CATEGORY: digital-marketingabm

Why ABM makes sense

Like any other marketing strategy, account-based marketing is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It needs to be employed strategically.

Are you working in a fairly tight, targeted market where you can identify the key companies you want to do business with? Do you have a track record of success? If so, then ABM is worth pursuing.

ABM works best for B2B companies that sell to:

• a few large, key accounts, or

• accounts of a certain size in a specific industry

 

But, in all honesty, if you work for a B2B brand, chances are you’ve done a fair bit of account-based marketing without even knowing it.

By their very nature, B2B companies are forced to prospect and sell to a narrow list of prospects. They use a combination of inbound, outbound, and account-based marketing techniques to embrace success.

There are a number of benefits to the ABM approach

Achieve more with less

According to Neil Patel, by scaling ABM marketing strategies, B2B marketers can do more with less. A smart ABM technology stack helps the same number of account managers to target, market to, convert, and upsell a much larger number of contacts at each account before another account manager has to be hired.

Integrating and truly aligning your sales and marketing functions

It is no secret that sales and marketing teams often struggle to seamlessly coordinate their efforts. By employing ABM strategies the two teams speak the same language and have the same knowledge of their prospects. ABM marketers work closely with sales to accurately identify target accounts, map them out and align sales initiatives.

When the two teams are intertwined, it's been shown that your customer retention rates could receive a 36 percent boost and your sales win rate could increase by 38 percent.

Improved goal setting and analytics

When you are looking at a smaller set of targeted accounts, with well-defined battle plans it is easier to review and compare successes – as these successes are more obvious, it is easier to draw conclusions from a smaller more concentrated set of data.

ABM is precise, targeted, personalised and accurate compared to the more general inbound and outbound approaches, which also makes it easier to measure ROI.

Faster sales process and increased retention

When there are multiple stakeholders involved in the purchasing decision it can slow down the process significantly. But ABM seeks to leverage the differences, by focusing of each of the major stakeholders, convincing them based on their needs and priorities, the ultimate decision is more robust, with buy in from all corners of the business. This increased level of initial buy in and proliferation of relationships through the business help ensure that it is harder for competitors to muscle in, and as there is no single pivotal relationship, staff changes are less likely to endanger the business relationship.

Competitive organisations that focus on engaging customers, not just selling them, develop a more intimate approach of meeting their needs and will earn an organisation’s trust

 

 

Pilot your ABM initiative: When you’re first starting an ABM initiative, it will attract a lot of scrutiny from your firm’s senior management. That’s why it’s best to launch ABM with a pilot program – focused on one segment of your market and one set of personas. That will enable you to develop a tightly-defined set of key accounts, plus a focused collection of content and messaging you will use to influence them.

Your goal is to generate an early win that will validate the wisdom of your approach. That will give you a base of support that you can use to expand your ABM initiative into other markets and groups of targeted prospects.

See how e-shot can help with your ABM aspirations, chat to one of our customer success advisers on 020 3320 8750. Or join us for our exclusive webinar on Thursday 26th September at 10am. Be there or be square.