How a Comprehensive ABM Strategy Helps You Engage with B2B Buyers

Getting in front of your audience is harder than ever.

Prospects are increasingly doing their own research during the buying process (you can read more about the independent B2B buyer here), rather than engaging with your salespeople. And rising competition is making it harder for your business to stand out.

So it makes sense that marketers and salespeople are turning to account-based marketing to build their sales pipeline. ABM allows you to be more intentional about the prospects you target and more personal in the message you deliver—as long as you’re adjusting your strategy to meet buyers’ evolving expectations.

Let’s explore how you can craft a comprehensive ABM strategy and finetune it to your target accounts.

First, align your sales and marketing teams.

With account-based marketing, there’s no handing off leads from marketing to sales. Which means your sales and marketing teams need to be working hand-in-hand to determine target accounts, construct messaging and decide which channels to use.

Ensuring sales and marketing are collaborating and coordinating from the very beginning is key to crafting a seamless, personalized experience that extends across several channels.

Evaluate your audience.

As it gets harder to hold your buyers’ attention, you don’t want to waste time chasing after a wide audience with generic content or trying to sell to unqualified leads.

Instead, put your efforts toward high-value accounts with prospects who will engage with your message and see your value.

plus symbol Hold brainstorming sessions.

Who is dealing with problems or challenges that you can solve? What does their buying process look like?

Tap the collective wisdom of your marketing, sales and customer service or account management teams to understand your prospects’ main objectives and process and incorporate that knowledge into your ABM strategy.

plus symbol Research every account you put on your list.

What are their business priorities? How have they been impacted by rising competition or tight budgets?

Understand if there’s room for potential accounts to grow. If there’s scalability, that signals a high-value account for your business.

Refine message and content.

When crafting your campaign messaging, make use of the intelligence you’ve gained from your account research. What are the problems you can solve for your prospects? Remember that every audience’s challenges will be slightly different, meaning you need to adjust your approach to best connect with your prospects.

It takes some trial and error to understand what message is right for each audience. Initially, you might find that some prospects are receptive to your content while others aren’t. Give it your best shot based on the information you’ve gathered and be open to learn as you go. Most importantly, be ready to change and pivot as you learn more.

plus symbol Personalization is more important than ever.

You need to show you’ve thought through your prospect’s needs and understand how to help them. That you know what their business situation is and how it’s impacting their role specifically.

Technology that enables dynamic content and personalized snippets can be helpful here, but you’re also going to have to do some true 1:1 personalization for accounts and prospects. Your sales team can help with this (see next section).

plus symbol Create content that helps your audience.

If you’ve got a planning tool, workbook or some other useful content to share, that’s a great resource for your prospects. Even if they’re not ready to buy at the moment, your content will influence them when they are in the market.

Consider digital channels.

While conferences and tradeshows are coming back strong, more and more people have begun recognizing the ease and value of digital channels. While in-person avenues are a reliable way to reach your target accounts, don’t underestimate the effect inside sales, email and social media can have on your campaign.

plus symbol Inside sales plays a critical role in ABM campaigns.

Your inside sales team is the perfect channel for conducting 1:1 outreach with personalized messaging, getting feedback on that messaging and helping you learn what’s working and what’s not. People want connection, and we’ve seen prospects be more open to conversations with inside salespeople using targeted messaging, even if they’re not ready to buy.

plus symbol Personalized emails cut through the noise.

Prospects’ inboxes are filled with companies offering generic “we can help you” messages that often go ignored. However, we’ve seen prospects respond to thoughtful, well-crafted emails. That’s where your background research and personalization comes in.

plus symbol People are using social media to make purchasing decisions.

According to HubSpot, 75% of B2B buyers consult social media along the buying process. So take advantage of that and run some targeted PPC ads as part of your ABM strategy. LinkedIn in particular enables highly precise targeting where you can use personalized messages and helpful content to generate engagement with your target accounts.

Competition is growing. And your audience is constantly changing.

Account-based marketing is one of the best ways to get in front of them.

If you’re intentional, hands-on and open to learning and pivoting, ABM is a good answer for how to build sales pipeline, even as your audience and the buying process evolve.