Account Based Marketing and its Growing Interest Among B2B CMOs

In his Forbes piece published last month, contributor Daniel Newman shared a quote from Megan Heuer, Vice President and Group Director, Data-Driven Marketing, at SiriusDecisions: “Companies of all sizes are trying out ABM, from expanded efforts in very large global companies to laser-focused go-to-market models in lean startups. The next question is whether ABM will go from being a trend to becoming a dominant strategy, forever replacing ‘spray and pray’ in the B2B mindset.” I would say based on the results of research done by Leadtail, a social strategy firm that has built a panel of over 1,000 B2B and B2C CMOs and marketing executives located in North America and active on Twitter reveal a growing interest in Account Based Marketing (ABM) among B2B CMOs - in particular B2B tech CMOs.

Spotlight

Netisomer

Netisomer serves Global market as part of its strategic business initiatives. These Global markets are segmented based on the experience of Netisomer and the demand in such markets. Though the market segmentation is wide, the backbone of the services is world class delivery and associated process. In a broader spectrum Netisomer provides IT Infrastructure solutions and Advanced Enterprise IT Training Solutions in India, other parts of Asia Pacific, Middle East and North America at our Partner locations or over online meetings and WebEx Solutions. These services are rendered through various delivery models which is the key to the market segmentation.

OTHER ARTICLES
Buyer Intent Data

Buying Group Marketing: Another Evolution of ABM

Article | September 11, 2023

B2B marketers use account-based marketing (ABM) to generate business because it allows them to drive focused account-level interactions. These interactions are a result of relevant and customized messaging. Today, the messaging focuses on not just one decision-maker but a group within the target account that green lights a buying decision. This natural evolution in ABM implementation is called buying group marketing (BGM). It isn’t a new concept but keeps evolving. B2B marketers are religiously implementing BGM in their ABM strategy to get a competitive edge and to keep up with the changing trends in the ABM industry. Carefully created buyer personas are used to create hyper-personalized campaigns for buying group members. In this sense, BGM is a person-centric marketing approach, differentiating it from an account-based marketing approach. While talking about buying group marketing, Dmitri Lisitski, CEO and Co-Founder, Influ2, a B2B targeted advertising solutions provider, said, "Buying Group Marketing will empower B2B marketers to achieve greater precision by extending this approach more holistically across their programs." How Does BGM Drive Revenue? Revenue factors into every effort that aims to increase sales numbers, retain customers, and engage prospective customers. Let us look into how BGM drives revenue in the B2B domain. Closing the Gap Between Sales and Marketing Organizations struggle to bring sales and marketing teams together. They max out their budgets to make it happen, but more often than not, they do not get the expected results. Additionally, their marketing automation platform doesn’t make the connection between the multiple leads coming from the same account. This lack of insight can affect the performance of the entire demand management process, such as sales, revenue development, and customer organization. Buying behaviors are constantly shifting. It is crucial to use a fresh approach that enables the teams to connect directly with the target accounts’ decision-makers, offering them just what they need through effective campaigns and driving revenue is crucial. In the buying group framework, marketing and sales align their goals and operations, share important insights on buyer personas, orchestrate messaging for campaigns, and collate data from platforms such as CRM and sales engagement tools to successfully find common ground for approaching a buying group. They are no longer stuck on one side of the MQL wall but are involved in every stage of the conversion process. As a result, they guide specific buying group members to make a buying decision and generate revenue. Putting Buyer Experience on Top In a Forrester survey, 94% of respondents said they sold to buying groups that had three or more individuals, while 38% said that they sold to groups of 10 or more. Purchase decisions in large enterprises are never restricted to one individual. The bigger the purchase decision, the bigger the buying committee. The bigger the buying committee, the larger the pool of buyer personas that need targeting. For example, if the HR department of a growing organization realizes that it needs a new human capital resource management system (HCRM) to manage its HR-related processes, then a buying group is created to choose a new system. When this group goes to the market to find a solution, it becomes a potential lead for HCRM providers, and the lead is called a demand unit. Targeting this demand unit with not just the HCRM but also a travel and expense solution (T & E) is possible with BGM. In BGM: Every step in the buyer’s journey is based on buyer personas and presents value to the buying group. Every demand management process focuses on the buying group. Through this approach, multiple types of selling opportunities can be explored. All this effort appeals to different buying group members in different ways and will push them to get in touch with the sales team and make a purchase decision. Offering Solutions to Pain Points Information designed precisely to complete the purchase should be provided to every member of the buying group committee. Interestingly, before making a purchase decision, members of the buying group will explore the content of different solution providers. According to a recent study by Dimensional Research, 90% of buyers thought that positive online reviews of a product or service influenced their buying decision. This is just one type of information that the buying group members will consume before they make a buying decision. With the help of real-time intent targeting or cognitive product targeting, it is easier to understand the customer’s intent through channels like websites, apps, and email. The terms searched, specific or broad, can point to the needs and requirements of a member of the committee. Once the intent is clear, buyer personas can be segmented and targeted with prescriptive content that talks about solutions to their pain points and how the expected results are achieved. For example, if a C-level buying committee member displays a high level of intent activity, then it is highly likely that he or she is looking to make a strategic investment. Such an opportunity will be ready for sales conversion in a couple of months. How Should You Implement BGM on Sales Funnel? We have already established the importance of buying group engagement in driving leads through the sales funnel. When sales and marketing teams share insights, marketing becomes effective and tangible. Now, let us take a look at BGM implementation in the sales funnel: Top of the Funnel While targeting a buying group at the top of the funnel, the focus should be on creating awareness and understanding the demand of the target account. Social media ads and relevant landing pages that act as lead magnets can help achieve this goal. Middle of the Funnel For buying groups in the middle of the funnel, engaging and educating the groups is imperative. Posting relevant content on social media handles can foster interaction with the members. LinkedIn messages from sales development representatives with ad and landing page support are effective. Bottom of the Funnel Conversations that lead to conversion start when the buying group is at the bottom of the funnel. In this stage, the account executives present members with compelling content that addresses their pain points and influences them enough to make a purchase decision. While executing BGM, B2B marketers should begin by understanding the business needs of the target account and create a comprehensive marketing strategy to address these needs. Orchestrating a holistic experience for the buying committee through high-quality, relevant content is the next step. Achieving a strategic, operational and practical alignment with sales will ensure success and higher conversions. Amplitude Drives 5.6x ROI on Ad Spend with Influ2’s Help With Influ2’s person-based advertising, Amplitude, a digital optimization system provider, focused 100% on advertising to key decision-makers within its target accounts. Influ2 used engagement insights to create and execute personalized and attributable B2B marketing. The result was a 5.6x ROI on ad spend. Last Word ABM marketing has evolved with the help of buying group marketing. Implementing BGM with an account-based marketing strategy can create lasting relationships with target accounts, retain existing clients and bring new leads. FAQ What are the three important tenets of buying group marketing? The three important tenets of buying group marketing are understanding the needs of the target account, attaining sales and marketing alignment, and creating a holistic marketing strategy that addresses the pain points of the target account. How is buyer experience different than customer experience? Customer experience focuses on the existing customers in the pipeline, while buyer experience focuses on the prospective customers’ complete buyer journey. How can you engage top-of-the-funnel audiences in buying group marketing? You can engage top-of-the-funnel audiences through social media ads and relevant landing pages that display content relevant to the needs of the target account.

Read More
Core ABM

13 Best Buyer Intent Data Tools for B2B Marketers

Article | June 20, 2023

If you are a seasoned marketer, you must be aware of how hard it is to find highly qualified leads. Wouldn’t it be convenient to have an intent data strategy that helps you identify companies that are looking for a product or service you offer by tracking their internet activity? If you are an IT service provider, some businesses must be looking to rope in a company like yours to help with their IT needs. If you find these businesses in time, you could clinch a deal with them. Your sales and marketing teams will be able to work efficiently, your company will get more conversions, and your revenue will grow. This is what buyer intent data tools do. What is Buyer Intent Data? In the B2B domain, knowing what your target accounts want and need plays a big part in creating and executing ABM marketing. B2B buyer intent data indicates companies that are actively a part of your buying cycle. It allows marketers to understand what buyers are interested in, what kind of solutions they are looking for, what content appeals to them, and which topics they are stuck on. This data can be acquired from buyer intent data tools that measure buyer intent signals. They are generally a part of account-based marketing software. Some of the buyer intent signals measured by buyer intent data tools are: Subscription behavior Clicks on social media ads Website visits Length of time spent on the website People from the same company visiting your website What the numbers say: According to a SiriusDecisions study, a B2B prospect is already 67 percent into the purchasing journey. 73 percent of B2B marketers use buyer intent data in their email marketing. 62 percent of B2B marketers agree that B2B intent data improves their nurturing and personalization workflows. It is no wonder that buyer intent data tools have created a buzz in the world of B2B marketing. Platforms that provide account-based marketing services have solutions that offer intent data for lead generation and intent-based marketing. Types of Buyer Intent Data There are two broad types of buyer intent data: internal buyer intent data and external buyer intent data. These can be used in any intent data strategy. Internal Buyer Intent Data This type of data is called first-party data, and it is gathered from your website, automation systems, or from within the account-based marketing software that you use. It is further classified into data you submit manually and data that your CRM perceptively creates. Some examples of this data are: website visits, time on page, lead information submitted, job title, downloads of the bottom of the funnel content like case studies, and viewing bottom-of-the-funnel pages like product comparison pages. External Buyer Intent Data B2B processes and sales cycles are often complex. Tracking customers on your website may not be enough. You need to widen your net and go above and beyond your website tracking software. You need to take a look at the off-site behavior of your customers by using buyer intent data tools. This will help you understand what prospective buyers are searching for on the web and not just on your website. Could it be that they are checking some review sites, or your competitor’s website, or possibly finding answers to their queries somewhere else but not on your website? Understanding this B2B intent data will help you expand your sales funnel accordingly. You cannot control buyer behavior, but you can definitely decide strategically how you will respond to the buyer intent data. Leveraging Buyer Intent Data in ABM Marketing An effective account-based marketing strategy is a data-driven marketing strategy that targets key accounts with buyer intent. This laser-focused approach to targeting makes it more successful as compared to other marketing strategies. Here is how buyer intent data can help you enhance your account-based marketing strategy: Enhances Demand Generation Buyer intent data enriches the demand generation process by assisting marketing teams in identifying and planning campaigns for prospective accounts. Email marketing and personalized ads can speed up outreach and conversion. Optimizes Content Strategies It improves content marketing strategies through insights into prospect behavior. It becomes easier to tailor a content strategy to target a prospect once you know what your prospect thinks about a solution or product you offer. Improves Lead Generation Your prospect’s online behavioral data can drive your lead generation strategy. You can target specific accounts based on their intent. Your cost-per-head (CPL) will go down significantly once you generate more interest in your sales pipeline. Strengthens ABM Partnerships ABM implementation also involves channel marketing solutions that are complex. Intent data can make the process manageable and bring clarity to the intentions and objectives of the marketing strategy. You can easily prioritize your ABM partners’ leads for higher revenue. It guarantees the success of your ABM group channel program. Reduces the Churn Rate You can reduce the churn rate by monitoring the research activity of your target accounts. You can easily identify the likelihood of churn. To tackle this problem, you can create personalized offerings for prospects who are checking out your competitor’s offerings. Helps You Tweak Your Solutions With the help of buyer intent data, you can understand your prospects’ pain points better. Tweak your solutions, design products or services based on the trends you see or the patterns you notice in your target audience’s behavior. 13 Best Buyer Intent Data Tools for B2B Marketers Here are thirteen game-changing buyer intent tools for B2B marketers that can help you with your intent-based marketing plan: 1. Terminus Terminus was named a ‘Leader’ in the 2020 New Wave of ABM platforms and has more than 1,000 customers trusting its account-based marketing strategies. Its account-based marketing tools help marketers analyze how their marketing strategies fare in terms of sales. Its deep B2B account database has over 70 million businesses. Its tools can sync easily with CRM and MAP data and deliver immediately marketable segments. 2. Bombora Bombora provides risk-free intent data that is not only comprehensive, but also privacy-compliant. It can be integrated with multiple platforms across sales, martech, and B2B advertising. Its data comes from fully consented B2B publishers. The Bombora Data Co-op captures the buying signals of nearly 3.3 million unique domains through 20.1 billion interactions a month, across more than 4000 sites. 3. ZoomInfo ZoomInfo has an impressive and comprehensive business database that can help you run B2B intent-based marketing campaigns. Its solutions bring together your sales and marketing teams. Its buyer intent data tools have features like lead scoring, sales prospecting, territory planning, and targeted outreach. 4. Demandbase Demandbase’s platform, Demandbase One, is a great go-to-market solution. Its buyer intent data tools use data built around data privacy and security best practices. It has cloud solutions for advertising, account-based experience, sales intelligence, and data. With this single platform, you can orchestrate and automate your buyer journeys easily. 5. Slintel Slintel, a 6sense company, analyzes buying behavior, patterns, sales intelligence, and digital footprints of your key accounts. It has a database of more than 15 million organizations. It helps marketers understand buyer behavior and pain points using buyer journeys and keyword insights. It evaluates over 100 billion data points to identify 3% of prospects with high buyer intent. 6. Leadfeeder Leadfeeder features a variety of filters, both basic and customizable, that allow users to segment companies based on company demographics, location, behavior, location, and more. In addition, it integrates tools like Zapier, CRMs, and other email marketing tools which help provide insights on accounts. It has a responsive support team and is easy to use. 7. KickFire KickFire provides first-party intent data by identifying anonymous website visitors through visitors’ IP addresses. This crucial data can be used by sales and marketing teams to create personalized content and increase sales outreach. There are different tool versions like LIVE Leads and KickFire for Google. 8. DemandJump DemandJump provides insights into the customer journey and helps analyze your competitors. You can get information on what your prospects are doing, like which websites they are visiting and what things they are searching for. You can also find out what your competition ranks for, what kind of content they publish, and what kind of ads they use to attract traffic. 9. TechTarget Priority Engine Priority Engine gives real-time access to leads that are ranked based on their engagement level and their purchase intent. You can use this information to enhance your ABM strategy, sales outreach, and lead generation. This tool also shows the topics which interest prospects, the kind of technology the prospects use and also provides contact information for leads whenever it is available. 10. Lead Forensics With the help of Lead Forensics, you can engage with your prospects and customers swiftly. By using the valuable data that this tool provides, you can start useful conversations with the visitors to your website. You can also identify visitors, location, demographic information, and how much time they spend on your website. 11. Pure B2B Pure B2B is a web-based demand generation tool designed to supplement businesses with their B2B content syndication. It helps in displaying ads, developing outbound leads with the help of predictive analytics and multi-source intent data. If you want to generate high-quality leads, you should consider using this tool. 12. Triblio Tribilo allows you to combine account-based ads, web personalization, and sales activation through a single platform. You can easily engage with your customers, grow their awareness, and get in touch with your target accounts. 13. HappierLeads Easily reach out to companies that show buyer intent but are not converting into customers with the help of HappierLeads. This tool accurately tracks website visitors and allows you to identify anonymous website visitors, connect with decision markets, and segment traffic. By using account-based marketing services that offer the best buyer intent data tools, you can enhance your account-based marketing strategy. These intent data providers will highlight you in front of the buyers when they are in their decision-making process. Not only will it give you an upper hand in account-based marketing, but it will also help you proactively intercept prospects without having to wait for them to land on your website. How Daniel Englesbretson, Founder of Khronos, leveraged Terminus to run successful ABM campaigns for clients “What I have found is that, especially leveraging technology like Terminus, the data you get from the start speeds you up substantially, and gives you a lot more perspective that you couldn’t have had or wouldn’t have had before.” – Daniel Englesbretson. ABM has become a mindset for Daniel. Read his full interview with Media 7 where he talks about the impact of AI on the ABM landscape. Terminus’ account-based marketing software has shown tremendous results because it has one of the best buyer intent data tools in the market. Companies saw a 30 percent increase in opportunity size for the enterprise segment and a 2X increase in the probability of an account moving to opportunity. Summing It Up B2B buyer intent data tools can be a great addition to your arsenal of account-based marketing solutions. They can help you with swifter lead generation, boost your sales and save costs on pursuing qualified leads. Roping in a good-intent data provider will enhance your account-based marketing strategy. FAQ What information does buyer intent data reveal when a qualified lead comes to your website? Buyer intent data reveals qualified leads’ areas of interest, referral sites, and pages visited. This data can be used to personalize outreach and contact prospects. How can you leverage buyer intent data to achieve higher close rates? You can use intent data for lead generation. You can appeal to a lead throughout the awareness, consideration, and decision-making phases. Buyer intent data positions you in front of the prospects early on in the buyer’s journey, and that is how you get higher close rates. What are some examples of internal buyer intent data? Website visits, lead information submitted, time on page, job title, downloads of bottom-of-the-content, and viewing bottom-of-the-funnel pages are some examples of internal buyer intent data.

Read More
Account Based Analytics

Buying-Group Marketing: Why is it Gaining Traction?

Article | August 3, 2022

Selling more and selling faster is the goal that drives B2B marketers. Strategically implementing account-based marketing (ABM) to target individuals with hyper-personalized messaging across different channels is what helps them achieve it. But what is Buying Group Marketing (BGM), and why do B2B marketers need to keep up with it? Buying-Group Marketing (BGM): Taking ABM up a notch by focusing on an entire buyer group instead of the account as a whole, it’s called buying-group marketing (BGM). According to a recent Forrester survey, 94% of B2B organizations sell to groups of three or more. They do this instead of spending time identifying a set of ICPs and making a purchase decision. Let us take a look at what BGM is all about. Buying Group Marketing: The Next Evolution of ABM To implement BGM, you first need to understand what buying groups are. A purchasing group is a group of people within a target account who have a say in the purchasing decision. This makes them crucial in B2B targeting. Once B2B marketers learn about their target personas, they can come up with an effective marketing plan and approach them strategically. In large enterprises, purchase decisions are never restricted to one individual. The larger the purchase decision, the larger the size of the buying groups. When a decision involves new technologies, services, or products, an individual struggle to make a purchase decision swiftly. According to Gartner, more than 75% of customers describe these purchases as very complex or difficult. With the help of BGM, the decision-making process can be streamlined and shared among multiple people within an organization. Driving Success with BGM To better execute BGM, organizations need to change their mindsets, processes and technologies and work to understand how buying groups work together. Until demand management matches the ways buyers are making purchasing decisions, marketing and sales alignment will not be possible. Organizations need to first understand how buying groups work together, then align their mindsets, technologies, and processes to efficiently execute BGM. When the marketing and sales teams align their demand management goals with the decision-making groups, only then can they drive success in their campaigns. Interest from more than one person from a single company can lead to more success and influence in the buying phase. B2B marketers need to move beyond the idea that only the first person to respond from a company should be entertained as a lead if a second person from the same company shows interest in their product or services. They need to understand that no matter how tempting account-based advertising may seem, it doesn’t guarantee success. They should focus on engaging the actual decision-makers of their target accounts. When customer personas are mapped according to their buying roles within a group, organizations will have the much-needed intelligence required to make personalized sales. The success of BGM demands the delivery of content that resonates with an individual as per their role in a buying group. B2B marketers must meet them where they are with the content that they need. Organizations can have crucial intelligence on their customers after mapping their personas and considering their roles in the buyer groups. Delivering content that the target individual can relate to is a prerequisite of BGM. BGM may not be new as a concept, but B2B marketers see improvements in their performance by harnessing it as their principal strategy. Adapting to BGM will give them the edge that they seek, while the rest try to keep up with the changing trends of the ABM industry. ________________________________________

Read More
Targeted Account Strategy

ABM Strategy in Healthcare: A Quick Overview

Article | July 5, 2022

Account-based marketing in healthcare helps marketers reach institutional decision-makers based on intent and target accounts. However, ABM becomes a bit more complex in the healthcare domain where the needs, regulations, and procurement processes vary widely, and so do the ways healthcare providers communicate. For an ABM strategy to work in this domain, effort, time, tailored content, and deep customer insights are necessary. ABM Strategy in Healthcare Here are the co-ordinated steps you need to take to implement ABM in the healthcare domain: Getting Buy-in Get buy-in from sponsors at the highest level and coordinate with functional stakeholders. Create client-centric teams and decide on KPIs that matter. Identify Key Accounts With the help of sales representatives and relationship managers, identify key HCP accounts that can benefit from your ABM strategy. Conduct Extensive Research Deep-dive into research on these key accounts, their history, buyer journeys with you. Find out their current and future needs and issues, and their status within the market. Tailor Your Content The research will help you tailor the content for your content marketing strategy. Address the decision-makers with content that solves their pressing issues to get the conversions you want. Analyze & Adjust the Strategy Analyze campaign results from time to time (preferably quarterly). Based on your identified KPIs, check what is working and what isn’t bringing the expected results. Adjust your strategy accordingly. What to Expect from ABM in Healthcare? Salesforce recently conducted research among healthcare marketing professionals. The results showed that 70% believed connected customer journeys positively impacted client loyalty and willingness to recommend products to others. So, ABM could be a great way to increase your revenue and get a higher ROI as compared to any other marketing strategy.

Read More

Spotlight

Netisomer

Netisomer serves Global market as part of its strategic business initiatives. These Global markets are segmented based on the experience of Netisomer and the demand in such markets. Though the market segmentation is wide, the backbone of the services is world class delivery and associated process. In a broader spectrum Netisomer provides IT Infrastructure solutions and Advanced Enterprise IT Training Solutions in India, other parts of Asia Pacific, Middle East and North America at our Partner locations or over online meetings and WebEx Solutions. These services are rendered through various delivery models which is the key to the market segmentation.

Related News

How this SaaS company used account-based marketing to go upmarket

FullStory | July 03, 2019

Investment in an account-based marketing strategy and tech is enabling digital intelligence platform vendor, FullStory, to attract and boost new enterprise-grade client engagement by upwards of 75 per cent. FullStory is a US-based digital intelligence platform provider. In the early days, the company grew up off the back of a product-led growth strategy. But over the past 18 months, it’s been building out an ABM approach to expand into fresh vertical and enterprise customer segments. As FullStory CMO, Peter Herbert, told CMO, the early days saw the SaaS company working predominantly with startups and via online self-service purchasing.

Read More

PwC launches CMO growth agenda program

CMO | June 25, 2018

PwC Australia has taken the wrappers off a new CMO Growth Agenda program aimed at helping marketing chiefs better link business transformation, customer experience, and marketing to enterprise business ambitions. The new program is being launched in conjunction with Melbourne Business School, with the Marketing Academy contributing learning modules, and has been spearheaded by PwC’s latest recruit and former Suncorp customer chief, Mark Reinke. According to PwC, the invite-only program will encompass bespoke forums, led by its own subject matter experts and featuring international speakers as well as peer-to-peer learning. The cohort will meet in both Melbourne and Sydney.

Read More

Marketo touts engagement play with latest acquisition

Marketo | April 24, 2017

In a statement, Marketo CEO, Steve Lucas, said the acquisition of ToutApp helped to round out his company’s engagement capabilities and better tie together marketing and sales functions. It’s also a step further forward in terms of facilitating account-based marketing (ABM) activities, as well as Marketo Sales Insights.

Read More

How this SaaS company used account-based marketing to go upmarket

FullStory | July 03, 2019

Investment in an account-based marketing strategy and tech is enabling digital intelligence platform vendor, FullStory, to attract and boost new enterprise-grade client engagement by upwards of 75 per cent. FullStory is a US-based digital intelligence platform provider. In the early days, the company grew up off the back of a product-led growth strategy. But over the past 18 months, it’s been building out an ABM approach to expand into fresh vertical and enterprise customer segments. As FullStory CMO, Peter Herbert, told CMO, the early days saw the SaaS company working predominantly with startups and via online self-service purchasing.

Read More

PwC launches CMO growth agenda program

CMO | June 25, 2018

PwC Australia has taken the wrappers off a new CMO Growth Agenda program aimed at helping marketing chiefs better link business transformation, customer experience, and marketing to enterprise business ambitions. The new program is being launched in conjunction with Melbourne Business School, with the Marketing Academy contributing learning modules, and has been spearheaded by PwC’s latest recruit and former Suncorp customer chief, Mark Reinke. According to PwC, the invite-only program will encompass bespoke forums, led by its own subject matter experts and featuring international speakers as well as peer-to-peer learning. The cohort will meet in both Melbourne and Sydney.

Read More

Marketo touts engagement play with latest acquisition

Marketo | April 24, 2017

In a statement, Marketo CEO, Steve Lucas, said the acquisition of ToutApp helped to round out his company’s engagement capabilities and better tie together marketing and sales functions. It’s also a step further forward in terms of facilitating account-based marketing (ABM) activities, as well as Marketo Sales Insights.

Read More

Events