Plan Your Account Based Marketing Strategy

The promise of Account Based Marketing (ABM) is to increase sales success by coordinating marketing and sales efforts for target accounts. The ABM concept is a departure from mass marketing that casts wide nets with generic messages. Instead, with ABM, marketing tailors messages to each targeted prospect account, making marketing activities more efficient to help sales close more business. More tailored experiences mean relevant information for each account and a greater likelihood that potential buyers find the information they’re looking for, speed through the initial stages of the buying cycle, and become ready to be contacted,nurtured, and converted.

For B2B companies with niche offerings and finite lists of target accounts, Account Based Marketing makes sense. Typically, for these companies, the target market is smaller, sales opportunities are larger, the sales cycle is longer, and the number of decision makers and influencers are more than a few individuals. Also, companies in niche markets may have few clients, so  nurturing opportun

ities and expanding the client relationships is a how they grow. With a small number of ideal accounts to go after, marketing can work directly with sales using a targeted, laser-focused approach.

Whether companies are in a niche or not, or whether the goal is to acquire new clients, grow existing ones, or both, an ABM Revenue Strategy is needed.

Building an Account Based Marketing Strategy

An Account Based Marketing Strategy is critical to ensure there is alignment between marketing and sales around vision, goals and campaign objectives. A comparison between existing capabilities and requirements drives the priorities and actions needed to accelerate revenue growth. The strategy phase becomes the process for identifying the resources needed to execute ABM, developing differentiated positioning and creating effective tailored customer experiences.

After developing an Account Based Marketing Strategy, you will have a plan in place that aligns marketing and sales around target accounts, strategies to engage and underlying systems required. Your ABM campaigns will have a more relevant message and use the right channels and enabling technology.

A good way to start is with an ABM Pilot focused on a handful of target accounts selected jointly with the sales team.  This can result in immediate campaign activity and quick wins.  By starting this way, the initial efforts are manageable and measurable and the program can be executed quickly. Inbound Marketing also plays a part in an effective ABM strategy.  Marketing teams may continue running inbound marketing campaigns, but they will adjust these to be more targeted and more relevant at the account level. When coordinated with sales, campaigns help accelerate the buying-selling cycle.

Ready for Account Based Marketing, but need a Revenue Strategy?

Revenue Architects developed diagnostic tools to rapidly assess marketing and sales capabilities against best practices.  Contact us to learn more about the diagnostic assessment.