- 18 September 2023
- by Andrej Fedek
- Blog, Marketing
- 0 Comments
Account-based marketing (ABM) strategies are great for companies with specific target audiences they want to reach out to. However, since it requires a personal touch throughout the campaign, it takes a bit more time and effort. In this article, we’ll cover some ways to automate aspects of the ABM campaign.
1. Define your ideal customer profile.
Since ABM won’t work if you don’t have a clear and crisp picture of your ideal customers, you need to start your campaign by identifying your perfect customer profile.
An ideal customer profile would be a detailed description of the type of customer that your business wants to target. It should include specific details like their demographics, industry, company size, pain points, and buying behaviors.
By clearly defining your ideal customer profile, you have a more apparent target in mind for your ABM strategies. You can then tweak and tailor your messaging and outreach efforts to resonate with potential customers more personally.
You can always look back on your ideal customer profile to determine whether a prospect is worth pursuing. You can then focus your marketing resources on high-value accounts more likely to convert into customers. This method won’t waste your time or theirs this way.
ABM is an approach people take in the first place because it’s more efficient to have a genuinely personal method when reaching out to potential customers in their industry. Thus, knowing who you should be talking to and not just marketing to everyone is crucial to success.
2. Set up your target accounts
After you’ve finished brainstorming about your ideal customer profile, you can use that information in your ABM platform of choice so it can give you potential accounts that could fall between those parameters.
Make sure that you take the time to conduct thorough research to identify potential target accounts that meet your criteria. To gather information about these companies, use various sources such as industry reports, market research tools, and even social media platforms. Look for indicators of their potential interest in your products or services.
Sometimes, you can even use ABM tools or software that explicitly does this part of the process or campaign for you.
Once you have identified potential target accounts, organizing them effectively is essential.
Again, you can use tools like customer relationship management (CRM) software or account-based marketing platforms specifically designed for this purpose. These tools allow you to track and manage all relevant information about each account in one centralized location.
Continuously refine your criteria based on feedback from sales teams or other organizational stakeholders. Also, organizing these target accounts based on priority or how likely they are to convert is a good idea. That way, again, you can use your marketing resources for those with the best success chances.
3. Integrate your ABM software
If you are using ABM software or already have a go-to tool for ABM, that’s great. However, don’t forget to ensure that your preferred ABM Platform is already integrated with the other marketing and sales tools you have in your arsenal.
If you don’t have a go-to ABM software yet, though, it’s always a good idea to carefully select an ABM software that aligns with your specific goals and needs.
Next, ensure a smooth integration process by taking advantage of the help the software provider or implementation team should give you as a customer. Communicate your objectives and desired outcomes so the integration team can ensure the software meets your expectations and needs.
Integrating your ABM software with other relevant tools or platforms within your marketing stack is crucial. Think of your CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, customer data platforms (CDPs), and other devices that house valuable customer data.
Connecting these systems allows you to leverage valuable insights and create a unified view of each target account. Also, it can lead to more accurate reporting and more efficient processing for your ABM platform so your information and decision-making improve.
Don’t forget that part of proper implementation is open communication channels between all involved departments to ensure alignment on target accounts, messaging strategies, and overall campaign objectives.
4. Create your campaigns
Now that you’ve done all that setup and research on your target accounts and your internal workflow, it’s time to create your ABM campaigns. Ensure you have a clear end goal and a set period for the campaign. That way, you can measure its success (or failures, if any) and adjust from there.
You might also have to tweak and change things as the campaign runs after you find more relevant data and information. Don’t worry, as that would be better for your campaign overall.
Just make sure that your sales and marketing teams have a way for constant communication so that there’s a smooth send-off of target accounts from marketing to sales.
5. Segment and personalize your content
It’s not only your target accounts that you should be segmenting. It should be your content marketing efforts in the lens of ABM strategies as well.
Segmenting your content ensures it feels like it was made for each specific segment of your target account.
Personalizing your content takes segmentation a step further by customizing the messaging for individual accounts within each segment. You can use the information and data you’ve gathered about them to create endless content that can feel like you’ve made it directly for them.
Automating your ABM strategy with segmented and personalized content ensures efficiency without compromising quality.
6. Adjust your engagement
How your sales team or even you engage with your target accounts after they receive marketing content is also crucial to the success of your ABM campaign. That’s why, again and again, we’ve mentioned the importance of the sales and marketing teams aligning with one another for ABM strategies.
For example, the marketing team can create sales enablement content. Your sales teams can then use that info and email automation tools alongside your ABM software to create a clean and smooth engagement process with your target accounts.
7. Measure your ABM strategy
As mentioned earlier, you should set up goals for your ABM campaign as that lets you know whether your approach worked well for you. That’s why you need to have measurements that will accurately report the success of your ABM campaign.
After all, how you felt about a solid several months of work can color how you think about the campaign’s success. Your ABM platform might help you track success measurements and KPIs for this approach.
Conclusion
These approaches all contribute to an ABM campaign that has as many ways of automation as possible. That way, you can efficiently and quickly reach out to your target accounts, even when trying to personalize every step of your campaign.
Andrej Fedek is a digital marketer. He recently started his own blog about digital marketing called InterCool Studio. His passion is to help startups grow and thrive in a competitive environment.
