What Is ABM?

In most cases, generating leads is one of the most complicated, most expensive marketing components. Your business cannot thrive if you cannot capture the ideal accounts for you. Now, imagine if you could directly sell your products or services to the best high-value accounts for your business.

Accounts-based marketing (ABM) can turn this vision into reality. According to Forrester, 91% of companies who use ABM techniques increase their average deal size by up to 50%. Let’s find out how this strategy can help you boost your sales.

Definition: Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing or key account marketing is a business approach that focuses resources on specific target accounts. Instead of running mass campaigns, ABM strategies use personalized campaigns to capture, engage, and move target accounts into action.

When you decide to use this approach, you align your sales and marketing departments to filter out less valuable companies. If you succeed, you can quickly bridge the gap between you and a top-tier account. If you run ABM correctly, you will experience a boost in ROI and customer loyalty.

Before we learn more about this revolutionary method, let’s discuss the relationship between ABM and inbound marketing. Trust us; integrating these strategies can propel your business to new heights.

The Relationship Between Account-Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing

At B2B Business Experts, we consider the ABM-inbound marketing partnership one of the most crucial ones in the marketing industry. When they work together, they can give Batman and Robin a run for their money.

How does this partnership work?

So far, we’ve learned that ABM is a highly targeted strategy. On the other hand, inbound marketing allows companies to attract customers through components like search engine optimization (SEO), captivating blogs, or groundbreaking content.

Instead of the usual disruptive strategies of outbound marketing, inbound marketing encourages organically attracting ideal audiences. Using this technique is an efficient way to engage high-value accounts.

Below are some of the advantages of synergizing ABM and inbound marketing efforts.

• You can use inbound marketing techniques to attract top-tier accounts and use ABM methods to accelerate the engagement process. Doing so can result in higher conversion and sales figures.
• With ABM and inbound marketing, you can run two powerful funnels. If you only use ABM strategies, you narrow your potential clients so much that you might miss out on business opportunities. On the other hand, if you only use inbound techniques, you might miss the chance to elevate your relationship with an important client.
• Using ABM with inbound strategies doubles the effectiveness of your content. By implementing both techniques, you eliminate the need for creating content for two different methods. Reusing your content can help you save a lot of time and money. For example, you can get more inbound leads using the right keywords, which you can later use to impress VIP clientele.
• Developers have created advanced software that can help marketing experts implement ABM as a complement to inbound strategies. If you have the right skills and tools, you can lay the foundation for your ABM strategy using inbound marketing.

ABM and inbound strategies go hand-in-hand. Next, let’s discuss the benefits of using ABM.

Benefits of Using Account-Based Marketing

ABM is one of the most popular topics now in webinars, conferences, and training sessions. We’ve gathered some of the most impressive benefits of using this strategy.

Boost ROI

One of the benefits of a well-designed ABM strategy is an impressive return on investment (RPO). An ITSMA online survey reveals that 80% of marketers claim their ABM efforts best other marketing investments.

Additionally, 60% of organizations who have used ABI for at least one year increased their revenues by at least 10%. Also, 19% of the same participants report growing their sales by at least 30%.

ABM proves to be a valuable strategy because it relates marketing efforts directly to closed deals.

Increase Contract Amounts

Customer acquisition is one of the most challenging feats to accomplish, but getting clients through the door is only half the battle. If you want your organizations to thrive, aiming for higher contract amounts can do wonders for your company.

Imagine closing a one-year, $12,000 contract with a $1,000 acquisition cost. While closing a deal is a great thing, you can probably close a higher deal with a VIP account. Spending the same $1,000 on ABM can help you close a long-term deal, like a five-year, $45,000 contract.

Many organizations have witnessed their ABM tactics increase contract amounts by focusing on clients who need their products or services. On average, such strategies can boost deal sizes by 35 to 40%.

Enhance Engagement

Another advantage of using ABM is that it increases consumer engagement. More than eight out of ten marketers using this strategy report improved engagement levels.

After lead generation, the next essential step is to engage with audiences to convert them into customers. The personalization of ABM methods helps companies set up a path for a positive response.

Strengthen Retention

As a business owner, you should include customer retention in your KPIs. An Invesp infographic proves that it is five times more expensive to retain clients than to attract new ones. Keep in mind that loyal clients make up about 80% of a company’s revenues.

If you want to grow your business, customer retention is a crucial factor. Instead of blowing your marketing budgets on acquisition efforts, it’s just as essential to use retention techniques.

Improve Consistency

On average, B2B customers use six interaction channels, and 65% of them are not impressed with the experience inconsistencies. When you run multichannel platforms, you must provide clients with uniform experiences and information. ABM helps organizations improve consistency across all channels because only a few individuals typically handle several VIP accounts.

Complement Marketing Automation

Marketing automation enables companies to create scalable and repeatable processes without the need for additional labor. If you integrate your ABM and automation efforts, you can achieve the following:

• Gain a deeper understanding of high-value accounts
• Trigger campaigns and workflows
• Target decision-makers from an organization

With the right strategies and technologies, ABM can help you achieve your marketing KPIs.

Experience a Convenient Implementation Process

Initially, only megacorporations with countless resources could test such techniques. ABM used to be a tedious manual process, but technological advances have transformed this strategy. Today, it uses virtually the same methods. However, ABM is now a practical solution for any organization with marketing technology skills and tools. If you observe marketing automation and CRM, you have everything you need to try ABM.

Disadvantages of Using Account-Based Marketing

While ABM is a revolutionary technique, it has its share of disadvantages. Let’s go through some situations where ABM may not be valuable.

Not for Everyone

The hard truth is that ABM is not for everyone. Typically, it’s not for non-B2B, non-enterprise, and low-resource companies.

B2B companies often target a small group of prospects, which they attract through different marketing strategies. In most cases, B2B organizations will benefit from this strategy because of its clear ROI, high level of personalization, and fewer campaigns.

If you’re in the B2B industry and have high-value clients and an impressive business network, then ABM might be the ideal solution for you.

Requires Resources

One of the downsides of ABM is that it requires substantial resources, including budget, time, and energy. All new marketing initiatives often require considerable investments, including ABM.

If you’re a barely-liquid startup group without much cash, you may want to consider holistic approaches first instead of ABM. It involves reaching out to a narrow pool of customers, which might not benefit your organization if you need many new sources of income. You can try it when you can afford to run more targeted techniques.

Labor-Intensive

ABM can only work if you have a dedicated team of sales and marketing experts working on this strategy. For every account, you need the ideal messaging, cadence, and content to sustain your approach.

If you don’t have inbound marketing and content professionals, it would be challenging to achieve ABM KPIs. However, if you believe the strategy will help you take your business to new heights, you can outsource ABM tasks to a reputable agency.

Grow Your Business Now

If you want to use a cost-effective strategy that can boost your ROI, increase your contact amounts, and enhance your engagements, we recommend using ABM. At B2B Business Experts, we can help organizations achieve 20 to 30% marketing ROI in less than 60 days through innovative techniques.

However, keep in mind that it’s not for everyone. Schedule your free consultation now to learn if this is the ideal approach for you. We’re here to help you take the first step toward success.