Perhaps you’ve heard of account-based marketing (ABM) and how effective it is for B2B markets, but you’re not sure if you’re ready to take the plunge. ABM, sometimes called key account marketing, is a strategic marketing approach to targeting B2B prospects by choosing specific accounts that are an ideal fit for your organization.
Imagine ABM as a magnifying glass: it enables you to focus on the accounts that your team has hand-chosen to be the best clients for you.
It’s a one-to-one approach that appeals specifically to prospects’ individual needs rather than trying to “catch ‘em all,” which brings many benefits to B2B organizations. Truly, it’s a more sophisticated take on the historical direct marketing campaigns that companies have been using for years, and it narrows the focus to specific targets using measurable tactics.
If you’ve been taking baby steps towards incorporating ABM into your current marketing campaigns, it’s time to go all in due to the value it brings to marketing and sales teams to impact the company’s bottom line. Don’t just dip your toes into ABM, make a choice to implement account-based EVERYTHING.
Here are our top 5 reasons (and we even alphabetized them, you’re welcome) why you should go all-in with ABM.
A – Align Marketing and Sales
Unifying the efforts of marketing and sales teams is a huge win in B2B processes. It allows for collaboration and a seamless experience for prospects and customers in the pipeline.
ABM enables internal teams to set common goals, identify target accounts, and develop tactics to reach prospects through multiple channels where they spend the most time. This encourages ongoing planning for the sales and marketing teams because it boosts benefits on both sides.
B – Bigger Wins for Sales
ABM enables buy-in from an entire team of decision-makers, which allows for increased engagement, and in turn, larger deals. With the right tools, you can easily track ROI and attribute wins to the associated activities to continually improve processes.
Marketing teams can benefit from enhanced tracking of deals because you know exactly where the prospects came from due to your ICP (ideal client profile) research. Sales are not random – they are strategically planned to accelerate deals.
C – Close Rates Expedited
With ABM practices in place, approaches become aligned, and deals typically close at higher rates than traditional marketing and sales strategies. It accelerates the buying cycle because ABM actively targets all decision-makers while keeping gatekeepers and blockers in check throughout the process.
And do you know what the effect of higher close rates is? Increased ROI for the business! Yes, it takes a lot of upfront planning, but if you already have other inbound tactics in place, you can use current content to fill the sales funnel and educate prospects just when they need it.
D – Deliver Consistency
Although ABM can be a long process, it allows you to deliver a consistent, personalized experience for target accounts and the individual roles within those accounts. Consistent experiences facilitate a way for customers to build trust through relevant messaging as they move through the pipeline.
ABM enables you to develop a strong foundation for all campaigns that you deliver, which helps you understand your clients better and allows you to develop stronger relationships with the prospects and customers that bring the most value to your business.
E – Efficiency and Expansion
You should always begin with the accounts that have the highest potential to be ideal clients for your organization, which empowers you to waste no time in focusing all efforts on best-fit accounts that you can then expand through trusted relationships.
Aim to personalize as much as possible and use existing content or update as needed for various industries or roles that you’re targeting within accounts. You could do this by conducting an audit of all your existing content and organizing it by type, place in the funnel, topic, or other buckets that will help you to plug it in as needed for your ABM campaigns.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is just that: ABM will help improve it! But it will be the most effective if you truly go all in and reap the benefits.
Want to do some troubleshooting to see how ABM can solve business challenges?
Find out in our guide: 5 ABM Challenges You'll Face and How to Solution for Them
