Understanding Account Based Marketing

Incentives: Valuable and enticing incentives are the difference between securing a lead and losing a potential customer for good. The value needs to be clear and genuine, as social media followers appreciate brands who care and go the extra mile, especially when sharing their details with them.

Personalize: Lead generation needn’t be a mass appeal approach. Instead, focus on acute targeting and personalized offers among your niche audiences. This will result in higher quality and pre-verified leads.

That marks Nexa’s guide on how social media can generate leads for your business. With these tips and best practices in hand, you can increase your leads and conversions, resulting in business growth, not only in sales but also concerning your customer base. Herein lies great potential and opportunity, which should not be overlooked when developing your social media strategy.

By: Shannon Correia

Account based marketing (ABM) coordinates personalized marketing, sales development and customer concentration to drive engagement and conversions among pre-qualified customers or accounts. This concept is perfectly suited to B2Bs, and B2Cs focused on appealing to their known audience, skipping the mass appeal of lead generation strategies.

AMB allows marketers to target their acute market and cater to them optimally. By doing this, you can present solutions to customers in a one-on-one way which should provide you with higher success rates. It is also beneficial in giving selective marketing messaging to each person involved in the decision-making process. This is done by engaging with people on their level to meet their needs, and in doing that, understanding that people have different needs.

Many companies are basing their marketing on lead generation. However, this method does not always lead to conversion rates and can be unfocused. ABM tries to counter that, by skipping the lead generation aspects and going straight in, communicating with ‘leads’ who are already qualified. It skips the step of sourcing leads by going in for those who have already indicated their interest.

The three cornerstones of ABM are managing your account lists, engaging with these accounts on their terms using filters and triggers (via personalized campaigns) and measurements, where the accounts are then scored, and insights are extracted. To achieve this, the following is needed:

Automation Segmentation Cross channel support A collaboration between sales and marketing Predictive technology Data and analytics

Based on the above, it is clear that ABM is a marketing concept that relies on technology. It is a strategic focus on potential revenue, whereby the process of interacting with people who are serious potential buyers are engaged with. In other words, all interactions are qualified. The technological aspect includes the use of predictions. This is based on historical data, CRM data, selected target audiences and information from salespeople.

For ABM to be successful, you need your ideal customer persona (ICP) to be clearly defined. Once you do, you will develop a carefully orchestrated plan. You will present these people with high value offers using multiple channels and guide them through a sale process.

Account-based marketing is a strategy which needs to be supported with the following elements:

Marketing engagement: Whether its direct messaging, hosting events, distributing content, ending direct mail or digital advertising.

Sales engagement: Engaging with people via email and social media channels to facilitate sales and maintain these interactions in a timely fashion.

Content: Sharing content on your website customized to suit your ICPs to help them move them forward.

Measurement: ABM requires robust reporting, with the most crucial insight being the measurement of engagement with your brand. This requires more intensive analytics and insights to be drawn. Hence each interaction needs to be recorded and evaluated.

Data: Data is essential for ABM as it helps with predictive content, account details and contact information. Storing and managing data is paramount, and having predictive technology improves productivity and marketing on your side.

Infrastructure: For ABM, you will need to use various tools that assist in automation and CRM software to support and carry out the strategy. This will help you in centralizing the interactions you have.

Let’s talk about sales models or funnels. Traditionally, there are the awareness, interest, consideration and loyalty stages, starting wide and narrowing down as you go along. That is the generally the model which focuses on leads. With ABM, that is flipped on its head. The process begins with acute identification which then moves on expansion, engagement and finally the advocate stage. So with ABM, the focus is on individual accounts instead of leads. To utilize this marketing concept, it requires the buyin of everyone at the business, including management. It is not something to add or try; it is an approach which requires a full commitment. Data is used to determine fit, intent and engagement, using a variety of tools. By way of extension, this data is then also used to measure results on a one-on-one basis. The results of the performance can then be measured and tracked to assess the performance of each strategy implemented.

Engagement is the primary measure with ABM because time is valuable, and any time spent with your brand or business is validation. When analyzing the data, marketers will need to segment these interactions into tiers, as this helps them deal with each account following their place along the buyer’s journey. The tiers are there because not all interactions with customers are equal. These marketers will need to employ the use of specific tactics to engage with these potential customers. The laser focus is all about concentrating on what matters and what will have an effect.

With ABM, marketers identify and manage account lists. There are various sectors which use this approach, with targets falling into categories. Once these accounts have been identified, they are then prioritized. Each target will have their journey or experience with your brand, and that is catered to. When content, such as websites and emails, are personalized to this degree, there are higher conversion rates. This is, in part, thanks to the context that aids these sales conversions. Successful sales can subsequently also increase cross-sales and customer retention rates.

Since ABM marketers know the target is interested in buying, they interact with them in a personalized manner that helps them move forward. This means dealing with a smaller group of people, rather than marketing to the masses. It brings together marketing and salespeople in a collaborative effort, so analytics is an integral part of the process. It is also essential to know precisely where each potential customer is, whether their interest is active or passive.

ABM is a marketing concept which is proven to work. With personalized marketing campaigns that align with sales, you are geared to generate increased success rates. It is highly recommended that businesses consider this marketing approach if they are ready to move beyond lead generation strategies.