How do you establish an account-based strategy, and for what? We’ll dive into how to put account-based marketing to work for your business and how it can help you expand. I’ve included some examples to help you visualize how this might work for your company.
Table of Contents
- Step 1: Create the Database by Compiling a List of Prospective Clients
- Step 2: Classify the Information
- Step 3: Prioritize your Potential Outcomes
- Step 4: Make Marketing Content for Potential Clients
- Step 5: Link the Content and Message to the Target Audience and the Account
- Step 6: Sit Back and Wait for the Money to Come In
- Here’s What to Remember
Step 1: Create the Database by Compiling a List of Prospective Clients
Identifying your target businesses is the first stage in developing a strategy. To gauge interest in your solution, you should first use a visitor-identifying tool to check who is visiting your website.
Next, evaluate your current marketing resources, such as your email list and customer-relationship management database, to identify potential leads. To find relevant businesses, you should use search engines and business directories like AngelList.
Using the term “pet store chains” as an example, you’d receive a nice list of brands to target if you’re looking to advertise to large-scale pet stores to help direct account-based marketing toward the right businesses. Target just the most valuable of companies with your ABM efforts.
Step 2: Classify the Information
After compiling a list of leads, the next step is to sort them into categories. You can find contact information on LinkedIn and the company’s website.
To this end, LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator can be very helpful; however, you can achieve the same results with just a little effort and no fancy tools. The pet store analogy works here, so let’s use it. This comes up when I search for PetSmart on LinkedIn:
Perhaps the CEO is too busy to be a good target, but the marketing manager or HR executive assistant could be just the ticket. Compile a list of their names, emails, and questions from social media sites like Quora and professional networks like LinkedIn.
Step 3: Prioritize your Potential Outcomes
After compiling a list of potential customers, the next step is to rank them. Like a sales version of “hot or not,” I guess. Which potential customers have visited your site multiple times? Which ones are looking for a service like the one you provide, as evidenced by their forum posts?
Who do you find to be the most accessible point of contact within each organization? Did a senior vice president retweet one of your blog posts or pose a question in a LinkedIn group in which you participated? These are the best possible prospects, and pursuing them should be your top priority.
Customers who download the ICT Tendering Guide from ICT provider Triuvare are considered “hot” because the company knows that these people are very close to making a purchase and therefore need convincing that Triuvare is the best option.
Step 4: Make Marketing Content for Potential Clients
Once you have identified your target audience, you can begin to count them. How to determine the role of account-based marketing lies in this customized content creation. Blog posts, emails, advertisements, white papers, and so on are all examples of content types.
The primary goal is to solve one company’s problems or remove one barrier preventing it from converting. For instance, ROI Amplified discovered that traffic from universities, most likely students learning about marketing, drove interest in the detailed content they had created to demonstrate their technical expertise.
Step 5: Link the Content and Message to the Target Audience and the Account
The time has come to distribute the fantastic content and ABM content marketing strategy you have created. To tailor your marketing to each tier and persona, you should begin by developing targeted campaigns.
You realize that you’ve crafted this piece for a particular demographic, right? Consequently, it is prudent to tailor the communication as well. After all, ABM’s foundation is in personalized experiences.
Depending on where your audience is located, you can choose to distribute the content via a variety of channels, such as Linkedin ads, email marketing, direct mail, or PPC ads. For example, LMCS compiled its lead lists using data from Leadfeeder and account-based marketing.
Step 6: Sit Back and Wait for the Money to Come In
In all seriousness, ABM is a fantastic method to draw in and zero in on qualified prospects. Using ABM has been shown to increase revenue by 200% compared to traditional marketing strategies.
Here’s What to Remember
There is a crucial aspect of account-based marketing that is frequently overlooked. Though account-based marketing may yield the greatest results with large businesses, it is still intended to foster a personal connection with key stakeholders and the actual people who make decisions. The human element must not be lost in the mountains of data.