ABM is gaining attraction as the viable complement to traditional sales and marketing efforts. As much as 70% of a B2B marketing budgets went to ABM in 2016, and this figure is on the rise according to research conducted by Sirius Decisions.
With ABM expected to be a major part of many brands’ marketing strategies, we take a look at the benefits of implementing this approach to your overall marketing strategy.
What is ABM?
ABM is a company-wide strategy that complements a brand’s selling model. It concentrates sales and marketing resources on a defined set of target accounts key to revenue growth. A great definition of it is expressed by Jon Miller, CEO of Engagio and Co-Founder of Marketo, who says “ABM is a strategic approach that coordinates personalised marketing and sales efforts to open doors and deepen engagement at specific accounts.”
ABM helps marketers make the transition from a traditional lead-based methodology to an account-based methodology. Focusing on specific accounts enables B2B marketers to pinpoint and uncover the true definition of a good and a bad lead by assessing company fit. In other words, ABM focuses on distinguishing whether or not a company is a potentially profitable customer.
Why is ABM so hot right now?
Recent technology advances have allowed marketers to employ new, more cost effective ABM techniques. The B2B brands trying ABM are getting great results and wanting more.
It’s now easy for marketers to target named accounts at scale. It seems that all marketing is becoming ABM – or at least inspired by ABM. Personalised campaigns are designed to clearly resonate with individual target accounts, based on their specific problems and needs.
Five benefits that B2B brands see by putting an ABM strategy into action:
1) ABM achieves higher ROI
One of the key benefits of ABM is that it promises big wins and more of them. As mentioned earlier, 84% of companies say that ABM is delivering bigger deals within target accounts and proving to be a lead-to-revenue marketing success story. In addition, according to Engagio, an “Account Based Everything” software, the average ABM deal is much larger than deals sourced by typical demand generation, therefore the ROI of these efforts is much higher.
2) Faster sales process
The B2B buying process can be complex – a B2B marketing study we conducted in 2017 brought to life that typically a minimum of five people will be involved in purchasing decisions. This can often slow down the typical sales and marketing process, however ABM allows you to leverage it. Through ABM, you’re actively targeting each of the decision makers in a buying process and more importantly nurturing your primary decision maker — thus minimising your chances of an unforeseen influencer holding up the deal.
3) Sales and Marketing teams are better aligned
ABM is a natural progression toward alignment. ABM requires that sales and marketing teams work together to target their efforts around the same accounts, thereby naturally promoting alignment towards the same goals.
4) Cost-efficiency
ABM allows B2B brands to be efficient with time and their marketing strategy. Every single effort is targeted, thus removing any excess effort or budget on accounts that are not the right fit for your business.
5) Your brand stands out from the crowd
Viewing each account as an individual user group enables a brand to create personalised content to answer the pain-points of that specific account. This allows a brand selling a product or service to differentiate their work in a manner that can’t be mimicked by competitors. ABM offers the opportunity for brands to create a direct dialogue around an offer that inherently excludes the rest of the selling competition.
There are many and multiple tools that you can use to facilitate ABM some of them technology platforms and some of them routed via recognised influencers giving you that extra “earned“ kudos. The key for you is to get started: begin small and scale up.
