80% of marketers measuring ROI say that ABM outperforms other marketing investments*

For those of you still unsure as to the meaning of account based marketing (ABM), let me explain. Unlike the traditional method of marketing to a large target audience and then qualifying them in or out of further activities, ABM is much more focused. In fact, this activity is so focused, that any other method could be considered as a ‘spray and pray’ approach.

 

The dream list

The first step to implementing account based marketing, is creating a list of ‘dream’ clients – the companies you would love to work with. A caveat here is that the desire to work with them isn’t quite enough. You also need to know they have a fairly big turnover, and money to spend on your product/service. From here, the goal is to identify the key decision-makers within these dream organisations that you can approach individually. Now, simply start marketing to these important people using language, messaging, and content that is highly personalised to them. This is a very simplified explanation, but one that covers the fundamentals. ABM is all about communicating with all the decision-makers within the companies that feature on your short list of dream clients.

The team player

Although account based marketing looks like it’s going to be a major player in future marketing, it’s worth noting that it’s not a replacement for current multi-channel activity. Given that ABM is only targeting the top 1-5% of your potential prospects, you’ll still need a full multi-channel strategy to approach all remaining opportunities. Now, this is where some issues can begin to arise. Given that your existing resources are no doubt already stretched to capacity (as all us marketers are), will you be willing to stretch these employees further or even recruit more in order to start account based marketing? The numbers don’t lie, and ABM works, but what will it cost you to implement?

Is it right for you?

Before venturing into the realm of account based marketing, there are a few factors to consider. For example, do you have the capacity in-house to manage this? Would you have to absorb the cost of recruitment in order to implement an ABM strategy? Do your dream clients have a large enough turnover to make them a ‘dream’? What are your average order values in relation to the cost of ABM? The reason these questions are important is because if your average order value is £1,000, then investing £50,000 in account based marketing to target 10 dream clients means that you could be left £40,000 out of pocket… or even more. So, before jumping on board with this new innovative approach, seek expert advice.

To find out more about ABM, and the growth of this innovative activity…