Account Based Marketing Guide to B2B Success

1. Account Based Marketing Guide to B2B Success ABM is no longer just a buzzword but a game-changer for major marketers since the mid-2000s, ABM has become a staple in today's marketing endeavors to drive demand and increase return on investment. According to Rollworks, "B2B organizations such as Bottomline Technologies, People.ai, and OneNeck IT Solutions rely on a blend of traditional demand generation approaches with ABM's strategies to meet the needs of their audiences and appease top leadership." ABM has gained more power in recent times as sellers, bloggers, and market research firms are all working to increase the popularity of account-based marketing. In 2017, only 29% of marketers found ABM to be effective, while by 2019 ABM's success had risen to 97% compared to other marketing methods. ABM's success lies strongly in enabling marketing and sales to close their deals in a targeted and coordinated manner. Plus, customizing your brand messaging on a massive scale has never been this good! In this article, we'll break down how you can adopt a winning ABM strategy for your business - with the help of the right tools, team alignment, and the process. Let's go! What is account-based marketing? Account-based marketing or ABM is a strategic and targeted marketing strategy, in which the main business accounts are marketed directly. It is a focused approach to corporate marketing where the marketing and sales teams come together to target the most relevant or high-quality accounts and convert them into customers. Senior B2B leaders say it's no longer an option for marketers and sales to operate separately. According to Alterra Group, marketers achieved a 97% higher ROI by incorporating ABM initiatives into their marketing initiatives. Account Based Marketing Vs. Traditional marketing

2. Rather than throwing out an extensive network of potential clients with extensive marketing campaigns, ABM's methods focus on high-value accounts to nurture, transform, and maintain over time. Unlike traditional marketing methods, ABM's Sales and Marketing work hand in hand to create a highly personalized experience for each target account. Account- based marketing is better suited to following large companies with longer sales cycles and complex sales needs. On the other hand, traditional B2B sales are more suitable for small and medium-sized businesses that tend to be cheaper and faster to buy. Who uses account-based marketing? Firms seeking to acquire specific, high value customers have found the ABM strategy to be the most effective rather than taking a broader approach to their sales and marketing initiatives. Account based marketing is a strategy, not a technique. There are usually four goals for adopting an account-based marketing approach: Improve sales cooperation Sell / sell existing buyer's accounts Get new logos To break into a new / vertical market Benefits of Account Based Marketing High ROI - Effective ABM deployment can bring higher ROI for business. The 2014 ITSMA Account Based Marketing Survey stated that "ABM has the highest return on investment of any intercompany marketing strategy or tactic." Minimize waste of resources - The focused nature of ABM's strategy allows marketers to focus their resources efficiently and only run marketing programs that are greatly optimized for targeted accounts. Custom & Optimized - ABM's tactic calls for customizing your communications and messages to specific accounts so that your campaigns

3. respond to these target audiences. Customers are more likely to interact with content directed to them directly and be relevant to their business and the stage of the buyer's journey. Clear about goal tracking and measurement - It is easier to draw a clearer conclusion based on the effectiveness of campaigns whether email, ads, the web or events for a smaller group of targeted accounts rather than a large set of metrics. Sales and Marketing alignment - Account-based marketing is one of the most effective ways to align sales and marketing. This is mainly because the marketer, when running ABM, works with a close mind Examples of successful account-based marketing Here is an example of how Engagio implemented its first-ever ABM campaign and achieved impressive results with a unified, multi-channel approach. Everything is based on the complex Bonaza - Engagio calculation Target accounts: 300 Goal: Convert 20% of these accounts into opportunities (65% eligible marketing accounts per post with a 30% meeting rate) Marketing: Owns the initial campaign setup and implementation, and hands over MQAs for sales Sales: Possesses a following of any responses and MQAs, and turns engagement into opportunities Channels Used: Human Emails From / To Multiple Players + Direct Mail Package + LinkedIn Profile Views + LinkedIn Messages + Phone Calls + Account Based Ads Here's Engagio's day-to-day breakdown of how the campaign is going” Engagio has discovered that the campaign interaction is not clustered around a specific channel; It was scattered.

4. Key takeaway: A multi-channel approach is the key to maximizing engagement. It's important to reach all the different touch points so we can get everyone's response - and always deliver value, no matter the channel. Liverrame In order to engage potential customers, LiveRamp has adopted a multi- channel approach that allows teams to book multiple meetings with Fortune 500 companies. LiveRamp attributed its success to four main initiatives: Strong alignment between Marketing and SDR teams High-value regional thought leadership events that focus on learning and development Coherent engagement and messaging via personalized display ads, email marketing promotions, multi-touch SDR strategies, and direct mail Automation Teams used a highly focused approach to create a target list and took this strategy to reach 15 high-value customers. This resulted in a 33% conversion rate of cold leads to meetings within a time frame of only four weeks. LiveRamp also found that their ABM campaigns performed significantly better than their extensive campaigns and generated a double digit increase in previously dormant accounts as well as a 10-fold increase in annual revenue. Key tip: It takes the integration of multiple initiatives to create a successful ABM campaign. LiveRamp's highly targeted approach coupled with strong coordination among their teams in addition to their high value propositions that endeavored to educate and inform potential clients in an integrated manner resulted in success. Is ABM the Right Approach to Your Business? Some sure-fire way to determine if account-based marketing is the right choice for you is to determine if:

5. The sales cycle includes a research / evaluation phase and often involves multiple stakeholders. Your sales and marketing teams are looking to make more impact with greater strategic focus. You have noticed that the existing buyers who are earning the most profits have distinct characteristics, or that you have identified accounts with special characteristics that can generate more profits. There are organizations that have needs that your solution clearly addresses. Your organization is looking to break into a new niche, region, or sector or go after your competitors' customers. Your organization offers many products or services and has set goals to increase the value of the buyer’s lifetime through How to create a profitable ABM strategy for your business? The choice of target accounts will differ for each company as each organization has unique business goals and a customized strategy that will define its parameters. Before you start putting together an ABM plan, there are three main grounds to consider: The purpose of your ABM program The accounts you're targeting The odds are within those accounts you're targeting Define and choose your ICP (ideal client profile) Before you get started with the ABM efforts, the marketing and sales operations need to do some extensive research to help you make an informed decision about which accounts to choose. Determine which industry, company size, location, annual revenue, additional selling opportunity, profit margin, etc.are suitable for achieving the highest long-term profits for your business. This research should be both qualitative and quantitative.

6. If you don't know which accounts to target or have exhausted your initial list, work with your marketing team to build a predictive model. Predictive analysis takes into account millions of data attributes from both internal and external sources (company technology suite, employment trends, social media activities, funding level, marketing solution, customer relationship management, blog posts, third-party websites, social media channels, etc.) , Then apply machine learning to understand who shows the highest buying tendency. Next, prioritize your accounts and decide which accounts to follow first. It is crucial to prioritize listings to demonstrate early success and maximize ABM's return on investment. "Prioritize the account types that are most relevant to you - accounts that have a good understanding of your potential buying journey and accounts that you already have content that supports." - Marketo Set your accounts After you prioritize your target accounts, start assigning people within each major account. This will give you a closer look at which buying groups are best to target. You need to understand your audience well - what challenges each character faces, what influences their decision, and who makes those decisions. Create a plan that focuses on the main part of the organization. look in Material capacity Business initiatives Employee Development Techniques Organizational Chart SWOT analysis Industry analysis Successful and effective marketing must start with understanding your audience. This is especially important when the audience forms an entire buying group, or a specific group of key individuals who decide when, what, and where to buy.

7. Create the right content You must have relevant content to communicate the value of your solutions to your ABM audience. To deliver a personalized branding experience across all channels, consider customizing content for the contacts in your accounts. Creating scalable content to support your ABM model across the entire buying cycle may seem a bit confusing at first but it's not impossible. Before you start creating original content from scratch, look at what you already have in your library. You may have a comprehensive list of content with details about date, audience, etc. that can be used or help you find potential gaps. This way you know what content you want to update, reset, or discard from your inventory. Start building an effective content strategy for your target accounts once you have a clear idea of what your content is, the gaps in the content repository, and who you're creating the content for. You can use the content / message matrix to map the content that you will use to reach your goal throughout the buying journey. Distribute your content via social media, email, websites, etc. and make sure to streamline the process so that no target account receives the same content twice or any content unrelated to the stage they are in. To engage your ABM audience, your content must be personal, relevant, and timely. Measure and improve your account based marketing results You cannot measure the success of any strategy without understanding its impact on revenue. Therefore, it should make ABM results actionable, tangible, and available in real time. It is reported that around 60% of CMOs have trouble proving their ROI - one of the main reasons for this is not asking the right questions. What if your custom content proves attractive? If so, how? If accounts become more interactive with your brand?

8. What if you are increasing the number of known stakeholders within these organizations? Have you moved any of these target threads down the funnel? What if you've made any money from these campaigns? ABM's tactics and practices for your campaign Select the correct ABM technique The tools designed for ABM have a lot to offer companies that adopt strategies only versus those who have implemented ABM for some time. The right ABM solution will provide valuable insights while reducing the effort to customize campaigns and monitor results. Ensure that your software meets your business needs and goals throughout the entire life cycle. From strategy and compiling your list of target accounts to distributing personalized content across channels and measuring results. Targeting with a multi-channel approach Taking a multi-channel approach is not just about marketing. Sales development teams can use both online and offline channels to increase overseas marketing opportunities. To quote from Marketo, “Based on the accounts that Marketing and Sales decide to pursue, sales can prioritize communication and pursue higher account results that have a tendency to buy. Salesmen can use a variety of channels - email, social media, and cold calls - to research and target different stakeholders. Within each account, with the information from the marketing automation solution and the CRM system, they can ensure that they are in relevant conversations with their prospects and track their progress. ” Finally Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned professional looking to expand your ABM horizon, Deck 7's account-based marketing services can beautifully guide you throughout the journey. This is because we help companies expand their growth and profits by creating systems that enhance relevant relationships using highly personalized content.

9. For B2B companies looking to achieve a higher ROI from their marketing endeavors and establish long-term relationships with high-quality accounts, ABM may be the right choice for you. But before proceeding, evaluate, analyze, and define what changes should be implemented within your teams, and what tools should