Sales and marketing have been considered as the topmost priority in any of the business and the business policies and procedures have always been centered around that. In today’s marketplace that is ripe with brands and brand value, marketing is a key strategy for the brands to consider. Such strategies are more aggressively targeted towards the consumers to bring in the maximum possible number of leads for the business. These leads then are further converted into sales eventually adding up to the revenue of the business.
The most popular marketing method that has been doing rounds in the modern marketing circles is Account-based Marketing (ABM). Yes, most of the business owners might be already aware of the marketing technique. To put in brief layman terms account-based marketing is the personalized way of marketing. It groups similar kinds of accounts or customers and then dishes out marketing campaigns specific to their needs or resolutions.
So, it is likely that this marketing method also faces its pretty share of issues. Let us take a look at some of the challenges account-based marketing tactics in present:
How to choose a target account?
Well, the first and foremost challenge is the selection of the accounts that would be targeted by the marketers. The identification of these accounts is a crucial step for business owners or the marketing strategists as the target market should hold some potential that would be boosted by the ABM tactics and can also be measured by pr business metrics. So here are some ways to eliminate this challenge.
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- Identifying goals
There are several reasons for which the companies might opt for account-based marketing tactics. Some of the well-known goals are expanding the business, acquiring the logos, upselling, deal acceleration, and targeting the high-end and best fit accounts.
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- Deal accelerated accounts
One of the key considerations for choosing the target accounts for your ABM strategies is to look for the accounts that help to accelerate the deals and save time. Look for spots where you can cut short the deal time and serve the consumers in an immediate and effective manner.
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- Get insights and make data-driven decisions
Data is the fuel of your ABM rocket. If you use the right kind of data then your ABM strategy is going to reach new heights but if wrong data is being used to gather insights and draw up reports then the ABM strategy is up to no good. So make sure you do not use wrong reports or outdated data for your account-based marketing.
How to use content?
Content usage holds as much importance as the target accounts. If you are marketing to the right audience that is only half the job done. For the successful implementation of account-based marketing tactics, you also need to present the right content. Similar to how a HUbspot inbound agency strategies content by aligning it to their prospective clients’ interests, these ABM tactics can also be curated by following some steps:
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- Subject gaps
Review your content thoroughly to check for any kind of subject gaps in it. Make sure that the content is relevant to your audience and is backed by solid insights and reports. The gist of the content must be easily relatable by your target audience and the content should appeal to them.
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- Content mapping
The content must be mapped to the buyer’s journey. This is done to ensure the relevance of the content so that the flow of the content is contained within the boundaries of the consumer experience of your product or service.
How to deliver personalized customer experience?
To touch on this issue you need to incorporate various forms of marketing in your overall marketing plan. You can add e-mail marketing, content marketing, retargeting, etc, for this purpose. Personalized e-mails are a great way to deliver a personalized customer experience in B2B account-based marketing.
How to ensure account focused website experience?
The website design must align with the goal or the vision you had while creating your account-based marketing strategy. When we say this, we are not only talking about the website content. Most B2B marketers fail to grasp this and as a result, their marketing plans come to peril. So customize every aspect of your website starting from the content to the design and the feel of the website, to make it synonymous with your account-based marketing strategy.
How to align marketing and sales?
You need to align your sales and marketing teams to get the best outcomes for your marketing efforts. Alternatively, taking help of experienced online marketing companies (like, iTonic) could always pay dividends.
It is vital to understand, and therefore differentiate your sales efforts from that of marketing. Many of you might think the two are interchangeable, yet there are many ways that could improve this collaboration and yield you manifold profits. Many companies use solutions like RevConnect to make aligning sales and marketing easier.
For the ABM tactics to work effectively a comprehensive sales report is required. This will help them to evaluate the performance of their marketing strategy. Also marketing strategies when aligned with the sales efforts will bring in higher conversion rates.
The sales teams should not be reluctant to account-based marketing strategies. This is just how marketing is evolving in the modern competitive marketplace.
