Alex Andy Phuong
Benjamin Alexander
Aidan McGuire
Lucia H. Miller
Cassandra LaiRise of the Reverse Funnel: Account Based Marketing
According to Marketing Sherpa, only 21% of marketing leads convert to sales. These low conversion rates result in misspent efforts, inefficient sales cycle, and often, frustration with marketing. Typically, demand generation marketers focus their efforts on generating new leads through paid advertising, events, website, list buys, social media, and more. The plethora of leads then move through a “lifecycle funnel” where they are nurtured, engaged, qualified, and sent to the sales team. However, the number of “qualified” leads may not always reflect the quality.
The rise of the Account Based Marketing (ABM) is turning the typical sales funnel upside down. ABM is a coordinated strategic approach with sales and marketing where all assets are tailored towards targeting specific accounts. Instead of marketing to acquire a large number of leads, ABM focuses on a few key accounts and marketing to people of those accounts. ABM tactics are essential for higher conversion rates, specifically for higher quality, complex big business deals.
Developing an Account Based Marketing Strategy
Here are 4 key components to keep in mind when constructing your Account Based Marketing strategy:
Alignment With Sales
Sales and marketing need to be closely aligned for a successful ABM strategy. There should be multiple coordinated touch points for the key accounts that engage the right person, at the right time, and frequency. These activities can be emails, events, phone calls, nurture tracks, paid advertisements, social media, offline meetings, etc. When ABM campaigns are aligned with sales, marketing is able to drive the deals that everyone in the organization wants, and is no longer seen as a cost center.
Knowledge of Key Accounts
In ABM, data quality matters. Learn as much about the accounts as possible. This can be through asking the sales team about past, current and desired accounts, online research, tools such as DemandBase and Netprospex for firmographic data, or Lattice and Lead Space for predictive lead scoring. Also, keep an eye on what is happening with the company by setting up Google alerts. Do the research!
Personalization
Treat every account as the unique and special beings they are. Generic “one size fits all” messages will not work here. Instead, create personalized messages to multiple personas of that account, such as the CEO, CTO, VP of Marketing, Asset Manager, etc. Leverage the information you know about the account when creating content, webinars, seminars, dynamic webpages, etc. Go as far as hosting an event for that account, such as a luncheon, and instead of sending mass invites, invite a couple key people from the company and engage with them one on one.
Technology
Marketing automation platforms such as Marketo can align perfectly with your Account Based Marketing strategy. Marketo’s real-time personalization software is a great way to provide personalized content on the web to known or unknown visitors before they even enter the funnel. Vidyard, a video-hosting platform, allows you to include a personal or company name directly into the video. In addition, Engagio, an Account Based Marketing platform for B2B marketing that integrates with Marketo and Salesforce. Engagio also has useful articles on understanding ABM.
Marketers are constantly challenged to do more with less, and marketing is many times seen as a cost center, rather than revenue generator. With ABM, marketers can target key accounts more effectively and efficiently; saving time, money and allowing for better alignment with sales teams to help close even the toughest of deals.
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ENGAGE IN THE CONVERSATION
Rise of the Reverse Funnel: Account Based Marketing
By Jodie-Lail90
According to Marketing Sherpa, only 21% of marketing leads convert to sales. These low conversion rates result in misspent efforts, inefficient sales cycle, and often, frustration with marketing. Typically, demand generation marketers focus their efforts on generating new leads through paid advertising, events, website, list buys, social media, and more. The plethora of leads then move through a “lifecycle funnel” where they are nurtured, engaged, qualified, and sent to the sales team. However, the number of “qualified” leads may not always reflect the quality.
The rise of the Account Based Marketing (ABM) is turning the typical sales funnel upside down. ABM is a coordinated strategic approach with sales and marketing where all assets are tailored towards targeting specific accounts. Instead of marketing to acquire a large number of leads, ABM focuses on a few key accounts and marketing to people of those accounts. ABM tactics are essential for higher conversion rates, specifically for higher quality, complex big business deals.
Developing an Account Based Marketing Strategy
Here are 4 key components to keep in mind when constructing your Account Based Marketing strategy:
Alignment With Sales
Sales and marketing need to be closely aligned for a successful ABM strategy. There should be multiple coordinated touch points for the key accounts that engage the right person, at the right time, and frequency. These activities can be emails, events, phone calls, nurture tracks, paid advertisements, social media, offline meetings, etc. When ABM campaigns are aligned with sales, marketing is able to drive the deals that everyone in the organization wants, and is no longer seen as a cost center.
Knowledge of Key Accounts
In ABM, data quality matters. Learn as much about the accounts as possible. This can be through asking the sales team about past, current and desired accounts, online research, tools such as DemandBase and Netprospex for firmographic data, or Lattice and Lead Space for predictive lead scoring. Also, keep an eye on what is happening with the company by setting up Google alerts. Do the research!
Personalization
Treat every account as the unique and special beings they are. Generic “one size fits all” messages will not work here. Instead, create personalized messages to multiple personas of that account, such as the CEO, CTO, VP of Marketing, Asset Manager, etc. Leverage the information you know about the account when creating content, webinars, seminars, dynamic webpages, etc. Go as far as hosting an event for that account, such as a luncheon, and instead of sending mass invites, invite a couple key people from the company and engage with them one on one.
Technology
Marketing automation platforms such as Marketo can align perfectly with your Account Based Marketing strategy. Marketo’s real-time personalization software is a great way to provide personalized content on the web to known or unknown visitors before they even enter the funnel. Vidyard, a video-hosting platform, allows you to include a personal or company name directly into the video. In addition, Engagio, an Account Based Marketing platform for B2B marketing that integrates with Marketo and Salesforce. Engagio also has useful articles on understanding ABM.
Marketers are constantly challenged to do more with less, and marketing is many times seen as a cost center, rather than revenue generator. With ABM, marketers can target key accounts more effectively and efficiently; saving time, money and allowing for better alignment with sales teams to help close even the toughest of deals.
