Sales Intelligence
10 Account-Based Marketing Tactics That Work
Account-based marketing is a game-changer for acquiring new business. It helps ensure alignment between marketing and sales, produces a higher ROI on marketing campaigns and sales outreach, and empowers sales reps to close bigger deals faster.
However, believing in the power of account-based marketing is much easier than putting it into practice. That’s why we created this handy guidebook of 10 proven account-based marketing tactics.
With the right ABM tactics, it’s easy to transform your conceptual understanding of ABM into revenue-earning results.
What is account-based marketing?
You know those people who walk around the beach with a metal detector? Their approach to finding buried treasure can be compared to account-based marketing. Instead of using a tractor to pick up everything on the beach — including umbrellas, chairs, and trash — they use a tool that allows them to cherry-pick potential treasures amid the muck.
Similarly, account-based marketing helps B2B sales reps and marketers focus exclusively on high-value accounts. Unlike traditional lead generation strategies, which bring in hundreds or thousands of irrelevant leads, ABM focuses on tailoring campaigns and outreach to specific prospects you’ve deemed important.
With a targeted approach and personalized nurturing techniques, account-based marketing tactics allow marketers and sales reps to achieve better outcomes with fewer resources.
10 account-based marketing tactics to try
If you’re ready to launch your own ABM campaigns and expand your book of business, try using these proven ABM marketing tactics.
1. Sales Intelligence
Technology that delivers sales intelligence enables you to enhance ABM success at every step. In the first phase, when you build out your list of key accounts to target, tools like Similarweb Sales Intelligence and the Lead Generator tool help you effortlessly identify prospects that match your ideal customer persona (ICP) criteria and have a clear need for your product or service.
The Lead Generator allows you to customize a wide range of criteria, including more than 50 web metrics, as well as company name, industry leaders, topic leaders, and your competitors’ customers. You end up with a hyper-relevant list of prospects who would bring strategic value or large deal size to your sales team. The Lead Generator also lets you easily locate prospects’ phone numbers and email addresses, giving you a direct line to company decision-makers.
Another key sales intelligence tool is the Insights Generator, which makes it easy to uncover valuable insights on your prospects. Identify a host of metrics on their digital performance, competition, and potential to expand their business, and use these insights to create personalized and valuable content marketing materials. From blog posts to emails to sales pitches, the Insight Generator delivers up-to-date and hard-to-find information that helps you cut through the noise.
2. Social media
Another great way to learn about your prospects and the specific decision-makers you will target in your ABM campaigns is social media mining. By reading through these individuals’ social media profiles — especially LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook — you’ll learn a lot about their communication style, what they care about, what topics are top-of-mind, which thought leaders they follow, and much more.
“Somewhere along the way we got lost and started viewing marketing as a bit of an art show” – @thecoolestcool
But in reality, we should view content as the investment it is. pic.twitter.com/JI7Y56Ipg5
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) December 27, 2021
When you learn about their concerns or what types of content they share, you’ll gain a clearer idea of what your outreach to these decision-makers should look like. Perhaps one of your prospects is a huge fan of tennis — you can create a tennis-themed campaign to pique their interest. Or, imagine they often share quotes by psychologist and thought leader Daniel Kahneman. Can you incorporate one of his quotes into your next email? Could you send them one of his books?
Social media is a digital window into a person’s thoughts and interests. Leverage this outlet to gain a better idea of who your prospects are as people who will ultimately be reading (or skipping over) your ABM content and outreach.
3. Emails
Email is perhaps the most commonly used ABM tactic. Email marketing campaigns, such as email newsletters and drip campaigns, can effectively “spoonfeed” relevant and personalized content directly to your prospects via their inbox.
For example, if you’re trying to push your prospect further down the sales funnel by helping them better understand the value you provide to companies in the same market, perhaps you could send a newsletter containing a recent blog post, eBook, or webinar recording on the topic. The prospect doesn’t have to do any work to learn about your offer — you’ve already curated the relevant information and handed it over to them.
Cold emails by sales reps are also integral to ABM. These allow individual reps to establish communication with prospects and develop a relationship. In these emails, reps will often introduce the company, give a brief introduction to its offering and how it provides value, and attempt to schedule a call with the prospect.
However, ensuring your email even gets opened and read is always a challenge. The key to writing a compelling subject line and email? Including the right information. The Similarweb Insights Generator is an invaluable tool in this regard, as it helps you uncover attention-worthy information on your prospects and their markets.
4. Events
Events are another great account-based marketing tactic. Inviting decision-makers from high-value accounts to in-person or virtual events is a great way to establish a connection, learn about their needs, and foster unique engagement.
By hosting events on topics that are relevant to your prospects, you can provide them with memorable experiences while creating opportunities for sales to discuss or even demonstrate the value your offering provides.
However, hosting events is a lot of work. Whether they’re large-scale industry conventions or more intimate gatherings, events can be difficult to pull off, depending on your budget and availability. If that’s the case, look for other interesting events and purchase tickets for a select group of prospects you’d like to host. This way, you can focus exclusively on developing relationships with your prospects without worrying about operating an entire event.
5. Webinars
Webinars are a fantastic ABM tactic because they’re short and super informational. Often, webinars provide in-depth coverage on a pertinent topic for a certain industry, sector, or niche, while offering tactical guidance on relevant challenges or trends.
By hosting your own webinars, you can focus on topics that are top-of-mind for your prospects and even invite them to participate on a panel. Whether they’re in the audience or on-screen, you can form strong connections and establish an ongoing dialogue in the form of webinar follow-up.
6. Blogs and eBooks
Blogs, eBooks, and other forms of content marketing present a prime opportunity to develop relevant content with a short delivery time and very low cost. They allow you to succinctly examine topics that your prospects care about and provide valuable information in a format that’s easy to digest and share.
After learning about your prospects’ challenges, pain points, and objectives, you can create content that is connected to those topics, then apply it to your ABM campaign in a variety of ways. For example, you can share it on social media, include it in your email campaigns, pass it on to sales reps to use in their outreach, and more.
7. Testimonials and case studies
Testimonials and case studies are both popular account-based marketing tactics because they showcase how companies that are similar to your prospects were able to improve business outcomes or achieve their goals by using your product or service.
To apply testimonials and case studies to your account-based marketing efforts, start by identifying which of your current customers are most similar to the accounts on your ABM list. Then, gather intel and data on the positive impact your product or service had on their business. Finally, arrange this information, as well as some positive customer quotes, into a short article.
Usually, testimonials and case studies speak for themselves. While they’re great to include on your website, for ABM, you’ll want to send them directly to your prospects to ensure they see them. Simply plug them into your email marketing, outreach, and social media posts.
8. Sales calls
Another must-have ABM tactic? Calls. They’re the most direct and personal way of communicating with your prospects, learning about their needs, answering their questions, and delivering your pitch.
Most ABM campaigns don’t start with phone calls. Instead, marketing teams and sales reps rely on the other ABM tactics listed above to introduce your high-value accounts to your brand and nurture them through the sales funnel. By the time your sales reps reach out on the phone, prospects should have at least a basic idea of how your product or service will provide them value.
9. Consultative selling
After the introductory call, you’ll want to establish a cadence of phone calls and meetings with your prospects in which sales reps will serve as trusted, credible consultants. In a consultative selling approach, reps’ objective is to provide valuable information, data, and insights on trends that will help your prospects overcome their challenges and achieve their goals.
To do this effectively — and to truly become an invaluable resource to your prospects — you need reliable information. That means sales reps need to learn the ins and outs of the industry. They should understand who their customers are, what they care about, what their goals and challenges are, how they compete in their markets, what they need to succeed, and what threatens their success. In short, know your buyer personas like the back of your hand.
They also need access to data and discrete information about their prospects and markets. With the Insights Generator, sales reps can easily uncover information that would be valuable to their prospects.
10. Ongoing communication for upselling
ABM efforts don’t need to end after you close a deal. By taking the same targeted and personalized approach to ongoing communication with top accounts, you can ensure customers maximize the value of your product and increase your ability to upsell.
Perhaps your email newsletters will focus more on new features and product or service updates. Or, you’ll try to entice them to upgrade their account by demonstrating how valuable certain features are.
Since your targets are current customers, you have the benefit of talking directly to decision-makers or current users — there’s no need to educate a prospect from square one. Customers are already well-baked, they just need to be convinced to spend more. If you can do that, you’ll increase your retention rate and create stronger customer relationships.
Take a strategic approach to ABM tactics
The list above covers the most popular ABM tactics. However, it’s not exhaustive. As marketing and sales technology evolves, and as consumer behavior changes, new ABM tactics continue to emerge.
The key to choosing the right set of tactics is understanding your customer. Who are the decision-makers within your prospect companies? How do they consume information? What types of content do they like? How do they prefer to communicate? What are their challenges and pain points? Where can they find opportunities?
By covering these straightforward, yet important questions, you’ll gain a clearer picture of which ABM marketing tactics to put into use and which work best for your target audience.
FAQ
What are ABM tactics?
ABM tactics are the actions you take to execute your ABM strategy and achieve your goals. Proven account-based marketing tactics are:
- Sales Intelligence
- Social media
- Emails
- Events
- Webinars
- Blogs and eBooks
- Testimonials and case studies
- Sales calls
- Consultative selling
- Ongoing communication for upselling
How does ABM impact marketing and sales success?
ABM is proven to have a significant uplifting effect on marketing and sales efforts. It’s also an effective method for boosting customer retention and lifetime value.
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