During the early 2000s, multiple business consultants and even marketers were focused on marketing strategies that cater to all people. The technique was to basically spread the net and hope that one of those people seeing the advertisements would become a potential customer. As the decade went by, marketers started to have more targeted strategies that focused on niches, demographics, or target markets. Out of all these targeted marketing strategies, a more focused type of marketing evolved called account-based marketing. There are various account-based marketing tactics you can use for your business in order to get your target lead.

In the traditional marketing pyramid, what comes first would be attracting leads through search engine optimization (SEO), paid marketing, and content marketing. The next step would be to nurture those leads, and the last step would be to identify target customers or companies. With account-based marketing, it flips traditional marketing from the other end.

When it comes to account-based marketing, the process would start by identifying target companies, engaging with customized emails, and building relationships that could open more opportunities for upsells. In account-based marketing, the goal is to identify the target company that would be the best fit to be the client of your business. The aim is to look into possible opportunities that are available at the very beginning.

What is ABM?

Hubspot stated that account-based marketing (ABM) is a marketing technique that utilizes a personalized approach, with highly targeted campaigns in order to get its identified “accounts”, also known as clients. Instead of relying on blanket campaigns that are meant to appeal to the overall market, ABM sees individual clients as its own market.

ABM is efficient compared to inbound marketing. With inbound marketing, you can spend time with your marketing strategies, but there is a risk that you will only attract low-quality leads that have no chance of converting into paying customers.

Strategies of Account-Based Marketing

Build A Relationship with Your Target Company

There are various account-based marketing tactics you can use to your advantage but it is important that you build a relationship with your prospect. You can achieve this through social media. Become an authority in your niche or industry and connect with your identified companies.

Once you have identified your target companies, your next step is to research their social media accounts. You're not only going to follow their business social profiles but the decision-maker's account as well. What this means is that after you have identified your target, research their main business profile, research the decision-makers in the company, and follow all those accounts.

After following those accounts, the next step is to engage in their posts. Avoid spamming them with irrelevant comments. If they post something about their business, comment relevant information to their post. If you can, add more information to what they have said. If your target profiles have many followers, make sure that you will be part of the first few commenters. Some social media platforms have the option to turn on notifications so you will easily get notified when they post anything. In this way, those target clients will notice your participation in their posts.

Research the emails of the decision-makers of your target company. Once you have established yourself on their social profiles, reach out to them via email. You can also send them a message through their social media. However, it is recommended that approach them personally through email for a more professional approach.

Introduce yourself as someone who admires their company's work and any other factors that will let them know how much you care about their company. If you have been insistent on their social media profiles, they could probably remember you. Message about your personalized pitch and let them know how your business can aid them in their growth.

Create Specific Offers to Each Prospect

One of the most important strategies in account-based marketing is the personalization of the campaigns and the relevance of marketing to the target account. Compared to traditional marketing campaign prospects, there are smaller numbers of targeted clients in an ABM campaign. This means that the offers presented to the targets must be highly personalized. ABM needs to have high conversion rates since it is targeting a smaller number of target accounts.

When personalizing ABM efforts, one strategy is to develop offers that are specific to the target account. Rather than simply sticking to your services, ABM would need you to diversify your services and customize it based on your target's needs.

Include Your Target Account in Your Content Creation

Content marketing is a vital part of various account-based marketing tactics. Content creation is part of an ABM effort. When you create new content, search for possible opportunities where you can include your target accounts in the content. This is another way to build a positive relationship with them. For instance, when creating content, check if you can interview an executive from your target company. Use them as a possible source for your new blog post. You can also use them as a good example when you are writing down certain facts. If your target company is a cloud-based provider, you can write about how cloud-based solutions can help website masters. You can use your target company as a good example of what a good cloud-based provider can be. Once you have written the content, proceed to inform the decision-makers or executives of your target company about your content through social media or email.