In the b2b world, account-based marketing remains in high demand. That’s because practice approves its profitability, which stems from improved customer lifetime value. However, the latest statistics by Gitnux show that about 83% of b2b marketers struggle to build a viable and well-laid ABM strategy and act upon it.
Are you going through the same ordeals? Then check our list of best practices that will skyrocket your returns from ABM efforts. These are tried and tested approaches based on the first-hand experience of ICP marketing specialists.
#1 Invest Into Channels that Scale and Support A/B Tests
Initially, personalizing ads and sponsored content for a handful of accounts won’t be that challenging. However, to scale up your ABM efforts as your objectives get bigger, you’ll need to choose channels that allow you to do so.
To choose wisely, we recommend you ask yourself the following:
- Does the channel offer promising conversion opportunities?
- Can I get detailed lead data from it?
- Is there enough reach to gain impressions?
- Is there transparent and seamless reporting?
- Can I automate A/B testing from the ad account?
- Will the platform notify automatically of test results?
Once you answer these questions, you’ll know what to expect from using the particular channel.
#2 Set Reputation, Relationship, and Revenue as Core Metrics of the Campaign
Fair enough, growth teams don’t want to zero in on the marketing impact of ABM’s strategy. So put the impact on business first. You should use the RRR (Reputation, Relationship, and Revenue) framework to assess it properly.
Reputation
The truth is that consumers want to see b2b tech companies as trusted advisors, not vendors. So if you invest in reputation, it will make your messages way more appealing.
Therefore, nurturing reputation through thought leadership posts (both via Facebook and LinkedIn) and targeted email outreach that addresses burning questions would be great. In such a way, you gain customers’ trust and endorsement, motivating them to run word-of-mouth marketing for you.
Relationship
The b2b buying cycle is lengthy and implies a lot of consideration. But trusted relationships can greatly speed it up. It will be much of a help if you’re after some high-value prospects.
To glean valuable insight on strengthening customer relationships, you should take some advice from the sales team. They are well aware of types of customers that are neutral or blockers. So they’ll definitely help you identify the best sales opportunities.
Revenue
Growth-oriented ABM program requires you to set aside conventional lead gen metrics. Instead, you should put account-specific ones: close rates and pipeline growth.
It is reasonable in terms of aligning marketing and sales team objectives. The buyer journey is complex, so it is quite hard to attribute a particular portion of close-won deals to marketing efforts. However, you can set revenue KPIs as a core metric to give more emphasis to the outcome of cross-team collaboration.
#3 Nurture Thought Leadership on LinkedIn
One thing b2b companies forget about LinkedIn when pushing gated content or webinars through it is that this social network isn’t an intent channel. See, when leads fill out the forms to access your webinar or white papers, they don’t necessarily plan to buy from you.
Instead, you should identify customer pains to determine what motivates people to buy from you. They primarily come to their LinkedIn network to get their connections’ recommendations and see what companies people trust.
That’s why we recommend that you take on the role of a trusted advisor, a niche expert who shares thought leadership content. Bring your unique experience and tone of voice into posts that address the most burning trends in your industry.
#4 Use Leadership in One-on-One C-Level Campaigns
You should also bring thought leadership into one-on-one C-level outreach to target decision-makers. In particular, you can emphasize your leadership via personalized emails or direct mail. That said, your offers must still demonstrate that you recognize and share the objectives of your audience.
The main point is to stand out from the heap of emails from salespeople pouring down on decision-makers daily. That’s why you must detail your target accounts to build highly-personalized email letters.
For instance, you can leverage audience data enrichment provided by Primer. It allows you to fetch and merge company and contact-level information from more than one b2b data provider at a time. To build granular target audiences that fit your ICP perfectly, Primer sources b2b data from 12+ third-party providers, including Apollo, ZoomInfo, BuiltWith, and more.
#5 Add Videos to Personalized Offers
Whereas personalized email would be enough to get your foot in the door, adding personalized video to it is a killer tactic. After all, ABM marketing is all about tailoring communication between your sales rep and high-intent accounts.
Since enterprise customers tend to buy online, such videos will put a name to the face of your brand when selling. Such an approach is exceptionally great for sending webinar invites in C-level outreach. For instance, Supersite, a subscription design service, met an 80% rate of webinar signups from those prospects who received video invites by email.