Account-Based Marketing: Beware Of The Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

Published: November 23, 2015

Scott VaughanAccount-based marketing (ABM) is making its way into B2B marketing planning sessions and beginning to show up as a “must-have” item for 2016. A long-established, originally sales-based strategy, ABM calls for marketers to focus on decision-makers within specifically targeted companies that best fit marketers’ solutions.

The promise of ABM is efficiency and effectiveness — it decreases the amount of time and resources spent on less-valuable audiences, allowing marketers to generate more targeted leads and close a greater number of profitable deals with ideal companies. This is a big bet, and like the “get-rich-quick” schemes we see on late night cable TV, it may be too good to be true. Marketing technology vendors also see this as an opportunity and are racing to provide the next big thing to solve your aches, pains and woes.

Marketers that want to execute an ABM strategy cannot abandon broader lead gen initiatives. The success of implementing ABM strategies is dependent on the proper integration between sales and marketing’s processes, data and goals. Marketers will not benefit from ABM unless they can deliver a full lead-to-pipeline-to-revenue model.

Once you make the ABM commitment, you have to keep the entire targeted account in view without losing sight of individual persona needs, concerns and interests. This requires a different mindset, a great deal of account intelligence, coordinated engagement efforts and using metrics to adapt quickly.

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While ABM is full of promise, there is still much to be proven and done before marketers can adopt and declare this a winning strategy for their business. Here are four things that must happen, or change, to increase the success of an ABM program.

#1. Marketing Must Bear Hug Sales And Have A Solution-Selling Mindset

Marketers must fully integrate with their sales colleagues combining data and processes to:

  • Profile and prospect the right companies and the right decision-makers (beyond personas — the actual people) within those companies.
  • Develop and deliver an integrated, cross-channel communications plan.
  • Have open, regular dialogue with sales and stakeholders on what’s working and what’s not to quickly adapt their joint efforts.

#2. Immediately Increase Targeting, Data Intelligence And Account Knowledge Skills

Using email and nurture through your marketing automation system to nurture within an account is not an ABM strategy. Neither is using advertisements to target and retarget a group of people because they work at a company and came to your web site.

A successful ABM strategy needs an integrated, holistic approach using both company and target buyer data profiles and intelligence that can be personalized across multiple channels where the buying personas at targeted accounts engage.

#3. Get Personal Fast; Companies Don’t Buy Anything, People Do

You can target companies and domain/IP addresses all day long to send messages, content offers, etc. This approach alone won’t get the job done on a sustainable basis because this account targeting strategy becomes all about the company and little about the individuals who influence and make the buying decisions at that company.

For example, say you are targeting Exxon Mobilas part of your ABM strategy. There are thousands of employees at Exxon. Your product is only targeted for DevOps and IT, a fraction of the numbers you are looking for in all of Exxon. You must be able to target not just by company, but by roles, titles, personas and identifiable, specific people based on engagement behavior.

#4. Customer Data Standardization Is Critical For ABM

From your demand generation systems through to your marketing automation and CRM platforms, you should have a standard customer ID and customer ID process that will ensure coordination of all channels. This starts with the consolidation and integration of your systems and data, making sure you have the talent and know-how to standardize key data points and formats, and knowing how to deploy it all. Then you are ready to deliver a personal, targeted engagement plan that will create new advocates and customers within your target accounts.

Dive in to ABM, but do so methodically and thoughtfully to set yourself up for success. ABM requires a different approach, a few new tools and a change in mindset.

Scott Vaughan is CMO of Integrate, a marketing technology software provider. Working with marketing organizations, he leads Integrate’s go-to-market, customer and marketing strategy and customer success team. With deep experience in global enterprise and fast-growing start-ups, Vaughan’s experience and passion is focused on unlocking the potential of marketing, media and technology to drive business and customer value.

Connect with Vaughan on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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