Account-based marketing (ABM) is a modern take on traditional B2B marketing strategies such as direct mail or cold calling. It uses digital channels like social media, direct email, and web content to target specific accounts more effectively than ever before. The results are higher quality leads, stronger relationships with the target customers, reduced acquisition costs and improved ROI.  

For an ABM campaign to be effective, you need to identify your ideal customer persona including their needs, wants, preferences, and buying behavior. Once this has been established, it is vital to develop campaign-specific messaging, themes and content, tailored to the needs of each account or group. To ensure maximum success, marketers should employ a variety of tactics across the entire customer journey such as omnichannel campaigns, personalized content, remarketing, nurture series and more.  

Account segmentation and dynamic retargeting are used in ABMs to ensure consumers are always receiving relevant messages. By using segmentation techniques like persona mapping and audience clustering, companies can target consumers based on their interests or behavior on the web.  

Furthermore, a comprehensive lead nurture plan that provides personalized outreach and follow-up communications to engage customers and keep them interested is another essential part of an effective ABM strategy. Discounts, special offers, educational materials and webinars are just some of the ways to add value and generate interest in your company’s offerings, creating a positive long-term relationship with customers. While it can feel like a lot of work to identify the key accounts to target, predictive analytic tools such as Power BI or IBM Watson Studio can help you identify prospects with the highest likelihood of converting into sales opportunities, saving you a lot of time and further reducing your costs. 

The benefits of ABM are clear. This strategy can:  

1. Help maximize resources by focusing attention on key accounts that are likely to convert into sales opportunities. A higher conversion rate and quicker buying cycle mean that you can expect to realize your ROI faster and more effectively. 

1. Create deeper relationships with customers by providing personalized content that speaks directly to their needs and interests. As the relationships develop, new upsell opportunities are more likely to arise thanks to a personalized approach.  

1. Ensure you focus your efforts on generating quality leads instead of wasting time chasing low-value prospects that are unlikely to convert.  

1. Gain valuable insights into customer behavior, which can empower your team to tweak the marketing processes and offers to better serve your target market.  

So, is ABM for you? It is clearly an effective way to improve the efficiency of the sales process, while simultaneously building relationships with high-value customers. The ability to provide higher ROI results than traditional marketing techniques, means many organizations are moving towards ABM as a key part of their strategy. Our team specializes in B2B ABM, so drop us a note the next time you want to increase your sales and improve your ROI.