns is fair and looks very similar to traditional marketing. That’s how companies become bigger.
Although some companies have large marketing budgets, this is not the case for all businesses.
So where is that balance in Account-based marketing? How narrow should the account targeting be? What are the 3 types of account-based marketing?
The different types of account-based marketing strategies
There are 3 types of account-based marketing (ABM)
- Strategic account-based marketing (ABM)
- Account-based marketing lite (ABM)
- Programmatic account-based marketing (ABM)
All of these measures must be implemented at the same time.
You can’t just implement one and ignore the rest.
Many marketers make the mistake of choosing to run only one type.
It is important to be aware that the three types of ABM may have different names depending on the author you consult. But they all have the same description.
Strategic Account-based Marketing (ABM)
This is a marketing program that is specifically designed for a small number of accounts. This phase would typically involve selecting an average of 5-15 accounts.
ABM marketers adopt an almost “one-to-one” laser focus approach. These are likely the company’s high-value accounts.
Contents are highly personalised to these high-value accounts.
Investing in and allocating resources to reach these companies individually is more costly than other types of ABM.
The Accounts that are chosen as targets in Strategic ABM are usually the ones that the company has the best chance of winning. Accounts that would find the product a good fit and can afford it.
Potential buyers are typically existing customers because they are already familiar with the product and see its usefulness.
What do I mean by “existing customers”? How do we sell to existing customers?
Through upselling and cross-selling. Prospects could upgrade their current systems or services. They could be an advocate of your product to other departments. They could become a champion for your product internally. Alternatively, they could purchase a totally new offering.
An example of this would be if a customer already has your customer-relationship management software (CRM), they are more likely to also buy your email marketing software if you market it well to them.
Of course, strategic accounts could also include non-customers.
This is the reason why strategic account marketing is extremely time-consuming and requires more precise marketing methods.
The highest investment for any ABM strategy is in this area. ABM’s ROI is expected to come mostly from Strategic ABM.
Account-based marketing (ABM) lite
In ABM Lite, Marketers create programs specifically for groups of accounts that have similar needs and challenges. The focus is on “one-to-few” accounts
The number of accounts typically varies depending on the size of the company, typically falling between 15 and 100 accounts.
If you’re from a large company like Microsoft, you could explore more than 100 accounts.
There is a good balance of targeting both existing and new accounts.
In an ABM strategy, the organisation creates customised campaigns specifically researched and designed to target a company’s specific needs. Although content here is not as individualized as Strategic Account-based marketing (ABM), the organization still creates customised campaigns specifically researched and designed to target a company’s specific needs.
The content is not entirely customized, but it is reused across all the accounts because they have similar business goals or problems.
ABM lite is expected to have the 2nd highest ROI from the Account-based marketing program. Although it is not the strategy requiring the most investment, it is still the second most expensive strategy behind strategic ABM.
Programmatic Account-based marketing (ABM)
This strategy is define by it’s “one-to-many” focus.
There is no definite number of accounts in this. This system could work for a large number of accounts, depending on your budget.
It is common practice here to target people by their job functions within several different areas.
Why is Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Important?
After years of research, the benefits of account-based marketing can be broken down to the following:
- More efficient use of marketing resources
- Better alignment between sales and marketing teams
- More ROI with Account-based marketing
- Stronger and more trustworthy business relationships
- Faster sales cycles
- Clearer customer acquisition process
The average number of people involved in the buying decision process is 6.8. To be successful, you will need to target all of the people involved in the purchasing decision.
This means that you can’t just aimlessly spray your message out to people who are not interested and hope that it sticks.
You cannot specifically target one person in a company.
It is important to have a mix of people you target when trying to promote your product, these people should include influencers, decision-makers, users, and champions.
That’s where account-based marketing (ABM) shines.
This is why B2B Marketers find ABM to be beneficial in a variety of ways.
5 Effective Account Based Marketing Tactics
1. Linkedin engagement tools
It allows you to target a very specific audience with a high degree of accuracy LinkedIn’s ability to target a specific audience makes it an successful ABM tactic. People often forget that LinkedIn is not only a great platform for networking, but also for generating leads. In fact, according to LinkedIn statistics, 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn.
This is an effective way to attract potential customers with content that interests them and then keep them engaged as part of your account-based marketing strategy.
There are two great options: InMail, which allows you to send messages directly to people’s inboxes without having to connect first, or Sponsored Updates that are sent to many people in the target account’s network.
Having LinkedIn engagement tools is important for ABM because it allows you to connect with potential customers and then have continuing interactions with them to foster relationships.
LinkedIn InMail and sponsored updates are a great way to keep your contact information fresh in their minds and also provide them with valuable content.
Don’t go overboard with Sponsored Updates, save them for big events like product launches. It’s okay to use InMail messages every once in a while.
LinkedIn’s engagement tools are most effective when you have a consistent message.
An example would be if you are a company that provides accounting software and you are looking for business owners who need your product or service to help them grow their businesses.
Help your potential clients see how your services will improve their business by sending them targeted content. Solve their specific problems and show them how your company can help them achieve their goals.
The more compelling and personalized an offer is, the more likely people are to take it up. Therefore, this campaign should focus on creating enticing, tailored offers that fit in with what people want.
The most important thing to take away from this is not just knowing which accounts to target, but also understanding where those contacts are in their journey to becoming customers, so you can adjust your messaging accordingly.
2. Website personalization for B2B
If you personalize your website for different customer segments, you will make more sales because visitors will feel at ease on your site.
Demandbase provides the data and features to personalized customer experiences, run A/B tests, segment visitors, and more.
You can segment on any element of the visitor’s behavior, including:
- Age and gender
- Geographical location
- Device type (desktop/mobile)
- The URL they came from or where they are navigating to next.
The more you tailor your website to specific customer segments, the stronger the connection will be between you and those customers, leading to more sales and higher revenue.
Personalized websites focus on what individual customers care about most, rather than on general topics which may not be interesting to everyone.
Tailoring your site to specific segments makes it feel like there is a real person on the other end, rather than an advertisement.
pinpointing a customer’s location allows businesses to more effectively tailor content by region than just relying on ZIP code information.
This means creating versions of websites in different languages that are more appropriate for specific countries or regions. This also includes offering different pricing formats depending on the currency used.
If you focus on the customer instead of solely on conversions, revenue, and engagement, you will see an increase in all three.
3. Creative strategic ABM
ABM can be used to create opportunities to expand your network.
This was a famous ABM strategy from the former Drift VP of marketing, Dave Gerhardt.
He asked if anyone needed a ride from the airport to the Salesforce event.
This gave him the ability to connect with others and raise awareness for his brand, Drift.
4. Starting a podcast and invite your prospects
Podcasts are trending now as an ABM strategy. Podcasts can be useful for marketing purposes, as they allow you to create an audio message that your target audience is likely to pay attention to. This can be a great way to deliver information to them in an engaging way.
Ask your prospects and customers if they would like to be on your podcast to help them become more familiar with you. After they have been on your podcast, ask them for referrals.
If you want more people to sign up for your interviews, you can offer incentives like free downloads, discounts, or coupons. This way, it will be easy for them to see the value in being interviewed by you.
This strategy is successful because people often listen to podcasts while they are commuting or making dinner. This allows them to digest a large amount of information in a short amount of time without feeling overwhelmed.
Having a blog will also make you seem like an expert in your field, which will make people more likely to refer others to your site.
5. Invite or seek them out at in-person events.
Inbound marketers focus on digital marketing, but they know that meeting someone in person is more powerful. One of the most effective account-based marketing tactics is to meet your target contacts in person.
You could try attending events in their city that you know they’ll be at, or hosting your own event that you know provides value and inviting them specifically. A possible interpretation of this text is that hosting a special dinner for your ABM contacts at a big industry conference could be a way to build relationships.
Think about how you can establish a personal relationship with someone so that you can show them the people who work for the brand and create a real connection.
Final thoughts
You can forget that you are still talking to people if you use all of these tactics and information. We are still all people selling to other people.
The best way to earn a consumer’s business is by building a personal relationship with them rather than representing a faceless organization. You may find that your relationship improves because you’ve made an effort to get to know the person better without being too pushy.
