ABM StrategyABM Tactics

Master ABM in Five Easy Steps

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TLDR:

ABM success requires company buy-in efforts, understanding of clients’ industries and what they face in them, an innovative content strategy, and realistic and spelled-out goals.

ABM is a focused approach in which marketing and sales teams work together to target best-fit accounts in order to turn them from prospects to customers. Generally speaking, this implies that the number of customers a business serves would tamp down. But for all of those accounts a business has to turn down, the value of those best-fit accounts goes up.

But that value comes at a cost. ABM is a very resource-intensive marketing philosophy. If companies want to embrace it to boost their revenue numbers, they need to be all-in. It’s not a quick fix. On average, it takes one year before a business sees any kind of substantial gains from an ABM strategy.

Many companies believe it’s worth it. After all, ABM isn’t the highest ROI-generating B2B marketing practice for nothing. If companies hit upon 5 touch-points during their ABM journey, they can be assured success. 

To start, businesses need to establish realistic marketing goals and let everybody know about those goals, as well as the role they play in achieving them. In fact, communication between departments needs to be as fluid as possible. It has to be if ABM is going to work.

Next, companies will want to build upon their Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP). One simple way of finding best fit accounts among existing large enterprise clients is to sell to smaller divisions of the same company. Chances are high if a business fits well with one, it’s a good fit for other divisions of the same company.

Another tactic could include targeting companies already in the pipeline, but stopped short of completing the buyer’s journey. Maybe they could be reengaged to move them forward in the buyer’s journey.

Here, engage decision-makers and influencers on the buying committee with content and relevant ads. But that’s not all. Get to know who they are as individuals through their team pages and LinkedIn profiles. Offer them valuable knowledge and content that aligns with their interests.

There are other ways to engage the buying committee than by serving them ads. Phone, email, social, live events—those are all great ways to get in the heads of the people that matter.

After all the calls made, the trade shows attended, emails sent, etc., it’s time to measure the impact of those events and communications. The cost is high and the work is extensive, but it’s worth it. 

Original article from The Drum on 14 March 2019. 

The ABM Journal

The ABM Journal was created because we got tired of sifting through all the noise about ABM and wanted to gather only the very best and useful Account-Based Marketing information in one place. In addition to our own research and insight, we aggregate executive level summaries, insights and takeaways—along with some of the top ebooks and other resources available.

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