When it comes to B2B business then many things are a far cry from what people practice in B2C industries. From how people provide customer service to bookkeeping, everything is done differently in a B2B business and the same goes for marketing.
When it comes to B2B marketing then businesses try to cast a very wide net so that through their marketing efforts, they can reach as many companies as possible. In B2B marketing, businesses have started using an alternative strategy, which is known as Account Based Marketing or ABM.
In ABM marketing, both the marketing and sales resources are concentrated on engaging a particular set of target accounts. But this doesn’t mean that ABM only means the alignment between both marketing and sales teams, rather it makes both the teams align because of the presence of personalization which requires a collaborative effort from sales and marketing on account-specific messages. Although the list of benefits offered by this popular marketing technique is very long, the most talked-about advantages are better revenues in a short time span.
If you really want to make the most of this fruitful marketing technique then you will have to learn how to create an effective ABM strategy and this is what we are going to address in this blog post.
Here is a step by step process of creating an ABM strategy
Identify high-value accounts
In order to begin on the right foot, you will have to zero down your existing customer base in order to find ideal customers. The definition of an ideal customer can vary according to your industry and business but in most of the cases, an ideal customer will be the one providing high profit to your business and ready to stick with your business for a very long time. In laymen language, an ideal customer will be a perfect fit for your business.
Map individuals to accounts
The next step in ABM marketing will be to make a list of the people that will have an effect on the final buying decision. These people are basically committee members that you will need to engage in order to take action. For example, if you are selling marketing applications and you identify important decision making roles within particular accounts. These people can be CIO, CFO, and digital marketers. The one thing that you will need to remember is the individual account is crucial but in terms of the whole account.
Define and create targeted campaigns
In the third stage, you will have to start working on building impeccable campaigns that will be completely personalized. Building a strong relationship and then nurturing those relationships is crucial for the success of your Account Based Marketing strategy. Following are the three points that you will need to keep in mind while defining and creating targeted campaigns:-
* Going through the belief of stakeholders and researching the existing state of the conversation.
* Build a well-informed and clear point of view to show that you have the authority to take a stand.
* Demonstrate your ideas into valuable action by framing the story in terms of the delivered value.
Pinpoint optimal channels
Find out the channels used by your stakeholders in order to research different types of solutions and trends. But you should know that the channels used by your stakeholders can vary according to industry and role. This is why you will need to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.
Develop a strategic playbook
With a properly designed strategic playbook, you will be able to make the roles and responsibilities crystal clear to everyone. This playbook will contain all the strategies that will be used by both your sales and marketing teams in order to engage contacts within the accounts while making them engage and take action.
Execute your campaigns
The campaign that you will be using can include a myriad of tactics like direct mails, advertisements, emails, special events, and much more. Since a relationship is the base of each and every type of account-based marketing tactics, you will need to use different types of tactics in order to shape our outreach in the way you want.
Measure and optimize
The type of tools and techniques that you use for measuring common lead generation techniques is a far cry from what you will need to use an account based marketing tactics. This is because, in ABM, you mainly focus on moving the accounts rather than individuals. While measuring the success of ABM, you will have to consider account engagement, closed-won deals, and tally opportunities.
You can fuel your B2B marketing campaigns with the help of a marketing firm that will make your account-based marketing tactics work like a magic wand for your company. You can easily target specific companies through account based marketing and easily manage the existing list.