Account Based Marketing Archives

Earning Profits from Account-Based Marketing

by | Feb 10, 2020 | Account Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach in which sales and marketing teams join their forces together to focus upon a group of stakeholders rather than an individual. The goal is to build relationships with specific targeted accounts and have clear visibility about buyer needs.

Account-Based Marketing has become more common and a trending topic in B2B marketing nowadays. ABM was developed a decade ago but it gained popularity just a few years ago. The reason why it has become more common and more popular is that ABM forces sales and marketing teams to align because personalization at the account level requires both teams to be in sync on account-specific messaging, and ABM helps to understand the buyers’ needs in-depth.

Account-Based Marketing is in a way different from Traditional Funnel Based Marketing. Traditional Funnel Based Marketing firstly focuses on what needs to be sold and then it decides where to sell it, means marketing strategies like email marketing, advertising, social media marketing, mobile marketing etc. and lastly it focuses on the targeted accounts to whom to sell to. But Account-Based Marketing is the opposite of Traditional Funnel Based Marketing.

In Account-Based Marketing we first focus on who we are trying to target, means our target accounts or target customers. Once we have a specific list of all targeted accounts, we focus on what we want to sell and then we start planning a marketing strategy. ABM gives you a higher revenue in a shorter time frame. If you have multiple people in sales targeting different leads for the same business, they can combine their reports and take a more personalized and strategic approach.

Account-Based Marketing allows you to improve efficiencies by grouping leads based on targeted accounts which helps to focus efforts on quality, which in turn increases lead conversions. It enables you to offer hyper-personalized messages to the right people at the right time.

Account-Based Marketing also benefits customers by offering them a better experience. It is very important to get involved and personalized with the customers to understand their needs and hence increase sales. And this is exactly what ABM does. ABM assures that you are working with the right audience and not wasting time on the wrong audience.

With ABM, the sales team and the marketing team both work as a single unit and are focussed on target accounts rather than an individual lead. And both the teams work together to achieve a common goal which leads to an incredible alignment between both the teams.

ABM is more efficient, scalable and optimized because unlike Traditional Funnel Based Marketing, its efforts are not broad in nature. Marketer only efficiently focuses on the target audience and runs promotional campaigns which are optimized for a specifically targeted audience.

We have used the term target account many times in this article. Now the important question comes here – how to analyze your customer base and identify the best or right customers for your business. To get the answer to these questions you need to work with your teams to make a list of top customers that bring more revenue and profit to your business. And then figure out what makes these top customers different from the other customers in terms of revenue, industry, technology etc. Now once you get the list of the best customers, identify more companies that look like your best customers that share the same attributes like same company size, use the same technology etc. Now, in the next step, expand your understandings of those target customers and target contacts. After that, rank your target accounts and contacts based on who is willing to buy or engage with your business at present and make a list of specific target customers. Lastly, the sales team and marketing team get aligned to focus on the target accounts and then organize marketing campaigns like email marketing, phone call marketing, social media marketing etc.

Account based marketing – How is it different from a normal marketing campaign.

by | Oct 22, 2019 | Account Based Marketing, inbound marketing

For several decades, marketers in the digital realm have believed in the concept of spreading their nets wide to catch several fish at once and filter the ones they actually need, later. Nevertheless, the gradual emergence of a new philosophy in the recent past has changed the convictions of many.

The new approach is called account-based marketing (ABM), which turns the traditional marketing methodology upside down. ABM involves a more personalized and account-specific approach, where direct communication is used to target decision-makers within an organization.

This is not to say that ABM is better over traditional marketing. In fact, ABM and traditional marketing are two sides of the same coin, which can together yield better results if performed well.

What separates ABM from a Standard Marketing Campaign?

While a standard marketing campaign focuses on attracting leads via content creation, ABM does it through direct, personalized communication.

Accounts vs Markets

ABM aims at high-level accounts, to which you can reach out via customized content using outbound channels. Targeted ads and emails are examples of outbound channels, through which you can share content that resonates with your target audience. On the other hand, inbound marketing is a broad-reaching concept, which targets industries or markets on the whole.

Quality vs. Quantity

To run an ABM campaign, marketers need to understand the target accounts first. This helps them attract high quality leads, which are highly likely to make a purchase. Contrary to this, a normal campaign includes content marketing on a wider scale, which only focuses on attracting a high number of leads.

ABM works by running optimized campaigns to lure new customers and by cross-selling and upselling to expand the current accounts. The inbound marketing technique works on the principle of bringing new business.

Target customer persona vs. Ambiguous buyer persona

Since ABM aims at bringing high-quality prospects, it requires building specific customer personas. Firmographic and technographic data along with predictive analytics play a major role here. Also, inbound or normal marketing specialists keep an ambiguous persona in mind, in that they need to target a broader market or industry and bring in as many prospects as possible.

In a nutshell, account-based marketing is meant for a niche market, which requires determining the ideal customer persona and appropriate channels to reach out to and nurture them. An inbound marketing campaign is more feasible for organizations in a broad market, where a broader audience is to be targeted. Various big companies like Starbucks and Salesforce use inbound marketing methods because of their large audience and a wide range of products and services.

Why you should combine ABM with your inbound marketing approach?

With such obvious distinctions between account-based marketing and inbound marketing, it is natural for marketers to use one of the two approaches for bringing in new business. Depending on your business model, you may find one strategy better over the other, but creating a synergy of the two is the best way to move forward and yield improved results.

Both ABM and inbound marketing work with the common goal of attracting prospects via effective content. However, ABM is more of an actual lead generation strategy. So you can provide a more targeted audience with personalized and relevant content that clicks to them.

A proven way to yield increased ROI out of the two techniques combined is to attract prospects via the inbound strategy, find out the key accounts and create personalized content for them in ABM style. Thus, you will gain new leads, while creating more useful content that provides them with a personalized experience.

The Final Word

Deciding on one of the two popular marketing strategies can be daunting, since both come with their own fortunes and failures. While choosing one and overlooking the other may bring delayed results, you may choose to use each technique after analysing each case. ABM tends to work well in case of large scale companies and inbound is likely to be a success when targeting SMEs.

Demand Generation or Account-Based Marketing: Making the Choice

by | Apr 10, 2019 | Account Based Marketing, Demand Generation

Businesses in the world of late are experimenting a lot with strategies that might help them grow and be successful. Changing business landscape means a change in strategies and which is why you might be wondering if it is the right time to go from demand generation to account-based marketing. We are not here to tell you which one is better but we will discuss the key differences between the two strategies and help you find what is right for you.

What is Demand Generation?

Demand generation is a wider concept with a much wider audience as a target. It can be defined as a process of reaching out to as many prospects as possible in order to increase brand awareness among them. In simple words, a general message is sent across multiple channels with an intent to get the attention of leads. Their behavior is then tracked down by the CRM to know their level of interest. The idea is to create a demand for your services or products among your potential customers. The outcome, in this case, is response oriented.

What is Account-Based Marketing?

Account-based marketing (ABM), on the other hand, is a more specific and targeted approach. It is a process where the lead in question is researched and tracked. Profiling is done in order to know their needs and potential and later, they are targeted with customized strategies. In other words, a lead is first qualified and then pursued under ABM. This technique is much less elaborate than demand generation with surely less output quantitatively but the quality is often found to be superior.

The Difference

The Sales Cycle

One major difference is that the sales cycle under ABM is much shorter than that in demand generation. In demand generation, marketing and sales work separately. Marketing first qualifies the leads and then send it to sales. However, in ABM, sales and marketing come together to qualify the lead, thereby shortening the sales cycle.

Reaching Out to the Potential Customers

When it comes to reaching out to the potential customers, ABM gives more personalized touch than demand generation. While demand generation targets the audience collectively without knowing their needs, ABM targets the prospects that are more likely to convert.

The Content

As ABM is a more personalized approach than demand generation, the content used in both strategies differ. ABM creates personalized messages targeted at specific prospects keeping in mind their requirements. However, in demand generation, the messages are more general and are only aimed at creating general awareness of business services and prospects.

What makes ABM stand out?

Sales-marketing coordination

This most important factor that many businesses are moving to ABM is that in its sales and marketing work more closely. This not only shortens the sales cycle but also improves the number of sales-qualified leads.

Deep account profiling

ABM is about researching and giving a personalized touch to the business. This is the reason it relies greatly on deep account profiling to identify the key initiatives and challenges. This allows the marketing team to focus on good personalized content.

A steady mix of campaigns

Next, ABM relies on a mix of campaigns to achieve results rather than focusing on one particular strategy. It includes offline campaigns, high-end direct mail campaigns, calling, and online promotions. ABM is about using the best of all strategies to achieve the results.

Customized programs

Lastly, the programs implemented under ABM are more specific and customized. For example, there are account-specific events conducted to target a prospect. Outbound sales are critical to the success of ABM, which is why the efforts are personalized to fit in the customer needs.

Overall, it is true that many businesses are making the shift from demand generation to ABM for good but that is not a good thing for all businesses. Depending on the business size, demographics, services, and customer base, the shift can prove to be beneficial or not. For more insights, get in touch with our skilled team at MarkSpace Media.

Making the Most of ABM in the First Quarter of 2019

by | Feb 28, 2019 | Account Based Marketing, B2B

2019 has just begun and we feel that it is the right time to consider a few important things that can benefit your business. Among all other tools that you are analyzing and making better, account-based marketing (ABM) happens to be one of the most important ones. Account-based marketing has proved really successful in the past years and it continues to be the favorite of marketers this year too. However, with the changing times, it is important to keep updating your technology to make the most of marketing. To continue reaping the benefits of ABM, here are a few things you might want to consider.

Check and rebuild your target account list

Every organization has a target account list which is created by the sales team most often and passed on to the marketing team. It has been observed that list is never updated once it is made. It is important to note that the list is only beneficial to you as long as it has the names of the right accounts. Right accounts mean the ones that have great potential and can make way for your business profits. Below tips should come handy when you revisit and rebuild your target account list for 2019:

Evaluate the customers you have at hand presently and make a lookalike model.
Take advantage of verticals and strategic accounts.
Find out which accounts are high-value and then figure out the best individuals in those accounts.

It is important to keep revisiting your list from time to time. For a business to be successful, you should continuously look for insights that help you grow.

Distinguish your target accounts

There are three different ABM tiers for marketers including one-to-one, one-to-few, and one-to-many. One-to-one ABM refers to an arrangement where a senior marketer along with account team generates marketing programs for single accounts. In one-to-few ABM, the same principle is used but the target number of accounts is five to 15 with similar business issues. Further, one-to-many ABM personalizes this effort at even a larger scale where the target accounts are several hundred. For most profitable business, it is important to have a combination of all the above approaches. We advise the organizations planning for 2019 to make sure to achieve a right balance between these ABM strategies.

Look out for more channels that you can use

Every organization uses a number of channels to implement their ABM. The journey starts with a few channels and later on the number multiples in a bid to expand the marketing efforts. It is important to keep using these channels that work for you. But at the same time, it must be kept in mind that improving technology is making way for new channels and therefore, always keep looking for other channels that you can use for your benefit. For example, in advertising, use more than just display ads.

Sales and marketing alignment

This has been discussed a lot. And it is highly recommended by the industry experts to align marketing and sales. Now is the time to reset the functions and bring sales and marketing together. This will help the marketing efforts to become more effective. The sales team will convey what they are looking for and marketing team will shape their efforts based on that because ultimately all the marketing efforts are for generating sales. It is recommended that sales and marketing teams meet more often and build the ABM strategies together.

Track the quality-focused metrics

Lastly, it is important to track how your ABM program has been performing in the past. This doesn’t only mean that you measure the success based on quantity-based metrics. It is equally important to see how you performed through quality-based metrics. This includes win and loss rates, funnel velocity and lifetime value (LTV) of customers.

In sum, the success is highly dependent on what strategies you are using and the strategies only remain effective if you keep rebuilding and revisiting them on a regular basis. It is the time for businesses to address the fundamentals and build a strong ABM program for 2019.

A key hole perspective to a sales ready contact

by | Aug 22, 2018 | Account Based Marketing, B2B Lead Generation

Business is tricky and scoring leads is trickier. The success of any business is largely dependent on the leads they have and the quality of them. Lead generation and capturing is all about the right strategy and right communication. Whether you run a large business or a small one, finding out whether your contact is ready for sales is not an easy task. One small mistake can cost you your client and can have other consequences.

While every business has their own parameters to measure the sales-readiness of lead, there are some common factors that should be taken into consideration. Below listed four factors will help you fairly judge whether or not your lead is sales-ready.

Basic Information about the Prospect

First of all, you must collect some basic data about your prospect. To begin with, this basic data can be categorized into demographics, firmographics, and authority.

Demographics: This is about finding the basic information on the lead like job title, experience, location, etc.
Firmographics: This is information on organizations behind your lead and includes company size, revenue, locations served, etc.
Authority and timeline: This is an advanced qualification and helps you understand the stage where a lead is in the buying process. This is done by finding information on their budget, authority, need for your services, purchase timeline, etc.

Depending on the above data you determine the lead fit and can actually focus on the leads that are sales-ready or are likely to be so.

Lead Interest

Identifying lead interest is about keeping a close eye on prospect’s interest in your content and network. Further, you also should watch how the prospect interacts with your content. The level of involvement of the prospect with your content and services will allow you to find out how interested they are in your brand. Always monitor the behaviors like email opens, click-throughs, activities on social media, and downloads. The data on this will allow you to understand how interested your prospect is and you can plan your next activities according to that.

The behavior of the Lead

Next factor to pay attention to is the lead behavior. This has to go beyond whether the lead is a good fit or not. Here, you need to find out where is your prospect on the buying journey. Find out the behaviors they exhibit and correlate them with those of the leads which later convert to customers. These behaviors can be called active behaviors. Learn to separate them from latent behaviors

Determining Buying Stage

Determining where the lead is in the buying stage can help you figure out a lot about whether they are yet sales ready or not. There are three prominent stages as explained below:

Early Stage: The person who is aware of your brand and services but hasn’t yet become a qualified lead is said to be in early stage. They will engage in blog posts, download resources, and share content.
Mid Stage: This is a stage where the lead has engaged with your content over time and displayed some buying behavior. They are more likely to contact you for some specific information.
Late stage: These are the leads that are ready to buy and have started asking for demos, pricing, and discounts.

Lead Nurturing

Once you are sure that the contact is sales-ready, your job is to nurture the lead. As a matter of fact, the businesses that nurture their leads are likely to generate 50% more leads and at much lesser cost. Lead nurturing stands for being in touch with your leads at all times, even after the sales. This increases the chances of them to purchase from you again. Also, a lead that is nurtured is more likely to convert into a loyal customer.

Get a system in place that will help you in determining whether the contact is sales-ready or not depending on the factors discussed above. Your organization may have its own specific parameters that go beyond the aforementioned factors. The idea is to be able to identify your sales-ready contact and pursue them with a right communication strategy.

Consent to closure (GDPR)

by | Jun 5, 2018 | Account Based Marketing, B2B Lead Generation, B2B Sales, Demand Generation, Digital Marketing

A regulation known by the name the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into existence in April 2014 under the EU law. It is a regulation on data protection and privacy for all the people within the European Union and the European Economic Area, and also extends to the export of personal data outside the EU and EEA. Here we will talk about how GDPR affects the individuals and the businesses.

What is it about?

The aim of this regulation is to give the residents and the citizens control over their personal data. Further, it also simplifies the regulatory environment for international business by merging the regulation within the EU so that businesses and citizens can benefit from the digital economy.

Our lives today are largely dependent on data. Almost all aspects of our lives and the services that we use involve analysis of our personal information. Organizations collect, analyze, and store our name, address, credit card number, and more.

What is meant by GDPR compliance and who does it apply to?

Data breaches have become so common. A lot of personal information is lost and sometimes, it ends up with people who were never intended to see it. Under the GDPR, the organizations will have to ensure legal collection of data under strict conditions. Also, the authorities collecting data will have to make sure that the collected data is not misused or exploited. The rights of the data owners will have to be protected and failure to do so will result in penalties.

Any organization that operates within the EU comes under the scope of GDPR. It also applies to any organization outside of the EU that offers goods and services to individuals or businesses in the EU. This means every major corporation in the world needs to be ready for GDPR compliance.

What is considered personal data under the GDPR?

Name, address, and photos are considered personal data under the present legislation. The GDPR extends the scope to include IP address, genetic data, and biometric data that can uniquely identify an individual. The regulation is applicable across the EU from 25 May 2018.

GDPR and its importance for businesses

The regulation is expected to benefit the businesses as having single supervisor authority across the EU will make it cheaper for the businesses to operate within the region. It is claimed by the European Commission that it will save € 2.3 billion across Europe every year.

GDPR for consumers

Under the GDPR, the consumers will have the right to know when their data has been hacked. Concerned authorities will be notified immediately so that the citizens can take appropriate action to prevent the data misuse. Further, the consumers will have easier access to their personal data and can know how it is being processed. The consumer consent will be important before their information could be used. People can also have their data deleted when it is no longer needed.

The Breach Notification and Penalties for non-compliance

The organization will need to report certain types of data breaches to relevant authority under the GDPR where there has been unauthorized access to personal data or loss of it. Organizations are obliged to report any kind of breach that can risk the rights and freedom of individuals or lead to reputation damage, financial loss, discrimination, or any other kind of disadvantage. The breach needs to be reported to a relevant authority within 72 hours of the organization becoming aware of it.

The failure to GDPR compliance can result in fines and penalties. The fines can range from 10 million Euros to 4% of the annual turnover of the company. The amount of fine will depend on the severity of the breach.

The Bottom Line

The GDPR came into force on 25 May 2018 and the days prior to that have seen emails from companies to the people asking them to review the new privacy policies. At Mark Space Media, we take the GDPR compliance very seriously. We understand that it is important to take consent from the prospects before sending them information.

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