Account-based marketing – a marketing strategy that relies on segmented and personalized marketing offerings – is a hot topic among strategists as we enter 2023.
But what is an ABM campaign? What does account based marketing mean in the first place? And most importantly, how to implement an account based marketing campaign?
If you’ve been asking yourself these questions or wondering whether an ABM strategy could be worth your while, then this article is for you. We’ll offer an essential intro to an account-based marketing framework before diving into a step-by-step guide to launching your next account-based marketing campaign.
Let’s get right into it!
An introduction to the ABM campaign meaning in marketing
Before we get into anything complicated, let’s define ABM in marketing first. Account-based marketing is a smart and effective way to tailor your marketing efforts to specific accounts. It’s a method of creating specific and specialized campaigns because instead of focusing on broad demographics or groups, you zero in on specific companies or even individuals.
When you narrow your scope this way, it means you can create marketing messages based on the unique needs of each account. There’s no more worrying about excluding parts of the market because – in essence – that’s the whole point. You want to exclude parts of your market so you can craft a stronger message to the people you do want to reach.
If you’re interested in learning more about how account-based marketing can benefit your business, you can check out The Ultimate Account-Based Marketing Guide from Zoomforth. Otherwise, let’s dive into how you can get your ABM campaign started!
ABM best practices: How to implement account based marketing?
Step 1: Define your Account Based Marketing (ABM) strategy
If you want your sales, marketing, and content teams to be aligned, then setting clear account based marketing objectives before you get started is the way to go. It’s one of the basic account-based marketing best practices to make sure your teams all come together at the first point of contact. After all, to be able to make the most of your account based marketing strategies, the first thing you need to decide upon is what you want to accomplish.
Some common goals can include everything from launching a new product to expanding in an existing market or even entering a brand new one. You can of course tackle more than one at the same time, but if you’re just getting started, it makes sense to start with just one or two. Scaling up will give you plenty of time to iron out kinks wherever they arise, increasing your chances for overall success with your strategy.
Step 2: Identify and rank prospects for your ABM campaigns
There’s a lot of research that needs to be done before you can get your account-based marketing campaign up and running. Perhaps the most important part of that process is account-based targeting. That means understanding more than just basic demographics!
You’ll also want an understanding of their motivations and values (or psychographic data) and what technologies they use and rely on. You should also know where they land in your sales life cycle. It’s a lot of info to collect, but it’s all important because it’s part of what makes ABM such a popular and successful tactic. After you’ve collected as much data as you can on your targets, you can rank them to see which one makes the most sense to start with.
Step 3: Craft your messaging on unique microsite-based ABM landing pages
All that research won’t do you any good if you use the same broad messaging you do on other campaigns here. It’s crucial to personalize your content marketing for your target audience. This is where you’ll put all that prep work you did to good use because you’ll gain insight into their specific concerns and issues. And that will position you to address them head-on.
If your content is all custom, then it follows that you should be hosting it on custom microsites, like those from Zoomforth, to make sure you can easily track your target audience. If you use the same old landing pages, not only will it make data harder to track, but you’ll likely see a drop in conversion all around. After all, the page is no longer serving its intended purpose: it would be trying to be both broad and highly customized at the same time!
Step 4: Choose the right channels to push your account based marketing plan
With a robust profile of your target customer and some custom content at your fingertips, it’s time to figure out the best channels to prioritize. Because your goal with account-based marketing strategies is to be more specific than broad, you’ll want to think more critically here. A one-size-fits-all approach certainly won’t work, so go back to the research you’ve done to think about where the people you want to reach are most likely to receive (and be receptive to) your message.
This might mean looking at more than just digital and out-of-home ad spaces. With ABM campaigns, you can also consider avenues such as in-person and virtual events, webinars, e-books, and blogs. The best campaign strategy will be an integrated approach.
Step 5: Execute your account-based marketing campaign
With the groundwork laid, you’re finally ready to execute your ABM campaign! Launching your first campaign can be a little nerve-wracking, but if you’ve done the prep you’re sure to be in a good place.
Make sure your sales teams are armed with as much of your personalized content as possible to better aid them as they build and strengthen relationships. In turn, make sure they’re also keeping a record of any insights gained from contact with the client to better inform your custom content.
Step 6: Analyze and optimize your chosen account based marketing metrics
Launching your campaign is far from the end of it. Constantly analyzing your results and progress so you can make appropriate tweaks for improved performance is key. The long-term success of all your hard work relies on it. This means closely tracking all the usual suspects: downloads, lead scores, email opens, etc.
A great way to keep track of this is with a KPI scorecard. This way you can easily share the campaign’s progress among all your teams to keep everyone on the same page. It also means it will be easier to pivot if you’re not seeing the conversion rate you want. This is also why it’s incredibly important to use tools that make tracking site visitors and engagement easy, like Zoomforth – a simple way to create custom microsites to attract customers, increase engagement, and boost conversions.
You should be able to go to any part of your campaign and easily see exactly what visitors are doing there. Everything from how they’re engaging to where they’ve been directed to your site should be as accessible as possible. Do your due diligence when choosing your ABM tools to make sure this is the case!
Go from account based marketing basics to advanced ABM techniques with Zoomforth
Zoomforth is at the forefront of microsite creation and hosting and we’re one of the best ways you can get your ABM campaign off the ground. Every Zoomforth site has real-time analytics, giving you a wealth of data to study. This means you’ll be on your way to optimizing your campaign in a flash.
Not only that, but Zoomforth makes it easy to keep all of your pages on brand and there’s no limit to how many pages you can create! So you’ll never have to worry about running out of space. Don’t wait — request a demo today.
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