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New Strategies: What is Account-Based Marketing? 

The results of a recent survey showed that 92 percent of B2B companies consider account-based marketing (also known as ABM) to be a very important part of their overall marketing strategy.

At the same time, though, only about 20 percent of these businesses have had an ABM strategy in place for more than one year.

If you’re part of the majority of businesses that aren’t utilizing ABM, now is the time to start.

Read on to learn more about account-based marketing and why you might want to implement this kind of strategy into your marketing plan.

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What is Account-Based Marketing?

Account-based marketing is a highly focused marketing strategy. It involves collaboration between sales and marketing teams to identify and target specific accounts and work toward turning them into customers.

Instead of casting out a wide net to generate as many leads as possible, marketers and salespeople who utilize ABM work hard to narrow their search and tailor their marketing campaigns using various strategies (social media, email marketing, etc.) to target those ideal customers.

Benefits of Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing involves a lot of effort, research, and money in order to put together highly targeted marketing campaigns.

Why would businesses want to put in so much work? Because the results from well-planned and executed ABM campaigns are so impressive!

There are a lot of benefits that come from utilizing ABM for your business, including the following:

Shorter Sales Cycle

Account-based marketing is highly efficient. When you use it the right way, you’re able to get the right messages in front of the key decision-makers at your target accounts.

This, in turn, speeds up the sales process and leads to conversions much sooner since you don’t have to deal with the sticking points associated with other, more traditional marketing strategies.

Clearer ROI

Many people utilize ABM because of the high returns it yields.

In addition to yielding high returns in general, ABM also makes it clear which investments are yielding the best returns.

Because ABM is so specific and targeted, it’s easy to see where your money is coming from. 

More Successful Conversions

It takes a little more work upfront to put together an ABM strategy. But, that hard work pays off. 

ABM campaigns tend to yield more successful conversions that other marketing strategies.

There’s no more need to cold call, and you can rest easy knowing that buyers will already have been exposed to your businesses before your sales reps reach out to them.

Better Customer Experience

Account-based marketing is all about the customer. And, customers love when a marketing campaign is all about them.

By putting out highly targeted, personalized marketing campaigns, you’ll increase customer satisfaction and experience greater returns and increased sales.

Fewer Wasted Resources

When you utilize ABM as part of your marketing and sales strategy, nothing gets wasted. All of your resources go toward targeting specific accounts, and you don’t have to worry about hiring or firing people based on one account’s performance.

Easier Goal Setting

With ABM, it’s easy to set clear goals for your campaigns. You can also measure the performance of your campaigns more easily and make adjustments as needed.

When you focus on ABM, you have less data that you have to sift through since you’re only targeting a few key accounts.

You won’t feel overwhelmed by all the data coming your way, and it’ll be easier to interpret that data and figure out where you need to make changes to your campaigns.

Tips for Getting Started

Clearly, there are a lot of benefits that come from implementing an ABM marketing strategy. How do you start with this kind of strategy, though?

Here are some tips to help you make ABM work for you:

Identify High-Value Accounts

The first step is to spend some time identifying high-value accounts.

Which potential customers are going to yield the greatest returns and the highest number of conversions for your business?

Use all the resources you have available to identify these accounts.

Be sure to consider factors like the customer’s influence on the market, how likely they are to make repeat purchases, and the potential for higher profit margins.

Identify Key Internal Players

Once you’ve identified the key accounts, your next step is to identify the key internal players within those accounts.

At those companies, who are the people who make the decisions? These are the specific people you’re going to be advertising to with your campaigns.

Create Personalized Content

Now that you know whom you’re going to be addressing, it’s time to create content that will appeal to those key internal players.

Think about how you can craft your message to ensure that it resonates with them and increases the likelihood that they’ll be willing to work with your company.

Choose the Right Channels

When you’re creating content, it’s important to think about where you’ll be sharing it, too.

In order to choose the right marketing channels, you need to think about where the key internal players at your target accounts hang out.

For example, are they on social media? If so, which social media platforms?

Execute Campaigns

Now, it’s time to execute your ABM campaigns. You’ve put in all the work created these personalized campaigns, it’s time to put them into action!

Measure and Optimize Performance

Once you’ve executed your campaigns, you need to measure their performance and make adjustments as needed to optimize them for maximum returns.

Remember, the hard work’s not over just you’ve launched the campaign — in fact, it’s only just begun.

Learn More Marketing Tips Today

You now know a lot more about account-based marketing and why it matters to the long-term success of your business.

Now, it’s time to start working with your marketing and sales teams to put together a strategy.

Do you want to learn more about ABM — or about general business marketing strategies and tools? Either way, there are lots of resources available to you.

Check out the Startup Marketing section of our website today for helpful articles on social media marketing, conversion optimization, and more.

Join Our Small Business Community

Get the latest news, resources and tips to help you and your small business succeed.

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