If you’re not getting results from your ABM campaigns, you need to read this

The 7 non-negotiables of Account Based Marketing

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is used by B2B marketers to identify and target the accounts they value most. It’s a proven methodology run successfully across the globe. Get the following right and not much will go wrong as you launch or refine your ABM programmes.

1. Clearly define ABM in your organisation.
ABM requires input from your entire organization, not just your marketing team. Don’t start your ABM programme without having a clear definition of what ABM is within your organisation. Make sure you have developed it with all your key stakeholders and that everyone has signed it off. Inter-department alignment doesn’t simply help your ABM strategy; it’s an essential component of every ABM campaign.

2. Sales & Marketing alignment is not an optional extra
ABM is a collaborative endeavour between Sales and Marketing. ABM is not a service that marketing performs for sales, it is a joint effort and requires sustained focus and commitment from both teams for it to work effectively. Throughout the campaign, marketers and sales must work hand in hand.

3. Choosing the right type of ABM for your business
ABM is a broad church and there are significant differences between 1:1, 1: Few and 1: Many. You need to make sure you select the right ABM approach to reflect your business requirements, your average order value, and your budget.

4. Take time on account selection
ABM account selection takes time. Spend quality time scoring your accounts based on a set of consistent criteria to develop an ideal customer profile. This is made up of demographic and firmographic attributes shared by your most valuable customers— identified through careful analysis of customer data. attributes.

5. Good strategy. Bad Data.
Without up to date and accurate data, you have nothing. How can you target the right accounts if you build your ideal customer profile on the incorrect attributes? How can you reach key contacts within target accounts if their contact information is outdated? How can you maintain a healthy relationship between sales and marketing if the two departments are working with siloed or inaccurate data? You can’t. Successful ABM requires ongoing data hygiene and quality data from the get-go.

6. Content must be tailored to the audience
ABM is not about taking your corporate messaging and simply serving it up as is to your target accounts. You will need to craft account or sector-based messaging built on the findings of your insight work, where you are addressing the specific needs of the audience and making a direct connection with the solutions and services your business can provide.

7. Customer first
David Ogilvy, one of the founders of Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency once wisely said, “Don’t count the people you reach; reach the people that count.”

Interview customers, use social listening tools, talk to customer facing teams and ask for feedback.

At its core, ABM is really about relationships. That’s why we need to focus our efforts on building real connections with people in the accounts. Ask yourself throughout the campaign; Are you putting the customer first? You really need to champion how the customer wants to buy from you and preserve empathy around that in everything you do.