Partner Content
Marketing professionals are under tremendous pressure to drive pipeline revenue from account-based marketing (ABM) programmes. But buyers are making it difficult. They’re online and independent, charting their own paths to purchase.
It’s time to change the way you play the game by incorporating personalisation tactics into your account-based programmes.
Personalisation is not only what today’s B2B buyers want; it’s what your company needs. By personalising ABM, you enhance credibility, customise each prospect’s experience with your brand, and transform loyal customers into brand advocates.
The proof is in the numbers.
The average B2B marketing team spends 32% of its marketing budget on content. And the most successful B2B teams spend 40% on content creation and distribution. Those numbers demonstrate the value of customised messaging when using content in your ABM strategy, and why it’s important to diversify content by segmenting accounts.
ABM’s Three Layers of Personalisation
- One-to-one
- Personalisation for top-tier accounts
- Tailored marketing and sales outreach
- One-to-few
- Content is customised based on designated personas and disseminated to account groups that match specified criteria
- Content is customised based on designated personas and disseminated to account groups that match specified criteria
- One-to-many
- Scaling personalisation by leveraging technology to distribute tailored content to named accounts
It pays to know your buyers.
After you’ve segmented accounts, take time to understand each segment. Then create messaging that appeals to prospects’ specific needs. During the awareness stage, you could run programmatic display and content syndication campaigns in tandem, for a more personalised and cross-channel outreach ensuring you’re reaching those key accounts across all the channels they might be using.
Keep in mind that knowledge is power. Data obtained from content syndication campaigns can be used to shape custom experiences in programmatic display efforts. For example, if someone at a targeted account downloads a whitepaper about a product or service you offer, you can use real-time data to drive awareness through personalised, targeted display ads or even raise awareness of your sponsorship of an event they’re going to be attending. And, by unifying third-party demand and display, your sales team can have meaningful conversations with potential customers based on the content those buyers prefer.
Cut through the clutter with messaging that’s personal.
On average, your prospects are targeted by 1700 banner ads per month. So, to have an impact, you’ll need to stand out––to connect at a personal level. To do so, tailor your marketing approach based on data you’ve already collected, including names, addresses, and job titles.
Of course, it’s likely you can’t produce thousands of pieces of content customised to individual buyers, so to make the most of your resources target specific accounts and create varied messaging that addresses common pain points of buyers moving through the funnel.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You probably already have hundreds of pieces of content at your disposal to use in a content syndication or display campaign. Before you begin, conduct an audit to determine what content and assets you can edit, recycle or re-purpose. Reuse the assets that were successful with accounts that have similar attributes to the companies you’re trying to reach now.
Align marketing and sales efforts.
For ABM programmes to be successful, your marketing and sales teams need to work together to identify customers that fit your ideal customer profile.
Your sales team can help determine targeted accounts, create personas, define KPIs, and disseminate the right personalised content to prospects. By using the content prospects have downloaded or engaged with, sales can spark more meaningful conversations with those potential customers.
Working together pays off: Organisations with unified sales and marketing teams see a 36% increase in customer retention rates and 38% greater sales win rates.
It’s a buyer’s world. Succeed in it.
Connecting top-of-funnel ABM tactics with lead generation campaigns is a formula for success in today’s marketplace. By delivering personal messaging to real people––not just data points––you give prospective buyers the information they want and need. And you lay the groundwork for greater revenue and ROI for your organisation. This is why smart marketers are using the DAP (Demand Acceleration Platform) alongside their ABM campaigns and technology, to deliver a more personalised and cross-channel approach.