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Imagine this;
You’re an office manager searching for a new partner to provide your business with a cybersecurity system. You happen to download an e-book from a company. First, Salesperson A follows up via email about the e-book you downloaded. You respond and give Salesperson A some more information explaining why you downloaded the e-book (“I’m just browsing some options right now”). But a few days later, Salesperson B and Salesperson C come along with the same email follow-up.
Okay. Seriously, what’s up with that? Didn’t Salesperson A just reach out to you? Didn’t she share your information or put it in the company’s CRM? Didn’t she mark the case closed?
This type of experience is nothing new, and it’s the product of more than just lack of communication internally — it ties back to poor account-based marketing. Sangram Vajre, Co-Founder and CMO of Terminus, offers a simple definition of account-based marketing: “laser-focused B2B marketing” that hones in on a company’s key or most-qualified accounts.
When salespeople (plus marketers and customer service reps) haven’t shared data and aren’t working from an integrated CRM system that aligns all of their efforts, they’re not using a solid account-based marketing strategy. With a better approach to their accounts, they can nail the B2B customer journey.
Before we jump into some tactics, it’s best to have two things figured out:
Once you have this information, you’ll be in a better position to engage these accounts.
Below are six account-based marketing tactics in B2B that highlight how you can engage key accounts across the entire customer lifecycle.
“Unless you’re a brand-new startup, you should have an existing base of customers,” says Vajre.
As mentioned above, account-based marketing works best only if you have data about existing prospects and customers. You can use that data to identify key accounts currently in the awareness stage. Pinpoint exactly what they should know about a product or service, especially one you want to promote during a campaign push.
You might segment all accounts in the awareness stage and run a highly targeted digital ad campaign that leads prospects to a blog series about one of your company’s new, first-to-market products. You could even pair this effort with a robust landing page containing an overview video about the product. For a personal touch when targeting accounts that have strong relationships with your brand, you might even think about sending a personalized, plain-text email to start a customer’s journey on the right track.
You can probably tell already that account-based marketing relies not just on data but also on a steady inventory of content. During evaluation, content is especially important.
Let’s say you’ve successfully driven customers using personalized emails to a landing page about a new product. You even captured the information they clicked on. In this case, imagine they wanted to learn more about “Feature X” of your company’s product, so they filled out a form requesting more information.
Behind the scenes, you can see that your CRM triggered an automated email to the customers containing a data sheet about “Feature X.” You could still add more to this experience by following up with a second email if a customer opens the first. That second email could contain a link to a short customer testimonial video highlighting an existing customer’s success with your company’s product.
Now, this prospect from a high-priority account is on the right track to purchase. So, how can you encourage a purchase?
It might be time to get more personal. Imagine that a salesperson from your company gets an email notification when this prospect has engaged with your company in two ways: the prospect has filled out a form and clicked on the second email leading to the customer testimonial video used in the evaluation stage. The salesperson can see that data all in one place and use it to send a brief email or make a quick phone call to check in with the prospect.
Ideally, these efforts eventually lead to a purchase.
Post-purchase activity is just as important as the events leading up to purchase. Remember, the deal is not done. You’ve put in all this work to influence a conversion, and now is not the time to relax. If anything, it’s time to ramp up your account-based marketing tactics.
Once you “win” an account, you can set up many types of onboarding journeys, and these journeys are vital in establishing a strong relationship with new accounts. Maybe you’re considering taking your onboarding efforts offline by sending a direct-mail welcome kit. It could contain a welcome letter from the CEO or a dedicated customer service rep, a 4x6 magnet showing important “how to” instructions, and other product information.
Perhaps the customer has been using your product for about two months at this point. The data in your CRM tells you that he hasn’t called customer service once or revisited your blog or website. This could mean the customer is happy.
Or it could mean you’re losing touch with him.
Just as in any customer journey, account-based marketing tactics in retention, not just acquisition, might just be the most important for your company’s bottom line. At this point, you could make a phone call or have a customer service rep send an email — but these efforts are difficult to scale.
One option might be to trigger a few emails on a re-engagement journey your marketing team has already created. It would be triggered by this two-month lapse in engagement.
The first email might contain a promotional offer valid for any purchase within the next month. If this email leads to a repeat purchase, the customer might exit the re-engagement journey. However, if he doesn’t open the email, a second email is triggered, and it contains a link to a series of three “how to” videos. These videos explain best practices for using your company’s product and provide additional information on ways to expand its capabilities.
Inspiring advocacy might be one of the most difficult aspects of account-based marketing. Why? In B2B, your accounts most likely aren’t talking to each other. In other words, one business isn’t always consulting another for referrals or references. This is where B2C companies have a distinct advantage, especially in the social media sphere.
While it may not be easy to create advocates, this is the place where you’ll need to get creative because advocacy can mean two great things for your business:
For this example, let’s focus on the first: a customer advocating internally to co-workers. How can you provide resources to make this happen?
One easy way is to ask. Send a personal note to the customer asking how you can make your company’s product work better for the entire company and workforce. You might be surprised at the honest answers you get, and that valuable feedback can lead to innovations in your product, which will only enhance account-based marketing efforts in the future.
You could also create a short series of webinars for the sole purpose of educating your customers. Ongoing education can be a gold mine for your company by reinforcing your brand as a thought leader and generating new leads and referrals.
While there are many other account-based marketing tactics that can engage prospects and customers across their journeys with your company, the important thing to remember is that you create a plan of attack for each stage of these journeys. Take small steps at first by starting with the data available to you, and work your way up as you get more comfortable.
