Account-based marketing is a relatively new technique that has been embraced by many leading organisations such as HubSpot and Netflix.
The best account based marketing tactics involve the development of specific marketing campaigns targeted at crucial accounts within an industry. This requires marketers to focus their efforts on fewer individuals/companies across all stages of the funnel.
How to Plan an Account-based Marketing Strategy?
According to 44 per cent of marketers, target account revenue generated is the number one success metric for account-based marketing.
Start with a map of your target accounts. You may have less than you think: after all, not every account needs to be approached or worked on simultaneously.
The next step is to divide and conquer. You must focus on certain types of companies first, then focus on specific accounts within those categories.
Make lists of the people involved in the buying process and how many levels of approval your campaign will need. It’s advisable to plan for at least three stages of account outreach: first contact, nurturing, and deal-closing.
How to Craft an Effective Message?
In the account-based model, you have two audiences; the account and the people inside that account. Each person is a potential advocate and shares information with their colleagues.
Make sure they feel like your brand understands them; this is different from what they’ve experienced before.
Once you have identified your key accounts and created relevant content within each stage of the funnel, measurement is key to understanding the success of your account-based marketing efforts.
To measure the effectiveness of this factor, there are three metrics experts recommend focusing on:
CTR = Click-through Rate
CTR is an excellent metric for analysing the quality of your content and the effectiveness of your targeting.
The click-through rate is the portion of people that have seen an ad and taken positive action by clicking on it.
A higher CTR can often indicate that you are using relevant messaging within your creative, which resonates with users subconsciously and consciously.
SPOC = Share of Voice Control
To discover how successful your account-based marketing efforts are, you need to analyse the percentage of voice control that your brand is taking over its competitors.
This metric is calculated by identifying the frequency with which the competition appears within search results compared to your company, indicating your share of attention in the specific industry.
The share of voice control is also beneficial for identifying how your brand messaging compares to the competition, with higher numbers often pointing towards success in messaging and understanding what resonates with customers.
CTR = Click-through Rate
Last but not least, CTR is an excellent metric for analysing the quality of your content, as well as the effectiveness of your targeting.
The click-through rate is the percentage of people that have seen an ad and taken positive action by clicking on it.
As long as you are consistently creating relevant ads with strong messaging, this metric can be used to measure the success of your ABM efforts over time.
Conclusion
Account-based marketing tacticsprovide measurable engagement and ROI for your brand. It is vital to measure CTRs, the share of voice control, and conversion rates over time to understand how successful you are.
It will give you a greater understanding of where your account-based marketing efforts should be focused to achieve the best possible results and help you maximise engagement with your target accounts.