7 ESSENTIALS FOR ACCOUNT-BASED DEMAND CREATION
7 ESSENTIALS FOR
ACCOUNT-BASED
DEMAND CREATION
WHAT IS ABM?
[and why you should be practicing it...]
What is Account-Based Marketing?
Account-based marketing (ABM), also known as key account marketing, is a strategic approach to business marketing in which an organization considers and communicates with individual prospect or customer accounts as markets of one. - Wikipedia
Account-based marketing (ABM) is the strategic approach marketers use to support a defined universe of accounts, including strategic accounts and named accounts. - SiriusDecisions
ABM focuses explicitly on individual client accounts and their needs. More importantly, it is a collaborative approach that engages sales, marketing, delivery, and key executives toward achieving the client’s business goals. - ITSMA
Why should you be practicing it...
The competition for your customers’ and prospects’ time has never been fiercer; to compete, you need to differentiate. It’s no surprise then, that marketers are increasingly turning to ABM to get a competitive advantage and help them capture critical clients.
Companies practicing ABM have better alignment between sales and marketing and typically see a higher return on investment on their marketing spend, as well as bigger deal sizes and an increased pipeline velocity.
The nature of ABM campaigns allow companies to easily pilot and scale and/or replicate based on success.
ABM campaigns are easier to track and measure, meaning you can get accurate attribution and ROI.
OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES?
The principles behind ABM are not new. In fact, good salespeople have focused their efforts on targeting several stakeholders across key accounts since sales began and the founders of ALIAS have been practising ABM for over a decade.
"ABM delivers the highest Return on Investment of any B2B marketing strategy or tactic."
– ITSMA
SALES & MARKETING COLLABORATION
[early and often, get buy-in for their participation]
ABM is a team sport, particularly between, but not limited to, Sales & Marketing. Both departments need to support each other as the prospect bounces through the marketing & sales process (note: Sales also includes Account Management team, particularly important for upsell/cross-sell).
Shared Vision & Goals
There needs to be a shared vision on which accounts have the highest propensity to buy and which existing accounts are of interest for upsell/cross-sell (existing accounts are an integral part of ABM).
It's important to define shared objectives and goals that sales & marketing will deliver together.
Determine how your marketing activities can integrate with sales efforts to maximize buyer engagement and conversion in the later stages of the buyer journey – including handover.
Takeaway: Engage Sales early. At the start. Develop a mutual understanding & trust.
"Getting marketing and sales aligned and working together with a common goal is probably the single biggest contributor to our clients' success in generating revenue."
Mike Boogaard - Client Success
ALIAS Partners
HOW WE HELP
As an independent third party, we run collaborative workshops to identify common goals and objectives and help Sales & Marketing learn how to get aligned and work as partners. ALIAS has done this with some of the world's best known technology brands in the UK & Ireland.
Sales & Marketing Alignment Workshop
RECOMMENDED AGENDA:
1. Exercise 1 (1hr): What Worked, What Hasn’t
Every member in the group to contribute:
- 1 Thing that worked
- 1 Thing that didn’t work
- 1 Thing to start/start doing
2. Exercise 2 (1hr): Understanding Chain
Set the target audience & solution and discuss:
- What questions is the audience likely to ask
- How do you answer them
This helps to determine what the messaging and content should address.
3. Discussion (1hr): Sales & Marketing Alignment
Here is a checklist of what you will need to cover:
☑ Agreement on Ideal account profile
☑ Agreement on total target list
☑ Determined average customer value
☑ Defined MQL criteria & handover process
☑ Success goals & metrics
Exercise 1 - post-it notes grouped in the 3 categories: what worked, what didnt and what to stop/start doing
SELECTING YOUR ACCOUNTS
[identify high-propensity accounts]
The core principles of ABM is to focus your approach, time and effort on quality targeting vs. sheer volume. But not every company you want to sell to is the right fit for your products or solutions. This is why account selection is so critical.
Focus on High-propensity Accounts: Use your CRM, talk with sales and finance - which customers deliver the highest revenue to your organisation? Identify common attributes.
Predictive Analytics: Use solutions like Leadspace, Everstring & Lattice, to build a data-driven model that teases out the attributes of companies most likely to be your next customers.
Install Base: Use install base data when marketing against competitors or to identify accounts with complementary technology
Intent Data: Use intent data to identify accounts with a 'surge' in interest in relevant topics, products or solutions
Third Party Data: Third party list rental/purchase are an expensive but effective way of identifying new accounts
Total Addressable Audience: All these accounts for your Total Addressable Audience - all the accounts that fit your Ideal Customer Profile
IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE
The best way to collect the information is by creating the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Creating even the most basic of profiles will help guide every decision related to the subsequent.
Part of an ICP:
Firmographics: size, sector, location
Technographics: technology requirements for your ideal accounts
Qualitative parameters: culture and fit requirements
HOW WE HELP: Through customer/account profiling and using our access to various account intelligence solutions, ALIAS will help you identify those accounts that have the highest propensity to buy.
SEGMENT YOUR ACCOUNTS
[and prioritise your marketing spend]
Not all the accounts in your total addressable audience are equal. Some will have a high propensity to buy or higher revenue potential. To maximise ROI, you will need to align your approach and budget accordingly. To do that effectively you should prioritise - or tier - your Total Addressable Audience list.
Tier Accounts
Split your lists into two list: (1) a small list of big, strategic accounts and (2) a larger list of named accounts (strong prospects which may net less revenue per account).
Prioritise Spend and Effort
For the strategic accounts, invest in higher-touch, higher-value, highly personalised programs and experiences. For the larger list of named accounts, think about how you invest in customising your messaging and content offers.
Minimum Viable Audience
All it may feel counterintuitive, rather than adding the maximum number of accounts per tier, we recommend batching your accounts into Minimum Viable Audience (MVA) batches - the minimum number of accounts that will deliver ROI. Test your approach on the MVA before scaling it. It will allow you to be hyper-focused and test and amend your strategy, whilst still delivering impact and revenue.
"Bottom line is that you should evaluate your ABM investments as a function of account revenue potential and align your strategies and tactics accordingly."
Julie Wisdom - Strategy & Creative
HOW WE HELP
Using customer profiling and segmentation, ALIAS will prioritise your accounts and tailor engagement (and budget) based on propensity to buy to maximise return on marketing investment.
IDENTIFY & UNDERSTAND THE KEY STAKEHOLDERS
[map out the accounts]
The next step is to identify the key contacts per account, understand what makes them tick and map their relationships.
Identifying the Buying Committee
Relying on the background work with Sales and the account research, you will need to define the decision makers and influencers
Identify Behaviour and Triggers
Identify decision-making behaviours, buying triggers and/or solution interest areas
Contact Insights
Gather fresh insights around topics and themes of relevance to your buyer profiles, this should also include the challenges and opportunities for each account & individual in the decision cycle
Watering Holes
Find out how and where your buyer and influencers consume information
Account/ Contact Mapping
Map out each account in terms of decision makers and their relationship with others and their role in the decision making process. Sources of contact data include: your CRM, online research, call programmes, third party list builder and data providers.
"Buyer profiles and insight should be second nature for most B2B marketers, yet very few marketers properly use them."
Julie Wisdom - Strategy & Creative
ALIAS Partners
How we help
Through qualitative and quantitative research we identify the key decision-makers and influencers within the target organisations and develop actionable profiles that feed strategy and content.
CREATE PERSONALISED EXPERIENCES
[through insights and intentional creative]
The magic of ABM comes to life once you understand your audience in the context of their own experience and paint a picture of how that experience could be better. And open their eyes to a new way forward. That is creating value.
To do that you will need to to develop creative purpose-built for ABM:
Insights: gather insights to understand the challenges and opportunities for each account & individual in the decision cycle
Perspective: create a personalised perspective giving prospects a new vision of the future (and how your solution can enable it) that they can believe in
Conversation Maps: based on the perspective, create points of conversation that tie your value propositions to real value for the customer
Creative Purpose-built for ABM: using your perspective and conversation maps, build tailored content that speaks to the individuals in each account (or segment of accounts)
"Without bespoke content, ABM is simply an expensive way of delivering your existing marketing materials."
Julie Wisdom - Strategy & Creative
For a practical guide to creating content purpose-built for ABM visit: The Art of Persuasion [eGuide]
How we help
We are passionate about creating customer experiences and content based on deep customer insights and presenting the audience with a new, better version of what is possible. We believe this is the true art of persuasion.
ORCHESTRATE YOUR CHANNELS
[rather than using one-off tactics or campaigns]
The nature of an ABM program is to surround multiple people at the accounts you are targeting. This requires a carefully defined cadence and detailed engagement plan to coordinate your effort.
-
Engage across channels they frequent, in a context that is highly relevant (this information comes from your insights, account mapping and profiles)
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The magic of account-based marketing stems from the orchestrated integration of multiple, cross-channel tactics
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Timings is everything. Engagement should be defined by audience need rather than marketing milestones
Learning: Buying decisions are made by committees of unique individuals - therefore you need more channels to maximise reach and influence. This is simply not possible through a single channel like email.
Example Engagement Plan
Each engagement plan looks different and is uniquely adapted to our clients requirements.
HOW WE HELP
ALIAS delivers rigorously planned marketing programs, executing with precision (using our own marketing platform or our client's) across multiple channels - paid, owned, earned.
APPLY RIGOR
[and attribute every outcome]
Success is measured in engagement and sales, not leads. Define engagement metrics to quantify success, including:
Coverage: how many accounts did you reach?
Awareness: are the target accounts aware of your company and its solutions?
Engagement: did the right people at the account spend time with your content, and is that engagement going up over time?
Program impact: did their engagement result in interaction?
Influence: how are the ABM activities improving sales outcomes such as deal velocity, win rates, average contract values and total revenue.
Learning: Consider longer term programs rather than big spend tactical campaigns. This will drive lasting sales impact.
"Account-based marketing is about engagement, and engagement is the art of connecting the customer to your business through context."
Julie Wisdom - Strategy & Creative
How we help
Whether using our own marketing platform (or supporting you with your), ALIAS rigorously tracks every engagement and outcome. This not only allows us to attribute every sale but also to monitor and validate every programme and tactic, adjusting in real-time where necessary.
ALIAS PARTNERS
[a little bit about us]
ALIAS Partners
ALIAS helps B2B brands build customer curiosity, confidence & revenue through account-based marketing.
The beauty of ALIAS is in our shared experience and our desire to make heroes of our clients, to be a natural extension of marketing teams, to build on the best of who you are while filling the gaps not just with best practice, but with next practice.
"ALIAS has brought a fresh approach to our ABM strategy. Their highly targeted and differentiated programs have delivered incredible ROI, both in terms of pipeline and close. They are a great team to work with."
DXC Technology
Our Clients:
EVERY JOURNEY
[starts with...a coffee]
