After some research, a few technical demos, and conversations with the C-suite, you’ve decided on the right ABM platform for your organization. Now what?
ABM can be very Bandersnatch-like, a “choose your own adventure” journey that requires a little finesse and some additional exploration once initial decisions have been made. After the dust settles and you’re ready to jump in on the great adventure that is ABM, there’s still some leg work that needs to be done in order to execute a successful first campaign. Here is a 6-step guide that will help you engage the right people on the right channels at the right time.
6 Key Steps to ABM
1. Selecting accounts & contacts – Traditional criteria in selecting accounts include sales input, revenue potential, and firmographics. While those are necessary attributes to consider, adding behavioral and intent-based criteria (i.e. website, CRM, and buyer activity on 3rd party websites) plays a key role in narrowing down the selected accounts to the best possible opportunities.
2. Defining account tiers – Taking a tiered approach to ABM is important because it aligns the way your organization prioritizes your target accounts. Account tiers help define the number of accounts to target, how much to invest in each program, and role responsibilities.
3. Developing account insights – Gather account insights to help your team understand when and how to reach out to those accounts when they are in the buying cycle. These insights include intent data, web activity of both known and unknown accounts, and actions recorded in your CRM. Essentially, account insights give visibility into where the opportunities for engagement are in each account and where those accounts are in their purchase journey.
4. Creating a campaign strategy – Whether you’re looking to focus on buffing up your ad game, web engagement, or sales activation, build a multichannel campaign blueprint to grow awareness and maximize influence within each target account tier.
5. Orchestrating the campaign – This step requires taking action against the campaign strategy created and running those campaigns to execution. Scaling your multichannel strategy doesn’t need to be difficult. Something as simple as integrating your channels by automatically setting off different campaigns when accounts move through purchase stages can be set up. You can also automatically alert sales when accounts display purchase signals, and trigger sales plays with relevant messaging.
6. Measuring and reporting success – At the end of the day, it’s about proving pipeline and revenue impact. The old lead gen model tracked leads, form fills and only delivered marketing-qualified lead (MQLs). With ABM, you’re shifting to the metrics that matter. An ABM program instead tracks accounts, interest/engagement from defined target accounts, and delivers marketing qualified accounts (MQAs) to your sales team.
If you haven’t noticed, ABM is completely different from the traditional marketing approach. Think of it as marketing 2.0 for conducting modern business – new and improved! Not only are best practices set differently but the overall objective is slanted for the best possible outcome. Marketing’s job is no longer about bringing in the leads and handing it off to sales. With ABM, the sales and marketing teams are going after leads together and it’s a collaborative effort. By following these 6 steps, you are enabling your organization to run successful campaigns that track account progression from initial interest through the sales pipeline.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joanne Mason
Senior Marketing Specialist at Triblio
Joanne is responsible for the strategic planning and execution of sponsored conferences and custom events for Triblio along with managing Triblio’s social media activity, as well as assist with the development and distribution of marketing communication.