ABM Innovation Summit Preview: How AI Can Unleash ABM

Business buyers now expect more from B2B marketers than ever before. B2B marketers are well aware of this, and many are already offering personalized experiences to prospects. Still, with fixed resources and manual data analysis, it can sometimes be tough to effectively scale your account-based marketing (ABM) strategy and tailor marketing to each and every one of your leads. The full potential of ABM is finally being unleashed by artificial intelligence (AI). Today’s advanced — yet accessible — AI technology allows marketers to make their existing ABM efforts far more effective and efficient, with the ability personalize content to audiences at an unprecedented scale.

Spotlight

RB Advertising

The mission at RB Advertising is to make the elements of online advertising easier to understand for those who need help with the processes behind the technology. We specialize in driving traffic to our clients' sites, and converting their visitors into paying customers. For those visitors who do not immediately convert, we will continue to remarket to them in Facebook and the Google Display Network until they do. It is really that simple.

OTHER ARTICLES
Account Based Analytics

ABM Strategy in Healthcare: A Quick Overview

Article | August 3, 2022

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

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Buyer Intent Data

The 5 Things to Know About Account-Based Marketing

Article | September 11, 2023

If you’ve been keeping up with new terms in B2B marketing, by now you’ve likely heard of account-based marketing (ABM). The term itself has been around for years, but with recent advances in technology, this tactic is now being adopted at a much larger scale than ever before. Still, surprisingly, I find that many B2B marketers are in the dark when it comes to ABM. So here’s a quick look into the future of B2B enterprise marketing, and why I think account-based marketing will be one of the biggest revenue drivers for B2B businesses in the very near future.

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Core ABM

Five Must-Try Software As A Service Growth Hacking Strategies

Article | June 20, 2023

Many businesses employ Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for its flexibility and simplicity to fulfill their marketing requirements. Different types of SaaS marketing platforms help companies simplify their marketing needs. But growing a SaaS company isn’t easy. It is quite challenging because the industry is flooded with competition. Research had predicted very early on that 73% of the companies would turn all their apps into SaaS by 2021, making SaaS competition fiercer than ever. Marketeers eye for consumers’ already limited attention spans in B2B and B2C spaces.

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Account Based Analytics

How to Accelerate ABM Impact Within the Enterprise

Article | June 14, 2022

Data-driven strategies for increasing time to market, pipeline, and revenue impact. The B2B environment is incredibly complex, so it’s no surprise that more than three-quarters of B2B buyers describe their purchasing journey as very complex or challenging. A significant majority (67%) of the B2B buyer’s journey happens digitally, but B2B buying does not play out in any predictable, linear order. Unfortunately, much of today’s ABM technology lacks the capabilities required to provide personalized experiences across multiple channels, platforms, buying centers, geographies, and lines of business. This puts the target account into an undesirable linear campaign and assumes all accounts progress through the funnel at the same speed. Instead, customers engage in “looping” behaviors during a typical B2B purchase, revisiting multiple buying stages at least once. Buying stages do not happen sequentially but rather simultaneously. This means that ABM success depends not only on a deep understanding of its audience’s needs but also on precisely orchestrating the delivery of the right message in the right channel at the right time - and on a global scale. In the face of these complexities, ABM is rapidly maturing as a practice. New research shows that almost half (45%) of companies consider their ABM programs to be fully adopted versus experimental – up a third compared with 2020. But even as ABM programs mature, the headwinds of change are accelerating, leaving more than two-thirds of ABM marketers thwarted in their mission to drive significant revenue impact. B2B marketers must contend with and overcome a slew of challenges that can feel beyond their immediate control. A recent study by Demand Metric and MRP found that more than three-quarters of marketers’ report that the pace of their campaigns has intensified over the past year. That percentage is higher still, at 83%, at enterprise companies that operate with high levels of complexity on a global scale. Four in ten marketers report that changing account profiles poses a challenge, as does the emergence of new channels and demand for new content formats. Responsive buyer experiences and relevant content across channels have always been the top criteria for mature, high-performing, omnichannel account-based orchestrations. But much of today’s conversation revolves around linear, top-down campaigns, where the target account is placed in a marketing or sales play, operating within a siloed platform throughout the buyer’s journey. The result is often antithetical to the desired buyer “experience.” Addressing this reality requires rethinking how marketers engage with accounts. The most mature account-based orchestrations are adaptive, understanding a target’s changing needs, aligning content to those desires, and delivering personalized experiences consistently across multiple channels. This demands a new approach to data management, better use of intent and predictive insights, and fully synchronized orchestration. To make meaningful connections with prospects and customers amidst these changes, enterprise marketers are evolving their ABM initiatives to focus on highly personalized experiences tailored to the account level and individual locations and buyer roles. Increasingly, ABM leaders employ a set of principles and processes that are consistent from company to company – giving others a blueprint for success. The most critical steps for marketers to achieve significant results with their ABM programs include: Collaborate Closely Across the Organization Enterprise marketers must share insights widely across interdisciplinary teams. This allows campaigns to be coordinated across shared accounts. A study of top ABM performers found that nine in ten reported close cross-functional collaborations between marketing and sales. ABM leaders need to establish a standardized measurement framework so everyone is working toward the same goals and success. Establish a Single Source of Truth Not only are ABM leaders’ teams highly integrated, but so is their data. A single view of data allows for a deeper understanding of audience needs and improves collaboration. Eight out of ten (80%) top performers use data from three or more systems to guide their ABM practice, and even more, 84%, say that their tech stack is mostly or completely integrated. This is more than double the number (30%) of those whose ABM impact was negative or couldn't be measured. Deliver Messages Consistently - and Across Touchpoints Successful ABM marketers can customize the buyer’s experience based on the specific product or solution under consideration and factor in their stage within the buying journey. Almost half of leading ABM practitioners (46%) go beyond personalizing messages by industry to adapt their messages to the recipient’s job role and stage of the customer lifecycle. Highly personalized content delivered at the right time is more critical than ever since customers often skip “steps” on the buying journey and require digital experiences to adapt accordingly. Grasping at New Buzzwords Isn’t the Answer Calling an initiative “ABX” instead of “ABM” doesn’t make it easier to execute successfully. In fact, in a rush to accelerate the delivery of 'account-based experiences', the platforms that support it have become a critical bottleneck, creating yet another siloed system. This not only adds to the complexity but also undermines the outcomes it is intended to improve. Today’s B2B marketers face unprecedented challenges but the enterprise must approach ABM as a guiding strategy rather than a limited tactic. Synthesizing data across multiple sources, eliminating tech and people silos, and taking a collaborative approach to ABM can give marketers a deeper understanding of what target accounts need and where to deliver it. The right tech solutions can trigger omnichannel actions based on account insights, simplifying the complexity of ABM and executing mature, omnichannel orchestrations that have a measurable impact on revenue.

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Spotlight

RB Advertising

The mission at RB Advertising is to make the elements of online advertising easier to understand for those who need help with the processes behind the technology. We specialize in driving traffic to our clients' sites, and converting their visitors into paying customers. For those visitors who do not immediately convert, we will continue to remarket to them in Facebook and the Google Display Network until they do. It is really that simple.

Related News

Terminus CMO discusses slowing ABM budget increases and measurement challenges

B2B News Network | March 14, 2019

The number of companies reporting year-over-year increases in budget for account-based marketing activities has fallen nearly 20 per cent, and 41 per cent say measuring and reporting results is a challenge, according to research from Terminus released this week. Conducted in partnership FlipMyFunnel and Heinz Marketing, the third-annual Terminus State Of Account-Based Marketing report is based on a survey of more than 200 sales and marketing professionals. Among other findings, the data showed that while nearly half, or 45 per cent of firms have only been running ABM programs for less than a year, 15 per cent are now in the three-plus years range. Thirty per cent also said they would describe their ABM programs as “broadly implemented, focused on optimization and iteration.” According to Terminus CMO Derek Slayton, the measurement issues may stem from the inability of many martech tools to adequately track things like account progression. That means marketers may still be falling back on things like marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to determine their success, which doesn’t make as much sense when you’re pursuing ABM. “We have champions that feel they’re moving the needle but don’t have the rest of the organization at the same place,” Slayton told B2B News Network. “Make sure when you’re starting out that you spend some time being clear on how you’re going to measure your KPIs but also make sure the rest of the organization understands that.” On the other hand, only 60 per cent said they expected to see more money invested in ABM next year, down from 82 per cent the last time the survey was conducted. Slayton suggested this may be in part due to the need to better integrate or bring together disparate tool sets. “(Marketers) have a lot of stuff they’ve purchased that they aren’t getting value from,” he said. “I think the simplification of the tech stack will speed up account based marketing over the long term.” Perhaps most encouraging, more than 84 per cent of respondents with an advanced ABM program report that target account selection is a joint effort conducted by both sales and marketing. Besides reporting and measurement, nearly as many survey respondents said finding the right ABM content to align with their program goals was a problem, followed by building out account and contact data.

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B2B marketers should quit treating millennials like previous generations

Marketing Land | March 11, 2019

In recent years, business-to-consumer marketers have been rightly obsessed with millennials because they are increasingly becoming household decision-makers. At the same time, they are becoming decision-makers for corporations and small businesses as well. In fact, 73 percent of millennials who work in business are involved in the technology-purchasing process for their companies. It’s time for B2B players to wake up to that reality and start appealing to this generation in a new way. Millennials, who are between 22 and 37 years old, have different mindsets and different media consumption patterns than Generation X or Baby Boomers. What’s particularly important to know: 84 percent of millennials simply don’t trust traditional advertising. Digital media – particularly social media and video – is a great way to reach them. With that in mind, here are three ways B2B brands can gain new customers from millennial decision-makers. Lean into video and values: These young adults are visually minded, and most of them have grown up with mobile video as part of their daily lives. In fact, 29 percent of millennial B2B buyers prefer video content over text or voice-based messaging, besting case studies (19 percent), white papers (16 percent), brochures (15 percent), webinars (11 percent) and infographics (11 percent). Like with B2C efforts, it’s important to make your videos rich, informative and shareable.

Read More

The 30-60-90 day plan for ABM

Marketing Land | March 12, 2019

When it comes to developing an Account-Based Marketing strategy, the first thing to remember is that while the “M” stands for Marketing, ABM is a business strategy. This means that the most important thing marketers can do when implementing ABM as a go-to-market strategy is to engage and coordinate with sales. It’s critical to develop your strategy and agree on the business objectives before you even start thinking about the technology that will help you. The biggest mistake I see companies make when implementing ABM is when they try to boil the ocean and execute a huge change management initiative across the whole organization. Starting small, or being very specific in defining what you’re trying to do, can help you get some early wins and expand the program over time. That is often the better path to success than trying to implement ABM across all channels and across the funnel all at once. So, where do you start? Breaking it down into a 30-60-90 day plan to pilot ABM will help guide your team’s efforts to make the transition as smooth as possible. Below, I’ve outlined what to do, and expect, during the first 90 days of a pilot ABM strategy implementation.

Read More

Terminus CMO discusses slowing ABM budget increases and measurement challenges

B2B News Network | March 14, 2019

The number of companies reporting year-over-year increases in budget for account-based marketing activities has fallen nearly 20 per cent, and 41 per cent say measuring and reporting results is a challenge, according to research from Terminus released this week. Conducted in partnership FlipMyFunnel and Heinz Marketing, the third-annual Terminus State Of Account-Based Marketing report is based on a survey of more than 200 sales and marketing professionals. Among other findings, the data showed that while nearly half, or 45 per cent of firms have only been running ABM programs for less than a year, 15 per cent are now in the three-plus years range. Thirty per cent also said they would describe their ABM programs as “broadly implemented, focused on optimization and iteration.” According to Terminus CMO Derek Slayton, the measurement issues may stem from the inability of many martech tools to adequately track things like account progression. That means marketers may still be falling back on things like marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to determine their success, which doesn’t make as much sense when you’re pursuing ABM. “We have champions that feel they’re moving the needle but don’t have the rest of the organization at the same place,” Slayton told B2B News Network. “Make sure when you’re starting out that you spend some time being clear on how you’re going to measure your KPIs but also make sure the rest of the organization understands that.” On the other hand, only 60 per cent said they expected to see more money invested in ABM next year, down from 82 per cent the last time the survey was conducted. Slayton suggested this may be in part due to the need to better integrate or bring together disparate tool sets. “(Marketers) have a lot of stuff they’ve purchased that they aren’t getting value from,” he said. “I think the simplification of the tech stack will speed up account based marketing over the long term.” Perhaps most encouraging, more than 84 per cent of respondents with an advanced ABM program report that target account selection is a joint effort conducted by both sales and marketing. Besides reporting and measurement, nearly as many survey respondents said finding the right ABM content to align with their program goals was a problem, followed by building out account and contact data.

Read More

B2B marketers should quit treating millennials like previous generations

Marketing Land | March 11, 2019

In recent years, business-to-consumer marketers have been rightly obsessed with millennials because they are increasingly becoming household decision-makers. At the same time, they are becoming decision-makers for corporations and small businesses as well. In fact, 73 percent of millennials who work in business are involved in the technology-purchasing process for their companies. It’s time for B2B players to wake up to that reality and start appealing to this generation in a new way. Millennials, who are between 22 and 37 years old, have different mindsets and different media consumption patterns than Generation X or Baby Boomers. What’s particularly important to know: 84 percent of millennials simply don’t trust traditional advertising. Digital media – particularly social media and video – is a great way to reach them. With that in mind, here are three ways B2B brands can gain new customers from millennial decision-makers. Lean into video and values: These young adults are visually minded, and most of them have grown up with mobile video as part of their daily lives. In fact, 29 percent of millennial B2B buyers prefer video content over text or voice-based messaging, besting case studies (19 percent), white papers (16 percent), brochures (15 percent), webinars (11 percent) and infographics (11 percent). Like with B2C efforts, it’s important to make your videos rich, informative and shareable.

Read More

The 30-60-90 day plan for ABM

Marketing Land | March 12, 2019

When it comes to developing an Account-Based Marketing strategy, the first thing to remember is that while the “M” stands for Marketing, ABM is a business strategy. This means that the most important thing marketers can do when implementing ABM as a go-to-market strategy is to engage and coordinate with sales. It’s critical to develop your strategy and agree on the business objectives before you even start thinking about the technology that will help you. The biggest mistake I see companies make when implementing ABM is when they try to boil the ocean and execute a huge change management initiative across the whole organization. Starting small, or being very specific in defining what you’re trying to do, can help you get some early wins and expand the program over time. That is often the better path to success than trying to implement ABM across all channels and across the funnel all at once. So, where do you start? Breaking it down into a 30-60-90 day plan to pilot ABM will help guide your team’s efforts to make the transition as smooth as possible. Below, I’ve outlined what to do, and expect, during the first 90 days of a pilot ABM strategy implementation.

Read More

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