Marketing strategies continue to evolve as needs change and technological advances make exciting, new ideas workable. While account-based marketing (ABM) isn’t the newest concept around, the way it’s employed today is certainly revolutionizing many B2B marketing plans.
Understanding the Definition of Account-Based Marketing
To grasp how account-based marketing can elevate business to the next level, it’s vitally important to understand what the strategy actually includes. In a nutshell, ABM targets specific accounts rather than using a wide-ranging approach to garner additional business.
What’s the objective? Marketing to every possible client costs money and stresses sales staff members responsible for dealing with prospects that don’t end up generating additional revenue. ABM focuses attention on specific accounts that are the most likely to actually buy a company’s products or services. The net result, when the process is correctly utilized, is increased profits. So, what tactics can a company use to create a successful ABM system that works?
Identify Appropriate Accounts
One of the first steps to put a successful ABM system in place is to identify your appropriate accounts. Which clients are generating the highest profits for your organization? Are those clients also repeat, long-term clients that are likely to remain loyal in the future? How difficult are the clients to deal with?
Creating Targeted Campaigns
After carefully screening accounts, crafting individualized campaigns for each of those accounts is crucial. Remember, each campaign must be designed to meet the client’s specific needs rather than being general in nature. Yes, that takes time, but the net result is worth the investment.
Design and Execute the Campaign
During the campaign design phase, it’s crucial to define who will be responsible for specific roles involved in the campaign. That simply means the everyone, from promotions experts to sales reps, must be assigned specific roles.
This is also the point where it’s determined which marketing strategies will be used for specific clients. Some clients will require an emphasis on personal contact while others may respond better to targeted emails or similar contact methodologies. Remember, personalizing the approaches used is critical for any ABM campaign.
Measure the Success of Your ABM Campaigns
When appropriate software is employed, it’s generally easy to track the results of any ABM campaign. However, marketing experts caution companies adopting ABM systems to give the strategy time to work, as positive results may not be immediate.
Since the software solutions used to make all phases of an ABM campaign flow smoothly, it’s also important to choose the best provider for your organization’s needs. If you’re unsure which software solutions would provide optimal results, find out from SharpSpring what components are necessary for creating the best results.
Once the analytics are reviewed, it will become clearer which tactics work and which ones need to be modified. Remember that routine reviews of results can also provide information to better use a company’s personnel to more effectively generate increased sales.
Getting Started
Changing a company’s marketing tactics isn’t always easy, but today’s competitive business environments require an ability and willingness to try new techniques. ABM is a proven tactic virtually any company can utilize to move forward.
Rather than waiting, marketing experts generally recommend companies be proactive and adopt creative, new tactics to move their organizations forward. Are you ready to move your company to the next level?
