Marketers who practice Account Based Marketing (ABM) zero in on the specific requirements of a single customer or company. A continuous, personalized marketing campaign is created by first identifying high-value accounts and then constructing sales and marketing experiences around consumers. When appropriately implemented, ABM improves return on investment (ROI) and helps bring together the efforts of the sales, marketing, and critical accounts departments. Generally speaking, teams can choose from three distinct Account Based Marketing approaches.
There are three main types of ABM: Strategic, Marketing, and Programmatic.
Visualize these three approaches as a pyramid, with a strategy on top, followed by ABM lite, and finally, programmatic. Investment and return increase as one moves up the pyramid. Depending on your objectives, you may want to use more than one of these methods. In this article, we will explain ABM and analyze the three types of ABM.
What is Account Based Marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a marketing approach used by businesses to focus on a select group of key customers within a given market. With this method, the marketing message is tailored to each account based on the characteristics and interests of that clientele.
In addition to focusing on lead generation, ABM considers other aspects of marketing. Marketing to current client accounts to drive upselling and cross-selling is key to getting the most out of your most significant accounts.
Three Types of Account Based Marketing
Strategic ABM
Amongst the types of account-based marketing, Strategic Account Based Marketing is most often applied to preexisting, high-value accounts. With this strategy, sales, marketing, and management may work together more effectively to upsell and cross-sell to these clients. Strategic ABM entails the development of hyper-specific account marketing strategies for a select number of high-value accounts (often between one and five).
Since this strategy demands the most time and effort, marketers must deeply understand their target audience’s requirements before committing to it. When conducting strategic ABM, months, if not years, of targeting is required, and ROI is often measured over a multi-year period by organizations that employ one-to-one marketing.
Every step of the process, from developing personas to doing research, should result in highly personalized messages that convert. One-on-one is the most effective B2B account-based marketing if the team has a large budget, high-value existing clients, and the necessary time, resources, and people.
Marketing ABM
Second-tier named accounts should be added to one-to-few marketing, often known as ABM lite. In ABM lite, you don’t have to pay much attention to each customer’s unique wants and demands. Instead, the marketing and sales departments will select 5-10 key accounts that share common problems, objectives, and requirements.
Organizations with a little wiggle room in their budgets and can afford to add resources and personnel would benefit from ABM lite. When developing these B2B account groups, you should still use your in-depth knowledge of prospective customers’ personas, profiles, and segments. Nonetheless, you can still send them personalized messages if you so choose.
Programmatic ABM
The third level is programmatic Account Based Marketing, sometimes known as one-to-many marketing. Programmatic ABM, similar to one-to-few marketing, segments accounts based on their commonalities and differences in terms of the opportunities and threats they face as an organization. However, programmatic ABM clusters hundreds or even thousands of accounts based on client profiles instead of focusing on just five to ten.
Programmatic account-based marketing teams often utilize customer relationship management (CRM) software or a marketing automation platform like Eloqua, Marketo, or Pardot. These tools help organize their clientele into segments and send them tailored messages based on factors such as industry and geography.
Programmatic account-based marketing (ABM) allows even smaller businesses with limited resources to begin targeting accounts. The consumer is still front and center in sales and marketing, but fewer person-hours and dollars are required.
Should you be doing account based marketing
The competition to catch the eye of potential purchasers has evolved significantly during the past few years. Marketing a new business in the modern era involves considering the many different platforms and devices fighting for consumers’ attention. Business owners must pick methods that bring in the most money, and Account Based Marketing is one such option. Whether strategic, lite, or programmatic, ABM enables companies to prioritize customer relationships, send relevant communications, and generate a one-of-a-kind brand image.
