Account Based Data
Article | June 29, 2023
The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies is inevitable and necessary to achieve the potential of account-based marketing (ABM). However, I consider technology to be more of an enabler of ABM, while the driver always remains the same – enhancing the customer experience by helping clients sustain and grow their business in this dynamic digital era. The goal is not for AI to make marketing decisions but to enable marketers to make better decisions by leveraging the strength of AI in analyzing a large amount of data quickly to share action-oriented insights.
AI can be a friend or foe, depending on what decisions we make while evaluating and implementing AI. Following are key questions organizations should answer before deploying an AI-based marketing strategy.
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Buyer Intent Data
Article | August 23, 2022
B2B businesses use various marketing techniques to increase revenue. Most marketers run campaigns to target a wide range of audiences. But strategies are rarely successful in the B2B world. Moreover, these companies are forced to sell to a narrow list of prospects. So, they use a combination of inbound and account-based marketing techniques to make the magic happen. But, most of them probably aren't marketing the right way.
Similarly, if the sales team fails to align with marketing in your company, perhaps, it's time to try something new. Because, as a marketer, you already know how difficult it is to decide on marketing aspects. Of course, none of these are convincing unless you aren't aware of account-based marketing and its clear and observable benefits.
The benefits of Account-Based Marketing can help you to know accurately how to measure marketing ROI. In addition, the benefits can button-up marketing-to-sales alignment, reduce or maintain the size of the sales force you need, and cater to your marketing message to specific targeted accounts.
The list of advantages and benefits of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is endless. But, here is an attempt through the ten most valuable ones that'll push your marketing goals with ABM.
An Opportunity to Get Personal
Personalization is an essential benefit of Account-Based Marketing! ABM technology allows marketers to create more personalized messaging for specific accounts instead of creating blanket messaging for a larger number of accounts. When approaching a specific account, spending as much time and effort as creating relevant content is essential, which provides value for your targeted account.
For instance, instead of creating bulk email marketing, your efforts would work better if there is direct messaging or account-targeted ads for your accounts.
Faster Sales Process
Depending on your business, industry, and resources, the sales cycle typically looks something like this:
1) Prospect → 2) Connect → 3) Research → 4) Present → 5) Close → 6) Delight
Several investors are involved in making a final purchase decision. This can often slow down your sales and marketing process. But when you do account-based marketing, it allows making the process faster. With ABM, you get the opportunity to specifically nurture your primary decision stage, along with all relevant accounts, to facilitate the sales process.
However, with the concept of ABM, you can communicate individually to every stakeholder in an account. Hence, this would make the individual sales process faster and longer, yet very effective.
Clearer Path to ROI
ABM is precise, targeted, and measurable. And it helps you maximize your ROI. With personalization as one of the most effective marketing tactics, you select only valuable accounts, which boost your sales, and thus, ROI increases. In addition, the approach makes your team easily align sales with consistent marketing that grows ROI.
Here are some stats to support this benefit of Account-based Marketing:
Response rates from ABM accounts: 47%
Online activities: 39%
Number of new contacts in accounts: 36%
Participation in all marketing activities: 25%
Set an Appropriate Marketing Budget
A sound ABM strategy would help your marketing team focus on the targeted accounts on the various touchpoints to explore during their buying journey. Scaling ABM techniques will save a lot on your allotted marketing budget, which has been wasted on useless leads before.
From a marketing budget perspective, ABM is the best way to go for any B2B communication coupled with the newest ABM tools and strategies to target specific organizations or companies.
Experience Lesser Risk Possibilities
This benefit of account-based marketing can significantly reduce unnecessary waste and risk factors. By scaling ABM marketing strategies, you can do more. Smart ABM technology helps the same number of account managers to target, market, convert, and upsell a much larger number of accounts personally. This means there's much less risk involved. Therefore, with ABM tactics adequately set up, accounts become revolving doors—even if one contact is lost, another one will walk right in. It's that simple—ABM is a no-brainer.
Better Reporting
Your marketing campaign's effectiveness can be measured using ABM metrics. And, the truth is, the more tangible these metrics are, the more clearly you can target your account.
The main benefit of account-based marketing is that there are fewer metrics you're required to keep track of, which helps you to report better. This makes it easier to set marketing goals. And so, analyzing reports becomes a breeze compared to pulling out large sets of data from different accounts. This is because you tend to spend more time assessing each aspect of the efforts put in by you. So, the metrics help to document relevant data for all the accounts and set better goals at the end of the quarter.
So, if you're sure of your target audience, ABM is the way to go!
Sales Alignment Becomes Much Better
ABM technology provides a supplementary targeted marketing initiative, which directly aligns sales and marketing teams to work together & keep track of their efforts and goals. With that, purpose-driven activities like communication code, the collaterals to be shared, the tone of messages, and the ultimate content are put in sync between marketing and sales teams. So that these directly address the unique needs of each account.
Trust-Based Customer Relations
Companies are always looking for solutions to their problems online. In this case, ABM provides them a personalized solution through communication. Be it through blogs, whitepapers, videos, or social media, as they naturally get attracted to you if you offer to solve their problems. This further creates trust between the two. A relationship based on trust is a relationship that can lead to good sales, and future referrals may be.
Make Data-Driven Decision
As there are many benefits of account-based marketing, it effectively encourages marketers to make data-driven decisions. ABM creates a framework for sales and marketing teams to make data-driven decisions after targeting specific accounts. And then market to maximize upsell or create cross-selling opportunities by identifying prospects in the future.
The Right Target, the Right Leads
The concept of ABM is revolutionary. Its marketing methodology focuses on scoring the right leads as opposed to many leads. Why spend half of your team's energy on low-profit clients to create low-level leads when one right kind of lead can help your business to earn a double-digit revenue? As with ABM, you get to target only the accounts most likely to your business; therefore, the right leads are generated. This leads to more revenue than those hundreds of the wrong leads. This is the ultimate benefit of account-based marketing that ultimately runs your business!
ABM makes B2B marketing interesting and sensible completely.
Now you know the benefits of Account-Based Marketing. Just that you need is to implement ABM strategies and see its magic and how your business grows better than ever!
Frequently Asked Questions
How does ABM work?
ABM focuses on identifying accounts, which means companies that match ideal clients and target critical decision-makers with personalized messages and content through advertising campaigns. Content forms such as blogs, social media, and whitepapers work well with the ABM strategy.
Who uses Account-Based Marketing?
Generally, marketers prefer doing account-based marketing to identify target accounts, personalize the marketing and campaign experience. Thus, allowing the sales team to convert accounts into leads.
Does account-based marketing work?
Yes, account-based marketing works indeed. It encourages the marketing and sales team to identify target accounts, craft customized campaigns for accounts, and align individual accounts through the pipeline before and after converting into leads.
How to use ABM?
To use the ABM platform, here are the steps explained:
Identify targets while setting up an effective ABM strategy
Understand the targets
Define and personalize content formats
Choose relevant channels
Offer solutions
Measure & mold
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Buyer Intent Data
Article | June 20, 2023
ABX is about quality, not quantity.
The traditional metrics that have been used to gauge ABM success are not useful in the experience-centric realm. The new and more complex benchmarks for measuring success revolve around:
Relationship analytics
Journey analytics
Attribution analytics
Once you’ve successfully closed accounts, you want to make sure you understand which ABM programs helped to contribute to that sale so you can rinse and repeat. This is where you can evaluate how a vendor measures ABM success and the entire Account-Based Experience. You will want to choose a vendor who can help you optimize your programs from the top of the funnel to the bottom, and grow your customer’s lifetime value.
Some examples of metrics to measure include the volume and velocity of an account as it makes its way through the buyer journey. This helps you understand whether your programs are engaging enough as well as whether your sales cycle is too long.
A strong ABM vendor will also have different methods for measuring attribution since not all businesses are alike, and marketers love seeing attribution models so they can measure the success of their marketing efforts and ROI.
Other metrics to consider include advertising campaigns and website visits – but with an account-based lens. After all, you want to understand whether your advertising is reaching the right accounts and which accounts are engaging on your website. If you find you’re short-staffed, some ABM vendors offer strategic services to help you with your ABM strategy and measurement. To learn more about vendor onboarding and support, read the next section.
Because ABX has a different set of metrics than ABM, when it comes to measuring the performance of the ABM solution from the vantage point of the customer experience, the scope also changes.
The vendors on your shortlist should, among other features:
Offer a dashboard to measure ABM impact from across the funnel.
Track volume, velocity and conversion metrics for each journey stage.
Offer customizable subscriptions for all custom reports.
People and account based heatmaps.
Allow you to combine first party, third party, firmographic and technographic data for segmentation and reporting.
Allow you to compare the performance of different audiences or account lists and evaluate the impact of specific programs.
Enable you to see the engagement and activities that influenced the different stages of a deal cycle.
Measuring a journey and a relationship in the long term requires measuring as much data as possible, so find out if they also:
Centralize your existing data sources in one location?
Track B2B metrics by account?
Track and report on anonymous first-touch visitors by account?
Have strategic services in place to help you set up ROI reporting based on your strategies? Allow you to compare different timeframes for account stages?
Provide advanced BI capabilities for ABM?
The point of measuring is to take action based on knowledge and insights, and having an ABM solution that allows you to bring together all of the relevant data points for your decision-making is pivotal for the success of your business. Our agnostic Definitive Guide to Choosing an Account-Based Marketing Platform provides you with checklists like the one above as well as the reasoning behind the need for each of the features outlined in the ebook. Check it out and take advantage of the printable list we put together for your own use at the end of the guide.
ABX is about quality, not quantity. The traditional metrics that have been used to gauge ABM success are not useful in the experience-centric realm. The new and more complex benchmarks for measuring success revolve around:
Relationship analytics
Journey analytics
Attribution analytics
Once you’ve successfully closed accounts, you want to make sure you understand which ABM programs helped to contribute to that sale so you can rinse and repeat. This is where you can evaluate how a vendor measures ABM success and the entire Account-Based Experience. You will want to choose a vendor who can help you optimize your programs from the top of the funnel to the bottom, and grow your customer’s lifetime value.
Some examples of metrics to measure include the volume and velocity of an account as it makes its way through the buyer journey. This helps you understand whether your programs are engaging enough as well as whether your sales cycle is too long.
A strong ABM vendor will also have different methods for measuring attribution since not all businesses are alike, and marketers love seeing attribution models so they can measure the success of their marketing efforts and ROI.
Other metrics to consider include advertising campaigns and website visits – but with an account-based lens. After all, you want to understand whether your advertising is reaching the right accounts and which accounts are engaging on your website. If you find you’re short-staffed, some ABM vendors offer strategic services to help you with your ABM strategy and measurement. To learn more about vendor onboarding and support, read the next section.
Because ABX has a different set of metrics than ABM, when it comes to measuring the performance of the ABM solution from the vantage point of the customer experience, the scope also changes.
The vendors on your shortlist should, among other features:
Offer a dashboard to measure ABM impact from across the funnel.
Track volume, velocity and conversion metrics for each journey stage.
Offer customizable subscriptions for all custom reports.
People and account based heatmaps.
Allow you to combine first party, third party, firmographic and technographic data for segmentation and reporting.
Allow you to compare the performance of different audiences or account lists and evaluate the impact of specific programs.
Enable you to see the engagement and activities that influenced the different stages of a deal cycle.
Measuring a journey and a relationship in the long term requires measuring as much data as possible, so find out if they also:
Centralize your existing data sources in one location?
Track B2B metrics by account?
Track and report on anonymous first-touch visitors by account?
Have strategic services in place to help you set up ROI reporting based on your strategies? Allow you to compare different timeframes for account stages?
Provide advanced BI capabilities for ABM?
The point of measuring is to take action based on knowledge and insights, and having an ABM solution that allows you to bring together all of the relevant data points for your decision-making is pivotal for the success of your business. Our agnostic Definitive Guide to Choosing an Account-Based Marketing Platform provides you with checklists like the one above as well as the reasoning behind the need for each of the features outlined in the ebook. Check it out and take advantage of the printable list we put together for your own use at the end of the guide.
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Account Based Analytics
Article | December 28, 2021
Inbound Marketing
Businesses put effort into designing their inbound marketing strategies to seek growth opportunities. In inbound marketing strategies, target audiences are attracted, engaged, and delighted by businesses by using valuable content. They also communicate with the customers regularly through inbound sales calls and keep the customers happy through timely and prompt assistance.
Businesses use an inbound marketing strategy that they have trusted for years, while some still struggle to grasp the power of inbound marketing. In both cases, if the strategy doesn’t show the expected results, it becomes a matter of immediate concern.
Why Should You Conduct an Inbound Marketing Audit?
In an interview with Media 7, Daniel Englebretson, Founder of Khronos, talked about rise of AI in ABM and the success of marketing programs.
“The best programs, and the best marketers, have built their success on the back of rapid iteration and a long history of testing, learning, and continuously improving.”
Continuous improvement in marketing can happen only when you carry out regular assessments or audits of your marketing strategy, inbound, and outbound.
A marketing audit looks at the business environment, strategy implementation, systems, organization, productivity, and function of the strategy. It is undertaken when there is a change in leadership, the business is lagging compared to competitors, has rapid growth or is terribly stuck, or when a design overhaul is planned.
Here is why you should conduct an inbound marketing audit:
Identifying Weaknesses
If an inbound marketing strategy suddenly stops working, you need to find its weaknesses and remedy them in time to get the best results. This is called “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats” (SWOT) analysis.
An audit will help you analyze the effectiveness of the channels and the tactics you use as compared to industry standards and find out the reasons behind ineffective lead generation. An effective audit also rigorously checks the marketing tools your team uses.
You can make adjustments and improvements to the strategy based on the audit. You can look into channels like websites, paid search, email marketing, social media, and organic search to assess the performance of your strategy.
Spotting Growth Opportunities
When expanding the business, introducing a new product or service, conducting an audit can add great value to your plan. You can evaluate your business position, rate your customer satisfaction and engagement, know how well you are exploiting your existing opportunities, and if you are using the right channels and messaging to get in touch with your target audience.
If you find anything amiss, you can promptly deploy resources to course-correct your team and work towards a better ROI through the inbound marketing strategy.
Reaffirming Goals
Reaffirm your marketing and business goals by assessing important data-driven perspective metrics like keyword ranking, post engagement, customer acquisition cost (CAC), email click-through rate, and lead quality. For example, if your website is not optimized for SERP and doesn’t grab the attention of your users, it could be the reason behind ineffective lead generation. In such a case, you can re-evaluate your content strategy.
Things like text-to-image ratio on web pages, irrelevant images, and weirdly placed call-to-action (CTA) buttons can affect the user’s journey. If some pages are unresponsive on mobiles or tablets, then the audit will help you find those and implement appropriate solutions.
Knowing what is working and what isn’t helps you know what you need to do next to get optimum results from your inbound marketing strategy.
Keeping Your Team Motivated
Every team is a defined stakeholder in the company's success. Right from the sales team, customer experience, IT architects, c-suite, product developers, to your marketing team, everyone will know their strengths and weaknesses through the audit. A regularly conducted marketing audit will keep your teams motivated to perform their duties well.
Boosts ROI
Boost your ROI by ditching things that do not work. Allocating resources to your business strengths instead of your marketing weaknesses will help you get the ROI you expect. You can also focus on introducing new plans to revive the part of the strategy that is no longer working. It can be anything from redesigning a few website pages to hiring a new SEO expert.
What Does a Strong Inbound Marketing Audit Look Like?
A strong marketing audit yields results that enhance your strategy, improve your ROI, and help you step up your game so you don’t fall behind in the race with your competitors. These are the characteristics a strong inbound marketing audit will have:
Autonomy
An effective audit should be autonomously conducted by a third-party auditor so you do not skip the hard parts and the management completely cooperates in the process. The more stringent the audit, the better the understanding of potential growth opportunities, managerial snags, and resource allotments.
Perfect Structure
The audit has to be systematically structured to cover all bases, like contact channels, business environment, customer experience, design, engagement, SEO, SMM, and sales management, so no crucial elements are missed.
Conducted Regularly
Conduct the audit at regular intervals of time, at least once a year. It should be a part of your marketing calendar or your strategic marketing plan.
Business-specific
The audit should factor in the technology, expertise, and experience of your business. It should consider factors like political, legal, and socio-cultural issues that arise from the location of your business. Competitors, best practices, and conditions should also be considered.
How Eclipse Software Saw a 370% Increase in Organic Traffic in a Year
Manchester-based software company Eclipse Software hit a snag when their online presence wasn’t translating into revenue, leads, or ROI. They hired Noisy Little Monkey, a service-based digital marketing agency in the UK, to help them boost their online presence. Noisy Little Monkey ran a marketing audit for them and found issues like page speeds and content offerings, and they ran campaigns using gated content. As a result of such campaigns and website improvements, Eclipse Software saw a 370% rise in their organic traffic in a year, with a conversion rate of 3.7%.
Key Takeaways
An inbound marketing audit is crucial for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your marketing strategy. It can tell you which areas need improvement, how to allocate your resources better, and how to increase your growth opportunities and ROI through data-driven perspectives and more to achieve better results.
FAQ
At what time interval should you conduct an inbound marketing audit?
Every business should conduct an audit once every six to twelve months.
What are the characteristics of an inbound marketing audit?
An inbound marketing audit should be autonomous, periodically carried out, systematic and business-specific.
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