When companies wish to get started with Account Based Marketing (ABM), the first step is very often to call it a pilot, or “campaign” for a decided period of time. On paper, the logic makes sense:
- choose a few prioritized accounts in your sales pipeline
- execute an ABM campaign against those accounts
- measure and discuss results, month by month in meetings together with sales
- determine whether ABM is “worth the investment” on a larger scale
Unfortunately, the pilot or campaign approach to ABM is risky, and, as a result, many companies fail to achieve anywhere close to the desired results and/or end up dismissing ABM as a viable strategy for their business. Here’s why:
ABM is not and will never be a campaign
ABM should be viewed as a strategic initiative, with a level of investment and planning appropriate for a fundamental shift in the way a company drives revenue with their prioritized target accounts. Pilot campaigns are often too short in terms of time invested, and they cause companies to dabble in ABM without personalized content, appropriate technology, research, data, and other key investments that a more thought-out strategy would do.
ABM is a marathon
It’s possible to generate quick results from ABM, but it’s unrealistic to expect them, or to conduct any proper evaluation of ABM on execution in a limited period of time. After all, ABM has the most value for B2B-companies with long and complex sales cycles. If yours are somewhere in between 6-18 months, don’t expect to run a 3-month campaign and generate meaningful ROI.
ABM pilots often skips a few important steps, and is too general
The pressure to generate quick results from ABM-pilots can lead marketers to adopt expensive, non-personalized, content-poor tactics (such as direct mail, social media display ads etc.). These types of tactics are typically best reserved for accounts that haven’t shown any engagement with you at all, not digitally or physically. ABM-pilots rarely have the time for preparation in terms of appropriate target accounts, content that fits the target’s pains and challenges, or even if there is a known deal going on that marketing can support.
How do you introduce an actual ABM-program?
Companies looking to get started with Account Based Marketing would be better of in planning over time, often based on a tiered target account strategy:
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One to One – Prioritized top accounts with high potential in terms of revenue for your company. Meaning highly personalized, “white glove” outreach and communication, with sales and marketing working close together in the tactics regarding the specific target account
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One to Few – Personalized and segmented outreach to key industries or other target important target groups entering your sales pipeline with a known potential deal size
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One to Many – Broader demand generation to the wider number of target accounts. Still targeting prioritized accounts, but not with known ongoing deals within the coming 6 months
How do you introduce an actual ABM-program?
Companies looking to get started with Account Based Marketing would be better of in planning over time, often based on a tiered target account strategy:
-
One to One – Prioritized top accounts with high potential in terms of revenue for your company. Meaning highly personalized, “white glove” outreach and communication, with sales and marketing working close together in the tactics regarding the specific target account
-
One to Few – Personalized and segmented outreach to key industries or other target important target groups entering your sales pipeline with a known potential deal size
-
One to Many – Broader demand generation to the wider number of target accounts. Still targeting prioritized accounts, but not with known ongoing deals within the coming 6 months
In a tiered structure, a company can continue broader demand generation; one to Many, and at the same time introduce more targeted, personalized outreach to higher-prioritized industries or target accounts. Then, as specific, high-potential accounts show awareness, engagement and intent, those accounts can shift to a high-touch, working even closer with sales to create surgical messaging that accelerates the ongoing or upcoming potential deal.
Adopting a “crawl-walk-run” approach to Account Based Marketing allows companies to optimize their strategy over time. Early results can also inform target account selection (based on which accounts are showing engagement) vs. the standard pilot approach of “these are the accounts that sales want or wish to go after.” So called dream accounts…
A tiered approach allows a company to dip its toes in the ABM waters, and then scale investment based on proven success. This gives you a view of your digital sales process, which basically is what Account Based Marketing is about. But it also reduces the overall risk, and improves the chances of Account Based Marketing giving you a ROI in the long run.
