Account-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B marketing strategy that focuses on targeting and engaging specific accounts or prospects, rather than broad segments or industries. ABM can help you increase your ROI, align your sales and marketing teams, and personalize your messages and offers. But how can you master ABM for your B2B business? Here are some tips to get you started.
Before you can select the accounts you want to target, you need to have a clear idea of who your ideal customer is. An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a description of the characteristics, attributes, and needs of the companies that are most likely to benefit from your solution and generate revenue for you. You can use data from your CRM, market research, and customer feedback to create your ICP. Your ICP should include factors such as industry, size, location, budget, goals, challenges, and decision-makers.
??Pro tip: Make a list of your most successful customers and find out the attributes they have in common. It is an excellent way to start.
ABM is about targeted, focused and personalised marketing that is manageable, so it may be useful for you to segment or tier your list. To do this, it’s time to expand your insight into the data. What additional information can you find out about the accounts and contacts? From this insight, you should be able to create a detailed buyer persona which you can use in this and future ABM campaigns. Again, there are various marketing and sales intelligence tools to help you do this. This approach will help you segment or tier your data and tell you who is more likely to buy or engage with you based on your findings.
Once you have your ICP, you can use it to identify and prioritize the accounts that match your criteria and have the highest potential value for your business. You can use tools such as LinkedIn, databases, and analytics to find and verify the accounts that fit your ICP. You can also use scoring models to rank your accounts based on their fit, intent, and engagement. The number of accounts you choose to target will depend on your resources, goals, and level of personalization.
??Pro tip: Assigning "Lead Scores" to your B2B customers is usually a great way to prioritise when you have limited time and many prospects. You can also create lists or filters in your CRM with different customer ratings so you know which prospects are A+ ,A ,B ,C ,etc. so you can prioritise the ones who are most important to the company.
After you have your target accounts, you need to develop your content and campaigns that will resonate with them and address their specific pain points, goals, and interests. You can use account-based content to educate, nurture, and convert your prospects throughout the buyer's journey. You can also use different channels and formats to deliver your content, such as email, social media, webinars, videos, case studies, and landing pages. The key is to tailor your content and campaigns to each account and decision-maker, and to align them with your sales strategy.
Don’t be afraid to go lo-fi. People’s inboxes and feeds are so snowed under with digital noise, that a well crafted piece of direct print or physical work can cut straight through.
When it comes to ABM, you are going to focus on targeting the key stakeholders involved in the decision-making process as part of your strategy, which will mean all of your personalised content needs to be carrying the same vision or message. Focus on creating a vision that the key personnel within the targeted accounts can engage with and share the story across their business and departments. Remember, it’s all about resonating with your targeted stakeholders. Ideally, you would focus on their pain points, the challenges they face and how you can help to solve them. Through the in-depth research of your targeted accounts, stakeholders and pain points, you should be in a good space to create your content.
The next step is to execute and coordinate your ABM activities across your sales and marketing teams. You need to have a clear plan and timeline for each account and each stage of the funnel. You also need to have a clear communication and collaboration system between your sales and marketing teams, so that they can share insights, feedback, and leads. You can use tools such as CRM, marketing automation, and ABM platforms to manage and track your ABM activities and performance.
When you've got competing priorities, think about effort versus impact, which can come after quantifying each MQL versus SQL.
The final step is to measure and optimize your ABM results and impact. You need to have a set of metrics and KPIs that reflect your ABM goals and objectives, such as account engagement, pipeline velocity, deal size, revenue, and ROI. You also need to have a process for analyzing and reporting your ABM data, and for identifying and implementing improvements and best practices. You can use tools such as dashboards, reports, and surveys to measure and optimize your ABM results.
Nine important ABM metrics to measure campaign performance are: 1. Total Addressable Market (TAM) to understand market opportunity. 2. Pipeline Generated to track potential revenue in the sales pipeline. 3. Close Rate (Conversion Rate) to measure the percentage of converted target accounts. 4. Pipeline Velocity to gauge the speed of leads moving through the sales pipeline. 5. Churn Rate to assess customer loss and retention. 6. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to determine the net profit from a customer over time. 7. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to calculate the cost of acquiring new customers. 8. Average Deal Size (ADS) to measure the average value of each sale. 9. Length of Sales Cycle to determine the time it takes to close a sale.