A Common Sense–Based Approach to Account-Based Marketing

Huff outlines six steps for account-based marketing success:

1. Develop specific, measurable business goals.

2. Choose the accounts on which to focus based on those goals.

3. Create content tailored to the buyers and influencers involved in the purchasing process.

4. Determine which channels to use to reach those targets.

5. Choose and apply the appropriate metrics to measure success.

6. Observe the results and adjust the strategy accordingly.

Kemmis offers a similar framework. First, a strong sales force is paramount. “You can’t target accounts without real people to follow up with leads and ultimately build relationships.”

Kemmis then suggests getting to know your buyers. “You can’t incorporate ABM into your marketing strategy if you haven’t fully fleshed out buyer personas and the buyer’s journey,” she says.

As a next step, Kemmis recommends using data mining to help identify points in the buying cycle or with particular buyer personas that are more likely to cause problems. And don’t shy away from making use of content you have on hand. “Account-based marketing doesn’t mean you have to create a bunch of new marketing collateral. You likely can use or refresh content you’ve created from other marketing strategies; it’s just used in a more targeted way,” she says.

Medina advises companies to start their account-based marketing initiatives small. “Define the top 10 or 20 accounts you want to land and pilot your account-based marketing program with them,” he says. “Try different tactics. Develop account-specific messages and value propositions and serve them to target accounts dynamically on your website, in email campaigns, and on social channels. See what drives engagement and what drives conversions. Don’t overinvest until you’ve proven that account-based marketing moves the needle for your business and you have data that tells you the specific channels and tactics that drive the most impact.”

Looking forward, experts see a shift from account-based marketing to what they call account-based engagement, a strategy that involves marketing, sales, and even support.

“Focus on the goals and the approach, not the technology. Create alignment between sales and marketing on who your top target accounts are. Reflect on previous wins to understand what worked and what didn’t to convert those deals, and come up with a simple plan to target key accounts as a joint team,” Lessard urges. “Don’t make the critical mistake of thinking that account-based marketing is just a marketing initiative. We would all be better served to call it ‘account-based engagement’ to remind us that it requires planning and execution from both the marketing and sales teams to be successful.”

Account-based marketing, Huff adds, “will continue to be a valuable strategy for businesses, further shaping the way digital marketers connect and engage across accounts and with the many influencers that make up an account. But it will evolve into account-based engagement and play an even bigger role across an organization’s communication and outreach strategy.”

Many experts also predict that account-based marketing strategies will be adopted beyond marketing to include customer retention and customer support needs. “Account-based engagement will be the strategy that helps to bridge alignment between all front-office departments and encourage marketing, sales, and support to look at and address customers as markets of one, based on the account that they are tied to,” Huff says. “This will lead to more purposeful and holistic interactions between account and vendor and result in happier, more successful customers.”

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Assistant Editor Sam Del Rowe can be reached at sdelrowe@infotoday.com.

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