For many business leaders, account-based marketing (ABM) isn’t a new concept. However, ABM strategies have become more popular (and valuable) in recent years.
In today’s competitive world, particularly in the B2B landscape, traditional marketing funnels are no longer enough to ensure consistent demand, customer retention and growth. Consumers now expect higher levels of personalisation and a greater focus on exceptional experience.
By allowing companies to focus on select groups of high-value accounts (rather than a broad global market), ABM can drive phenomenal results. Gartner found that ABM can lead to improvements in numerous sales metrics, from a 28% increase in account engagement to 25% more MQLs.
The question is, how do you plan and implement an effective account-based marketing strategy in 2024 when the consumer, data, and technology landscape is shifting?
Used effectively, account-based marketing strategies can improve your ROI, ensure you’re using your resources as efficiently as possible, and accelerate your sales cycles. It also has the power to increase customer retention and reduce churn, leading to sustainable long-term growth.
However, as we move into 2024, the changing landscape may require a more cautious approach to account-based marketing. Here are some of the key steps businesses should follow this year.
Account-based marketing strategies can come in a variety of different forms. One option, recommended by analysts like Gartner, is to take a comprehensive 1:1 approach. This involves picking a selection of high-value accounts to focus your sales and marketing strategies.
Another option is to take a slightly broader “sector-specific” approach. This could mean instead of targeting a specific business with a consumer, you target a selection of accounts in the same industry, such as any healthcare company with more than 1,000 employees.
There’s also another, even broader approach which simply involves personalising the messaging of every marketing and sales campaign based on what you know about each client you interact with. Your budget, growth goals, and your available team members will determine which strategy you decide to embrace.
An effective approach to account-based marketing requires comprehensive business-wide alignment among all of your critical employees and stakeholders.
Salespeople and marketing experts need to work together, accessing the same customer data, and supporting each other in the creation of campaigns. However, your ABM team may include more than just sales and marketing professionals.
Alongside SDRs and sales reps, sales operations experts, and marketing specialists, you may also need to leverage the assistance of product development experts, customer success managers, and even financial specialists. The more aligned your employees, the easier it will be to create an account-based marketing strategy that supports and drives a focus on customer experience.
Goals are essential to the successful development of any business strategy. If your teams don’t know what they’re trying to accomplish, it’s impossible to know if they’ve been successful. Your goals may vary depending on the current strategic initiatives of your business.
You might be focused on improving customer lifetime value and revenue, or simply minimising churn and improving retention rates. Whatever goals you set, make sure your team agrees on the metrics and KPIs you’re going to be monitoring throughout your campaigns.
Gartner recommends collecting input from all cross-functional leaders in the business to select the right metrics. Revenue operations leaders might focus on cost per acquisition, while demand-gen marketers may concentrate on customer engagement and funnel velocity.
Once you’ve defined how you’re going to measure the success of your ABM initiatives, and what kind of strategy you’re going to use, the next step is developing a “target list”. This means collecting as much data as you can to develop comprehensive customer profiles and access insights.
In today’s world, where third-party cookies and other forms of data are becoming less accessible, it may be important to increase your focus on first-party data. This could mean sending surveys to existing customers or using social monitoring tools to collect insights.
Gartner and other analysts also recommend focusing heavily on “intent data”. Intent data helps to boost visibility for ABM teams by identifying customer behaviours and key points in a consumer journey. You can monitor first-party intent by examining the number of users who download content, or fill out online forms. It’s also possible to review third-party intent data with keyword research, competitor analysis, and similar strategies.
Account-based marketing is dependent on the creation of unique content and user experiences specifically tailored to the needs of your audience. Basic personalisation, such as using a customer’s name in a marketing email, is no longer enough. Businesses need to invest in hyper-personalisation strategies which deliver value at every major customer touchpoint.
To create more valuable, personalised experiences:
With all the data and insights you need available, it’s time to start launching campaigns. Begin distributing your content through the correct channels, to the audience you’ve chosen. Ask your sales reps to make inroads with target accounts through meetings and demonstrations.
At the same time, make sure you have the right resources in place to track the performance of your campaigns while they’re in motion. Track various forms of ABM engagement, such as how many consumers open your emails, visit your website, fill out a form, or download a piece of content.
Track the number of phone calls that lead to meetings, and how many people actually attend your events, demonstrations, and meetings. For many companies, ABM will start as a trial-and-error process, which requires the constant collection and evaluation of marketing data.
The more information you collect, from sales and marketing teams, direct customer feedback, and data analytics tools, the more you can optimise your ABM campaigns.
In recent years, account-based marketing strategies have grown more essential, as consumers become more demanding and less loyal to their favourite brands. As we move into 2024, the demand for personalised, unique experiences will only grow, particularly among B2B audiences.
Companies will need to invest in comprehensive account-based marketing strategies to ensure they’re not only capturing the right leads, and using resources correctly, but increasing retention opportunities. Use the steps above to inform your ABM strategy for the next year, and remember to constantly test, iterate, and optimise based on the data you collect.