Account Based Marketing is a type of marketing strategy focused on a specific company that has high value for your business.
Introduction:
When we talk about purchasing decisions in business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses, we know that in most cases it depends on just one person - the consumer.
Now when we talk about business-to-business (B2B), we conclude that at least five people are involved in the project right up to the final stage.
"Purchasing decision-makers are 40% more inclined to buy if they identify that the content they see has been made especially for them." - Data from research published in the Harvard Business Review.
These decision-makers are usually the CEO, CMO, marketing, finance and personnel directors. They all have different roles, agendas, needs and behaviors, right?
And in Account Based Marketing, selling to them is not an impossible mission!
Based on an ABM strategy, selling to this profile can be faster and much easier than traditional marketing.
ABM aims to engage and sell to large accounts that are of high value to your company.
Therefore, according to a global report published by SiriusDecisions, 93% of leaders in various industries consider ABM strategies to be extremely important for B2B businesses.
At Lean Sales we implement this type of strategy with our clients and the approach has resulted in more and bigger sales, a full pipeline and a much better ROI than other marketing strategies.
I'll tell you a bit more about it below. Read on.
What is Account Based Marketing?
Account Based Marketing is a type of marketing strategy focused on a specific company that has high value for your business.
In ABM, all campaigns are personalized for this account, which brings excellent results.
To better illustrate this strategy, compare ABM to the strategy of a fisherman.
If a fisherman throws a fishing net into the sea, he will catch many fish, of all types and sizes, all at once, but if he uses a fishing spear, he will have a great chance of getting the fish he wants.
Account Based Marketing uses the spear. Inbound Marketing throws the net.
Most marketers invest their efforts in trying to attract as many leads as possible in order to sell something to them.
With ABM, you have to choose the companies (or accounts) you want to have as clients and think about creating specific marketing campaigns for them.
Customization in strategy is a key point of ABM.
Its entire campaign, from communication to content, is created and geared entirely to the needs of prospects , and this is where its high success rate comes in.
The Altera Group carried out a survey and found that 97% of participants confirmed that this tactic brought a much higher ROI than traditional forms of marketing.
Some marketers argue that this is an evolution of B2B marketing, while others say that it complements the traditional marketing goal of generating leads in the short term.
Research published by Salesforce shows that for more than 90% of B2B customers, the volume of research into a solution increases in line with its price.
In other words, the more expensive the product, the more research they do to make their final decision.
For this reason, companies that invest in ABM are accustomed to generating value and increasing the chances of sales.
In the strategies created by Lean Sales, the decision-makers of these large companies are understood as part of a whole and not as isolated individuals. They each have different responsibilities, agendas and vocabularies.
Engaging and attracting these decision-makers and then making the sale is our main objective.
This tactic allows our marketing and sales team to obtain higher quality accounts and create upselling, with the opportunity to expand existing contracts.
Why is this worthwhile for your business?
Professionals from the most varied segments recognize this strategy, as we see in the survey carried out by SiriusDecisions, a global research and consulting company: "2017: State of Account-Based Marketing Study Findings".
- 93% of Account Business Marketing leaders consider the strategy to be very or extremely important for B2B businesses, 91% according to data presented in 2015.
- 22% of respondents closed 50% or more deals when they focused on attracting key accounts, being more precise in their messaging and delivery channel; 21% of respondents closed 11% to 21% more deals with the strategy.
- 91% of respondents say that the ABM approach has considerably increased the size of the contracts they close. 1 in 4 say that the size of their contracts is 50% larger than the rest.
- 57% of them say that the revenue generated has grown significantly.
6 benefits this strategy can bring to your business
Before putting a new strategy into practice, we always think about what benefits it will bring to the business, right?
With this in mind, we've put together 6 advantages of personalizing your approach within ABM. They are:
1 - Increased marketing ROI ;
2 - Ease of alignment between marketing and sales;
3 - More referrals and improved social proof;
4 - Less wasted resources;
5 - Greater engagement between your business and the prospect;
6 - It's very easy to measure campaign data.
Who is ABM suitable for?
Account-based marketing is most commonly used by companies that need to deal with several people from a single company in the sales process.
This is usually the case with B2B companies, where customers need to make a decision together or go through various internal processes before buying a product or contracting a new service.
In some companies it is necessary to attract more than five people, for example, each of whom has different occupations, objectives and questions that in many cases end up making the sale difficult.
Therefore, a campaign focused on reaching just one of these people is not enough to convince the entire organization, and in this case the power of ABM comes into its own.
In addition, the high level of personalization forces the strategy to focus on a smaller number of accounts at a time, as well as having a preference for higher-value accounts.
On the other hand, this can lead to higher implementation costs for some accounts. But in the end it's always worth it.
Conclusion
Account Based Marketing allows you to target high-value accounts for your business and work in a customized way for these prospects, who are the decision-makers for these accounts.
We have the necessary experience to know that the results generated by ABM are encouraging.
Companies that practice this strategy sell more, close higher value contracts, see their revenue grow sustainably and their retention rate and ROI rise.
Engaging the sales and marketing team in this process is fundamental to the success of the strategy.
You need to plan, create expectations, set targets and KPIs and determine the role of ABM within the organization.
The results of ABM in business are clear and if you are interested and want to know more about this strategy, contact us so that we can help you leverage your company's results more efficiently and intelligently.