Posted on June, at 24,
nicholas@leads4africa.co.za | +27 21 201 1259
IMPLEMENTING A SUCCESSFUL
ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING STRATEGY-
PART 1
Implementing A Successful Account-Base Marketing (ABM) Strategy - Part 1
Our previous post explored the basics of Account Based Marketing (ABM); what it is, how it works, and how you can start reaping ABM’s many benefits.
A critical component to ABM success is aligning your sales, marketing and customer service teams to effectively carry out your “smarketing” strategy. What does that mean? That’s what we want to help you understand. So, we’ve devised a two-part series that delves deeper into how to implement a potent ABM Strategy.
Demystifying the Concept of ABM
According to SiriusDecisions, 90% of marketers believe that Account Based Marketing (ABM) is essential to B2B marketing.
The traditional sales and marketing scenario sees each team working independently. Marketing casts a wide net while sales reels in whichever fish from that catch take the bait. It uses many resources for (mostly) very little reward.
Account-based marketing, however, flips the traditional sales funnel on its head. Here, marketing and sales identify a whale and work in unison to lure their target.
Focusing team efforts results in converting a greater percentage of your most desired, high-lifetime value accounts.
The strategy entails identifying your wish-list customers and engineering a hyper-personalised experience throughout every brand touch-point to compel, convert and retain. The model allows you to steadily (and sustainably) grow a large pool of fiercely loyal customers.
Establishing Roles and Responsibilities Within the Team
This is where the waters get a little murky. With ABM, sales, marketing and operations need to work in tandem – while concurrent processes run.
The success of ABM relies on the sum of all parts.
The success of your ABM strategy relies on everyone doing their bit for the collective good. One small break in the chain and the entire process goes awry.
It’s vital that everyone on the team knows who is responsible for what and when. Let’s take a look.
Sales
• Identify and sort your company’s ideal key accounts by tier.
• Work on plans for targeting and engaging with the top tier accounts.
• Collaborate with marketing on programs, intelligence, and reporting.
• Implement a system that allows you to track engagement with clients and keep an eye on account progression in conjunction with marketing.
Customer Service (Operations)
• Set up account foundations like CRM and other technologies as needed.
• Review account data and feed learning back to marketing and sales.
• Implement a process for adding new account data.
• Help teams with weekly and monthly reporting.
Marketing
• Ensure a clear list of target accounts are identified and prioritised.
• Work with Sales on entitlements and program roll-out.
• Budget allocation.
• Help provide intelligence for account plans.
• Create targeted brand awareness through digital platforms (such as content marketing strategy).
• Have a plan for early, mid, late stage goals and reporting.
Accountability and pinpoint accurate reporting is pivotal to your ABM success. You rely on intelligence gained to refine your strategy continually. With this, you need the ability to automate sales and marketing processes, engage with audiences at scale and track your digital marketing efforts.
The Alterra Group found that 84% of marketers said that ABM had significant benefits in retaining and expanding existing client relationships.
One Step Closer to ABM Success
So now you have an idea of what everyone should be doing, but why? To enhance customer experience!
Think about yourself as a customer. You see ads every day, some of which you pay no attention to. When did you last you click on an ad and buy right away? That’s the point. Consumer behaviour has changed. Abm is embracing this change and helps companies to re-engineer their strategy to give customers what they want before they even know they need it.
This is precisely what we will unpack in our next post. We’ll walk through the customer journey as experienced with ABM. See ABM in action, follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn to get notified as soon as our new post is live.
Call in The Experts
Do you want in on ABM, but thinking, “How will I know if we’re doing this right?” You don’t have to go it alone.
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.
Talk to us to find out more.- Posted on April, at 20,
- Posted on February, at 13,