Tactics for Implementing a Successful ABM Strategy

August 03, 2017

MRP recently participated in The Forrester Wave™: Predictive Marketing Analytics for B2B Marketers, Q2 2017 and was named a strong performer for our predictive analytics solution.  I only mention this because one of Forrester’s key take-aways from the research was the necessity to operationalize predictive in order to implement an effective account based marketing strategy.

How Predictive Analytics Can Help Your ABM Strategy

The insight you’re deriving from your predictive analytics capability becomes the heart of your content strategy, which is the core component of a solid ABM strategy. This is a significant change from the way it’s been in the past.

All too recently, ad agencies and corporate marketers would develop go-to-market strategies based on the central themes they want to communicate. They then align that to the pains of the buyer personas who purchase from them, and begin building content in what are essentially silos. The content isn’t informed by the actual intent of their target market.

This approach isn’t going to change overnight. What can change overnight is for account based marketing practitioners to leverage an application such as MRP Prelytix, and use the intent data to better understand what their prospects need. This need then informs the nature of the content.

Fuel Your Content Plan with Actual Data

The MRP Prelytix Orchestration module gives you the ability to perform content matching. In this process, the module:

  • Isolates the segment and vertical you’re developing a tactical plan for
  • Identifies which specific keywords are most consumed by that segment
  • Aligns your offers and content to that segment

Now you have a clear roadmap for your content based on actual data, not the assumptions of your marketing team.

Another feature of Orchestration is its ability to align the tactics that best serve your content, and best reach your segments, based on where they are in their buyer journey. For example, a tactic such as display advertising is a cost-effective way to reach and educate early-stage buyers. But where the rubber meets the road in true end-to-end ABM implementation is when the tactics move beyond display advertising.

Follow Your Customer’s Journey

As you follow prospects along their buyer journey, the tactics used and content delivered have to match that journey. The MRP Orchestration module enables you to execute email drips within Eloqua and Marketo. As soon as an account enters a particular buying stage, the module triggers the marketing automation platform to send a series of content-specific emails that align to the prospect’s buyer journey.

Finally, when you have an account that is showing late stage intent, has interacted with your digital outreach, and fits your profile of “buying” organizations, you need to engage directly – and quickly – with that demand unit. The best way to do that is to leverage inside sales, either your own team or ours, working on your behalf. This human interaction still remains the single best tactic for accounts in the late stage of their buyer journey.

Ultimately, tactical execution of account based marketing is not just one thing. Rather, it is layer upon layer of capabilities, based on understanding your prospects and their needs, resulting in an execution framework that’s best in class. See how your current ABM strategy holds up. 

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