How to prepare B2B marketing and sales teams for account-based marketing adoption.
ABM (Account based marketing) is a strategic approach that combines targeted, insight-led marketing with sales to increase mindshare, strengthen relationships and drive growth in specific new and existing accounts.
What’s your prime marketing goal?
For many B2B marketers, the answer will be ‘lead generation’,
In situations where:
B2B marketers can achieve lead goals by creating a more targeted, joint sales and marketing plan that treats high-value accounts as “markets of one” comprised of multiple people – this is exactly what Account-Based Marketing is designed to achieve.
Having determined that ABM belongs in your sales and marketing strategy, the question I’m usually asked next, is: "How do I go about creating an ABM plan, and how can I get my organisation to buy in to the idea of marketing in a very different way; especially a way that’s a cultural shift for most?"
How do I go about creating an ABM plan, and how can I get my organisation to buy in to the idea of marketing in a very different way; especially a way that’s a cultural shift for most?
While this may seem a sizeable obstacle, we have developed a five-step Account-Based Marketing eBook that B2B marketers can use to prepare their organisations to adopt ABM:
A successful ABM strategy is dependent on strong alignment between marketing and sales teams. Both sides of the business must have shared clarity on goals, objectives, account focus and more for campaigns to focus wholly on good-fit accounts.
When aligning your teams be sure to:
84% of B2B marketers believe ABM provides significant benefits for retaining and expanding current relationships - Sirius Decisions
A strong foundation of data is integral to the success of any marketing campaign. Account-based marketing is no different; data insight must be used to develop bespoke propositions and messaging for each customer and stakeholder group.
Put simply, data insight is integral to steer your campaign.
ABM campaigns are bespoke; designed to appeal to a very specific account audience. This means that every aspect of your marketing activity - especially content - should be considered with that target account in mind.
To do this:
While creating account-specific content may sound complex, modifying existing content will reduce time and cost.
As the focus with ABM is not primarily on lead volume, but on developing a relationship with a quality account, a range of other hard and soft metrics should be defined that can be mapped back to specific sales and marketing objectives.
For example;
I was recently asked by the Sales VP of a global tech company how to implement an ABM programme if the organisation has never done it before. I was asked;
Isn’t it too much of a cultural shift to ask sales and marketing to align in a way that’s unfamiliar?
However, this perceived cultural shift is something that an experienced agency partner like Strategic can help to circumvent. How? Because an experienced partner can facilitate ABM start-up; becoming an extension of the marketing team - who also works directly with sales - to build an ABM pilot.
This pilot campaign can then focus on a small number of accounts to prove success, and secure an understanding of the objectives and benefits that a full ABM campaign would need and achieve.
By joining with an agency partner to establish an ABM campaign, B2B organisations can achieve more than campaign results; an agency partner is there to help B2B organisations develop their ABM skillsets and define ABM best practices across the team. That way, the whole organisation can be properly aligned and prepared for a full, successful ABM programme.