How to Develop an Effective Account-Based Marketing plan?

By CIOReview | Monday, March 11, 2019

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is witnessing serious attention these days. ABM is a B2B marketing strategy in which businesses targets a defined set of accounts and creates personalized campaigns focusing on key decision makers within those accounts; the focus is played more on quality rather than the quantity.

These targets are generally accounts of top-notch people and are considered a good fit for business’ products and services. Marketing efforts are thus streamlined to the individual prospects as it can further lead to higher conversion rates. ABM can help in generating more revenue, penetrating new territories and positively influencing the markets.

What are the initial considerations of ABM?

1. Strategies: The very first step in an ABM is to identify the target audience based on the buyer personas and also take some time to compare target account revenue opportunities to one’s average deal size. Targeting both large corporations and SMEs can be advantageous in the long run. Now another critical factor is the geographic location of these companies. Depending on the organization’s sales goals one must decide whether they should go for local businesses or they can adopt a cloud-based solution that can be utilized globally.

2. Prioritize and Finalize: After listing the target accounts, the next step is step is to assign priority levels before finalizing. Priority levels would vary depending upon what are a company’s essential business goals; including variables such as buyer’s journey can be beneficial. Readily-available content can be used for marketing purposes for specified accounts which can further raise the priority of the target.

3. Set Goals and Monitor them: Establishing goals is a must and setting up metrics to measure engagement from ABM campaigns is also essential. Having the right parameter to measure and track the marketing efforts will make it easier for an organization to monitor the progress on achieving its ABM goals. Syncing the marketing and sales department is the best way to track target account activity and growth. One must also follow responses received from target accounts such as emails, content downloads, and website management.

4. Generating Revenues: One has to keep track of the sales department and check in with the personnel to see what content and messaging the clients prefer. ABM is not about adopting the same strategy for years and following them; instead, it is about finding better targets for high-quality leads and new approaches to lure them.