How can accurate account, data, intent, and engagement drive better account experience for marketers? It is only possible by transforming ABM into ABX. They are similar yet distinctive.
From the previous chapter, ‘Think Beyond ABM Leveraging Account-based Experience (ABX) Strategies,’ it was evident that Account-based Experience (ABX) piqued the interest of many B2B businesses. Marketers have already begun digging into the core of ABX and finding – how ABX differs from ABM.
ABM and ABX work in different marketing ways. Account-based marketing and Experience are interlinked, yet they differ at several points. It is essential to understand the differences between the two. And those points are crucial to point out.
Knowing the difference can help marketers decide which approach will work best for their marketing strategy in the growing customer demands and changing buying journey.
Also Read: Buying Group Marketing: Another Emerging ABM Strategy
ABM Needs to Evolve
ABM has several powerful benefits for marketers, but the need for evolution is essential. Businesses are focused more on customer experiences now than ever. It is because opportunities for better marketing alignment are necessary. And leveraging technology to scale ABM can be a mature decision. So, if done well, ABM drives out the best marketing outcome and improves RoI. However, in some ways, and for some reasons, ABM may fail to live up to the rising customer experiences. Here are some pitfalls of ABM:
- Flaws in identifying the correct accounts mislead ABM objectives and strategies
- ABM focuses on accounts for a shorter time
- Misaligned content that fails to resonate
- ABM is perceived as risky if it doesn’t yield promising results
Account-based Experience addresses these issues. This is why ABM needs to evolve to the next level. The current marketing landscape is not just about marketing and creating customer relationships. What matters is how brands interact with each customer across the customer lifecycle, considering the customer journey.
With the help of ABX, marketers need to engage more effectively with customers by collaborating with sales teams. The continuous interaction with customers using campaigns and more marketing technologies will help the section to have a transparent communication channel with each customer, bringing consistency to customer interactions. This is where ABX is a real game-changer.
ABM and ABX – Similarities
ABM and ABX have common similarities. They focus primarily on providing value to customers and creating lasting relationships with them. Their strategies rely on data and technology that help to focus on targeting relevant accounts. Ultimately, to create a solid and successful marketing strategy, ABM and ABX are the best.
Yet, when it comes to generating more effective marketing results, ABX comes at the forefront because it can unlock the missing opportunities in the ABM model that need proper addressing in today’s marketing world.
ABM and ABX – The Dissimilarities
Although ABX and ABM have similarities at some points, the approaches have essential differences. ABX is being considered more due to its ability to focus more on customer experiences by providing personalization. ABX is more geared toward existing customers, whereas ABM targets potential customers more. The cornerstone of effective ABX is a technology that assists marketers in creating effective campaigns.
It’s important to note that ABX is not a replacement for ABM; it’s an evolving side that will help brands explore more in the growing digital marketing landscape. Companies need to recognize this, especially those that are beginning with ABM. They should consider their approach and explore the benefits of ABX accelerating straight from ABM to future-proof marketing strategies. This could demonstrate more significant RoI from the evolved marketing strategy using ABX.
ABX Marketing Core Components
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Build Own Account Data Foundation
Having an account data foundation is essential for any successful ABX strategy. This data help creates an individualized customer journey and ensures the delivery of the right message to the right customers. Access to first-party data also enables brands to create personalized customer experiences.
Marketers can use the data to have insight into customer accounts. The data includes customer information, website activities, solutions queries, and demographic details, and they can be used to sort the correct customer and create targeted segments, helping to understand accounts better. The accurate data will help make effective and efficient marketing efforts directly focusing on customers. In addition, managing data helps to understand customers and their buying journey and track their interactions with brands.
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Focuses on Accounts, Not Leads
Determining the correct account is a crucial part of an ABX strategy. To begin with ABX, marketers can follow some tips:
Fit – When marketers determine the correct accounts, they must consider whether they align with the brand. When they define an ideal customer profile (ICP), it helps in determining and prioritizing the key accounts efficiently. They can immediately categorize into industry, geography, job title, and other segments. These segments suggest accurate accounts, and marketers can advance their marketing efforts.
Intent – The intent is also a key indicator in ABX to track customers’ purposes. Marketers can gain valuable insights when customers are likely to purchase. Marketers can create a customer baseline and deliver personalized experiences with such data in the pipeline. This can increase the customer growth ratio along with higher RoI.
Also Read: Think Beyond ABM Leveraging Account-based Experience (ABX) Strategies
Engagement – Engagement is the result of a successful ABX strategy. Brands need to understand how brands need to engage with today’s dynamic customers. To measure the engagement score, marketers can monitor accounts’ personas by visiting the website, downloading e-books, joining online events and webinars, visiting guide articles, and more. The tracking system suggests how often a particular account interacts with the brand and the time duration. This is a good starting point if marketers ensure the RoE is robust enough to shift to ABX.
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Personalized Customer Ex perience
Marketers can target accurate accounts easily by including personalized content creation in their ABX strategies across channels, including websites, advertising, campaigns, and more. Today, most brands successfully implement ABX strategy to improve or boost their customer experiences. A crucial brand example is Spotify. The company uses data and analytics and gain insights into customer behavior and create personalized recommendations for audio and other media services that each customer is likely to enjoy. ABX is a core customer-centric phenomenon and can bring numerous opportunities for marketers to boost better RoI in the future.
Marketing and Customer Success Alignment
Evolving to a full ABX model will require a good alignment of marketing, sales, and customer success teams to boost revenue generation. They all need to work together because an account is a long-term commitment. They should be considered a priority all through their buying journey. Marketing leaders must update measuring and monitoring methods across teams and involve other stakeholders in the marketing process before implementing new ABX plans.
ABX is Challenging but Rewarding
Because account-based experience marketing can represent significant shifts in accountability, roles, and responsibilities in marketing operations, it is a restructuring of marketing tasks that uncovers ABM pitfalls and tries to touch the points where ABM lacks.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is well-understood, tried, and tested. In contrast, ABX is at its beginning phase. Just as ABM is required to focus on crucial account leads, ABX will be a necessity to keep customers engaged and happy.
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