by Diana Marcela Cardona, Project Management at Xtendo Group
There is a methodology that B2B companies are developing to approach their potential customers and carry out campaigns to attract them and thus interact with them, it is account-based marketing or ABM. A process that aims to reduce the risk of showing campaigns to those who are not qualified.
If at any time you have had a problem generating more customers that allow you to advance in the purchase process, this is an opportunity for the conversion to increase and the objectives set out in the marketing strategies to be achieved.
The pandemic caused the digital world to speed up, but it also created a series of health restrictions that prevent the clients that organizations want from reaching them. Gone are the one-to-one meetings, fairs, congresses and other events that allowed a possible contact with the buyer person.
The sales actions imply face-to-face, now all these commercial work forces have looked for new alternatives to generate work links beyond the contact mail or telephone. That is why today, we want to talk to you about ABM.
What is account-based marketing or ABM?
It is a strategic marketing technique that is responsible for treating an account as a single market. It allows the organization to focus on the needs of each potential customer, individually, instead of selling to a larger and more diverse audience.
ABM is taking more and more ground within the dynamism that is generated in current marketing strategies, so it is essential that companies consider this technique and everything they can develop to increase profits.
Why is ABM important for the B2B model?
ABM should be used in today’s organizations because:
- Helps to synchronize marketing and sales teams. When these two areas are in complete harmony, the final objectives are clearer and reach the client more effectively.
- The work teams manage to satisfy the needs of the client. When you work on your own, individually and analyzing each client, the results are favorable.
- It can be complemented with Inbound Marketing strategies to increase effectiveness. On the one hand, the ABM focuses on the needs of the potential client individually, the Inbound attracts opportunities with quality content.
- High-quality content will always be king. Prioritizing strategies with content for each client helps establish relationships where companies that wish to approach are valued for the full potential that is being delivered to them.
At Xtendo, for example, we use the LinkedIn social network to contact customers and offer them valuable content and generate exchange spaces once a week.
Advantages of applying the ABM technique in companies
First of all, one point should be clear, the prevalence of digital channels in all organizations has changed. According to Accenture data , 61% of all B2B transactions now start online. Furthermore, 80% of sales interactions between suppliers and buyers occur in digital channels, according to Gartner .
In that sense, and taking into consideration the contribution that the online universe has today, resorting to this technique will help:
- Increase the Return on Investment (ROI) when defining a B2B strategy.
- Improve the efficiency of the work teams within the organization because they will be better focused and with objectives to meet together.
- Offer quality content that has been specially created for each target customer.
- Establish a guide for the marketing and sales teams to analyze the evolution of the contacts they make.
- Provide a better customer experience because you will acquire new tools to be used and thus create cross-selling programs.
How is ABM implemented in companies?
In order for companies to obtain effective results through the application of this technique, it is necessary that they have these points in mind:
- Identify and define accounts
It is important that companies have customer mapping. The more defined the objective to be addressed, the greater the conversion obtained. For this, an analysis of who the clients are must be carried out, the database must be as optimized as possible.
- Design a list of ideal companies for ABM
When you choose to create a list, the predefined segmentation is helped and the objectives are more aligned and with greater focus. In addition, it allows knowing the size of the market and knowing with certainty which companies will be reached.
- Create custom content
This is the basis of ABM. The customer-facing content that you want to convert must have special features, not only with information that is relevant to your industry but also that you feel was delivered just for you and not for other organizations in your industry.
- Import data from various platforms
Remember that it is essential to build a solid database. They are good tools, search platforms like Facebook and Google Ads to collect as much as possible.
- Learn to measure the impact of ABM
To do this, it is necessary to evaluate the performance for each sale generated in the total of the campaign. Remember that these actions are done together to obtain better results.
Success story in Xtendo
One of the cases with the greatest impact within the company, where ABM achieved favorable results, was that of Microsoft Corp, who hired Xtendo to increase demand in SMEs in Brazil and part of Latin America.
For them, the e-learning platform was available to train salespeople from 1,500 channels in these new demand generation techniques. The objective was achieved in different aspects, but the most relevant was the 56% increase in year-on-year sales with the implementation of this initiative. Besides:
- 1,146 channels were trained to generate demand in one year.
- 904 leads generated in 12 months.
- 20+ grew marketing ROI.
- 559 projects were sold.
- 22% closing fee.
The challenge with this type of organization is to maintain the company’s offer defined so that the stated objectives are achieved. ABM is a technique that came to be part of the marketing plans of many companies because face-to-face options, as it used to happen before, apparently will not return.
