Are you a company active in the B2B sector? Do you want to increase your sales and know what marketing trends are working right now? Discover in this article all the benefits of Account Based Marketing and tips on how to implement it in your company.
What is Account Based Marketing?
Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a marketing strategy that is used in B2B relationships. Its particularity is that, unlike mass marketing which is widely used by marketers today, it will focus more on a set of key accounts that are targeted according to the market. The objective is to acquire leads by identifying the needs of these key accounts and personalizing the campaigns accordingly. In this way, the company’s resources and efforts are focused on targeted accounts that have a real potential for the company to attract their attention. The approach is to create content specifically targeted to the people associated with that account rather than focusing on the industry as a whole.
Why implement an Account Based Marketing strategy?
The Account Based Marketing strategy has many benefits. The goal is to use this marketing to stop wasting so much time trying to generate leads that never come in. Here are the other main benefits of this strategy:
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A better return on investment
Thanks to this technique, it will be easier for you to measure your return on investment. Depending on the tools used and implemented, you can follow your results very precisely in order to improve your strategy and maximize your profits. Indeed, with Account Based Marketing, you analyze a smaller number of key accounts instead of a large number of indicators. Moreover, according to several marketing surveys, this technique is one of the most effective in B2B marketing. This is the case with the 2014 ITSMA survey, which found that “more than 80% of marketers who measure ROI say that Account Based Marketing initiatives outperform other marketing investments.
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Real teamwork between sales and marketing
To have an Account Based Marketing strategy that really works, your company’s sales and marketing teams must be in a true spirit of collaboration.
Indeed, Account Based Marketing requires adopting certain characteristics of sales, a position that also works with accounts and is used to following up on its customers over time.
Thus, deciding to adopt an Account Based Marketing strategy is also a way to mobilize your teams on transversal projects.
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A more lasting relationship with prospects
Since ABM’s strategy is based on a very precise targeting of key accounts, the teams are better trained on the issues of their potential customers, which promotes a better sales and marketing experience. Your communication materials are more relevant and better crafted to help you stand out from all the other solicitations that companies may have. Your potential customers will be more interested in your proposals and will be more likely to trust you. They feel better understood when your teams are able to identify their real needs. This will allow you to create and maintain a more lasting relationship of trust with these clients.
Which companies can implement an Account Based Marketing strategy?
By now, you are probably wondering if it is possible to use an ABM strategy in your company. To find out, you need to identify if this marketing approach is consistent with the needs and typology of your company and its customers. Indeed, not all companies have an interest in implementing this type of marketing strategy. There are elements such as your activity, your clientele or your commercial operation that must be analyzed before considering ABM.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of companies that have a real interest in developing an Account Based Marketing strategy:
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Companies that are part of a niche market
In a niche market, the number of prospects is reduced because the size of this type of market is smaller. Therefore, it is particularly interesting to use ABM in order to carry out a targeted and personalized approach of the actors of this market in order to acquire as many leads and relationships as possible.
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Companies that have several decision-makers among their employees
The customization of the process with ABM is particularly well suited to accounts with multiple decision makers. The strategy can be adapted to each of them in the sales cycle.
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Companies that are in a high-end market
The high end of the market is accessible to a limited number of people because of the price of the products or services offered. The consequence is that the number of potential customers is much smaller. Once again, this type of company needs to have contacts who can provide an answer to their specific needs, hence the interest of a targeted and personalized strategy.
How to implement an Account Based Marketing strategy?
To implement this strategy, it is advisable to follow several steps:
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The definition of its ideal target
Account Based Marketing is largely based on targeting the customers with the most interesting potential for your company. Therefore, to know which type of companies you should target, you need to work with your sales and marketing departments to cross-reference the data.
You can find in this list an example of the elements that can be taken into consideration in the choice of the company: the sector of activity, the size, the geographical situation, the annual turnover, the influence on the market, the probability of repeated purchases…
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Key Account Study
With the targeting of key accounts, you will now be able to study them to gather detailed information. The goal is to find the people who are part of the company and their different roles. This step will determine how you can present your products/services to them. To get a lot of information on key accounts, you can use LinkedIn which has many features and allows you to use certain filters to target specific positions within a company for example.
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Content creation
Thanks to the study of your key accounts, you are now in a position to know the different actors who come into play and their different needs. The writing of your content must therefore take these elements into account and it must contain solutions to respond to the specific issues of your key accounts and the people targeted within these key groups.
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The choice of communication channels
To ensure that you reach the right people with your communication and meet your objectives, it is important to identify and use all the channels used by your targets. These channels will vary according to the sectors of activity of your targets and some organizations like the Pew Research Center can give you very interesting indications on the profiles of people who use social networks.
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The launch of the campaigns
The campaign launch must be coordinated properly, because the risk if you use different channels is to send different messages to the same target, but in ABM the key accounts are very targeted, the number of customers is smaller and there is less room for error.
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Analysis of your results
As in any marketing action, at the end of the campaign, it is necessary to analyze and measure its results in order to draw conclusions and optimize them. Among the indicators to analyze are the number of contacts with prospects on the various channels and the number of conversions into customers, for example.
L'Account Based Marketing et l'Inbound Marketing
Very often Account Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing are two marketing techniques that are compared. Indeed, they have elements in common, but their acquisition strategies are different. As far as Inbound Marketing is concerned, its objective is to attract customers and then interact with them and build their loyalty. To do this, the content disseminated is high value-added by highlighting the nature of its business, its expertise in this sector and by making prospects want to be more interested in its brand by providing a strong brand identity to complete the buying process.
For Account Based Marketing, the strategy consists of targeting certain prospects in a very precise way in order to hope to generate sales. To do this, the message communicated is highly personalized.
Account Based Marketing is a proven method that has convinced marketing professionals. However, to create an ABM campaign, it is essential to know how this practice works and its particularities. Our experts have developed a real expertise in this field by accompanying numerous companies. We would be delighted to work with you to help you generate new leads. Describe your project in a few lines via this form and an expert will contact you to propose our solutions.