Can you imagine a world where you get the most qualified leads with the least effort? With ABM (Account-Based Marketing) campaigns, that dream can be a reality. ABM campaigns target specific accounts, reducing wasted time and money on leads that won’t convert.
From personalizing content to creating custom experiences, ABM campaigns allow you to strategically target the right customers at the right time. With the ability to track metrics and measure success, ABM campaigns are a great way to optimize your marketing efforts and get the most out of your budget.
This guide will provide you with everything you need to know about ABM campaigns, from setting up an ABM strategy to its benefits and the various examples.
What Is An ABM Campaign?
An ABM (Account-Based Marketing) campaign is an integrated marketing strategy targeting specific accounts. It’s a highly personalized and tailored approach to marketing, as you’re only targeting specific accounts that meet the criteria of your ideal customer profile. By leveraging data-driven insights, markers can tailor ABM campaigns according to their needs. From identifying and segmenting different customer types to analyzing customer behavior, ABM campaigns allow marketers to create hyper-targeted and customized experiences for each account.
ABM campaigns are more effective than traditional outbound and inbound marketing strategies because they allow you to focus on acquiring the accounts. 87% of marketers say ABM outperforms other marketing initiatives, making it one of the most effective marketing strategies.
Benefits Of Running An ABM Campaign
Account-based marketing is swiftly becoming the go-to strategy for B2B enterprises targeting sizable accounts. If you’re looking to make sales into large accounts with extended sales cycles and hefty deal sizes, then account-based marketing offers many benefits compared to other marketing strategies.
Measure ROI
With ABM, you can track and measure the ROI of all your efforts. You’ll see which campaigns, assets, and channels are driving conversions and revenue and which are wasting resources. ABM allows you to track and monitor your campaigns in real time, so you can make timely adjustments and ensure your campaigns are on track for success.
Around 97% of marketers earned higher ROI from their ABM initiatives than other marketing campaigns, so you can be sure your efforts will pay off.
Align Sales And Marketing Teams
To maximize any ABM campaign’s success, make sure your sales and marketing teams align with each other. When sales and marketing teams collaborate, they can create personalized content, determine which accounts to target and ensure leads receive the most relevant messaging. This can help close deals more quickly and increase overall success rates.
Good alignment of sales and marketing teams can reduce the sales cycle, increase the close rate, and maximize ROI.
Streamline Sales Cycle
Generally, the sales cycle for enterprise deals can be lengthy and challenging to navigate. With ABM, you can streamline your sales cycles, eliminating unnecessary steps and ensuring leads go through the most efficient sales pipeline. This way, you can quickly identify and convert the most promising leads and customize each journey.
By concentrating on high-value accounts, you can save time and resources on leads that will never turn a profit. This lets your teams focus on the most promising opportunities, drastically reducing the sales cycle length.
Deliver Consistent Customer Experiences
To create the best possible customer experience, marketing, and sales must work together to ensure customers get the same message everywhere. ABM campaigns allow you to create hyper-targeted content that appeals directly to your ideal customers and let them know you understand their needs, making them more likely to become loyal customers.
85% of marketers say ABM significantly helped them retain and grow their existing client relationships, so you can be sure ABM campaigns will improve customer experiences.
Expand Through Account Relationships
ABM campaigns focus on expanding relationships with high-value accounts and delivering value rather than chasing new leads. ABM allows you to build relationships more quickly and nurture accounts, creating lasting partnerships that can help fuel growth and scale your business.
Account-based marketing helps you build relationships with your customers, letting them know they’re valued and giving them a reason to trust your brand, ultimately leading to increased customer loyalty and more sales in the long run.
ABM Campaign Strategy Breakdown
ABM campaigns can be a great way to target high-value accounts, but your efforts may go to waste if you don’t have the right strategy. To get the most out of your ABM campaigns, use these steps:
Align Sales And Marketing Teams
As mentioned earlier, it’s essential for success that sales and marketing teams align closely. Marketing should provide sales with the right content to send to prospects, while sales should let marketing know which accounts they’re targeting and their progress.
This communication should be ongoing and transparent, so both teams can work together to create the most effective ABM campaigns. All the decisions should be made in collaboration so that the campaign can reach maximum success.
Conduct Research To Identify Your Target Accounts
One of the most critical steps in any ABM campaign is researching which accounts best fit you. Consider the size, location, industry, and other relevant criteria to determine which accounts you should target. You can also find out about their current level of engagement, customer pain points, and buying behavior.
Once you have this information, you can create a list of target accounts and move to the next step.
Create Customized Account Plans
After identifying your target accounts, it’s time to create customized account plans for each one. This plan should include everything from the messaging and content you’ll use to the tactics, channels, and metrics you will track. Every customer’s account plan should be customized to meet their requirements, even though certain parts may be similar across accounts.
By creating a customized plan, you can tailor your approach to each account and maximize their journey for each one.
Execute The ABM Campaign
Once you have created the customized plan for each account, it’s time to implement the ABM campaign. Start by crafting personalized messages for each account and distributing them through the proper channels. Depending on the account and their preferences, this could be email, social media, or even direct mail.
The success of your campaign will depend on how well you execute it, so ensure you have the right people in place to do the job.
Track Progress And Optimize
Measuring the success of your ABM campaigns is essential. Track key metrics, such as engagement, website visits, and conversions, to understand how successful each account plan has been. If certain accounts are not responding to your message, consider adjusting the plan and see if that has a better effect.
By tracking progress and optimizing your ABM campaigns, you can ensure that each account receives the best experience possible.
3 Awesome Examples Of ABM Campaigns
The best way to gain inspiration for your ABM campaigns is to look at what other companies are doing. Here are three excellent examples of companies that have executed successful ABM campaigns.
GumGum
GumGum, a leader in computer vision technology, implemented an ABM campaign to target deals with T-Mobile. Through research, they discovered that the CEO of T-Mobile was a batman fan, so they designed a campaign with Batman-themed content. They created a comic book named T-Man and Gums, which featured T-Mobile’s CEO as the hero. The campaign resulted in a successful partnership between GumGum and T-Mobile.
The best thing was that the company tailored this campaign according to the interests of T-Mobile’s CEO, which helped make a personal connection with him and increased the chances of success.
DocuSign
DocuSign is a digital transaction management provider that implemented an ABM campaign to boost conversion rates of high-value accounts. They made display ads for 450 enterprise accounts, which featured customized images and messages, segmenting accounts based on their buying cycle. Targeting six different industries, DocuSign used customized messages, testimonials, peer logos, targeted images, and more to reach their accounts. This campaign successfully increased conversion rates, proving that personalized ABM campaigns can be highly effective.
Focusing on segmentation is the perfect way to tailor your B2B services to each unique industry you serve.
LiveRamp
LiveRamp, a data onboarding platform, ran an ABM campaign targeting a list of Fortune 500 companies. They used a hyper-targeted approach to target these accounts, using display ads and email sequences tailored to each company’s industry and needs. At the start of the campaign, they narrowed the list to the 15 most promising accounts, which resulted in a substantial increase in leads and sales in a short period.
The best part about this campaign was that it focused on a smaller, more targeted list of accounts rather than trying to target too many at once. It proves that hyper-targeted campaigns can deliver impressive results.
Final Thoughts
Do you want to increase engagement and conversions among your B2B accounts? An ABM campaign can be the perfect solution. By crafting personalized messages, tracking progress, and optimizing campaigns, you can ensure each account receives the best experience possible.
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