If you ask 5 marketers what is Account-based marketing (ABM) you’ll probably get 5 different answers
That’s right.
The term ABM has been thrown around loosely. Many are not even sure what it really means, let alone design an effective strategy for it.
In this article, we will breakdown the definition and types of account-based marketing. You will learn about top strategies, tactics and see real-life examples.
Ready? Let’s go.
Table of Contents
- What is Account-Based Marketing?
- The different types of account-based marketing strategies
- Why is Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Important?
- Does Account-Based Marketing Work?
- How to implement Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
- 20 Brilliant Account-based marketing examples, tactics and case studies
- What’s the difference between Account-based marketing and lead generation
- 4 Account-based marketing software and tools
- Final thoughts
What is Account-Based Marketing?
What is all the buzz about Account-based marketing (ABM)? How is this different from conventional B2B marketing? Is this just another marketing fad?
Many experts have claimed to land bigger deals quicker with ABM. Really?
Let’s dive deeper into what makes ABM effective.
Traditional B2B Marketing focuses on verticals. This means Marketers will prospect anybody within these verticals.
Let’s say you are selling HR Software. And Finance (Like banks and insurance) is your main target vertical.
Traditional marketing would mean that you would use an ad with one messaging to target all departments like HR, Sales, C-Suite, Accounting, Interns etc within the finance vertical.
As you can imagine, targeting everyone with the exact same messaging isn’t effective.
Enter Account-Based marketing (ABM).
It is a strategic approach to identify, engage, close and grow target accounts. There are 3 types of account based marketing, with each type having a different size of target accounts. We will go through that in the later chapters..
ABM is a focused approach to prospecting and generating sales opportunities with selected target accounts (companies). and individuals. It’s no longer about marketing to everyone.
Andrei Zinkevich, ABM Practitioner & Founder, Getleado
The marketing funnel for account-based marketing looks inverted compared to the traditional or B2C models.
But don’t get me wrong.
Account-based marketing does not mean that it’s the only strategy marketing teams can use.
Many successful companies mix traditional practices together with account-based marketing to find success. In fact, that’s why there are 3 segments of account-based marketing (ABM) – Covered more in the later chapters.
You can’t just market to 10-20 companies in a year. Or even in a quarter.
While you know those accounts have the highest chance to close and would be the best customers for your product, companies cannot simply live on a small number of closes and targets.
Imagine what happens in the years to come if you continuously market to a tiny group of companies – Your company can’t grow. It doesn’t sense.
Big B2B brands like Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, and more don’t just rely on Account-based marketing. There is a fair balance of branding and wide awareness campaigns (which looks very similar to traditional marketing). That’s how companies become bigger.
That said, not every company has huge marketing budgets like these big brands.
So where is that balance in Account-based marketing? How narrow should the account targeting be? What are the 3 types of account-based marketing?
Read on as we’ll cover that in the later sections of this article.
The different types of account-based marketing strategies
There are 3 types of account-based marketing (ABM)
- Strategic account-based marketing (ABM)
- Account-based marketing lite (ABM)
- Programmatic account-based marketing (ABM)
All of these must be implemented at the same time.
You can’t just implement one and ignore the rest.
Many marketers make the disastrous mistake of choosing to run only one type.
Take note that these 3 ABM types might have different names depending on which author you go to. But they all have the same description.
Strategic Account-based Marketing (ABM)
This refers to a highly customized marketing program for a small number of accounts. Typically an average of 5-15 accounts would be selected in this phase.
ABM marketers adopt an almost “one-to-one” laser focus approach. These are likely the company’s high-value accounts.
Contents are highly personalised to these high-value accounts.
Investment and resources to reach these companies individually are more than the other types iof ABM.
Target accounts are chosen in strategic ABM because companies are likely to close them. These accounts would also find the product a good fit and can afford it.
Potential buyers are usually existing customers because they are already familiar with the product and sees its usefulness.
What do i mean by “existing customers”? How do we sell to existing customers?
Through upselling and cross-selling. Prospects could upgrade their current systems or services. They could be an advocate of your product to other departments. Alternatively, they could purchase a totally new offering.
For example, if they already have a customer-relationship Management software (CRM) with you, there’s a possibility they will buy your email marketing software from you as well, if you market to them well.
Of course, strategic accounts could also include non-customers.
This is why strategic account marketing is extremely labor-intensive and needs more granular marketing efforts.
This is where the highest investment is for any ABM strategy. Most of the ROI from ABM is also expected to come from Strategic ABM.
Account-based marketing (ABM) lite
In ABM Lite, Marketers customize their programs for clusters of accounts that share similar needs and challenges. The focus is on “one-to-few” accounts
Typically there are 15-100 accounts here, depending on how big your company is.
If you’re from a large company like Microsoft, then you could even explore more than 100 accounts.
There is a good balance between targeting existing accounts and new accounts.
Content here is not as individualised like Strategic Account-based marketing (ABM).
While content is still customized to some degree, it is repurposed across all these accounts as they share similar business struggles or goals.
ABM lite is expected to produce the 2nd most ROI from the Account-based marketing program. It’s also requires the 2nd highest investment in the strategy, behind strategic ABM.
Programmatic Account-based marketing (ABM)
This strategy is define by it’s “one-to-many” focus.
There is no definite number of accounts in this. Depending on your budget, this could scale up to thousands of accounts.
Targeting openly by job functions within several verticals is also common practice here.
Smart ABM targeting like these can only be done on Linkedin accurately. Otherwise, you’ll need tools like metadata which does not make sense unless you’re planning to spend more than 20-25k on ads
Why is Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Important?
After years of research, the benefits of account-based marketing can be broken down to the following:
- More efficient use of marketing resources
- Better alignment between sales and marketing teams
- More ROI with Account-based marketing
- Stronger and more trustworthy business relationships
- Faster sales cycles
- Clearer customer acquisition process
Today, an average of 6.8 people are involved in the buying decision process. To win, you’ll need to target the entire buying committee.
You can no longer spray and pray with irrelevant targeting.
Neither can you hyper-target just one person in a company.
There needs to be a balance where you target the influencers, decision-makers, users, and champions.
That’s where account-based marketing (ABM) shines.
It’s why B2B Marketers find ABM is able to generate all that benefits above.
In the later chapters, we will cover the different types of Account-based marketing and the strategies for each.
Does Account-Based Marketing Work?
Research has shown the unfair advantage companies have when they use Account-based marketing (ABM).
About 76% of marketers shared that their ABM programs produced higher ROI than traditional marketing. That is pretty significant.
How to implement Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Develop ideal customer profiles and target accounts
A key to implementing account-based marketing is developing an ideal customer profile. This will help you identify accounts that your company has a strong chance of succeeding with in terms of revenue, margin, and profitability.
The goal here is for companies to use the profiles as their first foray into target accounts.
After they have identified these targets, a good strategy would be to make contact with them through an email pitch or phone call from one of the salespeople at the company.
If this doesn’t work out well, try someone else who might be more connected within those networks (i.e., regional VP).
If it seems like there are no viable prospects on either end after contacting multiple contacts, don’t give up! It’s worth continuing.
Interview customers to get to know them better and ask questions about their goals, aspirations, frustrations with your products or services.
This will help you identify whether they’re a good fit for account-based marketing (ABM).
Ideally, do this in person; that way the customer can’t misinterpret what’s being said.
Be prepared for objections from the customer as well by having an upper management team member introduce you at the beginning of the meeting so it doesn’t seem like a sales pitch but rather just another means of understanding customers’ needs.
Here is a list of information you’d need to collect in order to develop your ICP:
- Job Function
- Age
- Industry
- Number of employees
- Revenue
- Location
Then you can segment your contacts or customers into these4 different groups of people:
- Champions,
- Decision Makers,
- Influencers,
- and users.
This helps you reach out to the right person, with the right message.
Decide on the objectives of your Account-Based Marketing strategy
First of all, account-based marketing is not lead generation. It is not direct marketing. It’s a mix of both with different objectives in mind.
Here are the main objectives you need to decide on for your account-based marketing strategy:
- Discovering new sales opportunities
- Loyalty Building
- Reactivating Stalled Opportunities
- Increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
- Revenue Generation
You will likely be using a variety of tactics or strategies that may not have one specific goal as their end result but it would be helpful to know what drives your decision-making when selecting those tactics so you can more easily track if they’re successful or not.
One way of documenting your ABM tactics and objectives is by creating an ABM playbook.
Create an ABM Playbook for all teams to align to.
Start by identifying the account-based marketing objectives and how you would like to accomplish them.
It’s a good idea to have these documented in advance so that when decisions are made about tactics or strategies, they can be evaluated for their ability to help achieve those goals.
ABM Playbook contains tactics with clear goals and timelines for marketing, sales, and customer success teams.
It helps your teams stay aligned and work together under the same guidelines and processes.
Is a good reference point to evaluate tactics or strategies against when making decisions about what would be best in achieving your predetermined objectives.
We will be reviewing tactics to help you get your clients warm and ready for what’s ahead.
20 Brilliant Account-based marketing examples, tactics and case studies
1. Linkedin engagement tools
One of the oldest and most successful ABM tactics is LinkedIn. Actually, according to LinkedIn statistics, 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn.
It’s a great way to bring prospects in with targeted content and then engage them on an ongoing basis for relationship-building purposes, but it also makes sense to use those engaging tools as part of your account-based marketing efforts.
The two excellent options are InMail, which lets you send messages straight into people’s inboxes without having to connect first, or Sponsored Updates that are sent out broadly across target accounts’ networks.
LinkedIn engagement tools are critical to ABM as it’s a great way to connect with prospects and then engage them on an ongoing basis for relationship-building purposes.
LinkedIn InMail and sponsored updates can help you build relationships by keeping contact information fresh in their minds while also providing helpful content they will find valuable.
It’s best not to overdo it when sending Sponsored Updates, so save those for special occasions like product launches, but don’t be shy about using InMail messages from time to time.
To get the most out of LinkedIn’s engagement tools, it’s crucial to create a consistent message.
For example, if you are an accounting software company and looking for business owners who need your product or service to grow their businesses.
Send them content about how using your services will improve their bottom line or target a specific problem that you can solve for them.
The more compelling the offer they receive from this campaign is, and the more personalized it will be tailored to fit with what they want – whether that means saving time or making money – the better.
The key takeaway here is not just knowing which accounts matter but also understanding where those contacts are on their journey towards becoming customers so that you can tailor messaging accordingly.
You can also install Linkedin’s insight tag to see website demographics and find other company’s employees on Linkedin.
There’s also a LinkedIn sales navigator tool that you can use for lead generation and account-based marketing.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides sales reps access to the vast network of professionals on Linked In, helping them land more deals and find new opportunities in their field by tapping into the large pool that is LinkedIn’s extensive network.
Sales reps can choose from a large number of filters for people and/or companies, including:
- Keywords
- Geographic location (by region or state)
- Job title
- Company name
- Company size
- Company type (e.g., public, private, non-profit)
- Group membership
- School
- Years of experience
- Industry
- Job opportunities
- Number of followers
This makes it a brilliant ABM tactic to reach out to decision-makers and influencers in their industry.
2. Website personalization for B2B
Maintaining website personalization with different customer segments will increase conversion rates by making visitors feel more comfortable on your site.
Tools like Demandbase helps you create a personalized customer experience by providing you with the data and features to run your own A/B tests, personalize content based on visitor’s preferences, and segmenting visitors in any shape or form.
You can segment on any element of the visitor’s behavior, including:
- Age and gender
- Geographical location
- Device type (desktop/mobile)
- The URL they came from or where they are navigating to next.
As you personalize your website for each customer segment, you will be able to build a more intimate connection with them that will translate into higher conversion rates and increased revenue for your company.
This is because personalized websites tend to focus on what individual customers care about most, as opposed to broad strokes which may not resonate with everyone.
Personalizing your site according to these different segments also makes it feel less like an “advertisement” and more like there is a real person on the other end.
By understanding where customers live or spend the most time online – based on IP address data and browsing history – businesses can tailor content by region more effectively than just relying solely on ZIP code information.
This includes providing localized versions of websites that speak native languages better suited for certain countries or areas. It also means including different pricing formats depending on what currency is used.
Focusing on the customer in this way can lead to increased conversions, higher revenue, and a more engaged audience.
3. Creative strategic ABM
ABM can be taken to strategic levels where you just get off the box and open up to creative opportunities to expand your network.
This was a famous ABM strategy from the Ex-Drift VP of marketing, Dave Gerhardt.
In order to introduce himself to other B2B company leaders and executives who are attending a Salesforce event, he offered to fetch anybody from the airport to the Salesforce event he was at.
This allowed him to connect with others and create a brand awareness for Drift.
Who would’ve thought of this except Dave? A brilliant idea.
4. Cloudflare ran a wide-scale brand awareness event called CloudflareTv
Cloudflare is a tool that helps speed up websites, protect against DDoS attacks, and more.
It is a free service for anyone who wants to set it up on their own site.
The platform has been recognized as one of Fortune’s Most Innovative Companies three times in a row – 2014 through 2016 – and was ranked #11 on Forbes’ list of America’s best small companies in 2016.
Are these achievements random? Absolutely not.
Cloudflare team were creative with their ABM strategies, and they stretched their limit. Among the brilliant strategies they set up is Cloudflare TV.
CloudflareTV is a web series about technology and internet culture hosted by Cloudflare employees.
Cloudflare TV has been created with three main goals in mind:
- Educating the public on technical aspects of networking
- Inspiring young people to pursue STEM
- Scaling their brand awareness
5. Direct Mails.
Direct mail is a marketing tool that many companies still rely on, and for a good reason.
There’s absolutely nothing like knowing your message was delivered right to the prospect’s mailbox.
Direct Mail Marketing makes your business more personal by sending messages one-on-one (or at least individually targeted).
It helps build relationships with customers you want to keep doing business with – not just get their attention for a quick sale before they forget about you!
The best time of year to send direct mail depends on the type of company and product or service offered.
If it’s something seasonal, such as toys in December, then start mailing after Thanksgiving.
But if it’s something where people need to be reminded constantly throughout the year, such as a pest control company or insurance agency, start mailing in July.
It’s never too early to think about it though!
In addition to the calendar year, there are other factors that need to be considered when planning direct mail campaigns: holidays and events, weather patterns, etc.
6. Virtual Summits
Some say that in order to really grow, you have to give back.
A lot of people are focused on what they can get and not so much about giving.
That’s why hosting a virtual summit is an excellent idea for anyone who wants more leads or clients by providing value in the first step.
The way it works is simple: first, decide on your topic or industry; then create a landing page with free content from experts in that field (interviews, webinars, videos).
Then invite prospects via email blasts and social media announcements; make some sales during the event using various lead gen strategies; send out thank-you emails afterward to all participants.
Online learning helps scale your content as it can be repurposed.
To cut your costs and make your virtual summit profitable, offer sponsoring packages for companies who want to be featured at your event.
7. Starting a podcast and invite your prospects
Podcasts are trending now as an ABM strategy. They are great for creating an audio “sales pitch” with your target market and delivering information to them in a way that they can’t ignore.
Invite your prospects and customers to be on your podcast to help them become more familiar with you and then ask for referrals.
You can even provide incentives like free downloads, discounts, or coupons if they share their experience on social media – so that it is easy for prospects to see the value of being interviewed by you.
This strategy works well because people listen to podcasts often while commuting, making dinner, etc. They have time to consume a lot of information in short periods without feeling pressured.
It also builds credibility as an expert in your field, which will drive referral traffic.
8. Calculators or ROI tools for strategic and high touch ABM
ABM ROI calculator tools like Terminus helps marketers estimate the total ROI for their ABM campaign.
The Terminus ABM calculator is easy to use and helps marketers determine an estimated budget that you should set aside based on your marketing goals.
This will help you hash out what can be done in terms of campaigns, channels, geographies, etc.
The calculator also shows you the estimated ROI for your campaign in terms of cost per lead, conversion rates, and other metrics.
This will help with making decisions on what to focus on when it comes to ABM strategies.
9. Find a champion within the target accounts.
One of the keys to account-based marketing success is finding champions within your target accounts.
In order for this approach to work, you need senior leadership on board and motivated by a shared vision that ABM as a strategy will be rewarding in terms of return on investment (ROI).
Champions can come from any level of an organization – Marketing Director, VP Marketing, Vice President Sales & Business Development, or CMO are all examples.
The goal with champion identification is identifying who they are and making sure you have their contact information so you know how best to reach out when needed while keeping them engaged through regular communication about industry trends and updates related to your company’s products or services.
Build a communications plan within the account/company with this champion.
The champion is your most valuable customer. You need to do everything you can to help him, or her succeed professionally and personally because that will correspond with strong account penetration for more cross-sells and upsells.
10. Partnerships and joint branding
Create partnerships with your existing customers, and develop joint branding to increase the value each party brings.
This will also make it easier for them to promote you within their networks of contacts because they’ll be able to speak on behalf of both companies when doing so.
Building partnerships with clients is an easy way to increase your customer base and revenue.
The only caveat is that you need to make sure the partnership aligns with who you are as a company.
For example, if you’re positioning yourself as a high-touch service provider for personal care needs or medical devices, partnerships with these types of businesses would be beneficial:
- Beauty salons
- Healthcare providers
- Doctors’ offices
- Hospitals
On the other hand, your business model relies heavily on online marketing and sourcing products from overseas markets, then partnering with eCommerce companies may make more sense:
- Online retailers like Amazon or eBay
- High volume product resellers in Asia such as Alibaba
This approach will also allow you to keep costs down by leveraging these businesses ‘ existing infrastructure.
Ultimately, the most important thing is that you’re fair with your partners, and they feel like they are getting a good deal in return for what they give up.
It might require some work up front but will be worth it as time goes on – making sure everyone feels satisfied at the end of this type of relationship is key to long-term success.
The goal should always be mutually beneficial partnerships where both parties win.
A successful account-based marketing campaign requires more than just money or flashy tactics; instead, ABM relies heavily on forming genuine relationships with potential clients (or accounts) over an extended period until those accounts see value in partnering with you.
11. Hire a B2B influencer
You can’t have an account-based marketing guide without mentioning influencers.
They’re a great way to market your business, and we’ve put together three ways you can work with them.
Start by finding those B to B influencers relevant to the industry that would be interested in partnering with you on content, create sponsored posts, or try paid ad campaigns where they share their favorite products.
Once you find some potential partners, it’s time for negotiation – decide what type of campaign is best suited for each individual and agree upon terms such as payment amount, length of post duration, etc.
They don’t have to be significant influencers like Gary V. These “influencers” only need to have the attention of your target audience, not the whole world.
They could be micro-influencers.
12. Remarketing across all platform
It’s not enough to just have your ads running on the Google Display Network.
You need a targeted, tailored approach that will increase conversions and campaign ROI.
The first step is to identify where people are coming from – social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.
Next, you’ll want to capture and segment these audiences so that they’re all getting different messages about what you offer during their browsing sessions online.
If you want success with ads, running remarketing Google Ads for ABM is definitely something not to sleep on.
For instance, if someone comes in via LinkedIn then maybe they see an ad with information about your latest white paper while another person sees your solutions website page they see an ad that invites them for a consultation call.
The result? Higher campaign conversion rates and ROI!
Your website visitors are different, there’s no point in treating them all the same.
Simple yet effective to retarget warm audiences. Work in a cadence of messages and ads to smoothly move accounts down your buyers’ journey.
13. Linkedin personalized videos and voice mail outreach
Besides running LinkedIn video ads, B2B companies can find a lot of success with personalized videos and voice mail outreach.
Sales teams are using personalized videos and voice mail to:
- Introduce themselves
- Follow up with new leads
- Summarize chats
- Deliver warm “thank you”s after closing sales.
This is more of a day-to-day sales activation tactic.
The only downside of this ABM tactic is that it’s not scalable as it requires daily work and might consume some time, but great for strategic ABM.
You can use it even after someone accepts your connection request, you could send voice mails or personalized videos to stand out and stay at the top of their heads.
Make sure to create an impressive LinkedIn profile so when your new connections visit your profile, they can learn about your professional story.
14. Round tables and webinars.
With COVID, is this still relevant? Absolutely!.
To build the best authority for yourself and your business, I’d recommend starting off with an event that showcases how your customers are solving certain problems.
Do not directly pitch your product. Approach this from an education point of view.
This is a great way to show off your expertise, and in the process of educating others, you might even teach them how they can start solving their own problems with your product.
Your product can be mentioned but it shouldn’t take the main stage.
15. Write a book
A book is long-form content. The first step to writing one, then, would be figuring out your topic and the title of the book.
Offering your book as part of your ABM strategy is a great way to show potential customers that you are a knowledgeable expert in your field.
It’s also an opportunity to position yourself as a credible thought leader who’s worth listening to, which will attract new followers and build credibility on social media.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creating content for ABM purposes. There are several other types of marketing efforts that can be used alongside your book, such as email campaigns and webinars/webinar programs.
In which you can repurpose modules or chapters of your book/
TIP: You may want to consider offering discounts or free samples through sites like Amazon Prime Membership so readers have access if they’re not able to purchase right away.
This could incentivize them to buy, and it would also provide them with some of your book’s content without having to purchase the entire thing.
Writing a book requires time. But if you don’t have the time to sit down and write you can hire a ghostwriter.
Ideally, you would want to get a ghostwriter that’s familiar with your niche and the type of content they’re writing for. For example, an expert in business or marketing might be better suited than someone who has experience as a novelist.
And while hiring them can cost anywhere from $500 to $5000 per chapter, it may save time so that you don’t have to spend hours researching topics before sitting down at your computer to write each day.
16. Specific Workshops for a selected Company.
If you know a company is struggling in a specific area that you could help, offer a free workshop for the decision-makers and potential users.
You may be able to sell them a more in-depth training or consulting package, but the free workshop could also help you build your credibility for future work.
A company that’s struggling with B2B lead generation might benefit from implementing an account-based marketing strategy and would find value in having workshops on those topics.
These workshops should be relevant to the product you’re trying to sell.
17. Comic book
If there’s a budget, you can partner with Marvel custom studios and create a comic book of a specific high value customer.
This could be an excellent way to build your case around the benefits of a specific solution by illustrating how it drove results for this particular person or company.
It’s definitely a creative idea that’s available for those who got the budget for it.
Here’s an example on how GumGum is using comic strips to market to their prospect, T-Mobile. This is a tweet from the CEO of T-Mobile expressing his interest. Clearly, this caught the attention of T-Mobile
18. Personalised digital gifts
Personalized gifts can be a great addition to your ABM armory as it helps to deeply personalize your message and make your target account feel special.
I mean, who doesn’t like gifts?
A personalized gift could be something they will use day-to-day that has their name on it.
Personalized gifts are not only destined to target accounts.
Personalizing gifts is a cost-effective way to continue building rapport with customers who have already spent money with you as clients.
This can be a good way to prepare for your next upsell or cross-sell with your client.
The gift needs to be associated with your product.
You could think of educational offers like HBR subscriptions. Gifts need to be more tactful yet, attention-grabbing.
19. Private events for top tier accounts
One ABM strategy to definitely add to your strategy once the pandemic is over is private events for top-tier accounts.
This is a great strategy to use in the future, but it can be costly for your bottom line.
Private events are an excellent tactic that will build strong long-term relationships with customers and prospects.
It’s not as expensive as you might think. You just have to find someone who has access to venues at discounted rates or free (they usually want exposure).
The event needs to align well with what they’re looking for – so make sure before hosting an event about social responsibility, first ask them if this interests them or not.
It’s also an amazing opportunity for you to get in front of top-tier accounts and show your expertise, which will make it easier to convert them into customers down the line.
So this should definitely be on top of your list when coming up with ways that can help you close more deals.
20. Creating an independent site to boost your brand.
An independent site boosts your brand in two ways.
First, it gives you the opportunity to create an original and compelling content line that differentiates you from others.
Second, having a new website with its own domain name is not only a way of showcasing your work but also helps build up search engine rankings for better exposure on the web.
For example, if I am selling an enterprise email marketing software. I could outsource and build an email marketing software review or content site.
It would portray a more neutral voice as it’s not the product’s website.
What’s the difference between Account-based marketing and lead generation
Here are the differences between ABM and lead generation:
ABM is a strategy for finding and engaging with target accounts.
Lead generation captures leads from any source, not just the targets you’re targeting in your account-based marketing campaign.
Lead gen often uses tactics like SEO or PPC to generate traffic that may eventually convert into an opportunity. In contrast, ABM focuses on creating and nurturing customer relationships over time until they convert upsell products down the line.
In other words, lead gen is about getting as many people through your funnel as possible. At the same time, ABM is more focused on building meaningful connections with qualified leads or those who are actively buying what your company offers.
When it comes to generating revenue, these two strategies have different priorities: one seeks quantity of conversions at all costs; the other seeks quality conversions.
4 Account-based marketing software and tools
Does ABM seem like a lot of work? Here is a list of ABM tools that you use today to build accounts’ personas, collect information and automate your ABM strategy.
1. Demandbase
Demandbase is an ABM tool that provides customer intelligence and analytics.
For starters, they offer a suite of ABM software that includes Account-Based Marketing Manager (ABMM), Demandbase 360°Marketing Platform (DMP), and the Data Science Toolkit for account-based marketing.
This helps you find prospects with specific criteria such as job titles or company name.
Along with these tools, there are other features available to make your experience easier, like email templates based on different customer personas.
Finally, it has an automated pipeline management feature so marketers can keep track of all their accounts in one place.
You can use AI to find accounts that are looking to buy your products and solutions. You can filter accounts by the type of customer you want them to be with Qualification Score.
Source: https://www.g2.com/products/demandbase-abm-platform/reviews
You can also see how many people are already buying those products with Pipeline Predictive Score and see who is interested in your product or competitors using intent data from more than 500 billion B2B signals a month.
2. Leadfeeder
Leadfeeder is an all-in-one predictive lead scoring and marketing automation solution for outbound sales.
They are the leader in its field, using an advanced algorithm to analyze data from more than 500 billion sources a month: CRMs, email providers, social media networks, online advertising platforms, and many others.
The software then applies artificial intelligence to accurately predict which leads are most likely interested in your products or solutions.
The company’s main product is Leadfeeder Predictor™ (formerly called Outreach), which taps into the power of AI by running millions of simulations per second against historical conversion rates. All without any additional manual work on your part.
This predictive analytics platform offers everything you need to identify more target accounts sooner than ever before while simultaneously increasing lead conversion rates through personalized outreach.
3. Bombora
Bombora is an ABM software that helps businesses find, qualify and engage with target accounts through predictive sales.
It helps marketers and sales teams break down barriers to entry into potential customers’ organizations by predicting their interest in your product or service before they know you’re there and finds ways to make those connections more productive than ever before.
A force powerful enough to bring new ideas inside companies without being too disruptive along the way.
The best use case of Bombora is in B2B marketing, where you’re not just trying to sell a product but also educating and selling the value of your service.
4. 6Sense
6Sense is a predictive sales platform that uses intelligent data and automation to streamline the process of identifying, qualifying, converting, and delighting target accounts.
6sense’s patent-protected predictions can power downstream marketing and sales systems with intelligence on:
- Who is in an active buying cycle
- What they are looking to buy
- When they will make their purchase
- Where along the customer journey they’ve progressed
When running ABM strategies, one of the key predictions to watch is when prospects will make a purchase decision.
This metric can help marketers identify which leads are in an active buying cycle and what they’re looking to buy.
This intelligence from 6Sense enables downstream systems, such as marketing automation or sales CRM, with information on how long it has been since someone opened their email, for instance, and if they have visited your website recently.
Source: https://www.g2.com/products/6sense/reviews
This is information that lets you react more quickly than ever before while still personalizing your communication.
Final thoughts
With all of these tools and information, you can forget that you are still talking to people. We are still all people selling to other people.
The best way to approach a prospect is as person-to-person rather than company-to-company. You might find that your relationship will improve because you’ve made an effort to get personal without being invasive.
With all of these tools and information, you can forget that you are still talking to people. We are still all people selling to other people.