11 Tactics to Drive Your Account-Based Marketing Process

Account-based marketing, or ABM, will continue to be a significant trend this year, driving personalized marketing in communications that customers expect. 

Simply put, ABM utilizes the expertise of both sales and marketing teams to target a specific group of accounts to create a tailored experience. 

 

Moreover, there are a lot of benefits that the ABM model can bring to your business. In fact, account-based marketing is one of the most powerful tools your business can have.

It gives you a higher ROI, better personalization, and easy tracking. But first, let’s discuss what account-based marketing is.

 

 

What is Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing uses a more targeted approach to selling, focusing on best-fit accounts or accounts that have expressed interest, and become potential high-revenue prospects.

ABM is all about targeting the right people with the right message at the right time using campaigns that are account specific. Ideally, your messaging and content should be personalized and relevant.

 

Also, who your company will target will largely depend on your goals. Let’s say that you’re launching a business in the healthcare industry.

Then, you need to come up with a list of companies and individuals who might be interested in what you have to offer.

 

 

Strategies to Drive Your ABM Process

So maybe you’ve tried some ABM tactics with a couple of one-to-one campaigns. By this time, you want to go right in, and all you need is a solid jump-off point. 

Implementing the right ABM tactics and abm platform is vital to getting your prospects’ attention. 

 

Here are some of the proven ABM tactics to help you with your efforts in converting a prospective client into a paying one. Make sure that you pick a few that work best for your business and start testing. 

 

1. Testimonials and Case Studies

One of the best ways you can show your leads and prospects why they choose to buy from you is to show them how similar companies found value in the product or service you’re offering. It can either be done via a case study or testimonial.

 

When targeting ABM accounts, highlight companies in the same industry or have the same challenges as those you’re trying to target.

Usually, these case studies and testimonials will speak for themselves. It lets the reader know that someone outside your company speaks about your product or service. It allows prospects to see themselves as finding the same value.

 

2. Go the Extra Mile with IRL Gifts

Similarly, you can try your luck sending physical gifts to prospects via direct mail. If done right, you can connect with prospects and key accounts and even get the target company talking.

Just make sure that you do your research so that you know enough about the prospects and send something that they’ll surely like or love.

 

You can even take it even further with video. Here’s how you can do that:

 

• Tell your sales reps to come up with at least one video per rep, placing a face on the prospect’s name when you send out IRL gifts.
• Ask your sales rep to create an unboxing video of the gifts to make everything more personalized and unique. Finally, track every view, delivering a personal asset to those that viewed the video and accepted the gift.

 

3. Strategically Use Retargeting

One of the main benefits of using PPC marketing is retargeting as your highlight. Retargeting works. Google lets you present ads to people who have just visited your site and connected with you previously. 

Moreover, you can tailor your ads based on their actions on your site. That way, you can make your message applicable to their interests and where they’re currently in their buyer journey. 

 

4. Choose your Channels and Craft Your Messaging

What makes ABM so effective is that it lets you proactively engage with the best-fit accounts instead of waiting for qualified leads to come. Now, which channels should you be using to reach these accounts? You can use your ABM campaigns using channels like: 

 

• Direct mail
• Email
• Social media
• Videos
• Display Ads
• Blogs
• Search Engine Ads
• E-books and Whitepapers
• Webinars and Other Virtual Events
• Infographics

 

ABM marketing tools will remove the guesswork from ABM programs by reaching out to target accounts whenever they’re online. They should also prioritize channels based on which brings the highest revenue to your business. 

Once you’ve chosen your ABM channels, the next thing you need to focus on is creating targeted content that resonates well with your target audience.

 

You can create marketing assets for various buyer personas, company sizes, deal sizes, or particular stages in the sales cycle.

Similarly, you can become more personal by creating one-to-one messaging for every account. 

 

5. Do ABM Campaigns and Start Sales Outreach

When your message has been in the market long enough to make an impression on your target accounts, you need sales reps to start your outreach using traditional emails and phone calls. 

Moreover, at this point, your marketing team has also used ABM tactics that help generate brand awareness, engaging key decision-makers in your target accounts.

 

As a result, it’s so much easier to set the stage for more effective sales conversions. 

However, note that your marketing work isn’t wholly done because sales started with the outreach. Let’s say you’re running display ads. Then, make sure that you refresh your creativity every 45 days. 

 

This is to avoid ad fatigue while ensuring your audience gets the most relevant and effective messaging to move accounts through the buyer’s journey. 

 

6. Target Key Accounts with Digital Ads

Like with any other campaign, ads are a fantastic way to expand your reach. Digital ads allow you to get your message in front of everyone when they see it. 

Ads are also highly measurable, so it lets teams track results and know what’s working and what isn’t. Your sales team can use this data to prioritize their efforts. This also allows them to target the right people at the right time. 

 

7. Enables Sales and Marketing Alignment

ABM marketing is one of the best ways to align marketing and sales. Still, this is easier said than done. 

This is because when marketers do ABM programs, the way they do things is the same as those in sales, focusing on accounts, how to target them, capture their attention, and generate revenue. 

 

8. Provide solutions

Individuals, no matter what industry or role they have, always look for solutions to the challenges they might be facing. Therefore, knowing what those challenges are is essential. 

Once you understand your target’s challenges, you can provide content that includes blogs, whitepapers, and e-books that gives them helpful insight and which ultimately drive engagement. 

 

9. Measure and mold

As soon as your ABM marketing strategy is in full swing, the next thing that you need to do is to measure all of your marketing activity that relates to your target accounts.

Like any strategy of your business, you should measure your ABM campaigns accurately and then optimize them if needed. 

 

Ensure you learn which channel or content provides you with the best results. Then, tailor your campaign accordingly, placing your resources on the right strategies. 

 

10. Automate Your Processes

Automating makes it so much easier for employees to manage their work. Make sure you research the best automation marketing tools to hasten and optimize processes. 

For instance, a customer relationship management or CRM system can be essential to keep track of all communications and share valuable information. 

 

Similarly, you can also set up email workflows. That way, it’s easier for you to nurture and track the engagement of your key prospects using a tailored funnel. 

 

11. Define Your Strategy and Goals

After gathering your core ABM team, make sure that you define what your goals are. What do you want to get out of ABM? Your goals will eventually guide you with your ABM strategy, so everyone in your team must be on the same page. 

 

Here are some of the most common goals in your ABM marketing program: 

 

• Successfully launching a new product
• Creating market share in an existing segment
• Doing a competitive takeout
• Getting more value from your existing customers
• Targeting strategic accounts
• Entering new markets, segments, and verticals

 

You’re also likely just getting started with these ABM best practices to accomplish different goals. Now, depending on your resources and team size, you should focus on one goal and gradually work your way there.

Similarly, you may opt to transition immediately to an entirely account-based strategy.

 

 

Over to You

Unlike popular belief, an ABM strategy completely differs from your current inbound strategies. 

By diversifying your tactics to go after customers, you and your team have more flexibility and a wider range of customers. 

 

Adding a great ABM strategy allows you to effectively target large, complex deals that require much time and personalization. You can finally move your sales and marketing teams by incorporating these tactics and other suggestions. Good luck!