A SCALEABLE APPROACH Minimum Viable Audience

When you seek to engage with everyone, you rarely delight anyone.

Seth Godin

Now that you have your list of target accounts, it is tempting to go after them all. However, this is rarely the best approach.The key to ABM success, is the ability to hone in on the individual accounts and micro-personalise the content to as few accounts as possible in order to make your message more relevant, resonant and valuable to the audience. The smaller the batch of accounts, the more personalised you can get, the more effective the message will be and the higher the success rate.Another reason not to go all out, especially if you are dipping your toe in the ABM water for the first time, is the need to test your approach before committing to much budget.Minimum Viable AudienceThe best way to start any ABM programme is to focus on the least number of accounts that will still allow you to generate return on investment (minimum viable audience or MVA). Starting with an MVA allows you to focus on a smaller number of key accounts, personalising the approach, messaging and content to the highest level and thereby maximising the potential impact of your campaign.Once you have proven success, you can either create MVA batches, adapting the personalisation to each batch, or scale the programme (if you have enough accounts with the same characteristics).What constitutes the MVA number will differ for every organisation and product, as it will depend on the average customer value and your marketing budget.

Advantages of MVA approach:

Allows you to focus your messaging to the highest level, maximising impact
You can test your approach and adjust where necessary with minimal risk
More manageable in terms of execution
You can scale or replicate your approach to other MVA batches
You don't commit too much of your budget before know whether your approach will be successful