Tag Archives: account based marketing

4 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Account Based Marketing

September 6, 2017 Amit Tewari Leave a comment

We’ve already covered how to make your account based marketing strategy a success, but why you, as a sales leader, should invest in it?

Sales and marketing leaders across industries are accountable for the most important task of getting their teams fired up in every possible way to acquire leads and show conversion.

In B2B marketing and selling journey the process needs to be approached in a more systematic, focused and effective way. Inbound marketing of pushing product or service related content to the mass audience may or may not fetch desired result. The content might get overlooked or might not even reach your potential client. Similarly, outbound marketing tactics like running commercials on television can blow your marketing budget.

Account Based Marketing, or ABM for short, gives you the opportunity to target and reach your selected audience, who are more likely to buy, through tailor-made content and campaign. And while ABM might not be suitable for just any company, it brings a number of advantages for those who can implement it.

1) Razor sharp focus on sales and marketing strategies

Sales and marketing teams often complaint about disjoint and how there is no seamless flow of essential insights and information between the two departments. With the effort to bring ABM into play, the two alienated parts of your organization will have to work together. Hence, the strategies will be more focused towards identifying quality leads and creating marketing collaterals to convert them into your customers. This will work as two-edged sword in aligning sales and marketing, and in focusing on targets who are more likely to convert.

“Indeed, B2B research firm Sirius Decisions reported that 92% of B2B companies said that account-based marketing was “extremely” or “very” important to its marketing efforts in 2015”

2) Optimum utilization of resources

ABM doesn’t let sales and marketing go overboard with their resources. With the highly targeted campaigns for individual accounts/prospects, the organizations will not waste time, effort and other resources in going after leads who are not likely to convert.

3) High ROI and low CPA

B2B companies have seen a remarkable boost in their ROI with the implementation of ABM into their marketing strategies. That’s because hyper-targeting lets them chase the right people in right account with less wastage of resources. ABM pushes quality leads into your sales funnel. Because of ABM your lead pool definitely shrinks but sales and marketing efforts get channelized in pursuing genuine leads from that pool. This in turn brings down your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and pushes your ROI up.

4) Personalized content for the right account

Through ABM you are not chasing an individual’s attention. It is the account that you need to close and that account could be associated with one or many decision makers. ABM lets you personalize content, mailers and varied marketing creatives to influence all the stakeholders of particular account at the same time. It is well researched on and well rehearsed content plus pitch. So, it is in best of your interest to know all the decision makers of your target client.

So, these are the reasons why we think that Account Based Marketing (ABM) should be given a shot by B2B companies. However, we would also like to hear your opinion on ABM- do you think it is the right marketing approach for your company? In case ABM has worked for you, did you see any significant change in your numbers? What does the CPA and ROI say?

For more information about MoData offerings click here

Account Based Marketing

Account Based Marketing Mistakes that Might be Killing your Profits Right now

August 30, 2017 Amit Tewari Leave a comment

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

-Steve Jobs

Traditional B2B marketing efforts are a shotgun approach. Marketers try to appeal to as many potential clients as possible. Campaigns are not individualized.

Account based marketing, on the other hand, is like a sniper rifle. It is precise and targets a small set of specified accounts with surgical precision.

The process has its technicalities. Mistakes are not uncommon. Some of these mistakes can be quite detrimental to the success of a business. If you’re to avoid them, you need to understand them, first. We’re here to present the 7 account based marketing mistakes that might be killing your profits right now.

Account Based Marketing Mistakes

These are the most common account based marketing mistakes. If you’re doing any of these, they’re definitely hurting your profits.

Mistake #1: Creating Content for its Own Sake

It is a common B2B mistake to create content for its own sake. Just because account based marketing requires an individualized approach, doesn’t mean you should start from scratch every time. You don’t always need a new piece of content. You can easily make what you already have relevant for the new account. This is especially true if they are in the same or close niches. Don’t always rush with the content creation. Adapt instead.

Mistake #2: Lack of Unification

Even though it’s a marketing strategy, account based marketing is not a solitary effort. It’s the result of multi-departmental endeavour that includes both Marketing and Sales. This means the teams need to be coordinated. In the beginning, managers should discuss terms and metrics to follow so that both departments and the whole organization benefits.

Mistake #3: Ignoring Analog Marketing Channels

Nowadays, it’s a common practice for marketing to focus on digital only. However, ignoring analog marketing channels is a serious mistake. ABM should serve everywhere it’s needed. For some accounts, digital should suffice. For others, offline means should also be implemented. Adaptability is the name of the game, so don’t limit yourself to one or the other.

Mistake #4: Choosing the Wrong Accounts

Clarity in choosing the correct accounts to focus on is paramount to the success of your ABM. If you choose the wrong accounts in the beginning, you will not like the results in the end. The campaign begins and ends with identifying the correct accounts. Learn the challenges they face and offer them solutions. This will significantly improve your results and your ROI. With the wrong accounts, you risk investing more than you get out of it. Plan well before you begin.

Mistake #5: Focusing on the Wrong Metrics

Traditional marketing and account based marketing differ significantly in terms of metrics that should be measured. With traditional marketing, you measure leads, conversions, and MQLs to determine the success of the endeavor. In ABM, that’s just not enough to give you a clear picture. You should measure other metrics instead.

Due to the nature of account based marketing, some of the metrics you should measure are:

Account score – what’s the client’s overall readiness to buy?
Online traffic and engagement – do your target accounts engage with your content?
Ad views and CTR – do your target accounts view and engage with your ads?
KPI measurements – are you measuring KPI’s? If not, you should start. Here’s a few suggestions how Mo-Data’ sales software can help you.
Sales feedback – what does your Sales team have to say about the leads?

Those are just some of the channels you should pursue. ABM requires you to be on top of things at all times. Using a system for easy data management and analysis helps with this significantly.

Mistake #6: Shotgun Approach to ABM

As we’ve said in the beginning, ABM should be precise. However, we’ve seen marketers make this mistake many times. They compile a list of emails and then start sending the same, unmodified template to all accounts. This is not ABM.

Account based marketing is a tailored approach. Each and every client should receive a unique email or call, addressing their specific needs. Otherwise, you’re not doing ABM. Rather, it’s traditional marketing with a smaller scope and bigger investment. It’s not worth it.

Mistake #7: Not Combining ABM and Inbound Marketing

Oftentimes marketers don’t combine inbound marketing and ABM. This is a mistake, because both strategies are targeted and precise. Both strategies focus on quality, rather than quantity. This makes them both highly synergistic.

The two strategies can complement each other very well. While inbound is still a little broad, ABM narrows the spectrum. Use these two marketing approaches together for the best results and return of investment.

Conclusion

These are the 7 deadly sins of account based marketing that might be killing your profits right now. Fix them as soon as possible and you’ll definitely see a change in your sales, as well as in your ROI.

For more information about MoData offerings click here

Account Based Marketing

14 Proven Tactics to Make Your Account-Based Marketing Strategy a Success

August 16, 2017 Amit Tewari Leave a comment

As a great sales leader your priority is to make and show the numbers. But being sales leader in B2B marketing realm brings myriads of challenges. One challenge that is often thrown at you is to come up with strategies to make your Account Based Marketing (ABM) a success. Before we divulge into these strategies let us first define what Account Based Marketing is.

Here is an easy to understand definition of Account Based Marketing, provided by trueinfluence.com:

“Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a framework focused on targeting specific accounts or account segments, usually by purchase history, firmographics, product need, or strategic value.”

So, instead of wooing every prospect or lead in the industry, through ABM we target individual business, often termed account, with personalized campaign. ABM starts where inbound marketing ends. Through inbound marketing the idea is to target a larger group of audience in order to get to those few who actually need your service or product. But in case of ABM the funnel gets flipped and the audience (or account in this case) is identified long back. Now, the job is to know their pain points and needs to bring them closer to conversion through personalized campaign. And this is where many account based marketing mistakes happen.

Benefits of Account Based Marketing

It is not that Account Based Marketing is a new term or new method of doing business in the world of B2B marketing. It has always been there. This was when marketers and advertising agencies were handling the accounts of their big clients in relentlessly designing and testing campaigns for them.

Now, with the arrival of technology and digital marketing, you’ll agree that there are more number of sources to get your leads from (both qualified and unqualified or junk leads). This brings you more closer to the use and adoption of Account Based Marketing (ABM), where you can use predictive analytics to sieve through leads and identify big accounts with clear need.

So, step back and think if you have adopted ABM in your sales and marketing journey. If not then you may want to do it now as there are clear cut advantages:

1) Precise and targeted campaign

You have identified your clients and you know what its needs are. So, you will design personalized campaign for them without beating around the bush. End result: client loves it and you don’t waste your resources.

2) ROI increases with ABM

Because the campaigns are narrowly targeted, there is no wastage of resources which gives clear and better ROI. According to ITSMA, nearly all B2B solution providers that measure Account Based Marketing (ABM) ROI find that ABM delivers higher ROI than other marketing initiatives.

3) It becomes easier to use analytics to measure effectiveness

Conscientiously targeted campaigns remove lot of redundancy and unnecessary inputs at the planning stage itself. This leaves analytics with clean, small and clear picture to track and measure the effectiveness of strategies applied in case of each target account.

Successful Tactics for Account Based Marketing

Getting a big player to buy or invest in your product or service isn’t as simple as selling to an individual customer. There is a flip in the game in case of B2B marketing. There are gamut of tested tactics which can be selected and applied based on your case if your goal is to leverage on ABM. Here are some important ones:

ABM thrives on content

Use content to draw attention of target accounts. This can be achieved after doing thorough research on your target account’s need and preferences.
Identify the influencers. Always remember that in case of ABM there can be more than one decision maker you are pitching to. So, your team needs to identify and know them.
Next, use personalized content for every target account to get noticed by the influencers. This helps in setting up the first meeting. Since the content is personalized and tailored for individual accounts, more resources are needed to create quality content.
Ideally, the goal is to have a face to face meeting with the prospects and not over mails or phones. Give offers to allure them for the meeting.

Use mix of media to woo target accounts

Choose right channels to reach out to the decision makers. For example, in case of sending them interesting offers use direct mails instead of emails. Generally, direct mails have worked in this case and have proven to be much more effective than emails when you are sending offers.
Through your content or blog posts don’t forget to mention their prominent social media account. For example, use Twitter handle of your prominent prospect. This will give them limelight in their industry and sure enough will draw their attention towards your product/ service.
Make a list of all stakeholders of your target account/s. Find and mention them throughout the sales journey on various social media especially Twitter and LinkedIn. This gives them importance as these leaders are individuals too who would like to be noticed for their work and achievements.
Get personal and send gifts directly on special occasions. Send something tangible that they can use to remind them of you and your organization.

Use social media and social intelligence

Now that you have made list of influencers in your target accounts, use social media analytics tool to know what they are talking about. Set real-time alerts to know who is talking about you or your competitors.
Use Google Adwords for serving hyper targeted ads to your target individuals whenever they are logged on to their Google account.
Similarly, tap into the features of other social media platforms. For example, use Facebook to create custom audience so that you can serve your ads to profiles who are similar to your existing customers.

Host and attend events

Be open and attend important events where your influencers are going to be present.
Let them know in advance that you or one of your reps would be attending the same event, in case the prospects need to talk to you about what you have to offer.
From time to time invite individuals from target accounts to events. Give them platform to talk and mingle with others from the same industry. This opens an opportunity for you to network with most of your prospects under the same roof.

With these strategies in place you can definitely influence your targets and strengthen your existing relationships too. Sure enough to get new accounts added to your business portfolio.

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