Guest post by Krysta Williams.
Since its emergence, account-based marketing (ABM) has become the go-to strategy among B2B marketers- and for good reason. ABM produces more qualified leads, which in turn improves internal alignment and increases revenue, making this approach a no-brainer.
Although new tools and technologies have made ABM easier than ever, there is one major obstacle that prevents many companies from achieving ABM success—bad data. In fact, according to SiriusDecisions, 60% of companies have unreliable data–meaning only four out of ten companies can execute an effective ABM campaign.
Without consistent, complete, and correct contact data, your marketing team won’t reap the full benefits of your ABM initiatives. Not convinced? Here are three ways accurate data can improve your ABM strategy:
Improved Account Selection
The success of any ABM campaign rides on your team’s ability to identify which accounts offer your organization the highest value—in other words, which accounts are most likely to generate revenue for your company.
Data can be used to improve the account selection process by providing you with the information needed to develop an ideal customer profile (ICP). Essentially, an ICP defines the shared characteristics of your best buyers-giving you a guide to work off of throughout your ABM campaign.
According to a recent study, high-quality data has led to 35-40% higher average contract value (ACV) for each account that’s landed. Here are the four data-sets you’ll need to develop your ICP:
- Firmographic data:Common company attributes of your best customers such as employee count, location, annual revenue, and growth.
- Technographic data:The tools and technologies your best customers are currently utilizing.
- Intent data: Data that reveals the buying behaviors of your best customers.
- Engagement data: The common behaviors and engagements your best buyers have with your company, including historical deals, connections, web analytics, and lead scores.
Identify Key Decision Makers, Faster
Even though you’re targeting companies, people will always be the decision makers in the buying process. Research suggests that most organizations will involve more than five different people during a large purchase decision. Simply put, without access to key players in the decision making process, your ABM strategy will fail.
For this reason it’s important that you have access to job title, account affiliation, tenure, and engagement history to better identify which contacts within an organization are most likely to be involved in the buying process.
On top of key account data, accurate contact details will allow you to bypass gatekeepers and reach decision makers faster. Combined, this can shorten the sales cycle by nearly 50%.
Easy Personalization
At its core, ABM is all about engaging and forming relationships with the stakeholders at your target account. Personalization is the key to achieving these goals. Not convinced? Consider these statistics:
- 82% of prospects value content made for their specific industries (source).
- 67% say the same about content created for their specific job functions (source).
- 75% of executives will read unsolicited material if it’s relevant to their business (source).
By partnering with a market intelligence solution or data provider, your team will gain a better understanding of the interests, needs, and challenges of your prospects—thereby giving you the information needed to personalize your campaigns to each account’s preferences. You’re prospects are guaranteed to receive the right content, at the right time, in the best possible way.
Get Started
Data acquisition and analysis will look different at every company. This is largely dependent on the data you have access to and the tools you’re using to analyze your data. If you’re not sure how to start identifying key accounts, it can be helpful to work with a third party market intelligence solution or data provider.
Leading vendors will typically provide potential customers with a free trial, a data sample, or a complimentary data analysis. With a small amount of legwork, your buying committee can compare vendors to determine which solution offers your business the most relevant contacts within the most valuable accounts.
Contributed by Krysta Williams, Marketing Content Specialist at ZoomInfo. ZoomInfo offers the most accurate and actionable B2B data to help organizations accelerate growth and profitability. The continuously updated database enables sales and marketing teams to execute more effective marketing campaigns and improve sales prospecting efforts. Visit zoominfo.com for more information.