Even if your Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy has been producing results, you may have recently noticed a decrease in conversions or a blip in your revenue stream. These are signals that indicate it’s time to revisit that ABM strategy and see what needs to be revised to reflect changes in your B2B audience or the trends and desires driving their purchase decisions.
Here are some suggestions on how to revise your ABM strategy to address any recent changes in results or feedback from your accounts:
Refresh Relevant Content and Channel Delivery
Although your ABM strategy may be on target, the content you offer those accounts may need to be updated to respond to changing needs and issues. What your content once helped them address may no longer offer the same value. That’s because business customers and prospects are experiencing a dynamic environment with shifting challenges and opportunities.
To continue building those business relationships through offering value, you will need to take the time to research and discuss the current issues with your accounts so you can adapt the content you share with them. Also, reframe the type of content offered, including providing tips and tactics, statistics and solutions, and use cases.
To revise your ABM strategy in relation to content means you may also need to uncover other channels and methods for content distribution beyond a blog, website, or social media post. For example, consider creating microsites that are targeted at various accounts or decision-makers in those accounts. These sites will specifically focus on certain issues you’ve identified for those segmented audience members. Or, develop a video content series for certain personas in your accounts that directly talk to them about how to solve specific issues. As part of the process, construct a content calendar to track topics and use to assess engagement rates.
Alter Primary ABM Strategy to Focus on Growth
Although you may think your ABM strategy is all about growth, it may not reflect all the possible ways that you can generate growth within your business accounts or prospects. That means looking for unconventional approaches of marketing or innovative ways to show why a company should invest in your solution.
For example, conduct an on-site demo or invite key accounts to your headquarters for a day of learning and development related to their industry needs. Or, create an online learning course or series. These types of experiential marketing efforts need to be tested and potentially tweaked, but they are worth trying for the very fact that your accounts and prospects will be intrigued that you are offering a different interaction than other companies. While some may not be responsive to these growth hacking tactics, you may win over others that previously had not been motivated by traditional marketing efforts.
Special note: when doing this make sure you’re paying attention to growth metrics like revenue, profit. If you’re not paying attention to your ARR, you run the risk of focusing on metrics that aren’t helping your business grow for long term success.
Incorporate Personalized Prospect Campaigns and Offers
Although you have developed personas for your prospects and buying segments, you may not have delved deep enough into your personalization tactics within your current ABM strategy. To provide the value your accounts are seeking, you’ll need to spend more of your strategy on segmentation and specific definition around pain points for each account and prospect. Once you have that greater detail, then you’ll need to develop a personalized campaign and offer for each one.
Update Account Information and Social Intelligence
With the constant evolution, your ABM strategy has to keep pace with ongoing data changes related to a contact, location, and interest level. While it may be time-intensive, your ABM strategy must include tactics that continually refine the information and social intelligence you have on all prospects and accounts. Keeping these intelligence documents updated as part of your strategy can ensure a higher success rate because you will be reaching the appropriate person at the correct contact location with the most relevant information.
This includes re-mapping sales territories and looking beyond job titles to better understand and track roles of identified key decision-makers. It’s also beneficial to expand your ABM strategy to incorporate social monitoring as a key tactic to get more information on pain points, job roles, and interests.. This research will further inform how to continue reviving your overall ABM strategy.
A Never-Ending Process
These are just some of the areas that are critical to continually assess and revive as part of your ABM strategy. Everything you do with this marketing approach is about your relationship with customers and prospects. This is an ongoing process that will evolve along with the changing business environment and needs of your target audience.
Now that you know how to revise and tweak your ABM strategy, do you know what best practices to use? Find out by reading “ABM Best Practice vs Malpractice.”