The ABC’s of Account Based Marketing Tactics: What you Need to Know to Plan, Execute, and Win

June 25, 2016

ITSMA’s definition of account-based marketing (ABM) is: “Treating individual accounts as a market in their own right”.  The core idea is to create a completely aligned sales and marketing process that targets a very specific set of accounts – accounts that have the highest propensity to buy your solution. The building blocks of a successful ABM strategy include definition of goals, identification and prioritization of accounts, account-specific messaging and tactics, execution, and the application of analytics to improve program performance.

Here are five clearly defined steps to implementing ABM:

Step 1: Define your goals

Clearly define your goals for ABM. What do you want to accomplish?  How will you measure success?  Whatever they are, make sure sales and marketing agree on them.  This alignment is at the heart of every successful ABM program.  Some of our customers’ ABM goals include:

  • Greater penetration of named accounts
  • Improve channel engagement
  • Identify the market for products with limited appeal

Step 2:  Identify and prioritize your total addressable market

How do you define your market? Is it based on revenue size, geography, or segments?  What keywords or topics is the market searching on? Give MRP your market parameters, and we will provide a list of your total addressable market and which accounts have the highest propensity to buy.

Buying center amplification: MRP Prelytix helps you identify the buying centers within each account, based on intent data. We then match and verify the relevant contacts to the buying center.

Algorithm weighting: Which aspects of the account are most important to you? Company size? Geography?  The MRP Prelytix algorithm can be weighted, based on what’s important to you, to give you the view you want of your target market.

Account prioritization: Once you have identified the accounts that are actively buying, and the decision-makers within the buying centers, you can prioritize the accounts you want to go after, and better allocate your resources to reach them.

Step 3:  Craft your message and select your tactics

The most effective ABM marketers allocate a larger portion of their budget (42%) to content marketing than marketers with less effective campaigns (28%).

Develop your content strategy: Map content to appropriate stages in the buyer journey; identify the gaps in your existing content – what you need to create and what you can repurpose; and create a content map to fill those gaps, based on buying intent.

Creative development: Talk your customers’ language.  Messaging crafted around the specific needs of each target account will turn communications into dialog and result in deeper customer engagement.

Tactic selection: MRP Prelytix automates the delivery of content, based on the tactics that are most effective and most appropriate for each account. MRP’s full suite of ABM services include:

  • Direct mail
  • Email
  • Social media
  • Inside sales
  • Display ads
  • Events

Step 4:  Execute your strategy

Engage with your customers on their terms: ABM enables you to intelligently execute display ads, direct mail, email, and inside sales, based on buyer journey stage.

Pipeline acceleration: Because you’re targeting accounts with a greater propensity to buy with the right message and tactics, you are more likely to engage more quickly and convert opportunities faster.

Get sales in the loop: When a customer shows late stage buying intent, real live human interaction is required.  Use MRP’s inside sales capabilities (or your own sales team) and get on the phone.  This person to person interaction is still the most effective for closing sales.

Step 5:  Analyze and adjust

Uncover trends: MRP Prelytix gives you visibility into your campaigns – what’s working and what isn’t – so you can adjust your strategy to improve campaign performance and shorten time to revenue.

Monitor your pipeline: MRP Prelytix gives you visibility into buying intent and customer engagement efforts, and how deals are moving through the pipeline.

Optimize your investments: Use MRP Prelytix to understand how your campaigns are performing against your investments.  Add or eliminate tactics that will help you maximize ROI.

 

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