Account Based Marketing Plan – Account-based marketing (ABM) has become a buzzword in recent years. However, there is confusion among marketers about what this means and how to make it effective. This guide is for those who are new to ABM or want to improve their approach.
According to Engagio’s Clear and Comprehensive Guide to Account-Based Marketing, ABM is: “Strategically personalized marketing communications with prospects in targeted accounts using close collaboration between sales and marketing.”
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Simply put, ABM is a marketing strategy where: “Marketers creatively use existing marketing elements to help close deals with key accounts.” ABM can be used to acquire new accounts or expand business relationships with current accounts. Traditional lead-based marketing focuses on generating as many leads as possible. Unfortunately, this strategy does not always produce high-quality sales.
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Account-based marketing does the opposite. Sales and marketing teams work together to identify target accounts (customers) that bring the most value to the company. These accounts are viewed and treated similarly to individual markets. Here’s a good illustration of the differences between lead-based and account-based outreach.
Note: This does not mean that marketing should transfer 100% to ABM. Marketing continues to focus on the top of the funnel and brand awareness is still important. However, it makes sense when working closely with ABM Sales.
Demonstrating ROI is something that marketers have always struggled with in the past. B2B marketers using ABM have seen an 87% increase in return on investment (ROI). ABM’s tight focus on target accounts makes it easier to measure ROI than other B2B marketing methods.
As you can see, marketing teams focus mainly on the top of the sales funnel. The sales team is more focused on the bottom of the sales funnel. Account-based marketing facilitates sales enablement by combining marketing expertise and an account-centric sales approach to achieve objectives. Both teams start at the bottom of the funnel by defining their ideal customer.
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By avoiding clients who aren’t a good fit for your company, you can save resources for building relationships with targeted accounts. Sales of accounts through this method come from companies where you can build long-term relationships.
In a B2B business, there is rarely a single decision maker in the buying process. In a survey, Gartner found that 75% of B2B buyers agree that people from different locations and roles are involved in purchasing decisions.
The average B2B company has 6 decision makers. Traditional B2B marketing strategies take this information into account. Account-based marketing aims to reach as many of these people as possible.
People are busier than ever. Every day they are bombarded with emails, phone calls and text messages. Generic sales pitches often go unanswered. Account-based marketing helps you stand out from the crowd by personalizing all messages to your target account.
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Owned Media: Channels your company has complete control over, such as websites, communities, blogs, print catalogs and company-run events.
These tactics can be used individually or in combination with each other. Any of these will be effective if chosen with the unique characteristics and preferences of the target account in mind.
Influitive, an advocacy management platform, shared the results of three ABM campaigns in Results of 3 Account-Based B2B Marketing Campaigns: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Sales and marketing teams have chosen to target accounts in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant that benefit from more customer reviews.
Then send out videos on Twitter congratulating each company on their Magic Quadrant placement. Influitive has announced that it can help these accounts move to the upper right quadrant (AKA the Holy Grail) with the help of their customers. The sales team saw a high response. Influtive decided to create holiday video campaigns with a similar tactic. These campaigns also went well.
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GumGum CMO, Ben Plomion, shared 3 Crazy ABM Campaigns That Really Work. One example described his efforts to land T-Mobile. Their story may seem crazy, but they are successful. GumGum’s marketing team noticed two things about T-Mobile CEO John Legere. He is very active on Twitter and loves Batman. As T-Mobile unveils its unlimited data plan, GumGum talks about how its computer vision technology program will benefit T-Mobile.
The company hired a team to create T-Man and Gums comics. They distributed 100 copies of the finished comic to T-Mobile and their record agencies. John Ledger enthusiastically announced his endorsement on Twitter. In less than a week, GumGum met with T-Mobile. The ABM tactic was definitely a risk, but it created a meaningful conversation that led to a T-Mobile customer.
Many sales teams offer pizza lunches during demos for potential target accounts. It’s nice to see a demonstration and have something to eat. It’s a great idea to encourage more people to participate. Who doesn’t love a free lunch? Depending on the timing of your events, you can also enjoy breakfast, coffee/snacks, or wine and cheese happy hours in the comfort of the account offices.
With virtual communications in mind during the pandemic, Marketing Manager Shannon Jasper from Marketo wrote a blog post: 5 Lessons Learned after a Month of Virtual Events. “Barring one of their private dining experiences, our plan B was to host the event virtually live with a fully prepared cooking class from the studio kitchen of a celebrity chef. As part of this experience , we will send participants kits to cook with a chef.
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Shortly after the launch, the shelter went into effect on the orders in New York, taking the studio production and the collection of food sets off the table. So we had to move on to plan C – the chef himself filmed the video in his kitchen, chose a recipe that focused on kitchen staples, and sent gift cards to all participants to buy the ingredients necessary
A Google search yields many examples of companies using ABM and their unique tactics. Key to running a successful ABM campaign for your company:
ABM planning takes time and effort. As marketers, you need to understand the reports well. Different accounts require different approaches. The key is to provide processes for scaling. Here are the suggested steps:
I was asked by a client about the best way to implement ABM sales. In my experience, sales teams are incredibly busy. From their point of view, ABM adds to their heavy workload because they have to collaborate with marketing.”
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There are many things to discuss with sales when planning your ABM strategy. Show them how it will benefit them. It is important to explain ABM and how it sets the path for sales enablement.
Value proposition Sales and marketing teams must agree on which products and services are relevant to the target account and how they can help.
Who is involved What marketing and sales personnel are involved in an ABM campaign? This should be clear to both parties from the beginning.
Partner with your sales team to create the perfect customer profile (ICP). This is used to identify target accounts. Use firmography, e.g.
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Consider whether these accounts have new revenue or upsell or cross-sell opportunities. Once you’ve created an ICP, create workflows in your CRM software to identify future target accounts.
Identify those involved in the target account decision process. Remember, ABM is about winning an account, not an individual. LinkedIn can be useful here to identify the company’s employees and their positions.
Where do the decision makers in each target account spend most of their time? What marketing channel will be most effective for these people? LinkedIn is a popular choice for B2B marketing because many companies and their employees have profiles on it.
Make a plan to communicate with these decision makers. Use your search to customize campaigns. Simply listing the features is not enough. Remember, your content and messaging should demonstrate how your products and services can help your target account. Case studies are one way to do this. Select or create a case study that shows how your products/services have helped businesses like the target account.
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Monitoring the results of your account-based marketing strategy will provide information on the success of your campaign. This information can be used to improve future campaigns. Some useful KPIs to measure are:
It is important to track not only the final results of ABM, but also the progress of your campaign. Although the exact metrics that are measured will vary depending on the type of ABM tactic used, there are some metrics that every campaign should measure.
Account coverage includes reviewing the quantity and quality of data collected on target accounts and their decision makers. This metric will help you find any gaps in your target account information. Some questions to ask yourself:
It is important to measure brand awareness among your target accounts. This knowledge allows you to adjust the content accordingly. How well do target accounts know your brand and what it can do for them?
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This question can be answered based on the number of events, product demonstrations, and the type of content involved. Make sure everything is connected
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