In the era of the internet, account-based marketing is becoming increasingly important in the marketing world. It’s easily one of the best ways to harbor long-lasting customer relationships, yet it takes a while to perfect. Here are some basic tactics that often go forgotten in account-based marketing yet are the cornerstones to doing it well.
Social Data
Utilizing social data is a key step to the building relationships aspect of account-based marketing. As social media allows you to see everything that your target accounts and connections are saying and engaging with, you can use this to your advantage. Knowing what your prospects are saying allows you to pinpoint their needs and wants, which you can then build into your ABM. You should follow your prospects on all possible platforms and keep engaged with them. This means replying to their statuses/tweets, congratulating them when they announce a life event, and sharing their content to your followers. Engaging with them on these platforms signals your commitment to them as a person and means they are more likely to trust what you do with their marketing account.
Customer Marketing Strategies
Whilst chasing prospects is generally the focus of marketing these days, with account-based marketing, looking to your current customer base can actually be much more fruitful in gaining new accounts. It has been estimated that targeting your pre-existing customers can actually increase your organization’s profits by 25-95%. You already know your customers, so tailoring new products to them is easy as you don’t have to harvest information on their accounts. They’re easy to contact as you already have their information, so why not try getting them on your side once again?
Regular Email Communications
Regular email communication, particularly through newsletters, is hugely important to your account-based marketing tactics. These emails allow your customers to know what’s going on in your business, how profits are doing, etc. All of this is key to your customers getting familiar with you and your brand, allowing them to see your true potential.
Beyond newsletters, you should also consider personalized email content. Emails with the customer’s name/business in the subject line are much more likely to be open- and actually read- than generic emails that are sent out to all customers. Your email content should also be hyper-personalized (as much as is possible), sending only the relevant information to those accounts. This illustrates to your customers that you know and care about their needs, and that you’re paying close attention to them.
Personalized Sales Content
This may seem obvious but is often an overlooked tactic in ABM marketing. Personalizing your sales content, i.e. creating a downloadable offer for your contacts and emailing it to them, is a tenet of your ABM strategy. Beyond this, you can also include offers within your pitches that are tailored specifically to the contact; offering them a free evaluation of how they are doing compared to their competitors, free consultations, etc. These offers often entail face-to-face meetings, which are a great way to get to know your customers rigorously.
Social Media Ads
In the modern world, social media ads are one of the greatest tools you can use in account-based marketing. On most platforms, you can plug in an email list of those you want to target, and the ad will appear to each of these people. This is a great first port of call for introducing your prospects to your business; having highly tailored ads to the key players of your strategies will be sure to get you some interest. It gets your first impression out of the way easily, leaving you with more time to focus on your strategy as you no longer have to contact each of your individual prospects.
Account-Based Retargeting
Retargeting simply refers to re-tailoring the social media ads you initially put out to increase engagement. Whether the ad wasn’t clicked by many, or the clicks introduced them to your brand but no more, retargeting is hugely effective for ensuring you get the most out of your social media interactions. For instance, if the initial click only took them to your website, you could retarget to advertise them a free e-book or evaluation.
In-Person Efforts
There are a number of in-person efforts that often go unnoticed in the modern era due to ABM largely moving online. However, these in-person events add a personal touch to your strategy and really drive customers to work with you. In-person events can be hosting an event for local prospects, sending your prospects personal gifts, or even getting prospects from your sales team and inviting them for a coffee meeting. It might seem outdated, but in-person meetings are still highly valuable to building lasting customer relationships.
