The evolution of behavioural targeting types

A significant benefit of digital marketing is the ability to precisely identify and target the right audience for your brand. Demographic and behavioral targeting continue to be the two dominant types of targeting, but both their prevalence and relevance continue to evolve. The idea that demographic characteristics such as age and gender are the best indicators of whether a person will respond to your marketing efforts is being phased out, notes PR firm Hotwire...

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McDonald Butler

We are a strategic B2B sales and marketing agency specialising in the IT and technology sector. Our passion is to unite sales and marketing functions in ambitious companies to drive better audience engagement, forge stronger relationships and accelerate sales results and ROI. We plan, create and run fully integrated brand awareness, lead generation, nurture and sales enablement programmes for over 30 of today’s leading technology brands, whether directly to technology buyers, through alliance partners or the channel. Since opening our doors in 2005, we have held a firm belief that incredible results happen when sales and marketing align together as a force for good. Check out our case studies here. With award-winning capabilities in market research, creative design, content creation, digital and social media through to data, events, telemarketing and lead-qualification, we can: - Provide in-depth market and competitor insight, technology marketing consultancy, cross-vertical business i

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Account Based Analytics

Top Account-Based Marketing Events for Marketers to Attend in 2023

Article | August 3, 2022

Uncover the foremost account-based marketing events of 2023 and embrace the opportunity to attend these essential events, meticulously curated to empower marketers and shape the trajectory of ABM. Introduction In the ever-evolving world of account-based marketing (ABM), staying ahead of the curve is paramount for businesses seeking to achieve marketing excellence and drive meaningful results. Attending industry events has become an essential strategy for professionals in the ABM realm to remain competitive and gain a competitive edge. From thought-provoking conferences to collaborative summits, these carefully selected events offer a unique opportunity to gain invaluable insights, exchange ideas with industry leaders, and stay abreast of the latest trends and strategies in ABM. Businesses can position themselves at the forefront of ABM innovation by prioritizing their attendance at these industry-leading events, resulting in propelling marketing efforts toward unparalleled success. Go-To-Market Made Simple Roadshow 2023 – Quarter 2 June 23, 2023 | Boston (USA) The Go-To-Market Made Simple Roadshow 2023 – Quarter 2 presents a compelling opportunity for go-to-market leaders to gain valuable insights and strategies in an ever-evolving landscape. This event acknowledges the rapid evolution of go-to-market design, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive approach that encompasses sales, marketing, product, and customer success. With the emergence of trends such as product-led growth (PLG), ecosystem, and account-based marketing (ABM), alongside traditional inbound and outbound motions, revenue leaders are seeking a more holistic way to run their businesses. Additionally, this event offers a valuable networking platform, enabling go-to-market leaders to connect with their executive peers and collectively tackle the most pressing challenges in the dynamic business landscape. Breakthrough 23 October 16–19 | Frisco (USA) Breakthrough 23 is an exceptional event that brings together marketing and sales leaders to explore breakthrough strategies and techniques in intent-based advertising, prospecting, and accelerating sales. With a lineup of esteemed speakers including Jason Zintak, CEO of 6sense, Latane Conant, CMO of 6sense, and Dylan Schick, Senior Account Development Manager at Exabeam, attendees can expect insightful presentations and valuable insights. Topics covered range from revolutionizing intent-based advertising to leveraging advanced prospecting techniques with 6sense and driving pipeline growth through coordinated campaigns. This conference offers a unique opportunity for networking with over 1,100 industry leaders and features engaging product sessions to stay at the forefront of marketing and sales innovation. Collision Conference June 26–29, 2023 | Toronto (Canada) Collision Conference, renowned as one of the largest global tech conferences, invites professionals to immerse themselves in an exceptional networking and learning experience. Attendees can anticipate engaging with thought leaders and industry experts, including Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services; Sarah Guo, Founder of Conviction; and Dave Rogenmoser, Co-founder and CEO of Jasper, among others, to gain valuable insights and knowledge. With an impressive media presence, including over 1,200 journalists from renowned publications like Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, CNBC, and the Wall Street Journal, Collision Conference provides unparalleled exposure for participants. By participating in the Collision Conference, professionals position themselves at the forefront of innovation, collaboration, and investment opportunities that shape the future of the tech and business landscape. Inbound 2023 September 5–8 | Boston (USA) A highly anticipated event, Inbound 2023, sets the stage for marketers to explore cutting-edge innovations, develop world-class content, and prepare their strategies for the upcoming AI boom. Embodying an incubator's energy and an accelerator's intelligence, Inbound propels the industry forward for the collective good. It serves as a launchpad for careers, a catalyst for business growth, and a catalyst for positive community transformation. With speakers, including Reese Witherspoon, Founder of Hello Sunshine; Morgan Debaun, Founder and CEO of Blavity Inc.; and Derek Jeter, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, among others, on the deck, attendees can expect to be immersed in a transformative experience to elevate their marketing endeavors and forge meaningful connections. Inbound 2023 provides exclusive insights that assist marketers thrive, businesses scale, and the collective power of the community to drive positive change. SaaStr Annual 2023 September 06–08 | San Francisco (USA) SaaStr Annual 2023, one of the world's largest SaaS community events, unites over 12,500 SaaS executives, founders, and venture capitalists for an immersive experience. This three-day event features 100+ tactical sessions presented by renowned founders, emerging voices, and rising stars in the industry. With representation from 250+ speakers hailing from top SaaS companies worldwide, attendees can expect to gain actionable advice and insights to drive business growth from zero to $100M ARR with reduced stress and increased success. Sponsored by industry-leading organizations such as G2, Google Cloud, Greenhouse, and Vendr, among others, every session at the event will deliver practical insights and actionable strategies. Outreach Unleash 2023 October 03–05 | Seattle (USA) Outreach Unleash 2023 is an exclusive event centered around unleashing accelerated growth through a comprehensive RevOps approach. Emphasizing the importance of an abundance mindset, participants will explore how sales professionals can take ownership of their destiny and execute with the precision of a CEO, shaping a future of success. Renowned speakers and industry experts, including Em Falk, Director of Revenue Operations at Reylance.Ai; Donna Sanborn, Senior Leader of Digital Sales Effectiveness at Cisco; and Annie Lewis, Sr. Product Manager at Outreach, among others, share insights across a diverse range of topics, including metric myth-busting through data sharing between Outreach and Snowflake. This will enable attendees to harness the power of GenAI to achieve a competitive advantage. Furthermore, the event will delve into the strategies employed by top-performing sales professionals who approach their craft with passion and consistently provide solutions to executives' most pressing strategic challenges. Product Marketing Summit September 21 - 22, 2023 | Oakland (USA) The Product Marketing Summit, organized by Product Marketing Alliance, brings together the world's largest community of product marketers in a collaborative gathering focused on sharing valuable insights. The industry leaders and experts, including Sudha Ranganathan, Director of Product Marketing at LinkedIn; Emma Stratton, Founder of Punchy; and Apoorva Sharma, Head of Global Cross-Product Solutions at Google, among others, will share valuable insights on navigating complex go-to-market strategies, optimizing product launches, establishing a strong market position, which will leverage ideal customer profiles and segmentation, and others. Product Marketing Summit promises to be a transformative experience, providing attendees with a clear roadmap for professional growth and enabling them to amplify the differentiated value of their products in today's competitive market. MarketingProfs B2B Forum October 04–06, 2023 | Boston (USA) Discover the pinnacle of marketing events at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum, where marketers gather to unlock the strategies that drive growth, elevate brand reputation, prove ROI, and navigate the ever-evolving marketing landscape. B2B Forum is an ideal venue for marketers who want to improve their skills, grow their professional networks, and spark their imagination. It has a carefully chosen lineup of tactical sessions, inspiring keynotes, and memorable networking opportunities. With leading industry speakers on the deck, including Nilofer Merchant, Cofounder of The Intangible Labs; Moni Oloyede, Director of Marketing at Fidelis Cybersecurity; and Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group, among others, the B2B Forum will act as a catalyst for career development, idea generation, and celebration of the art of marketing. Attendees can expect to unlock valuable strategies, expand their professional networks, and be inspired by industry experts. B2B Summit APAC 2023 September 19–20, 2023 | Singapore B2B Summit APAC 2023 is the premier event dedicated to driving business growth and fueling the revenue engine in the Asia-Pacific region. With a focus on Forrester's B2B Customer-Obsessed Growth Engine, this summit delivers groundbreaking research, models, and frameworks tailored to meet the priorities of organizations. Marketing leaders can expect a comprehensive agenda featuring insightful breakouts, hands-on case studies, inspiring keynotes, and valuable peer connections. By attending B2B Summit APAC, Participants will gain the knowledge and strategies necessary to empower their marketing strategies and achieve results that surpass their goals. B2B Marketing ABM Conference November 02, 2023 | Austin (USA) The B2B Marketing ABM Conference is an eagerly anticipated event dedicated exclusively to Account-Based Marketing (ABM). With a thoughtfully curated agenda spread across four stages, this conference offers a high-caliber program designed to cater to a wide range of marketing needs. Through hand-picking the big thinkers from hundreds of 'call for speakers' submissions, Stefano Lacono, Marketing Director of 6Sense; Ryan Almond, Global Vertical Marketing and ABM Director of Henkel; and Rebecca Powell, Senior ABM Marketing Manager at Showpad, among others, will provide attendees with actionable strategies and valuable insights to propel their ABM efforts forward, regardless of their current stage in the journey. From pinpointing areas of improvement to refining ABM strategies, participants will leave the conference armed with the knowledge and tools needed to unlock the true potential of ABM. Conclusion Attending account-based marketing events is an essential step in staying ahead of the curve and refining your ABM strategies in today's dynamic marketing landscape. These events provide unparalleled opportunities to gain insights from industry experts, discover emerging trends, and network with like-minded professionals. By participating in these conferences, marketers can equip themselves with the knowledge, strategies, and tools needed to drive successful ABM campaigns, engage key accounts, and achieve remarkable results. Businesses must capitalize on and be part of these transformative events that are shaping the future of account-based marketing.

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Buyer Intent Data

Account-Based Marketing: How to Scale your Business in Digital-Only Marketplace

Article | June 20, 2023

There’s a new business world evolving—a digital-only marketplace driven by the recent global pandemic. It impacted every company, forced them to change the way they operate, market, and sell. Proven best marketing practices, such as Account-Based Marketing (ABM), are commonplace for B2B marketers. That said, the new reality and new normal is forcing companies to rethink how they can optimize their strategy to be more accurate and direct with a one-to-many engagement model. As COVID-19 continues to be spreading, B2b marketers (you) should take advantage of the downtime to assess and scale your business in the evolving digital-only marketplace. This is because once you exit from this crisis, businesses would be ordinary. So, one of the most effective ways to keep your marketing strategy dynamic is to look for fresh ideas, tactical approaches, get creative with adding personalization, and include some empathy in messages to help customers during this period of uncertainty. With account-based marketing, set a relatively new concept of marketing strategies to scale your business. Understanding this, you can better deliver the right solution to your targeted and potential customers. As you are defining and refining your ABM marketing strategy, how can you help customers more with solutions precisely? It’s time to explore new ways to communicate and engage more and more accounts. Get Creative with Your ABM Strategy ABM may not be a new concept in the B2B space. Still, there’s always an opportunity to freshen up your strategy and get creative with different aspects. The most influential and budding trend of being creative is personalization. Yes! Personalization will let you focus on your target audience and achieve brand recognition and higher conversions. Identify a List of Ideal Target Audience As ABM is about tailoring campaigns to specific accounts, the first thing you need to do is to identify a list of important accounts for your campaign. The easiest way to begin is by asking your sales team to pick accounts from the existing customer data. Finding companies matching your ideal target customer helps narrow down your focus for a longer period. Once you have a list of companies, use the same social media strategies to search their profile pages and find similar companies. But, sometimes, there might be some companies on social media that do not match your ideal customer profile. In such cases, you can research for each of the “similar” accounts you find. Want to know how to proceed? Read further. Research Each Account Unlike research for personas, ABM is not about targeting an individual. Instead, it requires proper account-based research! So, what information you need to get initially and collect to start your research? It’s recommended to start with the following: Market-wise: Includes industry, company size, and competitors Company-wise: Marketing share, revenue, and past revenue records Client/Audience wise: Buying power, designation, influencers, and management In most cases, this information will be visible on the company website, press releases, social media pages, or annual reports. One of the most critical aspects of the research phase is identifying and getting access to key decision-makers. The more you identify them, the more successful will be your ABM campaign. It is because, today, the number of people involved in decision-making is growing. According to Gartner, in a typical firm with 100-500 employees, approximately 7-8 people stay engaged in the buying decisions. But you need to convince. How? Good content plays a crucial role here. Content? How? Read the next point to understand. Use Dynamic Content Creating dynamic content is a great way to have personalized communications with your target accounts. Whether emails, newsletters, subscriptions, websites, blogs, and videos, among others, are the best ways to initiate personalization in your marketing strategy when doing ABM. Demand Gen Report’s survey found that 95% of B2B buyers choose a solution provider through content. This helps them navigate each stage of the buying process. Here are ABM’s most effective content-based marketing tactics: Personalized content: 78% Emails: 68% Social media: 57% Targeted display ads: 50% Search engines: 50% Mobile ad: 48% To understand how dynamic content plays a key role, hop to the next level. Generate Relevant Content What kind of content engages B2B buyers? It is relevant and informational content because such contents are more attractive, which interests a buyer is to engage with you. Also, in terms of the most effective ABM strategies, personalized content ranks number one! So, how you make relevant content? The standard approach in ABM for B2B marketers is to create tailored content for a specific industry. But you can also customize content for particular accounts. It is an excellent practice to review the existing content before you customize content for any specific account. It will give you more ideas and insights. For example, blog posts, case studies, white papers, and e-books are the most considered relevant content for your ideal target account. Then, categorize by stage in the sales funnel. Whether they fall under the top of the funnel (includes blogs, articles, videos, and infographics), middle of the funnel (includes eBooks, case studies, white papers, and video tutorials), and bottom of the funnel (includes free blogs, blog samples, quotes, etc.). This way, you know accurately the type of content (a relevant one) that needs to be sent to a buyer based on the funnel stage. However, if you have no content that rings with your ideal customer, interview existing customers that match their profile to understand their top business challenges. This becomes extremely powerful and results in attracting more and more potential customers in the future. In this context, only 42% of marketers communicate with their customers as part of their content research phase. Without interviewing existing customers, the content created might not be relevant. Thus, it becomes one primary reason buyers don’t engage with brands. Use Personalized Content Today, content personalization is playing a pivotal role in the new digital marketing landscape. It is working on customizing the content-based interests of audiences and their challenges. It can help you target your specific market segments more accurately and enable more chances of conversion. Personalization of content aims to ultimately understand how the businesses will benefit from your products and services. To increase the size of your marketing net through ABM strategy, it is vital to be sure that your target accounts resonate with your content across the following touch-points: Use personalized content on social media platforms to gain maximum outreach Utilize advanced programmatic ads to communicate directly to your target accounts Develop landing pages precisely to one target account or multiple accounts that have similar needs within a similar industry Tell your Story to Connect If you want to stand out from the crowd, your ABM strategy must be unique instead of being cut and dry. Storytelling is a perfect opportunity to be creative in showcasing your business (brand). Such an approach gives a broad perspective to your audiences. Hence, they learn more about your brand, the solutions you provide, and the benefits they might gain from the collaboration. Storytelling in your content-based ABM strategy can take on many forms, such as: Combine product videos with case-studies related to the target account’s needs. In case-studies, use relevant success stories during targeting. Allow them to see themselves as the business in the case study. Highlight the past customer experience to the target account. Share your company culture and milestones. These points attribute holistically to create proper storytelling— one of the most critical aspects of content-based ABM strategy for marketing. Personalize Your Website Creating a dynamically personalized and highly relevant website is extremely important to target accounts. Based on their behavior, location, profile, and other attributes, a website provides a different experience to your targeted accounts. Imagine browsing a website and seeing your industry on its homepage—wouldn’t you be intrigued to browse further? This is how a part of personalization works. So, personalize your website by tailoring content, gathering events, webinars, discussion forums, and collaboration with your industry leaders. These attributes help personalization become more powerful, as you gain the ability to catch target account’s interest the moment they click on your website. To create a personalized website, remember these points: Diversify your content through blog posts, infographics, video or slide presentations, etc. Your website’s structural flow should accommodate a straightforward user experience. Easy navigation of the website to encourage leads Perform testing on keywords, pricing info, placement of CTAs, layout, images, landing pages, and contact forms. Boost the quality of your content for accuracy, coherence, and tone. Distribute Content to the Right Person The foremost goal of ABM strategy to scale your business is to reach the right person at the right account. It is necessary so that you can engage, nurture, and build a strong connection. What’s the most effective way to create content to reach the right person? It’s an Email. Emails still work efficiently than any other content form when it comes to campaigns. The content for it needs to be highly relevant to contact a single account or a group of accounts that match your ideal customer’s profile. E-mail is not just limited to marketers. Sales representatives can use email too! 92% of businesses pay attention to emails even if it’s sent from a company that they have never done business with. They read an email that contains ideas that might be relevant to their business. Also, 78% of decision-makers have taken appointments or attended an event inspired by cold emails. So, do not be mistaken with email marketing dead just yet! To understand it more, know-how a direct mail can be effective: 80% of mail gets attention and opened. 56% of buyers initiate contact with the help of direct mail. 59% of buyers enjoy receiving direct mail from brands they like. The average ROI for mail campaigns is between 18-20%. Therefore, with mails, you can target a particular account and tailor the content particularly for them. Also, you can tailor the content to include personal details such as company logo, names, and job titles. Because this helps clients remember your company details than of others on top of their minds. Explore Experimental Marketing Experiential marketing in ABM strategy can combine real-world and virtual touch-points to promote higher campaign engagement. Refining your ABM campaigns around the tenants of experiential marketing can increase the likelihood of a conversion and strengthen your brand loyalty with target accounts. To do experiential marketing in your ABM strategy program, keep the focus on the following tactics: Create new content messaging to connect to the new focused target audience. Create a client value proposition on an account-by-account, including content marketing tricks. Focusing on an emotional connection between the target account and your brand to give solutions is essential Apply your content marketing strategies to a digital and real-world customer experience framework. Include all of your standard digital marketing channels, in-person events, and one-on-one meetings Lastly, Re-think Everything While the COVID-19 pandemic has left a wake of loss and misfortune in the B2B business world, the new digital-only reality will accelerate digital transformation across every B2B enterprise. More importantly, this will catalyze to resolve puzzling technology, skills, and organizational challenges that have prevented marketing teams from fully delivering a rich customer experience through their ABM programs. So, you should re-think everything at this time, including your tech stack, to increase the number of marketing technology. Leveraging a one-size-fits-all approach to ABM does not work, especially in a COVID-19 affected world. Now, more than ever, you need to include and demonstrate empathy and engage target accounts with the right content and message in your ABM strategy. By this, marketing organizations can quickly understand which accounts are in a buy-cycle and contribute to the virility of your campaigns within your accounts to expand coverage and conversion results. Frequently Asked Questions How effective is ABM? ABM helps companies to align their sales and marketing functions with increasing revenue. 60% of them using ABM have increased revenue by 10% in a year. Also, other companies have seen a 30% and more increase in business revenue. Therefore, by implementing account-based marketing, B2B marketers will have a technology stack that can scale their new business. How does personalization help ABM strategy to scale? If you have included personalization, here are ways that help your ABM strategy to scale: Create a strategic design, including creating empathy maps for each target audience segment or customer personas. Create proprietary datasets according to patterns of customer profiles, get insight, and include personalization messages, content on social media platforms, blogs, websites, and more. Use Tech integrations such as voice recognition and augmented reality, which is mobile-friendly, to reduce the cost of managing millions of data points. Automate process: Campaign creation, content creation through emails, and more. How to prepare ABM strategies? Follow these steps to prepare ABM strategies: Build the sales bridge to establish alignment between sales and marketing leadership. Define your segments. Align marketing and sales processes. Empower sales and marketing, including technology stacks like artificial intelligence, machine learning, chatbots, VR, and AR. Host consistent planning sessions with territory-level managers. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How effective is ABM?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "ABM helps companies to align their sales and marketing functions with increasing revenue. 60% of them using ABM have increased revenue by 10% in a year. Also, other companies have seen a 30% and more increase in business revenue. Therefore, by implementing account-based marketing, B2B marketers will have a technology stack that can scale their new business." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How does personalization help ABM strategy to scale?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "If you have included personalization, here are ways that help your ABM strategy to scale: Create a strategic design, including creating empathy maps for each target audience segment or customer personas. Create proprietary datasets according to patterns of customer profiles, get insight, and include personalization messages, content on social media platforms, blogs, websites, and more. Use Tech integrations such as voice recognition and augmented reality, which is mobile-friendly, to reduce the cost of managing millions of data points. Automate process: Campaign creation, content creation through emails, and more." } },{ "@type": "Question", "name": "How to prepare ABM strategies?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Follow these steps to prepare ABM strategies: Build the sales bridge to establish alignment between sales and marketing leadership. Define your segments. Align marketing and sales processes. Empower sales and marketing, including technology stacks like artificial intelligence, machine learning, chatbots, VR, and AR. Host consistent planning sessions with territory-level managers." } }] }

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Buyer Intent Data

Why Should Businesses Incorporate Conversational Marketing in ABM?

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." } }] }

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Account Based Data

How Buyer Intent Data Gets You More Customers

Article | August 19, 2022

Getting the attention of the target audience at the right time is the aim of every B2B marketing strategy. Most consumers research products and services before making a purchasing decision. B2B companies are no different. This means potential accounts are always on the lookout for a solution to a problem they are facing in their business. These are prospects that will convert into approachable leads and eventually customers if you offer them just what they are looking for, just when they are looking for it. To find these lucrative prospects, marketers like you need to harness B2B buyer intent data. B2B intent data gives you deep insights into your marketing ICP’s behaviour, pain points, and requirements. With this important data, you can give your sales team promising leads they can follow up on. In an interview with Media 7, Marc Laplante, CEO and Co-founder of Intentsify emphasized the importance of intent data. “In B2B marketing and sales, intent data is typically understood as a tool to identify or prioritize which accounts we should target for advertising, lead generation, and sales follow-up. These are undoubtedly powerful use cases. But they represent only part of the intent data’s value. You should also use intent data to convert those accounts down the funnel into customers and revenue. Intent data, if granular enough, will highlight your target accounts’ problems, interests, research into competitors, geographic location, and buying stage.” Let us take a look at what buyer intent data can do to bring you the sales numbers you want and how it can enhance your B2B account-based marketing strategy. Buyer Intent Data Brings You Ready-to-buy Customers Every user has a unique online behaviour, which can be distinguished using behavioral signals that uncovers the topic, product, or service the person needs. This information gives insight into the perceived intent of your marketing ICP. As a marketer, this information will help you plan effective advertising campaigns. The sales team can use this data to design the right pitch tracks, demos, and collateral to convert members from your targeted buying group. Additionally, this data can also help your customer success teams identify existing accounts that showcase a churn risk or an upsell opportunity. It’s a win-win for three teams at once. B2B intent data uses website data, off-site activity, CRMs, social media data, and content consumption data from online content like infographics, blogs, product comparisons and reviews, discussion boards, case studies, and news to pinpoint buyer insights. Intent Data Improves the B2B Buyer Journey The B2B buyer journey is a combination of accounts navigating through early stage (awareness content to identify the problem), middle stage (exploring solutions), late stage (comparing vendors that offer solutions) and finally the last stage (purchase/upsell/churn). Between exploring solutions and comparing vendors, lie hidden opportunities that haven’t reached you. Intent data can bridge this gap for you. Intent data providers give you data that is tailored to keywords that are relevant to your business and use case. This data targets buying locations at the website level and aggregates signals across a corporate family. Deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) are used to screen the content to achieve relevancy and to map billions of unique online engagement events every week. Analytics pinpoint the accounts that are showing any kind of buying activity and correspond to your targeted keywords. All this actionable data can shorten your buyer’s journey towards conversion. Identifying early-stage prospects At this stage, intent data signals surge around the keywords or topics that relate to the general challenges and pain points of your prospects because they are looking at the cause of their problem. They will try to find a elementary solution and get to know more about the products and services different brands are offering. Identifying middle-stage prospects The intent data signals at this stage will show a higher level of activity around topics or keywords related to a precise product or service category because the prospects have already identified the root of their problem and the options they have to address it. Identifying prospects ready to purchase At this stage, the signals are mostly focused on topics related to your brand, your specific product names and features, and your competitors’ product names. These prospects are ready to spend and should be approached at the earliest to achieve conversion. Sources of Buyer Intent Data Intent data providers offer two types of intent data: 1. Internal Intent Data (First-party Data) This data is collected in-house through a marketing automation platform or through application logs if you have a web-based app. You can control what you collect and how you collect it and act on the data instantly. You can customize the purchase intent to your liking. 2. External Intent Data External intent data is third-party intent data and is collected outside of your business. It is sourced via IP lookups, cookies or specific websites. However, third-party cookies will be phased out soon. So, B2B marketers need to rely on first-party cookies, data points, contextual advertising, and tracking technologies to get information on their prospects. Read more about cookie-less ABM here. B2B Buyer Intent Behavioral Indicators Actions that prospects carry out on your website or the internet are compared with the behavioral data of prospects that become SQLs (sales qualified leads). Here are some behavioral indicators that show purchase intent: High intensity engagement with your brand’s social media posts Exploring your product or pricing pages Exploring product or service customer review page Reading articles about your product’s features on your blog The frequency of prospects’ website visits and the actions they take Content consumption, like downloading e-books, templates, or any other resources What Does Buyer Intent Data Do for You? While implementing account-based marketing techniques, you should prioritize intent data above everything else. Capitalize on the potential of intent data by incorporating it into your sales and marketing workflows. Adjust your interactions to match your prospects’ demands and establish meaningful connections with them. Primarily, intent data helps prioritize a list of target accounts that need to be pursued. Once the sales and marketing teams are aware of a user's location in the sales cycle, they may focus on moving them along in the purchasing process with customized content. Let us look into what intent data can do for your business in detail: Efficient Prospecting According to a survey by HubSpot, 75% of businesses ranked being able to close more deals as their top sales priority. With intent data, a prospect that is in the market to buy is easier to find because of predictive analytics. You already have your ICP in marketing in place and when prospects match this list and are in the market to buy, buying intent data efficiently puts your brand in front of these leads. Apart from this, buyer intent also helps segment your target list based on the intensity of the purchase intent. Targeting accounts with high intent through email marketing, content marketing, advertising and direct mail becomes easier. Enhances Outbound Sales The higher the quality of leads, the easier it becomes for your sales team to convert them. Buyer intent data lets your sales team know the exact position of a lead in the buying cycle. Instead of wasting time emailing unqualified leads, your team can approach these prospects which match your ICP in marketing and start a meaningful conversation. Intent data also increases the ROI of your B2B content syndication efforts. Superior Lead Scoring Your marketing team can predict prospects’ purchase intent based on what they are researching. They can do lead scoring with precision and supplement your sales team’s efforts. They don’t have to rely on traditional lead scoring methods where they add points to a lead’s score when certain actions are performed. Intent data uncovers possible paths that your leads can take even when they are not on your website. Personalized and Targeted ABM campaigns Personalization is key for any B2B account-based marketing campaign to bring the results you expect. The most effective method to enhance your ABM strategy is to map out your buyer journey and sprinkle it with relevant content to influence leads. You can also use intent data to strategically personalize and rank your ABM demand generation campaigns, so that every touch point of your ABM campaign meets your prospects' expectations. Relevant Content Creating content that can catch the attention of your prospects while offering solutions and value is crucial to get the conversions you expect. Intent data will help you see the correlation between topics and the context of those topics with the solutions your prospects are looking for. If you are aware of the questions that your prospects have before they go to market, you can answer them through your content. Buying intent data offers you just that. Let intent data drive your content strategy to give your prospects just what they want. Intent Marketing Intent-based marketing is when you know just where to spend your time and budget. In intent marketing, the focus lies on analyzing the intent of your prospects and strategizing how to meet them. Spending less time trying to target and rank keywords with low or irrelevant intent can help you increase your ROI, make an ironclad content strategy and a streamlined lead generation process that results in conversion and revenue. Assessing Buyer Intent Understanding and calculating buyer intent is not an easy task. It depends on these three factors: Recency Buyer intent that reports how recently a prospect engaged with your content is valuable so that your sales team can approach leads who have visited your website. Frequency Frequency indicates the intensity of your prospects’ intent to buy a product or service to solve their problems. If they visit key pages that have information on pricing, case studies, customer stories, etc., your sales team can reach out to them immediately. Engagement When your sales and marketing teams score leads, one of the most important parameters on their scale is engagement. If a prospect is engaging with the content on your website, through a chatbot, or as a result of an email campaign, you know it’s a great time to reach out to them. Apart from these factors, buyer intent data tools also use variables like firmographics, technographics, account size, and job titles for accurate buyer intent mapping so that you can reach out to your marketing ICP with a personalized message in your intent-based marketing strategy. Metadata Sees 42% Dip in CPL with G2 Buyer Intent Metadata, a demand generation platform that runs paid campaign experiments and self-optimizes them to generate revenue, invested in G2 buyer intent. Their cost per lead (CPL) dipped 42%, their click-to-open rate for ads increased 114%, and their average deal size for ads spiked by 18%. Final Thoughts Buyer intent data changes the way you interact with your prospects and leads. Harness buyer intent data tools to have an edge over your competitors and get more conversions. FAQ What are the essential elements of an intent data strategy? Align your intent data strategy with your ABM strategy, get buy-in from the C-suite, begin with a small pilot, analyze performance metrics, and integrate your systems with intent data. How are B2B marketers leveraging B2B buyer intent data to boost revenue? B2B marketers use intent data to create effective content, identify buyer groups, improve lead qualification, boost team productivity, and increase customer retention to boost revenue. How does intent data enhance your lead scoring process? Predictive purchasing insights help you find prospects in the market so you can make a list of accounts that are close to making a purchase decision. This makes your lead scoring process easier and better.

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McDonald Butler

We are a strategic B2B sales and marketing agency specialising in the IT and technology sector. Our passion is to unite sales and marketing functions in ambitious companies to drive better audience engagement, forge stronger relationships and accelerate sales results and ROI. We plan, create and run fully integrated brand awareness, lead generation, nurture and sales enablement programmes for over 30 of today’s leading technology brands, whether directly to technology buyers, through alliance partners or the channel. Since opening our doors in 2005, we have held a firm belief that incredible results happen when sales and marketing align together as a force for good. Check out our case studies here. With award-winning capabilities in market research, creative design, content creation, digital and social media through to data, events, telemarketing and lead-qualification, we can: - Provide in-depth market and competitor insight, technology marketing consultancy, cross-vertical business i

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