Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Synopsis

Need a way to market to the highest-value clients that generate the most revenue? Our Account-Based Marketing (ABM) presentation provides the tools to create highly targeted, personalized campaigns that win over the most important accounts. It includes slides for Opportunity Index, Buying Committee Persona, Buying Journey, Account Tiering, Tier-Based Channel Tactics, plus many more.

Opportunity index

Account-based marketing, or ABM, is used to target large B2B accounts and customize campaign strategies for each account's unique needs. 87% of marketers say ABM outperforms other marketing efforts. It's the opposite of the traditional "spray and pray" marketing strategies that try to attract as many accounts as possible and then narrow down. Since it targets just a handful of high-value accounts, teams that use ABM can spend less resources on the unsuitable leads that don't end up converting.

Therefore, it's crucial to pick the right accounts to target in the beginning. The opportunity index helps identify enterprises that would benefit the most from what you offer. The slide lists ABM criteria on the left side, and several accounts on the right side, and scores each account based on how they meet those factors. (Slide 11)

The factors should be customized to your specific offerings. Score each account on a scale of one to five for each factor, then add up the columns to get the total opportunity score for each. Here, we can see that Account Two has the highest opportunity index. So that's who the marketing and sales teams should focus on.

Buying committee persona

According to Gartner, B2B buyers only spend 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers. That means marketers usually don't have enough opportunity to influence purchasing decisions. The Buying Committee Persona helps sales and marketing teams get to know exactly who they will be selling to. In many cases, there is a whole group of individuals in the background who have influence and decision-making power during a purchase. (Slide 9)

Each of these buying committee members comes with their own perspectives, biases, needs, and goals that should be addressed to push a decision forward. Create profiles of each stakeholder, with some of the relevant questions or concerns they want answered. This will help tailor your pitch accordingly.

Buyer journey

To effectively serve buyers, marketing and sales need to go beyond simply knowing who they are selling to. They need to map out their buyers' journey, and plan their actions accordingly. This journey can be visualized by a flow chart. During today's sales process, there will likely be a digital touchpoint, as well as a physical, face-to-face aspect. What does the sales team need to do to catch the buyers' attention and ultimately secure the purchase? Map out each step of the process so no opportunity gets left out. (Slide 13)

Account tiering

Not all accounts are created equal or can generate an equal amount of revenue for the team. With ABM, the annual contract value, or ACT, of the accounts you target should be "the higher the better". This pyramid visualization is a great way to represent this. Even though Tier 1 only has 10 accounts, for example, each one has a higher ACT than the ones below it. This way teams can clearly differentiate between high-priority and low-priority accounts to allocate resources and apply the appropriate level of attention and treatment to each. (Slide 12)

Tier-based channel tactics

Even though your top accounts might share similar characteristics, they still have different needs when it comes to the specifics. For that reason, your pitch should be customized to the accounts based on which tier of importance they're in and what they're looking to accomplish.

Each column here represents a different ABM channel, or method of marketing. The rows are the account tiers that are being targeted. Under each ABM channel, check off the strategies that apply to each ABM tier. (Slide 14)

Campaign touchpoints

Identify where customers interact with your brand throughout the sales cycle, or customer touchpoints. Customize the campaign roadmap to the customer's needs, with pictures, text, or other targeted visuals. (Slide 17)

Touchpoints can be physical, like a billboard or card, or virtual, like a landing page or website. Customer touchpoints can also be visualized in a swimlane format, with clear dates to keep your teams on track. (Slide 18)