Generally, B2B marketers conduct a widely spread search in the target market with the hope to target and engage as many companies as possible. Account-based marketing is an impressive leap in the marketing industry that enables organizations to align their sales and marketing efforts. It is a distinct B2B marketing strategy that directs sales and marketing efforts in a strategic manner to a specific set of target accounts in a market through tailored campaigns devised to graduate these accounts through the sales funnel.

Although ABM undertakes a holistic view of marketing, the marketing messages are established to cater to the specific needs and attributes of each account.

92% of B2B marketers consider ABM “extremely” or “very” important to overall marketing efforts- SiriusDecisions.

Why adopt Account-Based Marketing?

A multitude of companies are rearranging their traditional marketing strategies and focusing their efforts towards ABM so as to target, nurture and acquire high target accounts. Rather than taking an educated guess in the dark, ABM presents marketers with the opportunity not only to present key accounts with curated but contextualized content- information that caters to specific needs and/or pain-points of the buyer- also determined by the stage of the buyer’s journey. It does not aim to replace the traditional marketing initiatives but instead helps organizations to a boosted ROI and measurable sales results.

The Benefits of Account-Based Marketing

1. Booming ROI– Almost 85 percent of marketers who measure ROI describe ABM as delivering higher returns than any other marketing approach; half of those marketers cite significantly higher returns (ITSMA). Need we say more?
2. It is tailored and optimized– Rather than casting a wide net, ABM calls for personalized communication and messages to key accounts so that the marketing and sales efforts are in conjunction with the needs of the target audience. Communication geared specifically to each stage of the buyer journey and relevant to business needs is more likely to engage the target audience.
3. Aligned Sales and Marketing– ABM plays a very crucial and competent role in aligning sales and marketing efforts. Essentially ABM marketers have identical goals to sales personnel- target an account, engage and nurture and then generate revenue from them.
4. Easily track goals and measure results– While evaluating the effectiveness of a campaign, whatever the channel of communication used, it is easier to determine the success criteria since you analyze a small set of target accounts as opposed to an extensive set of metrics.
5. Shortened sales cycle– Major purchases often involve multiple influencers and decision makers. Typically progressing from the bottom to the top of the organizational hierarchy tends to slow down the process. ABM shortens the sales cycle since all the prospects are nurtured at the same time.

Steps to implement Account-Based Marketing

1. Identify and segregate key accounts
2. Study the accounts and determine key players
3. Outline curated content through tailored campaigns
4. Discover optimized channels of communication
5. Execute the personalized campaign
6. Asses, review and optimize

Talk to an ABM expert