Implementing A Successful Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Strategy - Part 2

We’ve been unpacking everything you want to know about Account Based Marketing (ABM) and how you can start reaping its many benefits.

Our last post covered the initial steps needed for implementing a successful Account-Based Marketing strategy, from how to carry out a “smarketing” strategy to whose responsibilities are whose within the team. Now that we’ve got all our pieces in place, it’s time to set our plan in action.

Designing the customer journey with ABM

These are final steps that your business needs to implement and set yourself up for ongoing ABM success.

Gain Customer Insight

Before you start creating your winning content, you need to know who you are creating the content for. Ask yourself:

• What are my clients’ potential pain points (or known problems)?
• How does my company, my products or services solve these problems?
• How do I communicate these solutions in 35 words or less?
• How do my targeted clients’ prefer to communicate (e.g. email, instant message, call)?
• On which digital platforms are my clients present?
• How can we approach the customer on these platforms in a non-invasive way?
• How can we make our content captivating?

The Client Journey

Think of Account-Based Marketing as a series of nudges. Wherever your target account is browsing or asking questions, your brand is there with the answer, gently steering them closer to your website, without them having to ask.

Here is a look at the overall customer journey as experienced with ABM, from the client’s perspective. For illustration purposes, we will call this customer “Client X”.

Brand Awareness

Client X is going about their usual scrolling, surfing or researching on the internet, where they get exposed to your brand. Ideally, this would be a concise yet striking advert which presents a solution to their unique problem. The higher your digital presence, the greater client awareness of your brand grows.

Examples:

• PPC Ads that appear in Client X’s search results.
• Promoted videos and images or paid for ads on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
• Ads on pages that Client X visits for their regular dose of content. These are the ads on the sidebars of articles on platforms like News24 or BizCommunity.
• Articles posted by trusted brands that talk about how wonderful your business is.

Retargeting

Every piece of content that you publish should have a Call to Action (CTA) that directs the reader to take a specific action. For example, “Subscribe to our newsletter” or “request a quote.”

When a prospect clicks your CTA but doesn’t complete the transaction (goal), you can retarget them. Retargeting uses cookies to ‘follow’ your prospect serving hyper-relevant messages to edge them closer to going back and completing the action. Think about how the exact Superbalist shoes you almost bought keeping popping up online.

You can set retargeting to follow a person for a specified period or amount of impressions. You can also serve exclusive offers to incentivise the client to convert.

Conversion and Relationship Building

Client X has finally completed your desired goal. This is your chance to impress them. To take them from prospect to client, to brand ambassador.

• Client X gets a phone call from a friendly salesperson who starts building a relationship with them and sets up a face to face meeting or invites them to an event.
• Strategic and timed follow-ups keep Client X engaged and reinforces top of mind awareness.
• Once the sale has been made, Client X receives helpful post-sales support. They now know how best to use your product or service and can confidently move forward.

An Ongoing Process

The job’s not over because your prospect is now your client. Your job is to retain them. To keep your client coming back, loyal and willing to refer your company, you should:

• Put an ongoing email campaign in place. Make sure your emails give your client value and incentive to keep engaged with your brand.
• Put an ongoing digital marketing campaign in place. Allow social media to give them value and make them adore your business even more.
• Regularly connect with phone calls. Get feedback. Keep building the relationship. Get more information on other ways your business can help them.

Personalise the Customer Journey

Here are the tools to map out a personalised journey for your target accounts.

First, decide on the steps of your customer journey. It may look something like this:

Once your team has established the key elements of the customer journey, you will decide on the touchpoints for each. This can be anything like brand awareness through targeted digital marketing platforms, PPC ads, website or even a traditional phone call. The more touchpoints you can invest in, the better your chances of conversion.

Then, populate your strategy, identifying the touchpoints available during each phase of the journey. For example, Leads4Africa’s strategy could look like this (or is this actually it? Contact us to find out).

Plan your content for each, assign parties responsible for each element and how you want that interaction to play out.

Account-Based Marketing Experts

Now you’re fully equipped with the knowledge you need to get started on your Account-Based marketing journey.

If you are convinced that ABM is the way to go but just don’t have the time to reorganise your business, there is an easier way. You can partner up with an experienced lead-generation firm that will plug into your company and guide you through each step of the ABM process.

We’ll work alongside your internal resources to find your wish-list clients. Then, we’ll develop a strategy and the content required, manage your online channels, and initiate contact – kicking off the sales process.

CTA: Talk to us to find out more.