Account -based marketing is a methodology that is booming and that many business-to-business businesses are starting to implement. Being an alternative to the well-known Inbound Marketing, the truth is that most companies opt to incorporate ABM in a complementary and parallel way to their Inbound efforts since it requires a significant amount of resources. However, there are a series of automations and processes that can help you enhance the scalability of this methodology . In this post I will tell you about some of these simple initiatives that can help you.
What is Account-based Marketing?
Account-based marketing is a methodology that turns the marketing funnel on its head. The starting point is a list or target list of accounts or brands that are in line with the business’s objectives within a certain period of time. All of these elements will help you define your ICP or Ideal Customer Profile , which, compared to the buyer persona, would define a series of characteristics that would define your ideal client at the account or company level -and not so much at the contact level as in the case of the buyer persona-.
From here the game begins
The key to Account-based Marketing is to ensure that marketing and sales work together. We must not make the mistake, just by including the word “marketing” in the same definition, of considering that this methodology is the responsibility of the marketing team. In reality, the process should follow the opposite direction: from sales to marketing . The sales team is the one who must prioritize the accounts based on a well-defined account plan ; from there, define the best strategy to follow (the so-called ‘Sales Plays’) and finally, connect with marketing to shape the activations that will be part of the process.
What is the role of marketing in ABM?
The marketing team, as I mentioned earlier, is a key part of the ABM process, but it should not be the one leading the entire plan. The marketing objective within Account-based Marketing will be to support sales teams in relation to three stages of the conversion funnel:
For the generation of new qualified contacts within key accounts
Contributing to increasing buy telemarketing data engagement per account : The more touchpoints or engagement we achieve between contacts within an account, the more opportunities there will be to start sales conversations.
Supporting the sales team in closing opportunities
In a B2B environment, email marketing database: tips to segment it better the sales cycle can take quite a long time, so the marketing role should not only be limited to opening or identifying opportunities, but should also extend big work almost to the proposal or signature stage, working hand in hand with the Account Manager to maintain a significant level of engagement with the account until the opportunity is closed.
Based on these objectives and the prioritization of the accounts proposed by the sales team, we can define 3 types of activation or investment by marketing: 1to1, 1tofew and 1tomany.
1tomany It’s about implementing tactics
Strategies that reach broad or large segments within our target list for which we still need to build some awareness and interest . In the execution itself, there are no major differences between the way of launching an Inbound campaign and this type of strategy, however, the biggest difference is in the way of approaching the themes, angle of the campaign and its distribution.