Buyer Intent Data
Article | September 11, 2023
Metrics, Analytics, and Insights in ABM
It is a fact that ABM gives a higher ROI as compared to other marketing strategies. If you are a marketer who has painstakingly built an ABM strategy from scratch, you would understand the amount of time it takes to execute it and for it to show measurable results. How do you measure the success of your ABM strategy? You need to understand the metrics, analytics, and insights. Marketers use these terms interchangeably, but there is a difference between them.
By using raw data points, metrics show you the incremental changes in how target accounts interact with your brand.
Analytics compares the metrics over time to show you how your ABM strategy is performing.
Metrics and analytics together help you gain insights into what is working and what isn’t.
Insights help you take action to improve your ABM strategy.
To measure the success of an ABM strategy, you need to use ABM Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) metrics. ABM KPIs track the performance of your strategy with respect to customer service, marketing, efficiency, revenue, and employment statistics.
In an interview with Media 7, Abhi Yadav, Founder & CTO of Zylotech, talked about the importance of customer intelligence in marketing:
Tracking every point of engagement is critical in delivering a holistic view of where buyers are actively engaged and what’s working.
Defining ABM KPIs
Use the SMART criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of a KPI. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound.
By identifying how well the KPI fits into these criteria, you can define it. Find answers to the following questions to define your KPI:
Is your goal specific?
Is your goal measurable?
Is it attainable?
Is it relevant to your business?
Is the goal time-bound?
A well-defined KPI should be a part of your marketing analytics strategy to accurately track the performance of your ABM strategy.
KPIs You Should Measure to Track ABM Success
Sales Funnel Metrics
Measuring sales funnel metrics can quickly pinpoint where your ABM strategy has fallen out of alignment with your business goals. They can be classified into three types:
Upper Funnel Metrics
Upper funnel or top-of-funnel metrics track the engagement rate of the leads within your target accounts. They assess the time taken for a lead to complete specific actions like opening your emails, receiving, or responding to direct mail, visiting your website, and more. You can pinpoint which leads are closer to buying based on the increase in engagement. These metrics also help you know which accounts don’t know anything about your company. You can improve your strategy to capture these accounts.
Is there a huge gap between the products and services your target accounts want and the ones you offer? This gap is the white space. Find your white space by identifying where you lack engagement within your accounts. Should you consider targeting different accounts? Eliminate the white space once you find the answers to these questions. Your goal should depend on the size of the company and the number of ICPs you are targeting.
Middle-of-Funnel Metrics
These metrics help measure the impact of your campaign on your top accounts. Are your target accounts having productive meetings and engagements with your sales team? Swiftly moving your leads to the sales team is an indicator of an effective ABM campaign. Also, you should measure the quality of the campaign based on how many leads move to the next stage of the funnel.
Bottom-of-Funnel Metrics
For the bottom-of-funnel metrics, measure average selling point (ASP) to gauge if you have targeted the right accounts with your campaign. If you have a higher close rate within your ABM accounts that means your campaign is performing well. As compared to other marketing strategies, ABM helps businesses increase their close rate.
Customer Churn Rate
The customer churn rate, also known as the attrition rate, is the number of accounts that have stopped doing business with you over a period. It should be as low as possible. It is a metric to measure the quality of the relationship you have with an account. ABM is a qualitative marketing strategy. If your churn rate is high, then reevaluate your products and services and confirm that you are targeting the right accounts. Understanding your target accounts better is the easiest way to decrease your churn rate.
Content Engagement
Content management is of paramount importance while running an ABM strategy. With this KPI, you can track the engagement each piece of content brings. The pieces that don’t perform well should be scrapped or improved to better suit the needs of your target accounts. Email open and click-through rates point towards ineffective subject lines, content, and CTAs.
Form Fills
Form fills are important for collecting data that helps with nurturing and engaging leads. Track your form fills to confirm if you are gathering information effectively. Adjust your campaign if you are not getting the expected results.
Conversions during the Customer Journey
A good way to show your customers that you care about them is to give them several opportunities to buy or sign up. It's important to keep track of the conversion rate for each CTA so that you can figure out where customers are losing interest in the sales process. Having this information will help you improve the customer journey.
Phone Calls and Scheduled Demos
Keeping a record of your phone calls and scheduled demonstrations is crucial to measuring your ABM success. You are creating a personal connection while interacting with the customer so they may take you closer to converting a deal.
Conversion Rate
Every ABM strategy’s aim is to drive sales and acquire new customers. As a metric, the B2B conversion rate is important because it helps you evaluate the success of your campaign and compare your performance to the previous year.
Customer Retention
Assess the health of your accounts by measuring customer satisfaction. A Net Promoter Score (NPS) can determine how satisfied your accounts are with your product or service. You can seek their feedback and use it to create better customer experiences and, in the future, design products and services to cater to their needs so you can retain your customers.
Average Deal Size
This KPI is primarily used by sales managers to understand how well they have utilized the opportunities that have come their way. It is calculated by dividing your total monetary amount of deals by the total number of deals that were converted. It can help the sales team understand what the average deal size is that they are looking at and what they can aim for.
Popular ABM Analytics Tools
The most popular and widely used ABM analytics tools are Microsoft Excel, LeanData, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Marketo, Engagio, DemandBase, and Terminus.
How ServiceMax Saw a 300% Increase in Their Conversions Using DemandBase
Using DemandBase’s Forms solution to collect user data, AI-powered DemandBase Site Optimization for data personalization, and DemandBase Analytics to understand traffic trends, bounce rates, conversion rates, and other critical website metrics, California-based Service Execution Management company ServiceMax, witnessed a 300 percent increase in their conversions, a 70 percent decrease in bounce rates, and a 100 percent increase in page views per session.
Key Takeaways
Measuring the success of your ABM strategy is crucial to understanding the strong and weak points of your strategy. A lot of trial and error goes into creating an effective ABM strategy. Define and measure your ABM KPIs to optimize your ABM strategy for better results.
FAQ
What are the most important ABM KPIs?
Some of the most important KPIs are upper funnel metrics, customer churn rate, and conversion rate.
What are some popular ABM analytics tools?
Popular ABM analytics tools include Salesforce, Google Analytics, Marketo, Engagio, DemandBase, and Terminus.
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Account Based Data
Article | August 19, 2022
Account-based marketing is the ultimate personalization tool.
Instead of incurring unnecessary marketing expenses, an account-centric strategy segregates vital business accounts and markets directly. This means, by appealing to specific market leaders, who can benefit from what your company has to offer, you can make marketing efforts more tailored and effective.
ABM strategy is not new by any means. Still, it has gained widespread recognition over the past few years as it's evolved along with the progression of technology. An entirely tech-based, the marketing automation solutions have made account-based marketing more measurable and affordable for all-sized businesses. Thus, ABM automation gained pace.
Research from Marketo suggests that account-based marketing delivers a better return on investment than other various strategies for 97% of marketers.
Marketing automation plays a vital role in driving impressive results. It allows companies to target their outreach based on interests and actions. But what makes ABM automation win the rat race?
ABM Automation: AI is the Driver
The reason why ABM automation has recently emerged is the availability of AI. Initially, AI was used by ABM to propel the automatic selection of target accounts through predictive analytics. Also, it is driving intelligent marketing nurturing and other marketing responses based on how the targets respond, their needs, and so on.
If you're targeting 100 accounts as potential new corporate customers, those accounts will visit different pages of your site. Some will download white papers and respond to emails. You will get leads from the targeted companies through these activities, and thus you can knock at their door.
AI enables quick responding to a dynamically changing engagement in the ABM platform and delivers the best action. This is how automation with AI is emerging in ABM platforms.
You can take four steps to automate your ABM to drive leads and create a successful ABM automated platform.
4 Steps to Plan ABM Automation
Draw the Automation Cycle
To start with ABM automation, firstly, create a blueprint of the targeted business. In this, you should identify the complete process of lead generation. The trail looks like; subscriber, lead, MQLs, SQLs, and a client to target. In this process, you cannot communicate at each phase. When one clicks on the particular link of your website, you should have a system-generated mail to send.
Once you track the movement of the lead, quickly trigger the sales team to take the follow-ups. This saves the time of salespersons, and therefore ABM strategies are implemented wisely.
Integrate your ABM automation software and CRM
Before you build your account-based marketing campaigns, you'll have to integrate your ABM automation software and CRM.
Integrating marketing automation tools is vital in the automation process. If your ABM software doesn't interact with the email marketing software, you won't be able to automate the process. In addition, if it doesn't relate to your CRM, it will be difficult to know if leads converted into accounts and track the ROI of an account-based campaign. So, to integrate ABM automation, you'll have to research and keep ICP, content, target accounts, and CRM all in one place.
Tailor Your Content
Ensure you're sending the right message to the right target account. Creating customized landing pages looking at how people have recently interacted with your brand is a great way to execute automation. Using ABM tools, you can automatically message target accounts with relevant messages when they engage with you and help you build the connections that become conversions.
Create Dashboard to Assess Efforts
The last step to automate your ABM platform is to track and measure the efforts you have put in to see information at-a-glance.
You get information about your target accounts on your dashboard, such as open deals, company score, total pipeline, and the number of decision-makers identified. In addition, you should consider ongoing A/B tests when started with ABM automation. This is because you can see what messaging appeals to your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).
ABM is a result-driven approach. ITSMA reports that 87% of marketers consider ABM as delivering the highest returns. But without automation, ABM becomes a strewn process. Marketing automation lets your team offer a personalized approach and immediate outreach with valuable content that pushes visitors to become regular clients. Thus, using ABM software tools — ideally the marketing automation tools — can help you automate and scale your strategy and adds value to your ABM efforts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the account-based marketing tactics?
Account-based marketing uses hyper-personalized tactics to attract, engage, and convert high-value accounts. Similarly, it uses emails to contact existing customers and target consumers and social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, and more to reach out to prospects.
Why is an account-based marketing strategy so important?
The importance of ABM lies in structuring marketing efforts and resources on key accounts to drive the most revenue. ABM maximizes the efficiency of your B2B marketing resources along with building the communication channel with sales to align with sales and marketing functions.
How to create the automated ABM strategy?
To create the automated ABM strategy, follow these steps:
Create your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Align your target accounts
Build campaigns
Integrate ABM, marketing automation software, and CRM
Personalize content
Engage
Set up a dashboard for assessment
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Account Based Data
Article | June 29, 2023
Sales and marketing have transformed. Marketers have had to adapt, modify their activities and lean into more collaborative interactions with sales teams in a way they haven’t done before. As events and direct channels are on the minor list of concerns, sales teams have become a principal marketing channel to reach accounts.
A quick look at Google trends shows you how Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has revolutionized the world of B2B marketing. It happened by going from non-existent to extremely popular in the last several years and hiked during the pandemic. With today’s buyer journey becoming progressively digital, B2B organizations are interested in ABM to deliver exceedingly personalized and focussed marketing campaigns.
The secret behind the burgeoning popularity of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is how confident and versed marketers feel now while using it. While ABM persists as the hot MarTech topic since 2019, its influence grew during the pandemic. While it may seem all geek to new users, ABM offers rewarding opportunities for marketers.
As per the ABM evangelist, Sangram Vajre of Terminus, “If marketers embrace ABM methods, they will earn desired revenue in their businesses. I want to do everything I can to help make marketers heroes.”
As per The B2B Lead, ABM directly inscribed sales and marketing alignment and challenges 50% of the time when sales wasted time against unproductive targeting.
ABM Drives Revenue, and Here’s the Proof:
If you are putting together an ABM strategy, such numbers would be handy. This blog gathers ten powerful Account-based Marketing stats that every marketer (you) should know as we land in 2021 (the post-pandemic era). So, to show you how beneficial account-based marketing can be, here you go.
10 Account-based Marketing Stats
92% of Marketing Leaders are More Focused at New Selling Process
Marketing leaders are now selling with vision to the executive level than what they did some years ago. As per a recent ITSMA report titled, “Engaging the C-Suite: 2019 Sales and Executive Engagement Survey Report”, 92% of marketing leaders mentioned that selling at the executive level is more critical to their sales strategy.
In today’s time, marketers are relying on ABM capabilities to capitalize on new market prospects. In addition, B2B businesses are designing and deepening their relationships around ABM to engage C-level executives more effectively.
90% Role of Marketers in ABM Today is Strategic
The role of marketers doing ABM is more strategic on particular programs. As per Alterra Group’s report, marketers need to demonstrate deep account and industry-specific expertise to create seamless ABM campaigns. To create account-relevant marketing messages, companies are bestowing more resources and snowballing the expenditure on ABM. Such expenditure is predicted to exceed that on other marketing technologies rapidly.
A Sturdy ICP has a 68% Higher Account...
Organizations with a strong ICP have 68% higher account marketing win rates. Modern marketing teams are now being measured on pipeline and revenue, not leads. This way, they are staying more focused on productive revenue growth at every stage of the funnel.
A Total Economic Impact report by Forrester found that prospects see an average 313% ROI by bringing go-to-market teams practicing account-based marketing tactics together to make marketing efforts efficacious.
69% of Top-Performing Account-Based Organizations have Dedicated Leaders
69% of top-performing account-based organizations now have a dedicated account-based leader. The Account-based marketing stats reflect that 70% of marketers who started their account-based initiatives in the past six months have dedicated leaders who are entirely dedicated to the market, having particular and focused accounts instead of a sea of buyers.
60% of Users Reported an Increase in Revenue
When ABM picked its pace in at least a year, 60% of its users reported a revenue surge of at least 10% & 19%, termed an impact of 30% or greater. In companies with a stout ROI from ABM, 75% measure pipeline generated and revenue, 67.5% measure meetings and target account pipeline are set, and 63% measure marketing qualified leads are gained.
As a result of this, approximately 70% of B2B marketers will pilot or launch full-sized account-based software and programs to target and engross groups of buyers in selected accounts.
62% of Marketers are Being Optimistic
They can easily measure the positive impact of account-based marketing tactics since adopting ABM. This has been the most efficient benefit of ABM observed up until now.
Forrester envisages that by 2025, the term "ABM" will evaporate as account-centric becomes the distinct way for B2B organizations to identify, plan, manage, and measure buying and post-sale motions for prospects.
80% ABM Budgets are Intensifying
After B2B companies saw the success of early programs, budgets devoted to ABM amplified by 40% year over year, from 20% in 2019 to 28% in 2020. This surge in investment reflects a confident attitude in return on ABM initiatives.
42% B2B Companies Favor Keeping Accounts in ABM Strategy between 50 and 500
As per the Demand Gen Report, 18% of B2B companies try to keep their accounts list under 50, 19% target a broad set of accounts, ranging between 1,000 and 5,000.
For a focused ABM approach, the report found that 42% of B2B companies try to keep their account list between 101 to 500. However, as this quantity varies depending on the size and scope of individual company deal sizes, these results will vary based on industry and product.
Companies Executing ABM Amplified ACV by 171%
B2B companies that have implemented ABM perceived a 171% rise in their Annual Contract Value (ACV) more significant than the pre-ABM ACV. In addition, ABM offers a boost to the pipeline rate, thus, enabling marketers to target prospects belonging to new revenue goals.
75% of B2B Buyers and 84% of C-level Executives Use Social Media
B2B buyers and C-level executives progressively rely on social media to harvest more information about products and services before making purchase-based decisions. 80% of buyers who had not yet used social media to research purchases are willing to use the right platforms.
As online mediums have become a progressive information preference of buyers, companies create profitable account-based campaigns to ignite the initiative.
A recent Social Buying Study from International Data Corporation (IDC) concludes that B2B buyers are the most active in using social media to support the buying process by having 84% superior budgets that made 61% more purchase decisions. This significantly influenced a greater span of purchase decisions than those buyers who did not use social media for their purchase process.
A Note About the Account-based Marketing Stats and COVID-19
April 2020, was just when all businesses were beginning to feel the effects of the pandemic. As a result, the COVID-19 impact has altered several perspectives, including budget, headcount, and prioritization. Yet, ABM programs have shown results with significant improvements in pipeline growth.
“If economic obscurity continues, these programs should persist as a core element of the Marketing strategy.” – Todd Berkowitz, Practice Vice President, Gartner
While COVID-19 is changing B2B organizations’ ability to stimulate sustained growth, it’s hoped that an account-based approach will significantly benefit your organization in the following ways:
Focus on your limited resources (budget, time, and personnel) on those companies to do business.
Target the accounts you already know. This will enable you to spend less money on demand-gen campaigns to generate new names.
Make the most of your team’s efficiency by scoring sales and marketing campaigns that work together to create the best buyer experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are account-based marketing stats measured?
Marketers use close rates when required to measure ABM efforts. Typically, the stats are gainedby measuring the reachability of target accounts or specific contacts at those accounts. This gives you a percentage or a conversion rate by account, which further estimates how successful ABM efforts have been to date.
What are good ABM metrics?
The good ABM metrics are:
Marketing-qualified accounts
Real engagement of account
Velocity of Pipeline
Average selling price
Customer engagement rate
Why should we measure account-based marketing stats?
It is because ABM delivers ROI. For example, when there is a greater emphasis on defining Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), a properly structured approach to selecting account and value is aligned with what a prospect’s business needs. This results in gaining higher win rates.
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Core ABM
Article | July 27, 2022
Dealing with lengthy sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, and aggressive sales quotas must not be new for sales leaders like you. However, if you collaborate more closely with marketing and customer success, you will likely achieve better results with your ABM strategy. According to Forrester, highly aligned businesses grow 19% faster and are 15% more profitable.
In this article, we will cover four ABM metrics you should be concerned with and how to track them to inform future ABM campaigns.
4 Metrics to Measure ABM Impact on Sales
Pipeline Velocity
When calculating pipeline velocity, compare the progression of opportunities through the sales cycle stages before and after. Measure how the velocity compares to previous cycles, whether you're running an ABM pilot or a mature program. Pipeline Velocity will help sales teams find opportunities during the sales cycle and close those good deals faster.
Average Sales Cycle Length
Measuring the average sales cycle length before and after the launch of your ABM program allows you to see if marketing activities have reduced the time it takes for your team to convert likely buyers from an opportunity to closed-won deals. A shorter sales cycle results in a greater number of closed deals per year and impressive ROI figures for your team.
Average Contract Value (ACV)
Average contract value (ACV) is one of the most important ways to measure the success of account-based marketing (ABM) because one of the main benefits of ABM is to find and convert high-intent, high-value accounts. Gartner found that the average deal size for ABM programs was 20% higher than for traditional demand generation programs. Measuring ACV can give you information about sales results and show how changes to ABM planning and strategy affect the bottom line.
Customer Lifecycle Value (CLV)
Customer Lifecycle Value is an all-encompassing metric that helps you determine how well your ABM program works and lets you predict future ROI. Once you've measured and optimized your CLV, you can assess customer churn and retain your high-value accounts. If you give accounts what they need at every stage of the buyer's journey through excellent customer service and personalized content, your customer churn rate will drastically decrease.
Finishing Up
Any successful ABM program starts and ends with strategic goals, objectives, and data-driven metrics. ABM programs done right can equip sales teams to point to a more valuable pipeline, shorter sales cycles, and more closed-won business.
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