It’s an exciting time for marketers all over the world. Buyer-centric content has become the central driving force for inbound marketing, specially account-based marketing. The introduction of marketing automation and the rise in digital channels have changed the game on how marketing is done. Now, marketers are able to achieve more with less time and resources. However, the flipside to this is that most businesses aren’t ready to cope with the influx of incoming leads as a lot of them are “off-target”.
To combat that, an increasing number of B2B are opting for account-based marketing as their way to drive focused marketing campaigns. They limit their list of target clients to only those that have high potential and therefore, become better equipped to manage leads and convert them into “high-value clients”. According to a research report by Alterra Group and as published in Forbes, “97% of companies witness a lift in their performance once they adopt account-based marketing. Another 65% of companies reported that ABM provides significant benefits in attracting new clients.”
In a Nutshell, Why ABM?
There are four main reasons why account-based marketing is hot and happening in the marketing world today:
- It’s not just sales but even marketing plays a significant role in bringing revenue. And an ABM campaign sets out the sales and marketing alignment for achieving successful outcomes.
- Customer’s expectations of personalised content and engagement are rising. More than anything today, customer experience is one of the most closely watched metric for any campaign or offer a business puts out. With ABM, one creates an even higher personalisation and engagement.
- If you are to use a combination of account-based and lead-based strategies, then you can better address each buyer segment you are trying to reach out to.
- New technologies including artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing the future of businesses and transforming how these target accounts are identified, nurtured, and serviced.
Marketo is the industry’s top marketing automation tool for ABM. Right from targeting specific personas and buying groups to creating proactive engagement strategies, Marketo ABM helps businesses move a specific buyer persona towards a specific goal. The bad news is, businesses are not able to optimise this brilliant automation platform and what it has to offer to bring desired results.
And that’s exactly why we are here to help. Find out how to optimise Marketo so you can get the most returns on your investment and continually improve your performance.
Segmenting & Prioritrising Accounts
The best customers are those that last a lifetime. But how do you get to them? By segmenting and prioritising accounts, you put yourself in a position to identify clients and their attributes which make them key accounts. Marketo’s Account Profiling tool, which is powered by Mintigo, uses multiple data points from the web and your database to identify top, target accounts. The software goes a step further and uses predictive scoring to build lists so you can prioritise accounts and accordingly, your efforts. If you have already built a list of targeted accounts, then you can validate the list against the AccountAI recommendations. Use Marketo’s technology to accurately micro-segment and deliver targetted messaging that establishes trust. Infosys reports that 78% of customers are more likely to buy from companies that send more targeted messaging.
Automated Workflows
The centre of an effective ABM strategy is the ability to continuously update your process in order to respond to and reflect the changing requirements of the industry and your customer. With Marketo, you can set account filters and parameters so your target account list self-updates based on current data and trends. Save additional time and resources and never let a lead slip by setting up automated email campaigns for all buyer personas, throughout their entire journey across channels. Setting up detailed workflows will ensure that your ABM strategy is not a patchwork of tools just sewn together, but one that delivers a consistent and complementary experience at every touchpoint.
Focus on the Right Metrics
Marketers who invest in measuring and managing performance create more value and achieve 5% better returns on marketing investments. - Forbes Marketing Accountability Report
It 's one thing to track click-through rates, social media followers, and e-mail open rates, but they should not become the central focus of your measurement metrics. This blinds your organisation in calculating whether it’s actually moving towards the goals that will actually grow the business or not. Marketo allows you to track metrics that matter. As per Marketo, account penetration rate, engagement, average selling price, the average rate of return, win rate, active discussions per account and speed of lead progressing through funnel should form the crux of the metric. Opt for metrics that allow you to capture insights and prove the impact of each marketing investment. Via Marketo’s ABM dashboard, you can unlock statistics from the target account summary level to individual accounts level.
Real-Time Personalisation Across Channels
It’s not sufficient to create content and personalise it over one channel. Content has to be designed in a manner that is channel appropriate and yet personalised. Marketo’s Ad Bridge links its marketing insights with other digital outlets such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and more. You can personalise your digital ads so they resonate with the audience, and deliver more bang for the buck! This tool helps marketers more effectively target audiences based on who they are, their stage in the buyer journey, and their individual behaviour. SchoolDude, a company that offers school operation management solutions, used Marketo’s Real-Time Personalisation (RTP) to personalise their home webpage content as per the profile of the visitor and saw a 30% increase in registrations for an event.
Optimise ABM for Sales
When we talk about inbound sales, we can’t overlook ABM sales via Marketo! Eliminate any friction between your sales and marketing group by allowing sales to have access to the entire ABM Marketo Engage dashboard. You can take it a step further and give sales access to the lists of leads associated with strategic accounts, real-time insights into a customer’s buying intent, and the content and playbook. Use Marketo Engage to increase workflow visibility and drive shared insights between sales and marketing. Marketo allows sales to focus on the best opportunities - the ones that lead to revenue.
Make the Greatest Impact With Marketo
Account-based marketing often sounds like a mammoth project and can feel cumbersome for many organisations. However, when done right, the ROI of ABM is clear. To build a successful and sustainable ABM program, ensure that you are following the listed recommendations so you are able to generate more results from your efforts. MarketingProfs reports that companies that practice ABM correctly generate 208% higher revenue for their marketing efforts. Use Marketo’s ABM features and put the people and their experiences at the centre of your strategy.
Want to optimise your next account-based campaign? Speak with one of our Marketo experts today.
