Navigating through the challenges faced in Account-Based Marketing

    Navigating through the challenges faced in Account-Based Marketing

    Enterprises across the world have struggled with effective deployment of ABM strategies, despite its significance in the marketing industry over the decades

    Marketing leaders say that ABM strategy has proved to be a tricky policy to apply in enterprises due to misalignment of goals, data quality, or inadequate budget. Knowing the obstacles to be avoided and overcome while switching to ABM can prove to be beneficial for the organizations.

    Ensure thinking outside the box

    Marketing leaders believe that marketers’ biggest mistake when deploying ABM strategy is that they don’t promote out of the box thinking. Enterprises have to realize that the best way to attract global market leaders as potential clients is by being creative. An overdone email to the higher executive and account rep will not suffice. Extra effort work will be required for an account worth having in the organization’s profile.

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    Selecting relevant accounts

    The next biggest mistake made by organizations is when they choose the wrong accounts for the ABM strategy. Wrong accounts will result in wasting a considerable amount of budget and time. It is advised that marketers thoroughly research the targets to understand if they truly fit the enterprise solutions and then invest the ABM campaign’s marketing budget.

    In-depth interview of clients

    Organizations often end-up not interviewing their target clients and similar clients while creating buyer profiles. Interviewing them is a critical step towards analyzing and understanding the significant issues that boost the content strategy. Marketers should emphasize creating customized and relevant content for each persona at each touchstone of the buying journey to increase sales, revenue, and growth.

    Understand the client persona

    One of the most common mistakes includes not fully understanding the client persona. This step is imperative, regardless of the marketing strategy utilized. It includes inbound, outbound, or ABM strategy. Enterprises need to have clear cut answers on questions relevant to the clients. It is critical to understand the client’s interests, personality traits, and demographics to ensure the ABM strategy’s success.

    Identification of qualified buyers

    Enterprises new to the ABM strategy should do complete homework on the potential qualified buyers. This can be done quickly by investing time and deploying new ABM-aligned tools like IP address monitoring/intent monitoring. Doing so helps sales teams connect with the right decision-makers at the correct buying journey milestone.

    Do not focus the entire energy on volume

    Account-based marketers often use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to identify industry-centered contacts and send across the same template message to everyone on the list. However, experienced marketing leaders propose that ABM requires a more focused and personalized approach to building a relationship. A targeted approach requires a focused strategy.

    Avoid assumptions

    Organizations suggest avoiding assumptions when it comes to decisions relevant to individual clients. Some level of generalization is accepted if multiple clients from the same industry are being marketed to.

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    Proper conversion of contacts

    The transition of contacts is a critical way of ensuring ABM’s success. An improper transition can result in a bad experience for the leads.

    Ensure proper alignment of marketing goals and sales

    CMOs believe that regardless of the marketing strategy, an organization must ensure to align their marketing goals with the client’s sales goals. Marketers need to understand the requirement of the buyer and analyze if they have the required solution. A small sample size must be tested to check if the complete ABM campaign is relevant to the target audience.