In B2B marketing, it’s been tough to avoid conversations about account-based marketing (ABM) recently. ABM is the direction our industry is going. And that’s no big surprise, since this approach helps teams focus, collaborate, and deliver positive results.
If you haven’t started using ABM at your organization yet, check out these key benefits to see why so many companies are already adopting this type of marketing. They’ll give you a better sense of why you should consider ABM, and they can help others on your team see the value of this approach and get on board, too.
1. Higher ROI
Here’s a statistic that tends to get attention: According to a 2017 study by the ITSMA and the ABM Leadership Alliance, 87 percent of B2B marketers said ABM delivers higher ROI than other marketing efforts. That’s a huge number.
The most recent study by these two organizations—published in late 2019—found 73 percent of marketers using ABM plan to increase their ABM budgets this year. This continued growth in ABM is a testament to the growing attention this approach receives, but also to the success companies have seen so far. After all, all marketing and sales teams want to see higher ROI.
2. Greater focus on high-value accounts
What if more of your customers could be the best kind of customers? The ability to focus your efforts on the best possible customers makes account-based marketing pretty desirable.
One of the early steps of ABM involves developing an ideal customer profile (ICP) based on existing customer data. You figure out what characteristics your best customers have (size, location, industry, number of employees, lifetime value, etc.) and then use that ICP to find similar prospective accounts for future targeting. By putting in this legwork, you can close more deals with the kind of customers who are ideal for your business.
3. Fewer wasted resources
Once you’ve identified a list of target accounts, you can focus on marketing just to those high-value prospects. This means you waste less time and fewer resources on companies that wouldn’t be a good fit.
Imagine a world where you don’t need to spend time attracting and rejecting tons of non-qualified leads. Your sales team would thank you, and your marketing team could spend their time more effectively by creating the right assets and distribution plans. Almost everyone worries about using their marketing budget wisely. ABM helps cut down on waste.
4. Better marketing/sales alignment
Any B2B company knows the struggle of getting marketing and sales to work well together. There’s no magical way to align them—it always takes effort—but account-based marketing can help with the process.
For ABM to work well, marketing and sales need to agree on goals, target accounts, and plans for reaching out to those accounts. It’s a real team effort and can take quite a bit of adjustment in some organizations, but the improved results will benefit the entire company.
5. Ability to personalize content
When you’re trying to bring in a lot of leads, you’re usually speaking to a pretty broad audience, which means the ability to personalize content is minimal. You might personalize a piece of content for a particular industry, but probably not much beyond that.
With ABM, you know much more about the accounts you’re targeting. You’ll know about the kind of work they do, who they work with, and what their struggles are. Once you create personas—another early step of ABM which usually identifies the job titles that influence buying decisions—you can also speak to the interests and concerns of people who have those jobs. For certain high-value accounts, you might even personalize content for specific people at the company.
This type of personalization can make busy B2B customers stop and pay attention, which is important, especially if your business operates in a crowded marketplace. Personalization can also make these potential customers happy. When you give them the information they need at the appropriate time, they’re more likely to consider your brand helpful and remember it in the future when they’re ready to make a purchase.
6. Stand out from the competition
While many companies are trying out ABM, many others are still only using traditional lead generation tactics. Putting in the extra effort to target the right accounts and dedicate time to making sure they’re nurtured through the buying process can make a huge difference—both for your customers and your company. You’ll develop positive relationships with prospective accounts, and your marketing and sales teams will be better equipped to do their jobs well. All that will help you differentiate yourself from others in your industry.
To learn more about how account-based marketing can help you align your teams, target the right accounts, and gain more customers, watch our video tutorial series, “Account-Based Marketing: The Basics.”
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