How to choose account-based marketing platforms: features and metrics to look for

Marketing
Ads and mail marketing

Finding the right account-based marketing platform might not be 100% necessary to launch an account-based marketing campaign, but it can certainly make your life a whole lot easier.

With all the work that goes into an ABM campaign — and the constant tweaking and refining that must happen to ensure their success — it can be a lot to keep track of! Account-based marketing platforms help you to have the info you need at your fingertips, right when you need it.

Given their crucial role, choosing the right account-based marketing platform for your business can be a complex process. Which features are must-haves, and which can you manage without? Which metrics should you be paying attention to, and how often? In this article, we’ll walk you through the most important ABM features and metrics to look out for as you select the perfect account-based marketing platform for your business.

What is an ABM platform’s function in your ABM strategy

Just as you don’t need fancy running shoes to run, you don’t need an account-based marketing platform to run an ABM account. But just like a marathon runner wouldn’t be caught dead running a race in flip-flops, having the right platform can help you level up your ABM game. It’s all about having the right tools for the job so you can perform at your best.

What should you expect from an ABM platform?

Account-based marketing platforms are — unfortunately! — not magic solutions that instantly solve your marketing obstacles. You’ll need to think carefully about what issues you’d like help with before researching which platforms might do just that. Platforms can automate tasks, make tasks easier, and make implementing updates simpler, but they won’t do all the hard work for you.

Rather, think of an account-based marketing platform as a one-stop shop for implementing your existing ABM strategy.

What problems can ABM platforms solve?

Account-based marketing automation is probably the biggest boon ABM platforms can offer. This means you’ll need to understand the needs of your campaigns well enough to be able to see what could be automated.

Similarly, an ABM platform can help streamline communication between your teams — and, in some cases, even between your company and your potential clients.

What should I do before I start analyzing account-based marketing platforms?

The best thing you can do before you start actively looking at ABM platforms is to start by making a list of any pain points you’re currently experiencing in your account-based marketing campaigns. Are you running into issues trying to collect data? Are you having a hard time maintaining your contact list? Tracking your site visitors and their actions on your pages? Ask the members of your teams what issues they’re running into and compile that information together. Then you can organize that data to establish your most pressing concerns, and dive into your ABM platform search with those challenges in mind.

Top account-based marketing platform features to look for

As you research and compare account-based marketing platforms, you’ll want to consider their ability to offer certain important features and modules. As a marker, you can use the following features which most top ABM platforms offer:

Detailed site-visitor tracking

Site-visitor tracking — the collection of data about who is visiting a site and when — can make lead generation significantly less time-consuming. Site-visitor tracking capabilities offer the chance to understand not only who’s visiting your site, but where they’re coming from and what pieces of content they’re engaging with (or not) once they get there.

Contact management

Having trouble keeping track of your contacts? Look for platforms that can help you keep that list neat and orderly with a contact management feature. Some ABM platforms can trigger automatic emails for you on important dates or at specific points in the sales funnel. Other tools go one step further and make it simple to send gifts, which is another great way to nurture ABM relationships.

Easy content creation and hosting

Because ABM campaigns require a lot of custom content, you may be in the market for a platform like Zoomforth that allows for unlimited site hosting and easy-to-use tools. The microsites you build to capture your targets’ attention should also offer the chance for plenty of data tracking!

Email and mobile marketing tools

Taking control of your email marketing strategy involves managing more than just your contact list. If you want to take your email campaigns to the next level, you’ll want to look for platforms that can do things like trigger custom sends, deliver one-to-one content with rules you can set for each recipient, and — of course — provide access to real-time reporting so you can easily analyze all of your sends.

Plenty of data analytics

As you’ve probably noticed, your account-based marketing measurement techniques are going to have a say in how your ABM strategy progresses. This is why handy access to analytical data is one of the most crucial features of an account-based marketing platform. You don’t want to waste time digging up data or — worse yet — be forced to sift through data you’re not sure how to read or interpret! The right ABM platform can make accessing and making sense of the data you need simple and seamless.

ABM metrics your chosen account-based marketing platform should give you access to

As you analyze account-based marketing platforms with the above features front and center, you should also take into account the kind of account-based marketing metrics your chosen platform gives you access to. There are some clear ABM success and engagement metrics that will help you refine your ABM strategy and get better results. So, the ABM metrics to track include:

Conversion rate

An obvious metric, perhaps, but an essential one! Conversion rate is an essential metric for any ABM platform, and you’re going to want the ability to view your conversion rate regularly. Doing so will enable you to measure whether your target audience is taking the action you most want them to take in a given circumstance — namely, to convert!

Sales velocity

Sales velocity is the measurement of how quickly a target progresses from an opportunity to a done deal. The shorter this time, the better, and knowing this time in real-time is extremely valuable to your sales team. Luckily, many account-based marketing platforms come with this metric built in.

Cost per acquisition

Your cost per acquisition (CPA) is how much money you spend to acquire a single customer or account based on what you’ve spent on your campaign. Similar to sales velocity, the goal is to get your CPA number as low as reasonably possible. However, if you’re not able to track CPA info quickly, it’s likely to be of limited use to you.

Account-based engagement

Monitoring your target accounts’ engagement with you is crucial to being able to optimize their experience — and that’s what your ABM campaign is all about!

Tracking account-based engagement involves the ability to view where your target accounts prefer to engage (for instance, are they more active on your microsites or via email?). This metric will allow you to target the mediums that your accounts prefer to work through, in addition to helping to highlight weak spots in your wider ABM strategy. For instance, if you’ve created what you thought was custom content — but notice that your targets aren’t engaging with it — you’ll know that an adjustment to your content strategy is needed.

Churn rate

Your churn rate is the proportion of customers or accounts that leave your service during a specified period of time. Understanding and tracking churn can help you figure out how to intervene to encourage renewal or prolong your relationship. It can also help you find breakdowns in your current strategy that might be leading to an undesirable churn rate.

Customer lifetime value

Account-based marketing best practices recommend knowing your customer’s lifetime value (CLV), inside and out. CLV is a record of the total dollar amount a B2B customer spends with your business throughout your relationship together. For instance, a customer that stays with you but spends very little would have a lower value than one that stayed with you and spent more. Measuring and understanding your CLV on your account-based marketing platform can also help you budget smarter and better allocate your resources.

Let Zoomforth be your go-to account-based marketing platform for publishing content

Now that you’re armed with what to look for in an ABM platform, why not get started with Zoomforth? As a cloud-based SaaS solution, Zoomforth is the perfect solution for creating custom microsites for your potential targets.

Drag-and-drop design tools make Zoomforth’s interface easy to use, and automated mobile layouts and previews mean you can be confident your microsites will look great regardless of the device they’re viewed on. Plus, Zoomforth comes with access to features you can use to boost your ABM campaigns, like access from any location, real-time analytics, and enterprise-level security.

What are you waiting for? Request a demo today to discover how Zoomforth can take your account-based marketing strategy to the next level.

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