Part 3: 5 Strategies for Successful ABM
Welcome to Part 3 of our 3-part ABM series. After learning about why ABM is important and how it works, it’s now time to discuss how to use it successfully. When done successfully, ABM has the potential to create much greater ROI for B2B marketers:
87% of B2B marketers surveyed by ITSMA reported that their ABM initiatives outperform their other marketing investments in terms of ROI.
91% of companies using ABM increase their average deal size, with 25% reporting an increase of +50% (SiriusDecisions).
Businesses may be hesitant to adopt a whole new strategy, but with the right team and technology in place, ABM can be a game-changer.
Use these 5 strategies to create successful ABM:
1. Align Your Teams
To begin, it is important to understand how your sales team is conducting their outbound, which usually includes cold calling or automated outbound email tools. It is likely that a few different strategies are used between different sales levels, so it is challenging to align messaging or positioning between these levels.
The objective is to create a consistent strategy within your entire business to help target a specific group of customers. When departments are aligned, strategies are much more efficient, effective, and relevant in targeting customers.
Including more than just sales and marketing helps bring different perspectives and broadens the conversation, helping to overcome any obstacles existing between them.
2. Create Your ICP
As we discussed in Part 2, your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is used to build a specific criterion for selecting target companies. They are used to segment messaging, content and playbooks that are created to cater to a client’s specific needs. An ICP is a description of a target company that is a best-fit for your product or solution, not an individual buyer.
When you begin to build your ICPs, you should start with focusing on 1-2 key segments, so it is easier to create highly relevant messaging. It is important to note that creating an ICP that is too general will cause your profiles to be less effective and personalized. On the other hand, if you focus on too many details, it may be overwhelming. Start small, and build on what you learn from each target market.
3. Simplify and Focus
You want your targets to feel as though all your content was made just for them, with consistent, personalized messaging. Keep it simple and specific with a focus on the pain points and personas of your target customers.
- What is their specific pain point?
- How do you solve this for them?
- What resources can you offer to help them?
Your target message should be adjusted to suit their needs and not just generic product, technical or service information.
4. Build Your Playbook
The playbook is one of the most important aspects of successful ABM. The playbook maps out the desired outcomes. There are three main plays to consider:
- Activate: The goal of this playbook is to get a target’s attention and to get them to engage. These are likely companies that you have no history with, so you need to attract their attention in a big way. You need them to have some form of engagement to remember you whether it be coming to your website, downloading a piece of content, watching a customer testimonial, etc.
- Accelerate: The goal of this playbook is to get a conversion once they’ve activated themselves. You want all your campaigns getting to the right people, so they have all the information and content they need to move forward.
- Expand: This playbook targets companies that are already clients. The goal of this playbook is to keep the customer coming back or to upsell them to new products or services. This includes tactics that promote customer loyalty and educate accounts on new possibilities.
The point of a playbook is coordinating messaging, content, and channels to create a highly relevant experience for the target customer. If positioning is correct, then your targets are surrounded with the right information at the right time which helps increase the effectiveness of both sales and marketing efforts. The overall goal is to align with our target companies to drive sales and expansion.
5. Be Clear on KPIs and Metrics
Lastly, it is important to understand that ABM is about quality, not quantity. If you are too focused on lead creation and not the actual conversions, your ABM will not be successful. Metrics should be focused on how you are impacting your organization’s ROI and bottom line. Metrics such as click-through rates are much less important than revenue performance metrics such as average deal size and close rates. Set your KPIs to measure these campaigns in the CRM.
Need help? We help customers build an ABM strategy to drive more sales with the right customers to accelerate growth.
- Align marketing and sales efforts to increase output
- Drive higher average deal sizes
- Create a personalized experience for your target audiences
- Target your ad spend more effectively
- Create a predictable revenue generation model
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At RenderTribe, our RenderLab process helps you identify the unique pieces that fit your marketing strategy and align your plan with overall business objectives. We help build the foundation for measurement, expertise, and the tactical execution needed to support the plan.
Contact us today to see how we can help you align sales and marketing activities to achieve your revenue goals.
