What is B2B Account-Based Marketing difference between Account based Marketing vs Inbound marketing

With every passing moment, we realized how far away from living in a perfect world we are, but imagine how easier it would be to score companies if you know which companies to connect to and what mindset to approach them. And this is where Account-Based Marketing comes in.

What is B2B Account-Based Marketing?

Account-Based Marketing in B2B domain is a systematic approach that focuses all available resources on a set group of accounts under a particular domain or industry. Account-based marketing puts heavy emphasis on preparation before engagement and, thus, uses personalized campaigns for each Account, which magnifies a specific element to persuade an account according to its needs.

History of Account-Based Marketing

The benchmarks for Account-Based Marketing started sprouting in the early 90s, as the B2B and B2C companies started realizing the importance of personalized marketing. In the year 1993, Don peppers and Martha forecasted the shift from mass marketing to personalized one On one efforts and published ‘The One to One Future.'

But the actual term Account-Based Marketing was coined by IT Services Marketing Association in the year 2004. Although the strategy was being used by industries for a few years now, it gained a strong significance as B2B enterprises emphasized Return On Investment and Demand Generation.

Step by step implementation of Account-Based Marketing

Identify target specific accounts.

Understanding and identifying target accounts are the first vital step in your Account-Based Marketing efforts. To execute the first step efficiently, the marketing and sales team need to collaborate and identify high-value targets. As the list created collaboratively would already be optimized and possess the quality to yield significant revenue.

Develop customized offers

Your target accounts would feel more obliged to open content that is specifically designed for them. And as your Account-Based Marketing program would have only a limited number of accounts, it would be relatively easier to develop relevant content for the respective accounts, thus contributing to a higher conversion rate.

Send a well-drafted mail.

Direct mails used to be the heartbeat of businesses in the 80s and the 90s. With the emergence of social media and digital marketing, the trend of direct mails has dropped drastically. In order to target the C-suite direct mail could emerge as gold dust because it is very likely that an executive wouldn't react very seriously and/or kindly to an offer received over social media channel.

Study your target account through social media

While developing a sales strategy, the team should never underestimate the power of social media. Following your target account on social media could help you gain a fascinating insight into their private and professional life. You can utilize this information to find what issues your client is facing and offer them personalized mediums to solve these problems.

Create a detailed analysis

The targeted approach of Account-Based Marketing programs ensures that the prospect is curious enough to schedule a face to face meetup or at least a conference call. While the sales team is engaged in this process, prepare a detailed study on their go-to-market strategy and put forth what they are doing differently as compared to their competition.

Deliver personalized experience

With the pace that the technology has developed, the sky is the limit to what can be achieved in terms of customization. Account-Based Marketing to be successful requires a very high conversion rate; the more you can customize the landing page, the more are the chances of that Account making a purchase. However, it is equally important to keep a hold of yourself and not go overboard with your customization skills.  

Purchase White Paper Leads for Target Accounts

Gone are the days when you could simply classify leads on the basis of size or locations; now, you can connect to enterprises that would let you choose the companies which you want to target for your particular campaign. Even though the cost per lead would be considerably higher, but the chances of converting this lead would multiply in Account-Based Marketing.

Tracking lost opportunities

Tracking and targeting our dead opportunities could be of great help as retargeting with a proper plan is an effective way to keep your company fresh in your prospect's mind. By tracking their content, you can get a gist of their current line of work, and you can reach out to them with a customized solution designed by your company.

Direct C-level connect

This element's main aim is to match an employee's level of reaching out to the client with the level of employee at the target account. This way, the transition of work and handover of the projects takes place effectively and efficiently. Once the C-suite have kicked off the initial conversation, the sales representatives or the VPs could smoothly execute the remaining process.

Benefits of Account-Based Marketing

In the B2B space, Account-Based Marketing has been on a constant rise since the year 2018, as companies are trying to capture bigger targets and sell into large accounts, which would fetch them large deals and longer sales cycles. Along with that, Account-Based Marketing has the upper hand when compared with other marketing approaches.

Some of the notable benefits are as follows: -

·         Customized Approach

While following this approach, the team creates a custom message for each target account with the information they possess about the client and personalize a creative landing page to hit on the needs of the target and lure them in.

·         Sales and Marketing Collaboration

As per the research conducted by SiriusDecisions, this module ensures a boost of the revenue stream by 19% as the target account list is finalized by a collaborative effort of the marketing and sales team.

·         Optimized Marketing Budget

With a generalist approach, companies tend to develop a very high customer acquisition cost model. They spend dollars on dollars to reach out to the potential customers and later end up discarding the misfits. Contrary to that, Account-Based Marketing has a very selective approach, and all the team members are working towards a common goal, which results in limited and focused spending.

·         Opportunity to develop expertise

Since Account-Based Marketing requires individuals to focus on particular accounts, it presents them with an opportunity to thoroughly understand their client and become an expert in that specific topic/ subject and provide customized solutions.

·         Better customer relations

Account-Based Marketing automatically satisfies the age-old practice of nurturing important customers and takes it one step further by marking all the priority accounts and studying them to cater according to their needs. This helps develop a strong bond amongst the businesses and work towards a long term relationship.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is an indirect approach to generate a lead. This approach focuses on creating content in such a sense that it attracts buyers to your organization when they search for a solution instead of hammering them with flashy resources for their attention. Inbound marketing is a slow and continuous process; not only does it bring leads, but it also helps create brand value and reliability.

What are the common factors between Account-Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing?

Regardless of which marketing strategy you decide to travel with, the fact is both systems need a substantial understanding of your line of business and target buyers to create a pipeline for creation and delivery. This would result in a high discovery rate and multiply the chances of being consumed by your target account or person.

However, it by no means denotes that you need to create content separately for Account-based marketing and Inbound marketing. Instead, the content created for either can be repurposed by the other, mainly because Account-based marketing is nothing but taking a particular set of data and personalizing it to the extent that it is appealing and tempting for your targeted profile.

Account-Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing both strive to present the end-user with the best buying experience possible. Many a time, once Inbound Marketing lays the foundation, Account-based Marketing progresses to build a castle and capitalize on that foundation.

We can also present it as a collaborative effort between Account-Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing as they contribute to the clients' happiness scale and help retain them. Many companies implement this partnership sequentially to reap its maximum benefits as Inbound Marketing lures the right customers in the loop. At the same time, Account-Based Marketing uplifts the customer's journey by delivering a completely customized experience.

Approaching Account-Based Marketing with the elements of Inbound Marketing helps deliver incredibly valuable content with a unique customer experience to all the targeted accounts.

To get a better insight into how Account-Based Marketing works and how it can be coupled with inbound marketing to reap maximum benefits, please feel free to contact us at:- info@markspacemedia.com or click here, and we will make sure our expert will connect with you and guide you through the process.