ABM TacticsBest Practices

Proven Methods to Enhance Account based marketing strategy

Proven Methods to Enhance Account Based Marketing Strategy

In order to thrive in the current competitive business environment, firms must embrace reliable techniques that sharpen account-based marketing strategies. Account-based marketing zeroes in on significant market accounts, providing a whole new level of engagement. It is a precision tool, capable of realizing significant returns on investment—well over 200% in some studies—when it is done right. In this blog post, we will examine various ways to enhance account-based marketing strategies, making them sharper and more useful for realizing significant revenue gains.

Understanding Account Based Marketing

Account-based marketing (ABM) hones in on individual accounts instead of gesturing broadly toward a large audience. It tilts toward the kind of marketing that’s just for you and is perfect for high-stakes, one-on-one situations. Most of the time, when we think about marketing or advertisement, we think about sending a broad message to many people. Those are old-school tactics.

Compelling statistics back up how effective account-based marketing is. For example, Demand Metric has found that 97% of marketers say account-based marketing has a somewhat or significantly higher return on investment than other marketing strategies. And not only does account-based marketing potentially yield better results, but it also enables better alignment between marketing and sales teams.

Proven Methods to Enhance Account Based Marketing Strategy

Here are some effective, tried-and-true methods for taking your account-based marketing strategy to the next level and driving even better results from your ABM efforts.

Target Account Definition: It is of the essence to identify and select the correct target accounts. Pay attention to those accounts that have a good fit with your product or service offering.
Leverage Intent Data: Intent data supplies a glimpse into what might be the next great customer move. It’s one thing to understand what your customers are doing in the present and quite another to know what they’ll do next. You can with a little help from what we call “the data of intent.”
Make Your Communications Personal: For every account, create distinct content and outreach strategies. When you mold your approach to fit each account, you heighten the chances of engagement and the building of trust.
Combine Sales and Marketing: Make sure the two teams are working together, not in silos. Both should have the same goals, and to achieve those goals, you need to share insights and updates regularly.

Furthermore, the use of marketing automation tools can significantly enhance your ABM endeavors. Programs such as HubSpot or Marketo enable you to personalize and automate communications across a multitude of channels. As a result, you engage the targeted account more effectively.

Leverage Technology for Your ABM Strategy

Account-based marketing is greatly improved when you use technology. Businesses can amplify what they are doing in ABM when they use tools and platforms designed for it. One such tool is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. A company could use a CRM like Salesforce to help track necessary data for ABM—intelligence that could be crucial for making Salesforce itself an account-based marketing business.

Moreover, employing visualization tools can augment the process of analyzing your campaign’s success (or lack thereof). Platforms like Tableau can not only help you see your actual results but can also help you glean insights that might influence your next strategic move. It might not be a stretch to say that using a tool like Tableau could result in a productivity gain. Companies that have employed data visualization tools report a 28% increase in productivity, according to the Data Visualization Society.

In addition, predictive analytics can indicate which potential customers are most likely to make a purchase. By examining historical data and identifying patterns, businesses can allocate their resources in a way that allows them to work most effectively. For example, if an account has recently shown a significant increase in engagement, it makes sense to prioritize that account in your outreach efforts.

Creating Engaging Content for Target Accounts

Any marketing strategy must hinge on content. In account-based marketing, that content must resonate with the accounts you’re targeting. Your close to perfect might not be good enough for the accounts you’re missing. Yet case studies, whitepapers, and webinars can showcase your nearly perfect value proposition in a way that might just make it perfect for the moment you need it to be perfect.

Additionally, think about using account-specific landing pages. These should cater to the individual requirements and challenges of your target accounts. Aberdeen Group reports that such pages can boost conversion rates by more than 56%. They arrive at this figure because the content on these pages is much more pertinent to the visitors in question.

Measure and Optimize Your ABM Campaigns

Your account-based marketing strategy needs to be measured and optimized if it is to be continuously enhanced. This means you need to monitor performance in such areas as engagement, conversion, and pipeline velocity. If you do this and keep BD close to your ABM efforts, you are likely to see a good return on investment from your account-based marketing strategy. HubSpot reports that companies that measure their marketing performance are 12 times more likely to see a positive return.

In addition, use analytics to glean what really appeals to your audience. Different strategies should be employed, and the data should be thoroughly analyzed to understand what’s happening. A/B testing can be used on different components of various marketing collateral, like emails or landing pages. If a certain method yields better results, it should be continued and refined. If the data is closely examined, using analytics in the way outlined above can yield much insight and many directions for further exploration and optimization.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, implementing tried-and-true tactics to better an account-based marketing strategy can really move the needle on that marketing ROI. By pinpointing key target accounts, using the available tech to the fullest, crafting content that captivates those account targets, and then measuring how well (or not) that content performed, you can basically build an ABM strategy that works. Companies that do all that and play nice with ABM will see way better engagement from their accounts. That said, the whole thing usually serves as a nice boost to whatever growth engine operates in the background.

In the end, account-based marketing isn’t merely a trend; it’s a fundamental tactic that can change how B2B companies deal with top clients. You can begin to apply its principles almost immediately and begin seeing branding benefits in the near future.