An Introduction To Account Based Marketing
At its core, account-based marketing (ABM) is a practice that leverages data and technology to identify, engage with and win accounts. It’s a strategy that focuses on specific companies within your market or industry and is used to increase sales by targeting specific decision makers at those companies. ABM requires many different skills sets beyond marketing, including sales, service/support and/or consulting. The goal of this article is to help you understand the basics of how ABM works and what it takes to successfully implement an ABM program within your organization.
Context is king.
Context is king. It's the reason why ABM works, and it's also what makes ABM different from other marketing strategies.
Context refers to the environment in which a customer interacts with your brand. For example, if you're selling software to healthcare providers, your context could be hospitals or clinics; if you're selling insurance, it could be doctors' offices; and so on.
Your context determines which account-based marketing (ABM) tactics are most effective for reaching your prospects and customers—and vice versa: Only by understanding each prospect’s unique needs can you deliver tailored messages that solve their problems at every stage of the buyer journey.
It’s not just about marketing.
Account Based Marketing is not just about marketing. It’s a strategy that focuses on engaging with and acquiring customers who have the highest potential to lead to profitable sales. It requires strategic planning, clear objectives and tactical execution of activities specific to each account.
Customer engagement is at its core — it’s not enough to just make contact with buyers in your target accounts; you need to identify the right people within each account, build relationships with them, listen carefully and respond accordingly based on what they tell you about their challenges or needs. And then you need to get involved in helping them solve those challenges (and keep them happy).
Customer retention is also key: if you want ABM success then your team needs a deep understanding of how accounts move through the acquisition process towards sale so they can support them every step of the way. This means more than just sending out emails asking for referrals when customers are happy!
Account Based Marketing has been around for many years but only recently has become more popular among marketers because it provides several benefits over traditional tactics such as mass email blasts or cold calling campaigns:
ABM is not a silver bullet.
ABM is not a silver bullet. It's not an overnight fix for your marketing woes, and it won't yield immediate results. It does require a lot of effort and commitment—from both you and your team—to see success with ABM.
But don't let that deter you! Account based marketing is a long-term strategy that can have lasting effects on your business over time as you continue to nurture relationships with key decision-makers within accounts.
ABM is a means to an end.
Account based marketing is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Account based marketing is not the only way to build a successful business. When done right, ABM has the potential to give you new competitive advantages and drive growth. However, if you're doing it wrong or simply don't have time for it right now, then don't worry about it—you'll have plenty of other opportunities afterwards!
Account based marketing is not for everyone, but for those who take the time to build it into their strategy, the rewards can be significant.
Account based marketing is not for everyone, but for those who take the time to build it into their strategy, the rewards can be significant.
ABM is not a silver bullet. ABM is a means to an end.
ABM can help you reach your target audience faster, with less waste and at greater scale than other tactics like social media or web retargeting. With that being said, there are many considerations to take into account when building out an ABM strategy including: context of each account; budget; team structure/availability; resources available on the marketer's side (e.g., data).
Conclusion
We hope that this article has given you a good sense of what account based marketing is, how it works and some examples of how it can be implemented. ABM is not a silver bullet and there are no guarantees that it will work for your business, but if you take the time to build an effective strategy around this approach then the rewards could be significant.
