Account-Based Marketing has taken the B2B world by a storm. Almost 70% of B2B companies are reported to be using Account-Based Marketing strategy at some level or the other. ABM technique has already gained enough momentum and is already replacing traditional B2B marketing approaches very rapidly.
Being said that, ABM is still quite new and most of the companies are not able to get the maximum out of it. To get the most out of Account-based marketing alignment of Sales and Marketing teams is an absolute requirement. Only 22% of the B2B companies who use ABM have claimed to have achieved this target.
There are several benefits of Account-Based Marketing as it improves customer acquisition process because of its personalized approach. It is also a cost-saving marketing technique as compared to its traditional counterpart. Thus, Account-based marketing process not only saves the cost but also increases the ROI to a great extent. In account-based marketing, you can utilize the available resources efficiently and make the best out of them.
Therefore in the upcoming article, we present 10 critical factors to consider before Diving into Account-Based Marketing.
1. Is Account-Based Marketing Right for your company?
First and foremost, as a B2B marketer, you need to ask yourself whether ABM is the right choice for your company or are you just performing ABM because everybody else is doing it? Well, obviously you don’t want to waste your time and energy into something that doesn’t bear optimum results. Account-based marketing is a very successful marketing strategy but that doesn’t guarantee that it will be profitable for your company as well.
ABM is well suited for B2B companies that sell to:
- Few large accounts.
- Several accounts but in a specific industry.
Now, if you are a small business and have a few large accounts to deal with, ABM can turn out to be very useful for you. Also, if you are a large company but you target accounts in a specific industry, ABM can still do the trick for you. Regardless of the size of your company, ABM might not be very profitable if you deal across several industries and target diverse accounts of different types and sizes. In such a case the traditional inbound or outbound marketing might do the trick for you.
2. Are you clear behind your Objective to deploy ABM?
It is extremely important to set your purpose pre-hand before diving into ABM. You need to be very clear on the objectives behind ABM. Every company might use ABM differently according to their varied needs. ABM penetration also depends on the nature and type of company. ABM helps a great deal in narrowing down the refined targets with the help of personalization.
Thus, it is up to companies to decide what levels of Account-based marketing is required for them. The way every organization laid out its marketing strategy depends a lot on the nature of their work. Thus, if you are targeting a few accounts or you want to narrow down a few refined leads, Account-Based marketing is the right choice for you. If you have clear expectations with your ABM technique, you can score well in it.
3. Is your sales and marketing teams aligned?
Another major factor to be considered is whether your sales and marketing teams are aligned with each other or not. ABM is a very personalized marketing approach. It requires perfect alignment of sales and marketing teams to function smoothly. The job of marketing teams is to find out a few refined leads so that the sales team can convert them. Both the teams need to function together for successful ABM. Aligning sales and marketing teams is the absolute requirement for ABM.
Now, when your sales and marketing teams are aligned, you can use ABM for optimum results. This shall help you improve your customer retention and engagement levels. Thus, it increases your overall efficiency and ROI.
4. Decide the extent of ABM approach.
ABM lets you target refined leads with the help of personalization. However, the catch here is that you need to set limits to the levels of personalization. Now obviously, if your company’s main target is to create brand awareness, traditional outbound marketing approach can be more useful.
Also, if your company is at a point where it needs to showcase itself, inbound marketing approach can turn out more useful. Too much personalization in the above stages can hamper your growth and decrease your chances of reaching out to the larger community.
Therefore, it is of utmost importance to decide the extent of personalization for your company. Also, in such cases, you can still utilise ABM where you need to send personalized emails to a said group of targets or accounts. The penetration of ABM depends on your company’s need.
5. Whether or not you have the right resources to Perform ABM.
To perform ABM you need to have certain knowledge handy. For example, you need to build customer personas and have a certain amount of automation which can refine good quality leads. Now, if you don’t possess all this information beforehand, there is no way in which you can deploy Account-based marketing technique. Your marketing team must be skilled enough to be able to find out target leads. You can also employ a third-party company like Bizprospex to do the job for you.
B2Bprospex specializes in data mining services, data scrubbing services and finding good quality leads which can be used for ABM. Therefore, if your marketing team is not suited for the job, you can always trust a third party company like B2Bprospex to do the job for you.
6. You need to be clear on your KPIs and metrics.
ABM technique is all about quality rather than quantity. It is about hitting the right target at the first attempt. ABM technique works on funnels such as average deal size, close rates rather than click-through rates. Therefore, you need to set clear KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and metrics. Your matrix should be based on customer engagement and conversion rather than traffic rates on your website.
The way your company sets its KPIs and metrics will decide the fate of your Account-based marketing approach. Needless to say, you ought to be clear on KPIs and metrics in order to successfully implement ABM.
7. ABM is all about Prioritizing.
Your marketing and sales team should be well-rehearsed to prioritize the targeted accounts in the most efficient way in order to get the most out of Account-based Marketing. The best way to achieve this goal is by further segmenting the leads according to several parameters.
Third-party companies like Bizprospex can also perform the task of segmentation and data appending. When you outsource such tasks to third-parties, you create room for your sales and marketing teams to focus on their jobs in a more concentrated way.
8. Know your Budget!
For every successful marketing campaign regardless of the kind, you need the right amount of budget. Also, for ABM you need to set the right kind of budget. Segmentation and finding refined leads may require significant budget at first but saves a lot of money in the long run. Thus, you need to set the right kind of budget for a successful ABM strategy.
9. Know Your Audience Inside Out.
For successful ABM you need to know your audience inside out. You need to gather all the relevant information about your audience beforehand to categorise them in different sales funnel. Better knowledge of your audience, the better will be the chances of a successful ABM technique. Allow B2Bprospex to do this job for you.
10. Identify the issues before targeting the accounts.
Since ABM is all about personalization and segmentation, any issues pertaining to conversion needs to be identified before the actual targeting starts. You need to sort the issues of both your sales and marketing teams so that at the time of targeting both the teams are properly aligned like two tires of the same car.
Final Words
Account-based marketing has gained quite a fame in a short span of time because of its huge success, However, many companies are still not able to crack the right code for successful ABM. B2Bprospex can help a great deal to devise a successful Account-based Marketing strategy. We are experts at e-commerce data entry services, Bulk Product upload. We are data service providers, industry leaders providing list building services, e-commerce support services, Back office services, etc. All you need to do is to outsource the task to us. Rest shall be taken care of by us. Contact us now!