The ABCs of ABM, Account-Based Marketing that targets your strategic accounts
Do you work in a BtoB company and would like to know more about account-based marketing? Then you've come to the right place!
What are the advantages of this marketing approach and how does it differ from inbound marketing? And how do you set it up?
As a bonus, we'll illustrate the method with a practical example and give you some tips on how to equip yourself with the right tools.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
ABM: definition
Account-Based Marketing is an (unsurprisingly) strategic approach to B2B marketing.
It aims to target and then convert the company's key accounts, which are deemed to have high added value, using personalised campaigns. In short, the marketing effort is concentrated on the most important prospects and customers, using the levers of relationship marketing.
For which companies?
Particularly well suited to large companies, ABM is an interesting strategy for any organisation selling :
- 🏢 to other fairly large companies, or groups made up of subsidiaries, whose needs correspond perfectly to its offer;
- 🔎 goods or services involving a long sales cycle, with a high cost or a high level of commitment from the buyer;
- 🕴🕴🕴 involving many people in the decision-making process.
Companies adopting ABM waste less time trying to address all prospects, but spend more on developing high-potential customer accounts, for a more attractive return on investment and loyalty at the end of the day!
ABM techniques
Like other marketing strategies, ABM uses a number of techniques:
- social selling to target and make contact with decision-makers or key contacts;
- content marketing, i.e. producing and sending high-quality content to targeted prospects, to subtly demonstrate expertise and make a lasting impression;
- marketing automation to automate campaigns and trigger targeted actions, the fruit of collaboration between sales and marketing teams and the data collected;
- personalising the customer experience.
What are the differences with Inbound Marketing?
Defined in this way, Account-Based Marketing seems to have a lot in common with Inbound Marketing, particularly in terms of raising prospects' awareness of your expertise and gradually and subtly encouraging them to buy.
But while inbound marketing aims to attract as many qualified visitors as possible to your company (on its websites, social networks or blogs), and to convert them into leads and then into customers, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is aimed at a selection of your customers.ABM is aimed at a selection of well-defined prospects, the most promising in terms of sales or impact on the company's reputation.
In short, with an ABM approach:
- target identification comes first,
- it's not about personas but about accounts,
- and the funnel is reversed, as illustrated in this diagram:
ABM and inbound marketing complement each other, and the companies that adopt account-based marketing are often those that have mastered inbound marketing and want to go further in BtoB targeting, lead nurturing and personalisation, to improve customer loyalty.
How do you set up an ABM strategy?
There are 6 key stages in account-based management.
🎯 1 - Identifying strategic accounts (target accounts), using data from the sales and marketing teams:
- type of customer company,
- TURNOVER
- high scoring
- profile of the most loyal customers or best buyers, etc.
🎯 2 - Mapping key contacts within the various accounts using organisational charts or LinkedIn Sales Navigator (purchasing department, managers, etc.) to identify entry points and decision-makers.
🎯 3 - Setting up a monitoring system on social networks in particular, to keep up to date with your target accounts, detect needs and expectations, and improve your customer knowledge.
🎯 4 - Prospecting and making contact, particularly on social networks (social selling), often LinkedIn.
🎯 5 - Producing and sending content, such as :
- a white paper
- a case study
- or a webinar dealing with an issue of interest to your target audience,
▶️ via email or any other channel where your target is located,
▶️ offering a way to contact you in return (form for example).
🎯 6 - Monitoring the performance of campaigns to improve the content of your ABM strategy, by defining a common KPI for the sales and marketing teams, in smarketing mode.
Account-based marketing: a practical example
Project yourself! 🔮 You're a communications agency specialising in HR marketing and the development of employer brands.
This very trendy subject of HR outreach and its impact on the company is of particular interest to large groups, your prime target, especially those facing shortages of candidates for certain positions.
Your account based marketing manager has identified several groups that have been running recruitment campaigns for a long time for specific positions, and then identified key contacts within the group via LinkedIn, particularly in the HR department but also in the marketing department, which is more sensitive to the subject of HR communication.
Your dedicated teams contact these companies via the professional social network using an automated prospecting tool. As soon as they get a response, they introduce your agency and submit your white paper outlining the issues and risks surrounding employer branding.
Some time later, an invitation is sent to attend a webinar you are organising on the subject, to further highlight your expertise and arouse the interest of the target audience.
The conference can be viewed live or replayed, subject to prior registration, and some contact details can be collected so that you can keep the link and possibly send other content at a later date.
The advantages of ABM
You've seen the benefits of adopting an account-based marketing strategy. Here's a summary of the main benefits:
Building a strong relationship with the customer
Account-based marketing is based on good customer knowledge, long-term in-depth work and the creation of a privileged customer relationship, based on personalisation and trust.
A tool for conversion as well as customer retention
It is therefore logical that this strategy should work just as well for prospecting and converting prospects into customers, as it does for long-term customer retention.
The time and quality invested in optimising the customer experience naturally has an impact on the loyalty of your accounts.
A better return on investment
It's true that it takes time and a lot of research, updating and monitoring, but the accounts won in this way have great potential and are more likely to pay off.
Because the marketing budget is under control and the conversion rate is higher, the ROI is better, even if it requires patience.
Aligning sales and marketing teams
These teams need to work closely together to achieve the desired results.
By communicating better and sharing their strategic data, they benefit from better alignment and greater commitment. In short, they perform better!
Shortening the sales cycle
As we have seen, ABM is relevant to the sale of products or services with a long sales cycle. By sending the right content to the right people at the right time, you can help to facilitate and shorten the decision-making process.
Monitoring KPIs
Finally, with clearly identified targets and focused marketing efforts, it's easier to monitor campaigns and their results.
Rely on ABM
By investing in the accounts with the greatest potential, you're betting your entire marketing budget and efforts on the "best horses", with a lower risk of failure.
Software specialising in sales intelligence (for lead scoring in particular) and marketing automation (such as Hubspot) can help you to detect these opportunities, follow them up, make contact and benefit from a profitable return on investment over time.
Convinced by the benefits of an ABM strategy? If you're just starting out, come back and share your experience with your peers!
Article translated from French