Everyone is Talking About Account-Based Marketing. Is Your Business in the Loop?
Businesses today are deluged with data. The challenge (opportunity) is to see the trees within the context of the forest. Break through the clutter to connect with existing customers and new ones. All that data means a chance to connect with qualified customers to engage them on a deeper level. In addition, you can discover new customers you had not before considered. You just need to turn all that data into actionable information. But how? Welcome to Account-Based Marketing.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
Account-based marketing (ABM) activates your marketing resources by focusing on specific accounts instead of all of them. The purpose of an account-based marketing strategy is to set a target and focus marketing activities on that target account. The marketing activities carried out are completely personalized for that targeted account. Think “uber-personalized.”
ABM focuses on single accounts instead of a broad market
ABM encompasses both existing customers and your prospects
ABM uses ideal customer profiles to generate personalized campaigns to target prospects that are likely to purchase.
Think you’re new to ABM? Probably not. Google and Salesforce use some elements of account-based marketing in their systems. So if you are running Google Ads, you probably have an ABM strategy.
“Insight into what people intend to buy before they actually make their purchase significantly strengthens your customer acquisition strategy. With the right data set, search and purchase intentions have enormous potential to positively influence business decisions and customer relationships as well as optimize your buyer journey.” (Andrews Wharton)
Why Does My Business Need Account-Based Marketing?
The goal of account-based marketing is not to win many small customers but to win one big customer. Remember Bud Fox in the original “Wallstreet” after getting that meeting with Gordon Gecko? “I just bagged the elephant!”
Closing your big accounts requires a long analysis in which all expectations and needs of the targeted customer are calculated. As a result of the analysis, platforms, campaigns and strategies are created that attract the targeted customer's attention.
Account-based marketing allows your business to create a strategic, coordinated set of activities. It lets you rise above the clutter, so your targeted account says, “Hey! Let’s do business.”
Three Different Approaches to Account-Based Marketing
The Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) identified three distinct types of account-based marketing:
One-to-One ABM. Reserved for strategic accounts, this approach helps build stronger relationships with your most important customers and projects.
One-to-Few ABM. Ideal for account clusters with similar business needs and attributes.
One-to-Many ABM. Takes advantage of today’s availability of data to allow a business to market to hundreds or even thousands of accounts.
Target accounts and contacts are proactively identified and contacted. By consistently addressing the customer, the B2B provider stands out from the crowd of providers. The scattering losses of inbound marketing are avoided. This makes ABM campaigns among the most efficient marketing approaches
“In our data-driven world, information is a crucial key to the success of any marketing campaign. In particular, customer information collected within the company itself has enormous potential. According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, companies that link all of their data sources to key metrics can sometimes double their revenue growth with single-ad placement.” (Andrews Wharton)
Data Collection, Data Protection, and Account-Based Marketing
Account-based marketing has one major advantage in today’s data protection world: you don’t work with personal data. This is because the starting point for ABM is company-related data. The situation is relatively uncomplicated as long as the data relates purely to target companies.
When personal data is added to company data -- for example, the names of the managing directors of their target accounts -- there are a few things for you to consider regarding data protection. The European General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO) uniformly protects the processing of personal data throughout the EU -- and with those companies dealing with the EU.
Data protection is just one of the privacy hurdles businesses need to navigate in their move to ever more personalized marketing connections.
“We’ve got Google’s ever-impending deprecation of third-party cookies set to take effect in 2023; Apple’s decision to phase out its mobile identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) to track users for targeting, personalization and attribution; and most recently, Google’s announcement that they are planning to follow Apple’s lead and pull the plug on targeting across Android devices.” (Martech.org)
The Four Elements of Account-Based Marketing
Complex, proprietary products and services are optimally supported by focused account-based marketing. Let’s look at how ABM works:
Sales and Marketing Alignment
Successful account-based marketing starts with solid sales and marketing alignment. Account-based marketing is less about the number of contacts you have and more about the actual quality of those relationships. Every interaction and experience you share with these key accounts has more value with ABM. You invest a lot and a long time in these relationships before a deal is closed.
Key Account Identification
ABM focuses on creating a handful of customized campaigns for each account. Take the time to identify and get to know your key accounts.
Personalizing Your Work
Account-based marketing is all about building relationships. This means providing content that is helpful, specific and relevant. Avoid one-size-fits-all emails. It's not worth risking an important relationship by sending an impersonal email.
Work On Contacts
The final and perhaps most important element of account-based marketing is working your contacts "backwards." First, identify your key accounts. Then build a network of contacts within that organization.
Each one of these contacts plays a critical role in the sales process. Rather than focusing on a single contact in your company of choice, focus on the entire ecosystem of people who play a role in influencing this decision-making process.
“ABM treats individual accounts or company contacts as distinct markets. It doesn't rely on generating potential leads with blanket campaigns. In your relationship processes' strategic and systematic design (CRM), you focus on your customers. You collect, analyze, and share data and customer knowledge to convince them of your products and services and bind them to your company. And this is where ABM has a reinforcing effect.” (Andrews Wharton)
What are the Advantages of Account-Based Marketing?
When it comes to closing your deal, it’s never going to be one person making the decision. Especially with Enterprise deals, you will be looking at six to 10 decision-makers involved in the decision. Account-based marketing differs from traditional marketing because it takes all of those people into account. It’s like taking the traditional marketing funnel and turning it upside down.
How? Usually, businesses spend time filtering out the best leads from the bad ones. With ABM, you actually begin with those companies you wish to target. Identifying the biggest and best opportunities right at the beginning saves you time and money.
ABM focuses on those leads most likely to close the deal.
ABM joins the leads favored by your Sales department with the numbers and data favored by your Marketing department.
ABM requires a smaller amount of data which means better reporting.
ABM means extensive customization of the marketing dialogue.
ABM allows you to focus on key accounts that generate revenue. In fact, another name for account-based marketing is key account marketing.
Account-based marketing is an efficient (optimized) strategy, especially for B2B companies with very large customer expectations. It offers direct targeting, costs less than targeting a general market, and offers higher returns through more accurate results.
“The typical buying group for a complex B2B solution involves six to 10 decision-makers, each armed with four or five pieces of information they’ve gathered independently and must deconflict with the group.” (Gartner.com)
How You Can Use Andrews Wharton in Your Next ABM Campaign
B2B account-based marketing budgets grew 40% in the last few years. That’s why you’re reading this article. That’s what the excitement is all about. How can we help?
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