secrets of account-based marketing success: 7 best practices from abm pros
TRANSCRIPT
Secrets of Account-‐Based Marke3ng Success: 7 Best Prac3ces from ABM Pros
60% of marketers create at least one
piece of content every day.
[Sources: eMarketer, CMI]���
50% plan to increase content marke3ng budgets.
That’s a lot of competition.���
It’s geCng harder to stand out in the content marke3ng crowd. Or is it?
Instead of wai3ng for inbound efforts to bring the right people to you
You can meet them where they are
How? Account-‐based marke3ng
What is account-‐based marke3ng? Account-‐based marke3ng (ABM) resizes your sales and marke3ng funnel to target a select group of highly qualified leads at specific accounts.
It’s like fishing with a spear instead of a net.
Instead of: Personas Individuals En3re industries ABM focuses on: Specific organiza3ons Market segments Accounts
“Applying an account-‐based approach means focusing on a set of target accounts, thoughVully iden3fied, marketed and sold to in a personalized way, resul3ng in more qualified prospects coming inbound than ever before.” — Forbes
Why use ABM? Less than 1% of leads turn into revenue-‐genera3ng customers. But for 84% of marketers, ABM delivers higher returns than any other marke3ng method. [Sources: Forrester Research, ITSMA]
A laser-‐focused, account-‐based approach can lead to: 26% increase in deal size 75% increase in deal close rate [Source: Demandbase]
But there is a problem.
While 92% of B2B marketers consider ABM "extremely" or "very" important... ...only 20% have programs in place to support it. [Sources: SiriusDecisions]
Here are the best prac3ces used by ABM pros.
1. Deepen sales and marke3ng alignment “When marke3ng and sales agree on the 400 accounts they care about the most, then the more you focus on those, the more effec3ve you'll be.” — Engagio
When sales and marke3ng teams are in sync, returns on content marke3ng investments can increase as much as 208%. [Source: Marke3ngProfs]
2. Be selec3ve “You first have to ruthlessly narrow that large pool of possible accounts—the endless line of ducks—down to only the most promising targets.” — LeanData
This is a big shii for many marketers, who typically think in terms of buyer personas. When in doubt, use data...
3. Decide with Data Analyze your best customers to uncover common akributes Rank accounts by current levels of engagement
4. Map content to accounts ABM content is not the same as demand genera3on content. Demand-‐gen content starts with what you’ll be offering. ABM starts with who you want to reach.
Start with your ideal account. Then decide what you’ll say and where it’s best to say it.
5. Personalize the content experience “Surfacing the right call-‐to-‐ac3on at the right 3me to the right visitor is an essen3al step in ABM. Rather than surfacing a single CTA to all of your visitors, you can effec3vely segment your audiences and show a more relevant next step to each visitor based on what you know about your audience segments or specific accounts.” — Op3mizely
For example: Offer an account-‐based webinar for a single account Customize a white paper to target specific companies Create a library of blog posts to tailor to specific individuals Personalize video intros and landing page calls-‐to-‐ac3on
6. Use a variety of channels “With today's toolset, you can get in front of the decision makers proac3vely using all the different channels, such as direct mail, ads, a video or even a tweet, and you can do it all at scale.” — Terminus
For example: Create custom content streams to deliver handpicked selec3ons to target accounts Streamline personalized content presented across mobile, social, display and video
7. Measure differently “In tradi3onal B2B marke3ng, new leads and opportuni3es are the most common key performance indicators. But when it comes to account-‐based marke3ng, the tradi3onal metrics don’t always apply. That’s because ABM isn’t designed to rake in new leads; it’s designed to nurture and organize leads you’ve already iden3fied.” — Vidyard
Key Categories for ABM Insights: Content engagement Sales cycle length Account-‐specific revenue Customer reten3on
By crea3ng account-‐based experiences, you can surface highly relevant content and calls to ac3on—to the right people, at exactly the right 3me. Stand out in the content marke3ng crowd. For good.
Want even more 3ps for crea3ng an effec3ve ABM strategy? [Subscribe for Updates]