Account-based marketing (ABM) is a business marketing strategy that concentrates resources on a set of target accounts within a market. It uses personalized campaigns designed to engage each decision-maker or members of the selection committee, basing the marketing messages on the specific attributes and needs of the high-value account.
Account-based marketing is an effective way for B2B organisations to generate qualified leads and increase sales involving enterprise-level sales organizations with over 1,000 employees.
ABM requires working collaboratively between the marketing and sales teams to identify all stakeholders of the selection committee.
How many stakeholders are involved in B2B purchasing decisions?
According to KnowledgeTree, the average B2B buying committee is composed of 7 to 20 individuals. More decision-makers are involved in the sales cycle, which makes lead-based marketing not the most effective or fastest way to close a deal.
Lead-based marketing strategies encourage companies to acquire as many leads as possible and then qualify them after the fact, effectively wasting money on bad leads. It’s much more cost-effective to find the accounts that work best for your product or service before you go after them, and then spend your money reaching those accounts through the channels where they’re actively engaged: On the web, in social media, at events, etc.
Account-based marketing allows B2B companies to develop relationships with key decision makers or selection committee members, giving them an advantage over competitors who may not have a thorough understanding of their target accounts.
One clear reason to pursue account-based marketing is that studies show it appears to be effective in delivering ROI. In fact, research from the Altera group found that 97% of respondents reported that ABM delivers a somewhat higher or much higher ROI than other marketing campaigns.
– Identify key decision-makers or selection committee members more quickly.
– Personalize messages to target accounts more effectively.
– Develop relationships with key customers and increase chances of closing the deal.
– Gain an advantage over competitors who may not have a thorough understanding of their target accounts.
– Create a uniform brand experience across all channels for clients.
– Optimise resources and reduce costs associated with finding new customers.
– Increase leads, sales, and ROI.
– Drive growth in revenue and profits
1: Define Your Strategic Accounts
2: Start Your Investigation
3: Create Personalized Content & Messaging
4: Decide on the Best Channels for Your Campaigns
5: The hard preparation work has been completed, and it is finally time to actually run your campaign!
6: Measure & Share Your Results
For B2B organizations looking to boost their lead generation and increase sales, Account-based Marketing is the way forward.
Contact us today to learn more about how Account-based Marketing can help your business reach its goals.
Many B2B marketers struggle to choose between inbound marketing and ABM. However, the ideal way is to use both these core practices in a way that they complement each other. And to do this, you first need to know both the similarities and differences between these two approaches,
Among the common aspects of both these strategies include –
– The customer remains center stage
– The basis of both the approaches is valuable content
The differences between ABM and inbound marketing –
– Inbound marketing primarily starts when a customer or visitor looks for/reads your content. Whereas an account-based marketing approach requires you to take targeted efforts and talk to your ideal prospect directly, instead of waiting for them to engage with you.
– Another area of difference is larger deal sizes in ABM as compared to inbound marketing, where the number of deals would be greater in most cases.