Account based marketing is an increasingly Best Practices for Success popular method used by marketing teams to target high-quality leads and convert them into valuable customers.
Instead of focusing on attracting large groups of leads, account based marketing strategies increase visibility with personalized campaigns that target key decision-makers of high-value accounts.
If you find yourself struggling to find enough high-quality leads or identify the most effective tactics for attracting and converting them, read on to discover the benefits of account based marketing as well as the steps and best practices for implementing it in your sales and marketing teams.
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What is account based marketing?
Let’s start at the very beginning with an account based marketing definition.
What is account Best Practices for Success based marketing?
Also known as ABM, account based marketing is a strategy that targets specific companies with personalized campaigns, rather than targeting large groups as a whole.
It flips the traditional method of inbound marketing on its head.
Rather than working to attract a large number of prospects, and then developing niche content to move ideal prospects through a funnel, account based marketing strategies start at the other end of the funnel, i.e. the bottom.
This means you start with your target accounts and create content and campaigns that target specific people at those companies.
And it works; according to account based marketing statistics from Momentum ITSMA, 81% of respondents said they saw a higher ROI using ABM campaigns than with other marketing strategies.
While strategies can vary based on company, ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), and target audience, in most cases ABM:
Is most effective for enterprise-level customers due to India Email Data the amount of effort and time involved.
Requires marketing teams (ABM team) and sales teams to work in sync.
What is Best Practices for Success account based marketing?
Leverages marketing automation and other account based marketing tools to streamline steps in the process, such as lead generation automation or email follow-ups.
Builds a personal relationship with decision-makers (which can be particularly crucial for B2B account based marketing).
How is account based marketing different from lead generation?
Account based marketing and lead generation are two different ways of filling your sales funnel, but they can be used to work together.
Let’s say you run an enterprise SaaS company, and your target audience is financial institutions.In traditional inbound marketing, you might develop content for financial companies as a whole and wait for them to come to you for more information.
In this example, lead generation would involve researching financial institutions to identify a broad range of potential customers that you can feed into the top of your sales funnel.
As we said before, ABM strategies start at the other end of the funnel, using personalized campaigns to target specific individuals at companies that fit your ICP.
So, how would Best Practices for Success this work with an account based marketing strategy?
However, by using lead generation and account based marketing together, you can identify the best leads to target with ABM and ensure you have all the necessary data to create successful campaigns.
So, how would this work with an account based marketing strategy?
Let’s continue with our example. With ABM, instead of targeting people who work at financial institutions as a whole, you start by focusing on companies that are your ideal customer.
For example, you might track who visits your website or research prospects, and then develop content and marketing campaigns specifically targeted to that institution.
This is what makes ABM so different from other marketing strategies.
It might seem a bit backward. I get it. Let’s break it down with an example.
In standard marketing, you’d write a blog post about how your SaaS tool helps companies prevent accounts payable fraud.
You would promote the piece by targeting people on Facebook or LinkedIn who work at financial institutions.
That’s how the cool kids have been doing it for years.
Does it still work? Sometimes.
But, there’s a better way.
Is account Best Practices for Success based marketing only for enterprise customers?
With ABM, you decide who you want to target, then research to find out what they are worried about.
If you find out they are really concerned about accounts payable fraud then you develop content that addresses that issue and pain point.
Imagine traditional inbound marketing as throwing a fishing net into the ocean; you catch whatever is in your path, right?
ABM is more like throwing a hook with a specific type of bait you know your ideal fish loves—and there are many advantages to targeting individual fish.
The Marketer’s Guide to Account-Based Marketing
The Marketer’s Guide to Account-Based Marketing
Learn what ABM is, why it boosts lead generation, and how it generates pipeline.
DOWNLOAD
What are the benefits of using an account based marketing framework?
In Foundry’s 2023 survey, 93% of respondents reported that their account based marketing strategy was either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ successful.
Why are so many B2B companies focusing on this strategy?
Let’s look at a few of the benefits:
Account based marketing delivers a higher ROI for.
ABM is more efficient because you target specific accounts rather than broad key terms.
Strategic Best Practices for Success ABM: one-to-one
The majority of companies that use ABM have shorter sales cycles.
ABM builds trust with customers by showing prospects you actually understand what they need.
ABM is about the quality of leads over quantity—your sales reps get a higher average contract value and better deal sizes.
Investing in ABM builds trust in your brand, increases the retention of existing customers, and helps to boost the sales process.
Is account based marketing only for enterprise customers?
No, ABM isn’t just for enterprise customers. In fact, account based marketing tactics can be used to target any B2B customer—it just takes some creative account based marketing ideas.
Enterprise accounts often have a longer lifetime value than small businesses, which means they make great targets for account based marketing services.
However, there are also ways to use ABM techniques with small businesses. For example, if you sell products that are highly customized or require multiple purchases over time, then you may be able to use ABM successfully with smaller clients as well.
If you’re not sure where to start or what ABM tools are available, keep reading.