Account-Based Marketing Services: A B2B Marketer’s Guide for Large Through Enterprise-Level Execution

Reading Time: 7 minutes

 

Proponents of account-based marketing (ABM) praise the B2B strategy for its ability to align company goals, streamline sales and marketing processes and generate long-term growth and a higher ROI. The stats back them up, too: According to research firm TOPO, 86% of marketers report “improved win rates” with account-based marketing services. 

What they often leave out, however, is just how intensive the process is to get an account-based marketing campaign off the ground. It involves having a solid grasp of the big picture as well as the actual execution process, necessary technologies, and how you’ll gauge success.

Many many B2B companies look for a digital marketing agency to handle all aspects of account-based marketing services—what we call “full-service” ABM. While each facet might not be important or relevant to you and your customer, you should still be aware of what ABM services could, or should look like, in general, especially if you have plans to scale your marketing efforts down the line.  

Here’s how we define account-based marketing services. 

What is Account-Based Marketing?

In short, ABM is a focused, strategic approach that identifies and targets the best-fit accounts, or ones that have the potential to bring in the most revenue. Marketing and sales outreach is then personalized by account and stage of the sales funnel. 

Learn more about the basics of ABM here

ABM can fall into one of the three categories, depending on your goals and the type of targeting you want to execute:

  • One-to-one ABM (Strategic ABM)
  • One-to-few ABM (ABM Lite)
  • One-to-many ABM (Programmatic ABM)

Read more about one-to-one and one-to-few ABM here. 

The 4 Categories of Account-Based Marketing Services

Account-based marketing services in their entirety should be two things: holistic and dynamic. They should be holistic in the fact that “true ABM” is omnichannel—every customer touchpoint should be addressed—and dynamism comes into play as the exact services will vary by company, industry, product, and market.

1. Road Mapping Your ABM Strategy

Each ABM strategy and approach should be completely customized based on your company’s unique needs. Think of it as a detailed map for a road trip—how you will get to your final destination and what to expect when you get there, who you’re bringing with you, and your stops along the way (for fuel, food, breaks, etc). 

That said, ABM strategy services should include the following:

Aligning on your end goals and KPIs. Marketing, sales, and customer success teams—along with the stakeholders in the C-suite—need to be on board with both the overall ABM strategy and its purpose. Is there an expected amount of revenue, number of leads, or number of final conversions expected within a specific timeline? Confirming both the goals and KPIs will determine the next steps of your ABM campaign.

Building the ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer persona assessment: Knowing whom you will target is the backbone of your ABM campaign. This requires in-depth research into your current high-value customers and similar accounts. 

Identifying your target account list and key decision-makers: There are different ways to identify your initial target account list and those with the buying power within the account—including proximity research, analyzing the market, social media, and taking a deep dive into the information already in your CRM or ERP. 

Determining your strategy for engagement and outreach: Once you know which accounts you want to target, there should be a general agreement on how you will engage and nurture them. Will you start with cold outreach from sales? Does it begin with an invitation to a free webinar? Again, this will depend on your audience and your initial goals.

2. Executing Your ABM Campaign

The execution category is an umbrella term for two of the most important services of an ABM campaign: digital marketing channels and content creation. If you have content, you need a place (or multiple places) to serve the content to your audience. You can know where you want to engage your audience, but you’re stuck without any valuable, relevant information to give them. Basically, you can’t have one without the other. 

Together, channels and content work to engage and nurture an account’s decision-makers and the entire buying committee.

ABM Services: Digital Marketing Channels

Account-based marketing is not a plug-and-play or one-path-to-success type of strategy. The exact channels used—as well as how and when—will differ by campaign, but the general rule of thumb stays the same: Go with an omnichannel approach. By engaging your prospects across multiple channels, you’re able to gain both account and personal insights that allow you to further personalize your messaging and refine your content. 

ABM services should include the following channels:

Content Marketing: The term “content marketing” refers to the process of telling your narrative. Some typical assets used in content marketing include blog posts, white papers, case studies, e-books, webinars, videos, and even podcasts—more on assets below. 

Programmatic: Programmatic advertising is the other side of content marketing, the process by which ad space is purchased through an automated, real-time bidding process. It allows for increased control of what is served and to whom, making it the ultimate method for content delivery in ABM campaigns. 

SEO: Many B2B marketers will leave SEO out of the ABM playbook, but it’s imperative if you want to get your company, content, and in front of accounts that are actively searching for the product or service you offer. SEO services include webpage auditing and optimization, content creation, and analysis and optimization of off-page factors.

Paid Search or PPC: PPC (pay-per-click) is the most popular tactic for paid search, as it allows you to bid on specific keywords your audience will be searching for on Google or Bing. 

Paid Social: Paid social media channels fit perfectly into ABM goals around building relationships and developing trust with the right people. This works particularly well with LinkedIn advertising, serving as an extension of programmatic display networks.

Watch our webinar on digital marketing channels to get a more in-depth understanding of how they work in ABM. 

ABM Services: Asset Creation & Customization

One of the most crucial ABM services is content development. Content drives the nurturing process, but only if relevant content is targeted to the right audience at the appropriate time. Different types of content will perform in different ways at each stage of the funnel. 

Content Audit: Prior to the launch of any campaign, content should be outlined, existing assets assed, and you must identify how you can leverage those existing assets.” What relevant blog posts or infographics do you have? What can be tweaked, edited, and reused? Read more on different ways to repurpose content for ABM campaigns here.

Content Creation: Now it’s time to actually produce personalized pieces of content to be served to your target audience. Content creation should always start with an encompassing content strategy. Here, accounts will be segmented out by needs and position in the funnel, which will ensure more relevant messaging and increased opportunities.

Different types of assets that will be created by a copywriting and graphic design team will include: 

  • Landing Pages: personalized by target account
  • Display Ads: to be used across marketing channels
  • Blog posts: will be SEO optimized and a solid asset for content marketing
  • White papers: to give a more in-depth look at how your product or service addresses specific pain points
  • Case Studies: to provide concrete examples of how your product or service has worked in the past or for previous clients
  • E-books: to be used as a way to assert your position as an authority in the market

3. Tech Stack Integration & Optimization for ABM

The number of ABM tools on the market increases every single day. From the larger platforms, like Terminus and Demandbase, to more specific tools, like a CMS or CRM, your options are vast. This is where many B2B companies hit a snag. They are either unsure of what they need or have been told the tools they currently use are not appropriate for account-based marketing.

When it comes to finding assistance with account-based marketing services, you should look for agencies or third parties that are agnostic when it comes to 1) identifying which ABM tools are best for your program, 2) integrating them with your current setup based on your needs, and 3) helping your team use and continuously maintain each platform.

ABM services should take into account the following tech stack additions:

Full-Scale ABM Platforms: 

Demandbase: Demandbase, an ABM platform that aggregates omnichannel data into one intuitive database, is one of the industry leaders in this space, offering a “no-limits account-based marketing solution.” With Demandbase, all the tools you need for identification, tracking, personalization, and measurement are combined into one powerful ABM platform. 

Terminus: Terminus markets itself as the “most complete ABM platform available.” With functions to target and engage prospective customers, activate sales, and measure performance, Terminus can also be integrated with your existing tech stack—including CRM and CMS platforms. 

Other examples: 6Sense and Triblio 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The customer relationship is at the heart of ABM, so looking at how a CRM fits into ABM services is critical. To start, the information within your CRM must be gleaned for only the useful data on accounts and leads. From there, sales and marketing can identify target accounts and key decision-makers, their major pain points, and how your company can offer them the right solution. 

Example CRM platforms: Salesforce and Netsuite 

Content Management System (CMS)

If content fuels an ABM campaign, then your ABM service provider should work with you to make sure your CMS is fully functional and able to publish what and when you need it to. 

Example CRM platforms: WordPress and Magento

Marketing Automation: If ABM services don’t mention marketing automation, you’ll never be able to personalize your content and messaging at scale. If you can’t go that, you cannot create meaningful relationships with targets or close more deals. 

Example marketing automation platforms: Hubspot, Pardot, and Marketo

4. Reporting Dashboards & Data Visualization

The final category of ABM services is the most important: reporting and data visualization. ABM involves a continuous optimization of campaigns, all based on concrete. information and data. This is where you’ll find out what’s working (or not working) and where you can make adjustments.

ABM Services: Account scoring is the only way to accurately measure an account’s performance within the ABM sales funnel. A complete convergence of data points, an account score looks at third-party intent data, onside data, campaign interaction, and content interaction. If your ABM services don’t mention account scoring, you must confirm how target accounts are being tracked—and how you will know which exact stage they’re in at specific times. 

ABM Services: Data visualization is the best way to create a visual representation of an entire campaign’s performance. With data visualization as a part of your ABM services, you’ll be able to slice and organize data based on your interests and queries. 

If you’re interested in learning more about our account-based marketing services, schedule a free demo today.

Contact Us
close slider
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.