The B2B marketing renaissance witnessed increased adoption of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) as global marketers recognized its power. However, owing to the diverse nature of ABM use cases, marketers are required to focus on customization rather than replication. The marketing efforts would not produce desired results and a prospect is less likely to convert into a customer without experimentation and personalization when it comes to ABM.
Discover what makes experimentation and personalization the two critical factors to drive success with account-based marketing (ABM).
Assists in Producing The Right Content To Get Audiences Engaged
One of the biggest challenges that B2B companies face is producing relevant content to engage with visitors at target accounts. What complicates the process of content creation for ABM in the digital age even further is that while the content volume is increasing, the engagement rates are dropping. “Blog output by brands has increased over 800% in the past five years but the organic social share of blogs has decreased by 89% and about 5% of content gets 90% of engagement,” Harvard Business Review’s research revealed.
Personalization and experimentation help marketers beat this challenge effectively, compared to relying exclusively on traditional inbound and outbound tactics to generate organic traffic. The two content marketing strategies – personalized ABM content and Top Of Funnel (TOFU) content work in sync to increase engagement at different funnel stages with enterprise accounts. It allows marketers to experiment with different content formats at different stages of the sales funnel and address the prospect’s needs and pain points through the right content at the right time. For instance, blogs and social media content work best at the top of the funnel. On the other hand, testimonials and case studies attract better traffic to the Middle of the Funnel (MOFU).
Helps In Finding The Perfect Mix
A natural extension of the above-mentioned point, experimentation and personalization allows marketers to work with different content assets and find the right marketing mix to break through and interact with the potential and existing customers. As one successful ABM strategy might not work on another key account, experimentation is the only powerful approach that assists marketers in designing winning campaigns.
Right from advertising, direct mails, personalized emails, specialized events, and web content, experimentation helps to understand what content & messaging will resonate with the prospective buyers and implement a winning campaign. It also goes beyond the first and last touch-points of the target accounts by providing relevant, insightful, timely and actionable insights throughout the user journey.
As Forrester rightly states, “Real buyers proceed along their journeys in unique and individual ways. B2B buyers expect experiences that are frictionless, anticipatory, and immersive.”
It Drives Meaningful Engagement
It Drives Meaningful EngagementThe ability to tailor a user journey and personalize the experience with actionable insights in real-time helps to gain a deep understanding of your target accounts. It enables marketers to build a relationship and create a human connection with the target accounts. This human connection is what drives meaningful and profitable engagement in the long run.
Hyper-personalized ABM demonstrates a company’s transparency, expertise, and integrity, which in turn helps to earn trust. This not only inspires customer loyalty but also improves customer value realization and maximizes Customer Lifetime Value.
Better Conversion Rates and Revenue
More than 80% of marketers admitted that the ROI of Account-Based Marketing initiatives outperformed other marketing investments, according to ITSMA’s survey report. We are also witnessing growth in ABM investment as nearly 41% of B2B global marketers have vowed to increase spending on this marketing tactic. These statistics exemplify the positive impact of personalization and experimentation of ABM on revenue and conversion rates.
McKinsey’s Marketing Holy Grail highlighted how personalization brings down acquisition costs by a staggering 50%. The impact on revenues falls between a healthy 5-15%. In addition, it augments the efficiency of marketing spending by an impressive 10%-30%.
Key Takeaways
The B2B marketing landscape looked a lot different when vendors controlled commerce. But digitally savvy and self-directed business consumers have now gained control of commerce, courtesy of digitization, and automation. As a result, ABM campaigns need more personalization and experimentation.
For instance, Forrester shared that 92% of B2B purchases start with a search. 62% of B2B buyers prepare a vendor list based solely on digital content and 68% choose to research online. In addition, 60% of B2B buyers do not prefer to talk with a sales representative as the primary source of information.
All these numbers point towards the B2B marketing renaissance. By personalizing ABM, marketers can re-engineer the engagement strategy, reach key decision-makers and recommend/implement corrective actions in a timely manner.
