Account Based Marketing (ABM) has been around for several years now, but for many directors remains a mystery – sometimes even regarded as an approach that only the biggest companies with the largest marketing budgets can contemplate. But in fact, ABM is more accessible and simpler to execute than many people think.
In simple terms, ABM involves focussing your marketing efforts on either a single prospect company, or a cluster of companies. It is the opposite to mass marketing and as such yields greater returns and results in more relevant and meaningful leads.
The process is simple – identify which companies are your best prospects in terms of potential order value and likelihood of converting, then take time to understand their challenges and opportunities. Hopefully you will already have a solid proposition and will be confident that your product or service is going to meet your prospects’ needs. With all this information to hand you can develop a tactical plan of sales and marketing touches with that specific prospect or cluster of prospects in mind.
The increased traction you will get by having taken the time to identify your prospects’ needs, create messages that specifically address them, and tailor your messages to this very small set of decision makers will make the additional effort involved pay off. With more data and more marketing channels at your disposal than ever before the era of mass marketing should be a dot in your rear view mirror, and an Account Based Marketing approach should be firmly on the horizon.
Simon Plews