Building an Effective ABM Email Strategy in Just 3 Steps
Email is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness and generate targeted leads. Yet, many companies are not optimizing this?B2B demand generation?tactic — especially to achieve account-based marketing (ABM) goals.?
Why is this the case? Because many companies don’t have access to or are not fully leveraging a particular type of data — zero-party data.?
At ViB, we’ve unlocked a formula for success in both traditional and ABM?email marketing programs?using zero-party data. Our steps are simple but often viewed as unconventional. More importantly, they work.?
We shared these steps at a B2B Marketing Exchange event in early 2022.
Our 3-step email formula for ABM marketing
As you know, account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy used to target and engage specific accounts, typically high-value customers, with highly targeted messages. This is in contrast to sending generic messages to appeal to a broader audience.?
ABM is not a new concept — but it has gained momentum in recent years, along with the expansion of digital tools that allow marketers to target specific accounts via email, social media, and other online channels.
What is B2B account-based marketing (ABM)?
B2B account-based marketing (ABM) is a type of marketing strategy that focuses on targeting specific, high-value accounts within a specific industry, rather than targeting a larger group of potential customers in a more general way.
Our three-step email marketing formula brings together email marketing best practices with ABM objectives because the two work so well together.
With the right data to inform your ABM strategy, you can create more personalized and targeted messages straight into the inboxes of your top accounts.?
Here are three simple steps that can fetch advanced results, plus practical tips and stories from the ground to help you get started.
Step #1 — Know (and use) your zero-party data?
Great ABM results are driven by great data.?
Gathering and using the right prospect data is the key to forming a complete picture of your accounts and marketing to them effectively.?
Zero-party data is one of our secret weapons. If you’re not familiar with the term,?zero-party data is information that a potential prospect actively and freely shares?directly with you.
This data is typically provided by consumers through online forms, chatbots, surveys, and other interactions.
Zero-party data provides the most valuable insights into your consumers’ preferences, behaviors, and intentions. It can be used by businesses to inform their marketing and sales efforts and improve their customer experience.
What is zero-party data, versus first, second, and third-party data?
Zero party data refers to information that is voluntarily and proactively shared by consumers with businesses. Unlike first party data, which is passively collected by a business from its customers (such as your web browsing habits), and second and third party data, which is gathered from external sources, zero party data is provided directly by the consumers themselves.
One of the smartest steps you can take is to create opportunities for your target accounts to provide you with their information.?
The primary advantages are that this zero-party data will be:
This is why zero-party data should be the foundation of your ABM program.
Tips: How to gather and use your zero-party data effectively
Here are three steps to gather and analyze zero-party data, which you can implement with your existing systems.
1. Find what subscriber data you already own
To begin, find out what kinds of zero-party data you?already?have in your arsenal. Here you can find examples of the best places to look for data you already own.
2. Deploy a strategy for collecting more zero-party data
Now once you have an idea of what you already have, we encourage you to take the time to create a strategy for?collecting more?zero-party data.?
3. Incorporate your new data into your ABM strategy
After you’ve identified what data you have and created a strategy for collecting more, you will want to intelligently incorporate the zero-party data into your ABM campaigns.?
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Step #2 — Broaden your targeting beyond your core personas
B2B marketers know it’s important to clearly identify your potential buyers — especially for ABM initiatives — to understand your target audience and create effective marketing campaigns that speak directly to their needs and concerns.
While buyer personas are likely the first consumer identifier that comes to mind, what’s really important to know first is your ideal customer profile (ICP).?
Here’s a quick crash course to first understand both concepts.
Buyer persona vs ideal customer profile — what’s the difference?
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of an ideal customer based on market research and data about your target audience, while an ideal customer profile is a detailed description of the characteristics of a company’s ideal customer.
What is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of an ideal customer based on market research and data about your target audience. It helps to identify the characteristics, goals, challenges, and decision-making process of a typical buyer within your target market.
A buyer persona is used to create marketing and sales materials that speak directly to the needs and concerns of a specific group of customers.
What is an ideal customer profile?
An ideal customer profile, on the other hand, is a detailed description of the characteristics of a company's ideal customer at the organization level. It includes information about the customer's industry, size, location, budget, and needs, as well as any other relevant details that would help the company understand what kinds of companies are most likely to buy their products or services.
The ideal customer profile is used to identify and target potential customers who are the best fit for the company's offerings.
The biggest reason behind considering an ideal customer profile first before you dive into a buyer persona in a B2B ABM strategy is that buying decisions today are increasingly distributed.?
For your ABM emails, you need to fully understand the full range of buying personas who will be involved in the decision to purchase your products and services.?
Then you need to ensure the messages are targeted specifically for each one of them. If you’re not targeting your email messages, you’re limiting the amount of success you can achieve.?
In fact, if you limit the number of personas you target, you may completely miss the one person who would be the champion for your products and services — and help drive the sale. This is especially true for technology products.
Step #3 — Give your accounts a reason to engage with you
Our final tip relates to the concept of reciprocity. This means giving someone something to get something — in other words, rewarding their participation and their time.?
The concept is rooted in psychology, which has proven that we are more motivated to act when we receive a reward.?
Think about our B2C counterparts for example, who are so much better at using reciprocity to achieve their goals. Perhaps we can gain inspiration from consumer companies that provide financial incentives for buying behaviors and loyalty.
Too often, we receive messages that appeal to us, but then ignore them to prioritize other pressing tasks. We’ll say, “I’m going to deal with this later,” and it never gets dealt with.
Incentives come in handy exactly to get the attention of busy prospects (with overflowing inboxes) and stimulate them to take action with less delay.?
In B2B marketing, this?giving-to-get?approach is a particularly great tool to use when you want to gain access to exclusive zero-party data from your prospects and customers.?
You can even use your existing zero-party data to inform what kind of incentives to offer, like pushing a time-sensitive promotion if you have data about your top account’s buyer cycle.
Do more with ABM with the right data and tactics
Find a wealth of information and additional tips on ABM email strategies at https://vibriefing.news/3-step-formula-to-build-a-more-effective-abm-email-strategy/.