The concept of Account Based Marketing (ABM) emerged in the early 2000s, but it has recently attracted marketers' attention with its effectiveness. The growth in decision making, team size and the misalignment of sales and marketing efforts have led to the need for an ABM strategy in B2B organisations.
Is inbound marketing different from ABM?
Yes. ABM turns the traditional inbound marketing funnel upside down. Instead of finalising the company to target after filtering out all the bad leads, you start with the target companies. The focus in ABM is on that one account, or the few accounts, with the most significant opportunities, whereas in inbound the entire market is targeted.
Five steps to implement an ABM strategy
Technologies that support ABM are growing exponentially, helping organisations to scale their ABM strategy. But there is a big gap between companies implementing ABM and those successfully implementing it. Below are the key elements required to build an effective ABM strategy.
- Define key accounts
- The first step is to build your target account list: the companies with the most potential for your business, which can include customers, prospects, partners or a mix of all three.
- Build key account maps
- The next step should be to know the key decision makers, influencers and buying centres within the target account, to create account maps and navigate through accounts.
- Personalise engagement
- Once the ideal account and its key decision makers are identified, it is time to personalise their experience through engaging and targeted content.
- Track and measure
- You need an account focused view of engagement and conversion rates, and the ability to connect siloed datasets across the funnel.
- Make them your champions
- It is important to create a lasting relationship with your prospects and customers. Your customers can become your brand advocates and champions with the right ABM strategy.
Why should you implement ABM?
ABM's goal is to get new customers and leverage opportunities to grow within current accounts. In ABM, a key account is a market in itself.
- Target qualified accounts
- ABM helps to run programmes that are specifically optimised for target accounts. It helps to avoid targeting many insignificant accounts with low conversion rates. By strategically targeting efforts, the expenditure of resources can be minimised, and efforts are not wasted on less critical buyers or segments of the market.
- Personalise marketing programmes to increase conversion rates
- Customers are more likely to engage with content that is created specifically for them, and prefer offers which are personalised. ABM not only directs marketing and sales effort to the targeted audience, it also personalises communication to specific accounts.
- Minimise wastage of resource
- Since ABM is focused and targeted at the most qualified accounts, it minimises the scope for wastage of resources. Marketers are more focused on using their resources efficiently to run marketing programmes that are specifically optimised for target accounts.
- Align sales and marketing teams
- ABM is probably the best way to align sales and marketing teams. With an ABM strategy a marketer works with the same mindset as a salesperson: they think of how to generate revenue by driving engagement for accounts with high value and opportunity.
- Greater focus on customer experience
- ABM is not just about acquiring new accounts but also involves retaining and growing within that account through cross-sell and up-sell. With technology in place, a marketer can focus on building a relationship with the customer after the sale to support different objectives.
