Starting a new business is an exciting process, but it also means that you’ve got to learn lots of new terms, strategies and concepts.
When you’re learning about marketing, there’s a type to suit everyone; from content marketing to word of mouth, there’s something for every start-up. Some of these styles overlap, and some are more relevant for your business than others.
One style of marketing that many budding entrepreneurs overlook or don’t explore fully is account-based marketing, also known as ABM.
This targeted strategy is crucial for any start-up company that wants to grow sustainably and achieve its long-term goals. It combines sales and marketing to create targeted campaigns that will help you to pitch your services to the right audience.
If you’re interested in finding out more, then read on, and we’ll explore the benefits of ABM for start-ups and how they can implement this innovative marketing technique successfully.
What Is ABM?
Account-based marketing allows you to combine the expertise of your marketing and sales teams to create a strategy that helps targeted accounts to see the benefits of your products or services.
The strategy differs from others because it focuses on targeted accounts from the beginning; once you’ve identified your target market, you create custom content that benefits them.
Once you’ve got them into your sales funnel using this content, you can initiate a conversation and start using 1-1 ABM marketing to convert them from an interested prospect through to a paying client.
ABM is an ongoing process and requires a joined-up sales and marketing strategy. If the two departments aren’t in sync, then your campaigns probably won’t succeed, and it certainly won’t hit all of its targets.
How Is ABM Different From Other Marketing Styles?
ABM overlaps with many other marketing styles, including content marketing, video marketing and social media marketing. It uses many different platforms and techniques that are similar to other styles of marketing.
What sets ABM apart is its targeted approach. By focusing on specific accounts, it helps you to adhere to the 80-20 rule, also called the Pareto Principle, in which you try to achieve 80% of your target results by putting in 20% of the effort and resources.
By targeting clients and combining sales and marketing, you’ll be able to show them how your company’s offering can benefit them and fix their unique pain points.
Unlike inbound marketing and other similar strategies, ABM starts with a narrow funnel and draws clients through slowly by providing them with targeted resources and bespoke content.
While all this extra effort might seem counter-productive, it will benefit your business in the long run and help you to achieve high-value sales and build long-term relationships with your clients.
How Can ABM Benefit Your Start-Up?
Efficiency is imperative in any start-up, but equally, so is quality. You need to toe the line between using as few resources as possible, while at the same time ensuring that your organisation provides quality service and earns repeat customers.
ABM helps you to provide tailored sales material to prospective clients by targeting them and adapting your approach to meet their needs.
When applied correctly, ABM can be highly successful, with studies showing that as many as 97% of B2B marketers reporting a somewhat or much higher return on investment from ABM campaigns than other marketing initiatives.
Achieving these impressive results and making ABM work for your business can take time and experimentation, but overall, the results are worth it.
As well as helping your business to reach its target audience and convert leads, ABM techniques can also have additional benefits to your overall marketing strategy. That’s because many techniques, such as creating client personas, bespoke social media campaigns and other tactics can attract more than just your target audience, meaning that your entire marketing plan will benefit.
The strategy can help you to execute the 80-20 principal by allowing you to bring in 80% of your revenue from 20% of your customers.
Customers that have a close relationship with your business are more likely to spend more money and recommend your firm to their industry peers, so ABM can help your company to grow organically.
What’s The First Step In Starting An ABM Strategy?
Now that you’ve learned about the potential benefits of ABM, you need to find out more about the strategy and how you can apply it to your start-up business.
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Once you’ve learned the basics of ABM and understand the concept, you can start to generate leads for your target audience from your social media followers, email sign-ups and interested prospects.
It takes time, energy and effort to implement ABM successfully, and it is a long-term strategy that requires ongoing momentum, so don’t be discouraged if early attempts don’t achieve the results that you were expecting.
