Account-Based Marketing Best Practices

Account-Based Marketing has been around for years, right from the nineties when Don Peppers and Martha Rogers published their seminal book The One to One Future. This book revolutionises the innovative marketing concept of targeting each customer, one at a time instead of multiple customers at-a-time.

Account-Based Marketing is a way to collaborate, marketing and sales around their most important accounts. Effective Account-Based Marketing has helped many tech giants and corporates to focus on real client needs vis-à-vis immediate sales pitch.

With time, Account-Based Marketing is turning out to be a game-changer in the B2B digital marketing era. If we explore Google Trends, Account-Based Marketing as a ‘search term’ is gaining worldwide popularity.

Identifying the right audiences and executing effective ABM Strategies has always been a real challenge for marketers.

Best Practices to Succeed with your Account-Based Marketing

1. Identify Your Target Accounts

“Specify the criteria of your ideal accounts”

To succeed with your B2B Account-Based Marketing programs, you need to first identify who your target accounts are. To determine your target accounts, you first need to understand your company’s strategic business objectives which will help you to outline a blueprint for your ideal accounts.

Once the guidelines are set, specify the criteria of your ideal account/customer profile by identifying the type of organizations you believe that represents the best fit for your product or service.

If you want to further refine your accounts to be more precise to be the right fit for your product or service, consider implementing Hyper-targeted Marketing strategy.

2. Build Your Target Account List

“A list of high-value accounts”

Using qualifying criteria of your ideal account profile start building your desired list of accounts with the required data-points. The ideal target account list should consist of a list of high-value accounts most likely to buy based on a variety of digital information.

3. Identify Right Contacts

“Discover Account Decision Makers and influencers”

Once you have outlined your targeted account profile and have listed out companies to fit that profile, now it is time to make all of this data actionable.

Identify the contact profiles (key contact roles) who are most likely to be members of the actual buying committee or ultimate decision-makers within those target accounts. Discover everything you can about your target contacts that allow you to focus your marketing efforts in the right direction and see returns.

"With an effective ABM, you spend your efforts and money, on the key accounts and decision-makers that matter most."

4. Align your Sales and Marketing

“Let Sales and Marketing Collaborate”

In the digital marketing era to succeed in their efforts, the sales and marketing team have to collaborate to determine shared goals and agree on a plan to get there. They need to work together right from identifying target accounts with right contacts, then establish the first contact and then interact with them regularly to nurture the leads further and finally convert them into customers.

5. Develop and Execute your Marketing Plan

“Focus your approach to define your customer journey”

To see your account-based marketing effort yielding returns, you need to ensure that you reach target buyers beyond the entire customer journey.

Start engaging them in the way they like, interact with them regularly with various means of digital communications. Overall deliver a personalized experience to each of your accounts.

6. Use Digital Targeting

“Target your leads using digital means of communications”

Create personalized advertising to digitally target your leads to deliver customized digital experiences. Example: Customize online ads or banners to reach your digital assets such as websites or landing pages which can be supplemented by multitouch personalized email campaigns and social media marketing.

7. Nurture Your Potential Leads

“Nurture your prospects with the sales buying process”

Identify the best way to nurture your potential leads on an account level along with the customer journey. It should involve strategically engaging your target audience with relevant and significant information, helping them in all possible ways, and offering a delightful journey throughout the sales buying process.

Lead Nurturing Process (example)

8. Measure your ABM Performance

“Measure the performance of your marketing efforts”

Define goals and metrics towards your marketing efforts. Be sure to include all the components such as marketing collaterals or activities, digital content assets, email campaigns, social media campaigns etc.

Since this is a joint effort by both marketing and sales hence the performance goals and metrics should be agreed upon jointly. Measure the number of Market Qualified Leads (MQL) generated from account-based marketing campaigns, click-through rates, conversions, inquiries. Most importantly, effectively measure the business value of your ABM efforts.

Let’s Start!

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) helps B2B marketers identify and target the most influential accounts.

Zelite’s, Account-Based Marketing solutions include account-based data, technology insights, sales intelligence, contact discovery. Use Zelite’s services to build your target account list with key contacts within that company.

Read our recent case study on how Zelite Solutions helped an EU based technology company to identify Hyper-Targeted Accounts for their Account-Based Marketing Strategy.