Account based marketing (ABM) has become one of the most important approaches in B2B as it focuses on specific companies and key decision-makers. In a recent study, 72% of marketers said it delivered higher ROI than other forms of marketing, and it can improve retention rates by over 35% (Marketing Profs).
In fact, adopting an ABM approach has many key benefits for B2B marketers. It can improve sales win rates, enhance customer experience, align sales and marketing, drive more effective engagement with prospects, reduce friction between teams….the list goes on.
But despite being commonly referred to by a singular acronym, ABM isn’t actually just one approach. There are in fact three broad types, and it’s critical to decide at the outset which one you’re going to adopt.
One to one. As the name suggests, this is going after one account. This is all about going in deep, personalizing the messaging and custom-crafting the content. This can build great relationships, but it can require significant investment in terms of time and resources.
One to a few Here you’re broadening out to a small number of companies but still personalizing to a quite deep level. It offers targeted scalability but also requires a notable investment in time and resource.
One to many This is the broadest ABM approach. While you can’t customize in the same way as the two other approaches, you can still personalize using different tools. It’s resource-efficient, enables quick execution and can deliver true scalability.
To unlock all the benefits of ABM you need to test and learn, so we recommend starting with a pilot. And the best way to do this is to use a one-to-many approach, as it gives a balance between personalization and scale. It also enables you to see results within the pilot.
At Luxid, we have developed a five-step process to ensure success with a one-to-many ABM pilot.
ABM pilot success: 1 Set the target
This is all about aligning your ABM program goals you’re your business goals. This is where marketing can demonstrate its contribution to the bottom line of the company.
Agree your definition of a lead
Does somebody become a lead when they download a white paper or when they subscribe to the newsletter? Everybody has to be on the same page. Your definition must be based on the ideal customer profile as you don’t want irrelevant leads flowing into the CRM system.
Select your KPIs
You need to set sales- and business-focused KPIs and to focus on both the short and long term. For the short term, you should be looking at marketing and sales qualified leads (MQL and SQL) and customer acquisition cost. For the long term, it’s sales pipeline growth, return on investment marketing and customer lifetime value. You must also agree your benchmarks. Your company data is best for this, but if you're just getting started then you can use third party, such as those provided by LinkedIn. Then over time you can establish your own benchmarks.
Ensure visibility of the program
Creating good visibility of the program will ensure everybody is on the same page. It’s important to synchronize your CRM or CDP platform with your marketing automation and paid media platforms. This enables you to see how your campaigns are performing at all stages along the marketing funnel.
ABM pilot success: 2 chart the terrain
This is where you go deep to understand the lives of your audience. At Luxid, we combine six core parts to build the ideal customer profile.
First, we gather information from the customer facing teams to uncover needs and challenges. Then we delve into the customer data platforms to uncover trends and insights that will help to craft the journey map, devise personalized messages and so on.
Next is external marketing intelligence. We uncover intent using multiple tools, such as Sixth Sense and Demand Base. We use similar tools to uncover what the competition is doing. We research competitor and industry websites to the type of content that could work with the ABM pilot.
We go even further by studying relevant ad libraries and organic social media. For example, are competitors using LinkedIn, meta or Google Ads? Then we put AI in the mix as well. We like to think of it as a personal research assistant.
ABM pilot success: 3 Outline the content plan
This stage is all about calibrating the content to the specific needs and challenges of your ideal customer profile. We start by auditing your existing content to see what can be repurposed across the channels of the program. We also identify the topics that are resonating the most on competitor websites.
We assess the extent to which we can personalize the content and establish the content flows, aligning topics and assets with each channel. All of this results in a rich content plan, with personalized messaging and key assets for your deal customer profile.
ABM pilot success: 4 Refine the channel mix
We tend to adopt a funnel approach as customers go through multiple touchpoints. At any given time, 95% of people are out of the market, so we have to stay on top of mind for when they are ready to buy. This is why we allocate 60 to 70% of the media budget to the awareness\interest phase at the top of the funnel. We’re looking to reach as many people as possible within the target list with content that is relevant and aligned with their pain points. This could be videos, images and document ads on appropriate channels, such as LinkedIn.
Then we push the people who have engaged in the first stage to the consideration phase, which typically takes 30 to 40% of the budget. We use highly valuable content here to drive lead generation. Finally, these leads are pushed into the nurturing states where we aim to take them from MQLs to SQLs through in-depth content that continually deepens our relationship with them. Here we typically use LinkedIn and email.
ABM pilot success: 5 Results evaluation
Evaluation is a critical stage of the pilot, so it’s essential to use the right data. Comparing LinkedIn data against, say, Google Analytics simply won’t provide meaningful results. We build a dashboard with all the key metrics aligned to the different funnel stages so you can see exactly what's happening at every stage of the APM program. Again, it’s essential that everybody is aware and on the same page, so you have to share the evaluation across teams.
ABM is a fantastic way of driving a highly effective pipeline of ideal prospects, converting to sales and maximizing ROI. However, you have to do the groundwork first, and this means investing in a well-honed pilot. If you want to see your ABM pilot fly and establish effective account based marketing in your organization, then get in contact with an expert at Luxid. You can find our contact details below this article.