ABM For Growth
There has been a lot of talk in the B2B world in recent years about “ABM” or “Accounts Based Marketing”. Some may wonder is this simply “Lead Generation” by another name, and will it ultimately deliver results for my business?
According to Demandbase “Over 96% of B2B marketers leveraging ABM report a positive impact on marketing’s success” and according to research conducted by the ABM Leadership Alliance and ITSMA, 76% of marketers saw higher ROI with ABM than any other marketing strategy in 2020
What is ABM?
For those not familiar with ABM, it involves delivering personalised messages to a small number of targeted accounts and key contacts within those accounts. These messages have been tailored for the target account with content/collateral that will resonate deeply with them.
The overall aim is to get customers to engage and move through the sales funnel. According to McKinsey’s research, companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue than those who don’t.
And at IMS we too are seeing the positive results ABM is generating for our clients. Every sector faces different challenges and has its own unique requirements, but ABM is a flexible approach by its nature and can have huge positive impact when implemented effectively – something we have experienced first-hand with several of our clients who have implemented ABM programmes as part of their marketing strategy.
ABM In Practice – Medtech
When one of our clients, an Irish company working with international medical device companies in the design, development and commercialisation of catheters and related elements, decided to employ an ABM approach to engage prospective customers, it enabled them to book several meetings with prospective customers in international markets.
The company credited their success to our methodology which consisted of a number of steps:
- Creation of an Ideal Customer Profile and then using a hyper-focused approach to build a list of prospects in their target markets.
- Identification of the key contact/s with the prospect accounts.
- Cohesive engagement and messaging via personalised display advertising, marketing emails, regular blogs and infographics which resonated with the pain points and challenges of the target audience.
- Posting of regular insights and updates from the client’s team on LinkedIn, each one nudging the prospects a little bit closer towards conversion.
Over time the ABM campaign was rolled out to additional target markets culminating in a database of prospects from Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Israel. To date, a number of high-level prospects have been converted into meetings which then resulted in sales, €500k and counting, and there are expected future sales from what is now a very healthy €1m+ pipeline.
CHECK OUT THE CASE STUDY HERE
ABM In Practice – Lifescience
A similar methodology was used with a life-science client company who specialise in the development and commercialisation of superior orthopaedic products. Their aim was to identify distributors for a new product range.
First, we invested time in understanding their products in order to identify a number of potential “right-fits” for them. Through a series of messaging workshops, we were able to tailor both their sales collateral and an email campaign to the targets. The personalised messaging demonstrated that our client understood their market and their challenges and possessed the required solution.
The result was that our client secured meetings with 50% of the targets. For those with whom meetings were not secured, a soft follow-up was actioned in the form of a LinkedIn connection request while relevant personalised content was being posted on the client’s LinkedIn homepage.
This particular client has since developed two distribution partnerships as a result of their commitment to ABM.
CHECK OUT THE CASE STUDY HERE
ABM In Practice – Construction Subcontractor
This building subcontractor was long established in the Irish market but wanted to increase their business in the United States.
First we developed a localised website for the US market, then we developed a range of sales collateral, including 3D product video, brochures and more.
We targeted specially selected high-value accounts in the US market – architects and building specifiers – with a highly targeted digital ABM approach, including Google ads and LinkedIn ads.
North American enquiries increased by 300% over a 24-month period, and the company are currently in discussions over five prestigious projects along the east and west coast.
CHECK OUT THE CASE STUDY HERE
Delivering Real Results
The key takeaway from all of this is that it takes the integration of multiple initiatives to implement successful ABM.
Hyper-targeted prospecting, via a coordinated approach between our marketing experts and our clients’ sales team, supported by personalised messaging that seeks to educate and inform prospects – provides all the ingredients needed to execute a successful ABM strategy; the results are new connections, meetings, and ultimately – sales.
Quite simply, ABM has to be a part of your new sales strategy. So, if you would like information on how to get started, feel free to get in touch with the team at IMS Marketing for an informal chat to discuss ABM goals for your business!