How to Conduct a Go-To-Market Strategy Workshop

Programmatic ABM

Article | June 9, 2022

As Account-Based Marketing (ABM) continues to grow and develop into a powerful marketing strategy, the conventional question remains: How to prove and measure my results? Diving into your account-based marketing metrics to understand your results is all about asking the right questions. The metrics focus on quality over quantity. This means that looking at engagement levels above traffic volume and opportunities over leads have a close association with sales. Thus, it summarizes activity metrics and outcome metrics together. If you implement a new sales methodology without adopting new sales metrics, you’ll have a much harder time tracking the progress of your marketing efforts. That’s why the companies, shifting to an account-based framework, should update their KPIs, as these are the leading indicators of success. So, the account-based marketing metrics highly focus on the activity of an individual lead and look at crucial accounts that would likely drive the most revenue for your organization. How are Account-Based Marketing Metrics Different? The rate at which digital marketers have moved towards the ABM model by creating successful ABM campaigns is quite surprising. While many thought, ‘Will this thing stick?’ or ‘Is this just a whim that will go away in the future?’ But it’s 2021, and ABM has become even more popular in the B2B world as marketers see value in targeting accounts and not only leads. Recent research from SiriusDecisions states that 93% of marketers consider ABM extremely important to their overall organizational success. With any marketing strategy, you are going to be asked whether your campaign is performing well or not. It indeed takes time for the programs to run for any marketer who has built an ABM strategy. So, what should you consider more in creating an ABM strategy? Think quality, not quantity A team working on the ABM model understands the priority—influencing customers who matter as crucial accounts. So instead of focusing on new lead creation, ABM focuses on activating and engaging the right leads (even if it’s smaller in number). Similarly, your ABM team needs to focus on growing revenue from every single account. This means what would your team value more: ten random marketing professionals downloading a whitepaper or having a meaningful conversation with a decision-maker? It’s About Engagement SiriusDecisions states that there has been a 24% increase in the average B2B sales cycle length since 2019. It means that the larger the deal size, the longer the cycle. With such a lengthy process, you need to measure what’s happening during the progressing phase. So, how do you do that? It is engagement on which you need to focus on. Track how deeply the right account gets engaged with your brand. This way, you’ll have a measurable way of showing development in your business. Engagement in ABM results in immense benefits for most businesses. Here is a list of the latest ABM statistics that shows companies that utilized the strategy saw incredible results, such: 200% rise in ROI 50% of sales teams were more productive and able to optimize qualified leads 30% boost in revenue 66% augmented the number of leads generated 83% saw amplified engagement from targeted leads Shorter sales cycles grew by 27% and more However, such benefits of implementing an ABM strategy are only the results of a successful ABM approach, as it’s not an easy task for every organization. The only way to ensure that your business’s ABM efforts are successful is by meticulously monitoring the most important metrics. The 4 Crucial Metrics to Track Reading further, you will come across the six crucial types of account-based marketing metrics. Engagement How are your prospects get interested and engaged? The more attention they pay to your company, the more committed they tend to be. Measure the time they spend with your brand or on your website. Monitor when they respond to your marketing programs socially or when they use your product and connect with your sales team. As one of the account-based marketing metrics, the amount of engagement will be the closest and essential. Therefore, your focus should be to measure how contacts are involved with your content, including the type of content. The following areas will help you understand it deeply: Email metrics: Track the activities of your audience with your email marketing campaigns. You will want to know the open and click-through rates and look at the number of responses received from each email. Also, how email recipients are sharing your messages with others. Social metrics: You can check with contacts from your targeted accounts if they have liked, shared, or commented on your posts. Are they following your business page and social accounts? Consumption rates: Similarly, you can look at how contacts from your targeted accounts consume your online content, specifically information provided on your website and blogs. This shows several page views, average page time, and specific content being viewed and downloaded. Offline Activity metrics: Beyond your digital information, track your targeted accounts engaging with you offline. Are they attending events you sponsor, readily contacting, and responding to direct mail? Therefore, these account-based marketing metrics' primary goal is to know where your contacts are in their buying journey. In fact, through these metrics, you can uncover what information (content) your website lacks to support communications in their research. Awareness Do your prospects are aware of your company’s name and offerings? Web traffic is an ethical reflection of keeping prospects aware, specifically, traffic coming from within your target accounts. You should also track whether your contacts are opening your emails, attending your events, and contacting through calls, or using any other medium you provided. Target-Account Reach Are you able to reach specific target accounts in the right way? Where do you lack in your efforts? These account-based metrics help you to track success by channel. In case of point, in a webinar campaign, you would measure its success by analyzing event attendance. So, track the percent of target accounts that have successfully enrolled in each program as well. And, finally, track your focus. What is the percentage of all program successes coming from key accounts? This will help you understand how many target accounts reach you through your ABM campaigns, ABM strategies, and other marketing functionalities. Influence Your marketing strategy’s influence on a targeted account will be measured mainly by your interactions with each account. However, some of the account-based marketing metrics mentioned above will help check your ABM strategy's influence metrics. But the big question is whether your efforts are working or not. To understand this, you need to evaluate some parameters such as: The conversion rate for contacts in your targeted accounts Converting of your targeted accounts in the marketing funnel Frequency and volume of meetings or calls with each account With whom you have the discussions— account influencers or final decision-makers Finally, the results of your meetings These parameters will divulge what efforts are working and where you need to change your approach or the information you provide to make your business successful. Types of Account-Based Sales Metrics Marketing and sales often measure success differently. Account-based metrics can help bring these closer by aligning their focus on a specific list of target accounts. With an Account-Based Sales Development (ABSD) strategy, there are two types of metrics. These would help you understand whether your sales team is performing well in an account-based sales plan or not. Activity-based sales metrics You need to check and understand whether your sales team is doing various marketing activities in the right way or not. This will be specific for each account to be targeted and includes activities like task completion, emails, contacts per day, account coverage, meaningful conversations, and appointments. Outcome-based sales metrics It is generally considered under post-sale account-based marketing metrics. Now the time is to track the result of the activities mentioned above. Also, include the rate of accounts accepted from the pipeline created and revenue generated. In short, the goal is to measure the monetary value of each transaction and to track your performance and successes over time in business. This information is also helpful in identifying new accounts to target. To know how read through in the next! Value Measuring value is more important than your total sales volume, as it is a part of ABM metrics. The goal is to understand the worth of each account to your bottom line—how they compare to other accounts and see the performance of each sales representative. In this context, your account-based marketing metrics should uncover the following: What is your average selling point value? What is the average account sales volume? What is the swelling value of each account? What is the total sales volume? How much revenue generated? What is the value of each deal? Having a clear answer to these aspects reveals the most tangible insights into your results. By looking at specific accounts, you can measure where you are growing, where opportunities exist and show underperforming accounts. Thus, it will make your work accordingly. Retention As account-based marketing metrics measure quality over quantity, retention is one part where this comes into play. In addition, it measures the possibility of a targeted account and their satisfaction level. Measuring retention is a decent indication of the strength of your account relationships. Accounts that stay for a long term are generally satisfied. Thus, they provide the most value to your business. On the flip side, dissatisfied accounts won’t stay with you very long. But they are virtuous indicators of areas you need to change and improve — either with the process, products, or account types. ROI The most crucial account-based marketing metrics is your return on investment (ROI). Eventually, you measure your ABM campaigns and marketing strategies—if they are effective. So, ROI is the percentage of your investment to earnings. What makes these account-based marketing metrics so challenging in reality? Several factors influence each transaction or sale. Take a step back and consider these questions: Has your closure rate improved over the past month, quarter, or year? On average, how long does it take to close a sale? What was your ROI for each campaign you launched? The purpose behind considering these aspects is to know what marketing campaigns were successful and better understand inclusive marketing and sales effectiveness. Putting all ABM Metric to Work Together A successful ABM strategy requires various activities, technologies, and outlooks for B2B marketing or demand generation. Here, the use of ABM metrics becomes important for measuring pre-sale success and revenue potential. For this, B2B marketing organizations should monitor post-sale metrics to track client satisfaction. Therefore, by monitoring the entire ABM funnel, you can incessantly optimize marketing activities and improve customer relationships for your business. Conclusively, account-based strategies present an incredible opportunity for organizations to make marketing and sales more relevant, focused, and effective. However, to apprehend the benefits, it’s important to measure what matters. Frequently Asked Questions How is account-based marketing success measured? To measure account-based marketing success, here are some important ways: Understand targeted accounts and needs Regularly check content analytics statistics Account engagement Rate of interactions Amount of in-depth conversations Conversion metrics Sales cycle lengths What are excellent ABM metrics? Awareness, engagement, conversion, and outcome are some of the excellent ABM metrics. Putting them together, a business can arrive at a complete set of elementary account-based marketing metrics and attracts more customers. How are ABM campaigns measured? The value of your ABM campaigns is scaled by the lifetime value of each targeted accounts. When measuring these, elements such as customer retention, awareness, reach, pipeline velocity, and influence are responsible for making an ABM program successful. What are key metrics in marketing? The various key metrics in marketing are: Viewership metrics Lead-based metrics Engagement metrics Pre-sales metrics Post-sales metrics Conversion metrics { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How is account-based marketing success measured?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "To measure account-based marketing success, here are some important ways: Understand targeted accounts and needs Regularly check content analytics statistics Account engagement Rate of interactions Amount of in-depth conversations Conversion metrics Sales cycle lengths" } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What are excellent ABM metrics?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Awareness, engagement, conversion, and outcome are some of the excellent ABM metrics. Putting them together, a business can arrive at a complete set of elementary account-based marketing metrics and attracts more customers." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How are ABM campaigns measured?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The value of your ABM campaigns is scaled by the lifetime value of each targeted accounts. When measuring these, elements such as customer retention, awareness, reach, pipeline velocity, and influence are responsible for making an ABM program successful." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What are key metrics in marketing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The various key metrics in marketing are: Viewership metrics Lead-based metrics Engagement metrics Pre-sales metrics Post-sales metrics Conversion metrics" } }] }

Account Based Data

Article | August 19, 2022

More than half the world’s population uses email. It is one of the most preferred means of communication today. For businesses, emails are a medium for account-based marketing. They help nurture leads, sell products, create brand awareness, drive website traffic and increase sales and revenue by conveying lucrative content to the target audience. Sending emails to current and potential customers with the goal of improving your brand's standing, content engagement, and eventually landing a sale is an example of an effective email marketing campaign. Neglecting email marketing while carrying out your marketing strategy can be dangerous because it has the highest conversion rate compared to other marketing channels. According to a 2020 Statista report, 3.9 billion people use their emails daily. By 2023, this number is projected to rise to 4.3 billion. Moreover, 78% of marketers have seen a steep increase in email engagement in the past year, based on Hubspot’s Not Another State of Marketing 2020 report. These statistics highlight the importance of email marketing in a marketing campaign. Email Marketing: Implementation and Challenges Ever since the pandemic hit, the importance of digital marketing has skyrocketed. Without utilizing all the digital marketing channels, it is impossible to reach the target audience. In the realm of successful digital marketing, email marketing has a big stake. It has the highest conversion rates, is preferred, and is simple and affordable. In an interview with Media 7, Mike Dickerson, Chief Executive Officer at ClickDimensions talked about the importance of digital marketing in the current reality impacted by COVID-19. "Digital marketing, and all the channels included within that, is more essential than ever before for businesses around the globe." Businesses use email marketing to build brand credibility, deliver crisp and accurate messages to their target audience, and generate leads. They strengthen existing customer relationships, boost sales and achieve higher ROI, gauge the response of customers to content through metrics, and automate marketing workflows to streamline marketing processes. By interconnecting their marketing channels, they create a fluid buyer journey to increase the chances of conversion. Like every other marketing campaign, an effective email marketing campaign needs effort, vigilance, testing, and upgrading. Email marketing can be challenging, but the good news is that you can remedy the issues easily. Here are some snags you might hit: Ideal Email Frequency Achieving the right frequency of emails can be challenging. If you send too many emails, the recipient might unsubscribe from your email list. However, if you don’t send enough emails, the recipient might not remember your brand. You can review your subscription process to know what frequency and information you have promised your recipients. You can consider revising the frequency based on the click rate, subscribe and unsubscribe rates, and post-click activity. Low Subscriber Engagement If your subscribers are not engaging with the emails, you can start by testing the segments and personalizing the content. Data Syncing You need to ensure that the data that comes from CRM and ESP responses is synced. Irrelevant Content Keep reviewing your click-through rates to pinpoint content that works. If your content is not relevant, your subscribers might stop opening your emails and may go as far as unsubscribing. Content includes everything from your subject line to your call to action, so make sure your content quality is high. Unsatisfactory Campaign Results If your delivery rates are lower than expected, consider subscribing to a list validation tool and reevaluating your subscription process. If the open rates are too low, try using different ‘from’ names to create a better impact. If the click rates are low, then align your content with your goals. Creating Effective Email Marketing Campaigns for Business Success To create an effective email marketing campaign, follow these crucial steps: Decide Your Goal Efforts without direction go nowhere. Define and understand the goals of your campaign. They can be anything from increasing website traffic, lead nurturing, creating brand awareness, or getting customer feedback. Aim for tangible results once you figure out what you want to achieve. Your goals should ideally align with larger organizational goals. Define Your Target Audience Identify the unique needs and pain points of the customer base you want to target. Create special campaigns for a specific group of customers. You can segment the customers based on their age, location, interests, gender, online activity, or engagement levels. Choose a Relevant Type of Email Campaign Depending on your campaign goal and target audience, choose a relevant email campaign. Some of the most popular email campaigns include welcome emails, cart abandonment campaigns, newsletters, re-engagement emails, announcements, holidays, invitations, promotional, seasonal, and testimonial or rating emails. These email campaigns can be executed using marketing automation workflows. Time Your Campaign Correctly Timing is important for effective email marketing campaigns. For maximum engagement, consider the ideal day of the week and time of day. Based on data from co-schedule, the best days to send out emails are Tuesday, Thursday, and Wednesday, while the ideal timings are 10AM, 2AM, and 8PM. Proactively verifying your target audience’s time zone and location before starting your campaign is advisable. Marketing automation makes it easy to time your campaign effectively. Use a Conversational Tone Nobody wants to read drab emails with no personal touch. For the recipients to respond, you need to create a relatable copy and an attractive subject line that compels them to open your email. How Conversational Emails Helped the Obama Campaign with Fundraising By using a conversational tone in the email and creating effective, attention-grabbing subject lines, the Obama Campaign raised a huge chunk of the $690 million. They used great opt-in forms, which helped them collect more email leads. They also sent a follow-up/thank you page to encourage subscribers to donate to the campaign. They also kept on constantly testing email conversions using split testing of key pages. Test Your Emails A/B testing your emails is a good way to understand which of your email designs and content creates the most impact. Look at campaign performance metrics like open rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, spam complaints, and unsubscribes. Make Great Opt-ins Experiment with different opt-in forms like welcome gates, exit pop-ups, and lightbox pop-ups. They can help you get new subscribers. Focus on Design and Content Your content should offer value to your recipient. It should also be pleasant to look at, concise, and effective. Focusing on the design and content elements is vital to the success of your campaign. Wrapping it Up If executed correctly, effective email marketing campaigns can be a game-changer for your conversions and, in turn, your revenue. FAQ What are the benefits of email marketing? Effective email marketing campaigns help businesses create brand awareness, outreach to new and existing customers, and achieve high conversions. What are the important email marketing metrics? Some of the important email marketing metrics are open rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, spam complaints, and unsubscribes.

Buyer Intent Data

Article | March 6, 2023

Do you target your high-value clients using account-based marketing? Have your sales and marketing teams gathered all the data required to set up a marketing campaign for your valuable clients? Well, if you have hit the start button, then you should be well-versed with conversational marketing strategies, too. What Is Conversational Marketing? Conversational marketing is a one-to-one conversation with the client or customer to provide them with an enhanced shopping experience. This conversation can include chatbots, live chats, filling up contact forms, or feedbacks. Conversational marketing helps in generating leads, revenue, and personal connection with the customers. This approach also helps in understanding the pain points of the customer at a personal level. As a result, this personalized approach attracts the customer, enhances their buying journey, and makes them feel connected to the brand. What Does Conversational ABM Mean? Conversational marketing, when incorporated in ABM, is known as conversational ABM. And it is an essential step in enhancing the client’s journey through conversational ABM. Conversational ABM is an essential aspect of account-based marketing. When targeted clients click on the ad campaigns or visit your website, they must receive a tailored treatment. Let us explain this with a basic shopping example. Assume that you are an owner of a luxury brand that sells cars. Your brand needs a public figure and, you have been targeting a couple of high-value clients for the same. You have been using ABM strategies to get to them. Finally, one day, one of them walks into your store. So what do you do? Of course, you have the best salesperson attend to them. This salesperson knows everything about the client and addresses their pain points through a lucid and formal conversation. As a result, the client feels that you have made efforts to know them and address their challenges. They understand that for you; they are more than just a customer. This personalized conversation constructed with the help of research data is known as conversational ABM. Importance of Conversational Marketing in ABM “Conversational marketing is about leveraging the power of real-time conversations and two-way dialogue to engage customers and seamlessly move them through your marketing and sales funnels. This could be online chats, social media channels, or live brand experiences, but the end goal is the same — engaging with customers one-on-one to stand out from the competition and humanize your brand.”- Nicole Bojic, SVP of strategy at InVision Communications: Conversational marketing is of extreme importance. Conversational ABM helps you stand out in your client’s vision. Once the client visits your website or clicks on the link curated for him, your team needs to be super ready to provide them a personalized experience. This approach of conversational marketing will help to: Connect the client to the brand Build rapport with the client Make the client feel that you are well-versed with their pain points and challenges. Build a personal relationship with the targeted businesses Ensure conversion and client retention How to Strengthen ABM Using Conversational Marketing Conversational ABM is developed in the most personalized and formal way. Conversational marketing in ABM is carried out through chats, calls, or in-person meetings. It is always better for a real person to have a conversation with the client in real-time instead of using chatbots. Align strategies so that your team instantly connects to the targeted client as soon as they visit your website or click on the relevant link. They should have a personalized approach right from the beginning. The best way to keep the clients connected is by involving them in a formal conversation while addressing their challenges and pain points. The live chat option has limitations, so your team should know when to switch from chats to audio or video calls. But, again, do this while keeping in mind the convenience and comfortability of the client. Whatever the mode of communication is, you need to consider the following points while initiating conversation ABM. Direct your sales team instantly to start the conversation as soon as the target account lands on your website. It may include enabling push notifications through emails, messages, or any other conversational marketing solutions. Ensure that the welcome messages and conversations are streamlined with the research and ad campaigns. The client should feel connected, in sync, and cohesive. Greet your target accounts with human-led chats over automated chats. This step amplifies a seamless customer experience. Sculpt the conversation totally about the buyer’s account. They should feel that you have made great efforts to know them and address their challenges. Your content needs to be customized to address their specific needs. Know when to upgrade from a chat conversion to an audio/video call to take things forward. Go beyond basic conversations and show how much the client matters to you. Do everything to provide them with a premium and over-the-top sales experience. And the Conversation Leads to Conversion. Based on a survey by DemandGen Report, 95% of target accounts said they would choose the solution provider who helps them navigate through each step of the conversion process. Conversational ABM is a critical step for a successful ABM. Thus, ensure you prepare your sales and marketing team for the best conversational approaches. This will eventually lead to successful engagement and conversion of the targeted clients. Frequently Asked Questions What is conversational marketing? Conversational marketing is encouraging conversations that are client-centric. These one-to-one conversations are designed to provide a personalized and premium customer experience. The conservations are aligned with the research and specifically address the pain points of the customer. What is ABM strategy? Account-based marketing is a marketing strategy that concentrates on creating strategies and targeting high-value clients. This client list for ABM is curated while keeping in mind that these are the most likely to convert. The strategy consists of gathering maximum data about the client and creating tailored ad campaigns or pitches for them. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What is conversational marketing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Conversational marketing is encouraging conversations that are client-centric. These one-to-one conversations are designed to provide a personalized and premium customer experience. The conservations are aligned with the research and specifically address the pain points of the customer." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "What is ABM strategy?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Account-based marketing is a marketing strategy that concentrates on creating strategies and targeting high-value clients. This client list for ABM is curated while keeping in mind that these are the most likely to convert. The strategy consists of gathering maximum data about the client and creating tailored ad campaigns or pitches for them." } }] }

Article | April 20, 2020

Account-based marketing (ABM) has been around for long enough now that most companies have either rolled out strategies or are actively exploring their options. Looking at the ABM adoption model produced by the ITSMA, an industry association for technology-based marketing and services, many companies are in the experimentation stage and looking to further refine their initial pilot programs. As you begin to experiment and expand your ABM programs, there are many complexities that you can introduce like content personalization, website personalization, scaling accounts and channels, and additional technology and automation, to name a few.