You may have heard a little buzz about account-based marketing.
What is it and why does it matter? More and more companies are recognizing that traditional marketing methods aren’t as effective as they used to be.
People are overloaded by emails and they’re hit with thousands of marketing messages a day. Account-based marketing cuts through the noise and targets the most likely prospects that will buy. You can create an ABM campaign on your own, or you can hire one of many ABM companies to help you launch a successful campaign.
Read on to learn how account-based marketing works and why you should consider hiring an ABM company.
How Does Account Based Marketing Work?
The best way to explain account-based marketing is to look at what most companies do for marketing. They’ll have a blog or use their website as the main source of leads. They’ll drive traffic to the site using social media, SEO, or PPC ads.
A small percentage of that traffic will convert into leads. You’ll then email those leads to nurture them and move them down the funnel until they buy.
What account-based marketing does is flip the funnel upside down. You identify your top prospects and companies you want to work with. You research everything you can about them to understand their unique challenges. You then target them with advertising and work with your sales team to ensure they convert into a sale.
Is ABM in direct competition with other forms of marketing like content marketing? Not necessarily. Account-based marketing can work on its own, or it can work in tandem with your content marketing team.
Why Should You Hire an ABM Company
When you’re new to account-based marketing, you’ll see that there are a lot of moving parts. To add to the challenge, not many people have the appropriate experience because ABM is still relatively fresh.
Read on to find out more about why you consider hiring ABM companies to help you manage the process.
1. ABM Flips Traditional Marketing on its Head
Yes, ABM flips the script on traditional marketing. That requires a new way of thinking and doing from your team. It’s a rough adjustment and an ABM company can lead the way to get everyone on the same page and work together.
2. The Best ABM Companies Create Systems
What’s amazing about ABM is that it’s essentially a systematic form of marketing. It’s similar to automating content marketing, but you’re doing it for very few accounts.
When you have working systems in place, you can add more accounts and scale your marketing efforts. That will only make your marketing and sales teams more effective while doing much less work.
3. Your Sales and Marketing Teams Need to Work Together
Are your sales and marketing teams always at each other’s throats? It’s actually normal for these two departments to not get along. They don’t understand each other and getting them to work together is like mixing oil and vinegar.
It just doesn’t happen often. ABM depends on how well your sales and marketing teams can work together. They have to be able to identify the companies and prospects to target.
An ABM company can help your teams work together to create the target list and decide on the best messages to target them. MRP talks more about your sales and marketing teams in this article.
4. B2B Sales Is a Complex World
B2B sales isn’t a slam dunk, no matter what strategy you use.
It’s a long process, and it takes patience to get to the contract. When you’re marketing in B2B, many companies relied on the traditional tactics of lead generation and nurturing.
ABM companies can help you simplify the process by enabling your teams to spend more time on a few accounts. That creates a much better experience for your customers.
5. Target All Stakeholders in and Organization
When you’re dealing with large organizations, there are many layers of stakeholders to work through. There are multiple departments to work with, and each one has their own interest and budget in mind when making a decision.
ABM companies can help your sales and marketing teams set up a buyers’ journey for each stakeholder. With each buyer’s journey, you have the opportunity to create personalized messaging and target those specific departments within an organization.
6. Develop a Strategy
When was the last time your marketing had an actual strategy? It’s not uncommon for businesses to say that they never had a strategy.
What an ABM company will do is work with your teams to create a long term strategy to boost your marketing and sales.
7. Set Up KPIs and Reporting
Account-based marketing is all about data. You use predictive analytics to predict customer behavior, you use retargeting, and you quantify buyer intent.
It’s easy to get distracted by all of the numbers available to you. A solid ABM company will let you chose the most important KPIs and provide that data to you in real time.
8. They Deliver ROI
ABM companies deliver ROI. When they help your company streamline your marketing and sales teams, they’re running more efficiently. They also have higher conversion rates because your marketing is so specific.
Reduced spending + higher conversion rates = higher return on investment. What’s not to love about that?
Hiring ABM Companies Is a Smart Choice
If you want your business to continue to grow, you’re going to have to do things differently in the past. In the past, you’d create a funnel, nurture your leads, and hope for the best. It was a pure numbers game.
With ABM, it’s a whole different universe that is effective, but it requires a whole new way of thinking and doing business.
That’s one of the main reasons why ABM companies are so valuable. They walk you through the steps of setting up and ABM campaign and create an environment where you can’t lose.
When you’re ready to start increasing your sales, take a look at this article about the top sales tracking software for your business.
