Account-Based Marketing Made Easy(ier): Fixes for ABM’s Biggest Problems
To say account-based marketing (ABM) is hot right now is an understatement. According to SiriusDecisions, over 90 percent of B2B marketers agree that account-based marketing is important, and 60 percent of the B2B marketers who participated in the survey say they have plans to begin an account-based program in the next year.
Numbers like that mean the industry is waking up to the value of account-based marketing, which targets entire teams of decision-makers within an organization instead of directing messages at one team member and hoping the information gets passed around.
However, there are a few downsides to ABM that no one’s talking about. Many marketers report that it’s often difficult for marketing and sales to get on the same page and agree on what criteria make for qualified leads, and once those criteria are outlined, it can also be hard to deliver personalized messages to entire teams. And since we’re still in the early days of ABM, there’s no standardized practice for measurement, leaving many wondering if messages are even being received.
But ABM doesn’t have to be a headache. Here are some solutions for account-based marketing’s biggest problems.
Decision Makers are Hard to Find
While nearly every B2B marketer agrees that ABM is effective, most report that messaging is still missing the mark. According to a recent study by Demandbase, 71 percent of marketers surveyed say B2B advertising frequently fails to meet expectations, and additionally, 96 percent of respondents reported that messaging often meets audiences outside intended targets.
The key to finding and messaging qualified leads lies in organization. Account and contact data alignment is a critical first step for those just beginning to implement an ABM strategy. There are many ways to make sure data is aligned, either by linking contacts to accounts in existing marketing automation or customer relationship management (CRM) software, or by adopting a brand new data management platform. The most important thing is to get data organized and make sure it’s available to the sales team for future contact.
Marketing and Sales Aren’t On the Same Page
Speaking of sales, ABM simply doesn’t work if marketing and sales aren’t working together. SiriusDecisions recently found that B2B companies with tightly aligned “smarketing” (sales and marketing) teams had 24 percent faster revenue growth than companies who didn’t.
But creating a tightly interwoven marketing and sales team is sometimes easier said than done. If you’re finding it hard to get on the same page, marketing and sales need to work together to create target account wish lists, and then marketing should redouble its efforts to listen to the sales team’s goals, objectives, and obstacles. Effective communication can go a long way towards teaching both teams the purpose behind marketing materials, ultimately ensuring that content is more valuable for the target account.
ABM Can Feel Impersonal
One of the main problems with courting an entire team rather than an individual buyer is that it’s easy for content to start to feel a little bit bland. If your ABM content seems a bit lackluster, why not personalize it by adding interactive elements? For example, when targets accounts click a CTA in an email, make sure they’re led to a page with an account-specific subdomain to show you’ve carefully considered how your business can provide solutions. Also, put new leads in control of their education by including product selectors, ROI calculators, and assessments to help identify pain points and discover solutions. Interactive content is also helpful to the sales team, since it provides easy, sharable access to information about often-complicated products.
Measurement Can Be Tricky
Finding the right metrics to measure the success of an ABM campaign can be incredibly tricky since it can be difficult to assess an entire team’s engagement with account-focused content. It’s important to gauge an account’s response to content from the top of the funnel down in order to measure the success of an ABM campaign. Feedback from interactive content doesn’t just educate users, it also educates the marketing and sales teams about which forms of content are effective in different stages of the buyer journey.
No one said account-based marketing was easy, but most B2B brands are finding this new approach to creating relationships with customers extremely effective, with 84 percent of marketers reporting that ABM delivers higher returns than any other approach. So don’t let a few problems slow you down. The future of marketing looks account oriented!
