ABM emerged in response to the great challenge that companies face: effectively reaching their target audience.
With a well-made ABM strategy, it is possible to reduce the sales cycle, increase the conversion of leads to new customers and obtain positive results for your business.
What is ABM?
ABM is the abbreviation for Account Based Marketing, which in good old Portuguese would be something like “account-based marketing”. In short, ABM is a B2B marketing strategy and its purpose is to run highly targeted campaigns to win specific accounts.
In other words, ABM is a marketing strategy focused on accounts that are pre-defined, that is, you will select your potential customers first and then create campaigns to attract and relate to them. As a result, the risk of wasting your campaign with a disqualified lead is much lower, almost nil.
OK! But isn't that Inbound Marketing?
No! ABM is not the same as Inbound Marketing. Inbound Marketing campaigns are created to identify and attract consumers who may be interested in your company. After lead generation comes the qualification and qualified leads go through the funnel.
On the other hand, at ABM the process is more straightforward. You will make a selection of accounts for potential customers before investing in marketing campaigns to impact them.
This way, you reduce the risk of your campaign being directed to an unqualified lead. See a little more about each of the strategies:
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound Marketing is a set of Digital Marketing strategies, which include content marketing, SEO and social networks, which is based on the idea of creating and sharing relevant content, aimed at a specific target audience, in this case defined as persona. .
Its design is focused on attracting, converting and delighting customers. Unlike traditional advertising, which acts in a more invasive way, Inbound Marketing promotes public attraction in a natural way, creating an emotional connection throughout the purchase journey, which is reflected in loyalty and sales.
This strategy can be used by B2B or B2C businesses of all sizes and sectors, thanks to the affordable cost, reach, creation of authority, loyalty and positive perceptions that it is capable of generating.
If your company is B2B, the Amplifica Digital has created a definitive guide on Inbound marketing perfect for your business.
Inbound Marketing vs ABM: Do You Know the Difference?
The universalization of internet access was just the beginning of the digital age. With it, marketing also gained new directions and formats. The personalization of campaigns began to prevail over ads aimed at all audiences, and the relationship with the lead, its possible buyer, became essential to take the purchase journey to the final acquisition.
In this process, some techniques and tools stood out, among them Inbound Marketing and ABM.
ABM – Account-Based Marketing
As its name describes, this strategy is focused on some pre-defined accounts, those with the greatest sales potential. That is, instead of nurturing a large number of potential customers, the work is totally focused on those few leads that are most likely to reach the end of the purchase journey.
It is important to remember that, as in other fronts of digital marketing, the quality of the content is fundamental, however, in this case it must be even more customized and personalized in order to attract the decision makers of the target companies. Offering one or more information with applicable and useful purposes on a daily basis, that is, generating value for your persona, is one of ABM's main differentials.
Inbound Marketing
In free translation, the term means Attraction Marketing and consists of, literally, attracting your leads through relevant content, taking them to your website, blog or social networks. From that moment on, a relationship is established with that lead, nourishing them with rich materials of interest that can take them on a buying journey.
The steps of Inbound Marketing
- Attraction: Creating relevant content that will drive a lot of interested parties to your website or landing page.
- Conversion: at this point these people need to become leads and this happens by exchanging their contact information for rich content.
- Relationship: with your leads positioned in the purchase journey, at this stage you need to relate to them, with different content depending on the stage of the funnel, generating business opportunities.
- Sale: identified the moment of each lead, sales can occur in different ways, for example: within your own website or through the contact of a salesperson.
- Analysis: with the intention of optimizing the process, at this stage it is important to evaluate everything that has been done and the results obtained.
Inbound Marketing vs ABM
The Inbound Marketing strategy is focused on volume, attracting as many people as possible to your company and eliminating disqualified leads later. In addition, Inbound actions are not usually proactive, as the purpose is to attract the customer, not go to him.
However, at ABM it's a little different. After all, you select specific accounts that you already know fit your business and your values. You also spend more money and time on your marketing efforts. This strategy is ideal for companies that sell complex products or services with a higher ticket, which is why it is used in B2B businesses.
Another important difference from the two strategies is the sales funnel. In the case of IBM, this is reversed. In order for you to understand better, the Inbound actions funnel is composed of 4 stages, which are learning and discovery, problem recognition, solution consideration and evaluation and purchase.
When it comes to ABM, ICP's journey is based on business intelligence to identify accounts, relationship and identify contacts, engage and nurture and sell.
In this way, the company remains in the daily lives of leads, whether they are individuals or companies, making them remember it when they need its products or services.
measurement of results
Another indispensable process in both Inbound Marketing and ABM is the measurement of results. Through KPIs and the use of sales marketing automation tools, it is possible to both promote the necessary customization, as well as constantly optimize strategies to generate better results.
Despite being similar, Inbound Marketing and ABM strategies have their differences. Both are committed to the creation and availability of valuable content to attract new customers, but attracting leads broadly or specifically is one of the main strategies that sets them apart.
While ABM focuses on high potential customers, restricting their relationship to the journey of those handpicked leads, Inbound Marketing bets on a broader way to bring leads into the sales funnel, even if they are not qualified.
The good news is that it is not only possible, but also recommended to use both strategies in parallel and in a complementary way. For this, it is necessary to carefully assess the universe of customers that one wants or is reaching at that given moment.
The lead acquisition cost and, above all, the complexity of the sale are decisive in deciding which one to use. And, nothing prevents your strategy from attracting the customer to the funnel through Inbound Marketing and that the use of ABM is decisive to achieve the sale.
How to use ABM and Inbound Marketing in your strategy?
Even with their differences, ABM and Inbound Marketing complement each other. In this way, it is possible to balance both strategies to reach the largest possible number of customers.
Because it is more focused on larger accounts, Account-Based Marketing ends up becoming more limited in terms of the volume of leads. This means that it is possible to implement Inbound Marketing actions for small and medium-sized accounts, leaving the most specific cases to ABM.
In this aspect, the best thing to do is to analyze the company's internal structure and understand what it will be possible to apply intelligently, in order to optimize resources and bring greater return. The important thing is to understand that both strategies can run in parallel, one being complementary to the other.
Being more objective, many Inbound strategies can be used within the logic of custom Account-Based Marketing campaigns. You can use the full potential of Inbound to feed the ABM funnel.
You must have noticed that Account Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing are very different strategies, but together they can bring good results, depending on the characteristics and objectives of your business.
ABM: The importance of getting back to basics
The current economic scenario underlines the importance of keeping in mind right accounts No. right moment, And right way.
Why is it important to pay attention to the basics?
In a business environment, getting the basics right is key! However, many decision makers when starting to invest in ABM do not ask themselves in which accounts they should deposit their efforts. This is a fatal mistake, since ABM only works if you know which accounts can be won and which ones will bring positive results.
When investing in ABM it is necessary to analyze external factors, whether the accounts are retracting or expanding. It is not just about focusing on “right accounts”, but focusing on the right time. Only then will your company direct its efforts towards an initiative that will bear fruit.
How is the situation of your company in relation to ABM?
Perhaps the account your company has in mind has already found a solution with a competitor or is in the background and does not want to invest at this time.
- How should you proceed in these situations?
- Putting all your efforts into something that might not bear fruit?
- Wait another moment and meanwhile invest in accounts with a greater possibility of success?
With regard to ABM, the answer is to analyze the real capacity of this negotiation to materialize. At those times take the passion out of your eyes and look coldly at the scenery:
- How are your finances?
- Can your company afford to wait?
- Does your company have the capacity to meet the bill you want or is it purely pretentious?
Another key point is to find out what your sales team thinks. Your marketing must be connected with the sales team's strategies, trust your team. The idea of a digital marketing strategy in parallel with the sales strategy is not acceptable, the two have to be one.
I assume that your marketing and sales teams have already adopted the ABM strategy, but it's important to keep in mind that, more crucial than all complex operations, is ensuring that the fundamentals are executed correctly.
How to put ABM into practice?
Anyway, now that you already know what ABM is, let's go to the steps to implement it in your sales strategy.
1. Identify and define accounts
To put your strategy into operation you need, first of all, to identify who your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is.
First, do an analysis within your base to find out who your best customers are, those who have the best engagement, who know the features of your service or product well and who would recommend your company to your friends and partners.
In view of your business experiences, think: what kind of company or person would be your dream client? Who would be the best customer for you to sell?
2. How to generate a list of accounts for ABM
A well-defined list of accounts will require good segmentation. For this, it is extremely important to align the marketing and sales teams to define the main accounts. Based on the data, generate a list according to the alignment done and then create a filter to select the accounts. A valuable suggestion for this procedure is to calculate the size of the market and then compare it to the lists you are already working on. This approach will allow you to determine the number of companies that can be reached.
3. Personalized content and offers
Now the next step is to define the content or offer strategy for these campaigns.
To build a relationship with these prospects, it's important to create personalized content for each prospect. Personalization is key to ensuring you are speaking the same language as your future customer. Besides, when seeing a language that respects his particularities, he will feel unique and important.
4. How to create an ABM campaign
With the list of accounts validated and content offers produced, it's time to start testing ABM campaigns.
There are several ways to carry out ABM campaigns:
- Import the list into Facebook Ads as a personalized audience;
- Import your list into LinkedIn Ads as an email list (Contact Lists) or company names (Account Lists);
- Import the list into Google Ads to retarget for that list only;
- Invite the list of accounts to an exclusive event or sponsor events from these companies;
- Go up the list in a DMP (Data Management Platforms) to serve ads in programmatic media;
- Use ClearBit Reveal to tell who are the companies that visit your site. The tool creates filters and classifies in Google Analytics the industries, positions, technologies used and company size. You can also create a retargeting just for that targeting in Google Ads;
- Direct actions with a list, such as making an appointment, telephone, email, sending gifts by mail and events that companies participate in.
How to measure the impact of ABM
Finally, the time has come to measure the results obtained. Get feedback from the sales team, analyze the real changes that came from the practice of ABM and see what needs to be adapted.
When we talk about ABM, we have some types of metrics like:
1) Coverage
This metric maps the quality and scope of the data collected and serves as a basis for setting up your strategic plan. In this way, you will be able to accurately identify the volume of target accounts, the focal point of each account with decisive power and interested in your solution and the contact information of these people.
2) Consciousness
Do your potential customers know your company? Do you know what you offer? Marketing considers Brand Awareness as one of the most significant metrics. This metric evaluates the level of recognition that consumers, or in this context, potential customers, have in relation to a brand. This is also reflected in business results.
3) Engagement
Once you know your company, the next step is to engage prospective accounts. The more time they spend with you, the more committed they tend to be.
Thus, the ideal is to measure how much your brand consumes the time of your potential customer. This is a task that requires you to closely monitor all interaction between your contacts and your company. You must know when they respond to your marketing programs, when they talk to your sales team and when they use your products or services and if they are satisfied.
4) Scope
Anyway, see if you are wasting your efforts. Because reach is an important parameter for you to rank the success of your campaigns by channel.
The sales funnel in ABM
ABM turns the funnel upside down. Rather than starting with marketing channels, ABM's strategy begins by identifying and segmenting accounts. Marketing can send personalized messages to decision makers on these accounts and on channels that they actively use.
In account-based marketing, the sales funnel is separated by 4 steps. Know each one of them:
1) Identify
Your marketing and sales team must collaborate together to define the ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), as well as in the creation of a list of prospects who have the desired profile for the solution that your company offers. Thus, it is essential that the ideal customer profile is very well aligned with the two teams.
2) Expand
Once the profile is defined, you must improve your knowledge about each chosen customer. Know your pains, priorities and needs. Therefore, it is important that the marketing and sales teams work in partnership in this immersion. Only then will it be possible to create materials to support a good ABM strategy and move on to the next step.
3) Engagement
After entering the universe of your target accounts, you must execute the marketing plan in all the channels that the company is connected to. This omnichannel strategy is crucial to drive a variety of marketing actions, such as content marketing, events, personalized emails, among others.
4) Conquest
Every conquest requires a lot of strategy and wit. Although we work with accounts, it is important to pay attention to one detail: we are in contact with people who make the decisions and who have specific needs and desires. Therefore, understanding which of these desires and needs can be met is fundamental.
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