Marketing in 2021 will be fuelled by account-based marketing (ABM). ABM is a marketing approach that focuses on a specific set of predefined, targeted accounts, creating personalised experiences for those accounts with the aim of generating highly qualified leads. ABM encourages close alignment of sales and marketing teams allowing each department to gain a better understanding of the motivations, frustrations and needs of the individual accounts which enables them to be better, more efficiently targeted.
In turn, great ABM will be fuelled by; proactive and detailed market research, profiling, defined targeting, microsegmentation and enhanced personalisation. For an ABM approach to succeed and product positioning to be effective, marketing teams must understand exactly what customers need and want. Achieving the highest level of understanding can be realised by following the 5 steps described below.
1. Market research
Defined as the "action or activity of gathering information about consumers' needs and preferences”, market research provides the background knowledge and power to plan and develop strategies for growing your business. Market research allows companies to discover target markets and get opinions and other feedback from consumers about their product or service.
2. Profiling
Corporate profiling is a process that delivers an in-depth blueprint of an organisation’s structure, technology, people, processes, customers, and relationships. Using profiling, organisations can identify where interlinked relationships already occur or where potential exists.
3. Defined targeting
Targeting is a well-known marketing strategy that breaks a large market into smaller segments to concentrate on a specific group of customers within that audience. Instead of trying to reach an entire market, companies deploy targeted marketing to put their energy into connecting with a specific, defined group within that market.
4. Microsegmentation
Microsegmentation breaks data down into even smaller and more detailed segments based on specific demographics, e.g., buying behaviours, personas, psychographics, and geographic factors. Understanding your data at this micro level means analysing and manipulating it will be more straightforward and creating compelling content for targeted marketing will be simpler and will deliver better results.
5. Enhanced personalisation
Marketing personalisation means interacting with your audience and customers in a way that feels personal and human, taking into consideration their likes, preferences, and interests. Enhanced personalisation gives more than just a competitive advantage, it is something your customers now expect in every interaction with you. Customers want a personalised experience, tailored to their interests and needs. Customer experience is a key brand differentiator and the more enhanced your personalisation strategy the better your customer experience will be.
How will ABM support your growth strategy in 2021?
An account-based marketing approach will support your strategy for growth in 2021 by helping you grow your prospect and customer base. How? By analysing and manipulating data to find the people that really want or need your product via profiling of buying personas and supplier preferences. Thorough understanding of your prospect and customer buying personas
and preferences enables vendors to fully comprehend customers and to build a robust strategy on how to break into a prospect account. The personalised approach encourages action and generates leads.
The ABM profile-based approach requires sales and marketing functions to work together on the same list of target accounts, focusing energy and resources into these accounts to provide better alignment. Customers benefit from a personalised approach and tailored messaging. Using ABM provides customers with expertly delivered, bespoke lead generation campaigns, saving time and resources.
CPB views account-based marketing as a fluid service. We give clients what they want; building tailored packages of lead generation services to deliver on strategic sales growth.
3 compelling reasons to adopt an ABM approach:
1. Targeted, personalised marketing
ABM gives marketers the opportunity to create more personalised messaging. Say farewell to blanket messaging and focus on your target audience.
2. Efficient use of marketing resource
ABM structures marketing efforts on key accounts to drive the most ROI. This narrow focus optimises the use of your most valuable resources: time and money.
3. Improved customer acquisition
ABM is a highly effective B2B marketing strategy, particularly beneficial when targeting high-value accounts. It focuses on nurturing key customers and prospects. It eliminates the poor leads and shines a greater spotlight on the process of customer acquisition.
Given the right ABM strategy, marketing and sales teams can work together to target high-value, best-fit accounts and turn them into customers.
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