When you give customers a great experience, chances are they’ll keep coming back for more. Today’s top CMOs know customer experience and customer retention are interlinked: they’re crucial ingredients in the recipe for business success. In fact, just a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits between 25% and 125%.
In recent years, account-based marketing (ABM) has emerged as an effective way to engage and retain customers from high-value accounts. A good ABM strategy is like a recipe — it requires a set of great ingredients and well-timed actions to really work.
That’s why our partners at Terminus whipped up a set of ABM recipes to help you delight your accounts. A number of these recipes call for marketing automation as a key ingredient to manage email campaigns, automate lead follow up, and more.
Here’s a look at what you can start cooking up with ABM.
VIPITA AND HUMMUS 🥙
ABM is based on the idea of delivering highly personalized service to a select group of high-value accounts. These accounts are worth a lot to companies, and they warrant increased care and attention from marketing, sales, and service teams. It stands to reason that the better you treat your customers, the more they’ll value your company.
That’s where the Terminus recipe for VIPita and Hummus comes in. It’s a clear plan for giving your high-value accounts the VIP treatment they deserve.
Here’s a quick summary of the recipe for VIPita and Hummus:
- First, check for engagement spikes among your key accounts
- Research the most engaged accounts with digital marketers and graphic designers
- Create personalized emails for your engaged accounts and include a GIF that links to a unique video you’ve made for them
- Once you have a messaging strategy for each account, send them a relevant gift
- Launch a targeted display ad campaign for each account
- Keep checking back on campaign ROI and adjust marketing as needed
RETENTION RIGATONI 🍝
One of the best ways to learn how to retain customers is by understanding why they might leave you. Keeping track of what your competitors offer can alert you to risks with your own accounts and give you insights that help you cut down on churn.
That’s what the Terminus recipe for Retention Rigatoni is all about. It’s designed to help you use intent data to stay a step ahead of the competition and keep your best customers.
Some quick tips for making Retention Rigatoni:
- Make a list of keywords based on your competitors and their products
- Create a grid showing how your company is positioned against those keywords
- Group your accounts by intent data and filter for competitive keywords
- Use keywords and intent data to identify accounts at risk of churning
- Reach out to champions at those accounts and personalize marketing for them
Remember, keeping existing customers often adds more to your bottom line than attracting new customers. The average success rate of selling to existing customers is 60-70%, while the success rate for selling to new customers is only 5-20%.
PINEAPPLE UPSELL DOWN CAKE 🍰
To expand your business within a key account, you need to identify ways your products and service lines can solve more of their problems. The keys here are research and strategy. With a deeper understanding of your account’s business, you’ll find surprising new ways your company can serve them better.
That brings us to the Terminus recipe for Pineapple Upsell Down Cake. It combines online research with the intent and engagement measurement tools in your tech stack to help you identify opportunities for upselling in ABM.
Here’s how to start making Pineapple Upsell Down Cake:
- Determine the top pain points for your key accounts
- Discuss partnering with other teams and departments for upsell opportunities
- Subtly suggest that your primary account contact train a partner who can remain your internal champion if the primary leaves
- See what your account is hiring for — this will show you what problems they may be trying to solve
- Work with finance to see if you can use discounts or add-ons to sweeten the deal
When you help your accounts succeed with products and services that are aligned with their problems, you’ll create great customer experiences and increase retention.
Want more recipes for ABM success? Check out the whole ABM ‘cookbook’ from Terminus.