How To Use Account-Based Marketing To Reach Out To Businesses

Account-based marketing is a popular strategy used by businesses to reach out to other businesses.

The key feature of account-based marketing (ABM) is that it’s extremely targeted. Specific clients are selected and marketing strategies are geared towards building relationships with a very targeted set of accounts. This means that all aspects of ABM campaigns are personalized and tailored to particular businesses and their needs. Often the goal is to get meetings and to form a close partnership with clients. Here are a few tips on how to use account-based marketing to reach out to businesses.

Target the right accounts

First and foremost, one of the most important ABM tactics and strategies is to put together a list of accounts. These need to be carefully chosen according to the type of product or services your business offers. You could make a list of accounts based on the companies you’ve worked with in the past or those that will likely benefit from what you’re selling. Relevance is key to ABM marketing, so it’s more targeted than other types. This is also essential when marketing to businesses rather than individuals.

Create targeted offers

Once you’ve outlined your list of potential clients you can then create targeted offers. Aim to develop prospect-specific offers that are designed for a particular account and make the entire experience as personalized as possible. In a standard ABM program, there is usually a minimum amount of target accounts so you can spend more time personalizing your campaigns and focusing on reaching out to the right people in the company. 

Aim to get meetings

Often one of the main goals of account-based marketing is to secure a B2B sales appointment. You could use virtual events such as webinars to your advantage as these will help to generate leads. You could then get these potential clients to agree to a private meeting in person or online. The aim of these meetings should be to showcase your services. For example, if you run an IT company you could offer a technology assessment and explain areas of improvements that you can help with.

Work with a marketing agency

If you’re new to ABM you could consider outsourcing the management of your campaigns to a marketing agency. This way you’ll have access to better resources and expertise. Experienced marketers will be able to provide the professional insights you need to further target your campaigns and help you reach out to your audience. They’ll also have the latest software and tools such as data analytics and video editing tools. It’s worth investing in marketing as with expert help, you’re more likely to maximize ROI by spending more time and money on the right strategies.

Customize cold email campaigns

In the case of account-based marketing, even cold email campaigns need to be personalized. Rather than sending out a blanket email without putting much effort in, go further than simply including the name. Made the body of the email more personal as well. Bear in mind the needs of your target and how you can offer them a customized solution to help meet these needs. Ensure you include plenty of relevant content that will appeal to the reader rather than end up in the spam. Here is a complete guide to cold email personalization.

Automate certain processes

In order to improve the efficiency of your ABM programs, it’s worth investing in emerging technologies to automate certain processes. You can automate email campaigns to go out at critical times that will have the most effect on your target accounts. You can also automate social media posts, targeted advertising, and retargeting campaigns. This will help save you time and you can focus on developing even more personalized offers and meetings strategies.

Try intent-based advertising

You could use intent-based advertising to your advantage. Intent data enables you to further target your ads. You can customize their content to appeal directly to the needs of your customers. Built-in tools such as Google’s custom audiences are ideal for intent-based advertising. You can use these to help you outline how your customized solutions are going to improve operations at the company you’re targeting. You can then also build a list of role-based contacts to ensure you reach out to the people in charge of these specific operations.

Make the most of retargeting innovations

Retargeting should also be an important focus of your marketing campaigns. This is essentially reaching out to those who have already shown an interest in your business. You can use some of the best retargeting software to help you automate specifically targeted campaigns based on the exact preferences of your potential clients. Retargeting is surprisingly effective, if done well. In the case of B2B marketing, the challenge is reminding the right people of the reasons why they were interested in your products or services in the first place and how what you offer is better than the competition.

Use the right social media platforms

If you’re targeting businesses rather than individuals, there are certain social media platforms to focus on. LinkedIn, for instance, is frequently used by businesses for marketing purposes. You can make the most of LinkedIn B2B ads as these are extremely targeted. You can also set your own specific goals accordingly, whether they’re to generate leads, drive website traffic, or build brand awareness. You can also reach out to the right people personally on social media with targeted advertising or personalized messaging. It’s worth getting professional advice from a social media expert or digital marketing agency to help you to leverage this useful tool.

Highlight positive PR

One effective way to advertise in your account-based marketing campaign is to highlight any positive PR your business has achieved in recent years. This could include awards, publications, business achievements, and more. You can incorporate this information into the copy of your advertising or email campaigns, for example. This will help to show your potential clients that you’re both reliable and trustworthy. You’ll appear as more of an authority in the field. It’s worth coming up with ways to leverage and recognition you’ve received recently and to use this as a key part of your content.

Consider collaborative marketing

You could consider collaborating with relevant businesses to help promote each other’s brands. There are several benefits of collaborative marketing. You can share resources, reach out to a wider audience, and build brand exposure. By collaborating with other related companies, you’ll also appear more legitimate and trustworthy to your target audience. It’s a win-win scenario. You could even consider hosting virtual or in-person promotional events together and use these to spread the word about both of your businesses. This will hopefully lead to both of you building your account list and arranging meetings.

Back up your marketing with content syndication

One important aspect of ABM marketing that isn’t always considered in other forms of marketing is content syndication. Before you guide your potential clients to their perfectly personalized landing pages, prepare relevant content for them to come across first. Effectively speaking, content syndication is about republishing your content on a third-party website. This works in the favor of the third-party site as well as they get engaging free content to post without having to work on it themselves. Publish your content on a bigger website, for example, that’s more likely to be ranked in the search engine results pages. Here is a complete guide to B2B content syndication. By following the right strategies, you can reach out to your target audience.