When looking at ABM, you need to establish a strategic approach who you’re going to target and how – no surprise there obviously, but it can get confusing to negotiate with sales what accounts you’re targeting and why.
ABM strategies tend to fall into three categories:
1:1
1:Few
1:Many
1:1 is where your organisation maps specific companies to target, conducting research on those companies and creating bespoke content for them. This content is then targeted at defined individuals.
1:Few Is where you conduct research and set targets at a slightly broader level, for example at sector level.
1:Many is usually automated using some sort of marketing automation tool, reaching out to similar organisations with programmatic campaign flows.
We usually suggest that companies that have not tackled ABM before start in the middle at 1:Few. This is more manageable for a team new to ABM, and you’ll learn a lot of lessons that you can then translate into 1:1 (as this is expensive so you want to get right first time) and 1:Many (as this is high volume and automated, it works best once you know what works for your audience).
It’s also good to look at the sales process to understand where ABM could help, it’s not just about net new prospects. ABM works well for example in support of the tender process, raising awareness across key stakeholders and influencers.
ABM also works well for customer accounts, perhaps you have sold into a small part of a large organisation and need to raise more awareness in that account in order to expand your footprint.
When you’ve been doing ABM for a while, the 1:Many opens up the opportunity to reach more people who can pass through the funnel and self qualify to perhaps fall into the 1:Few or 1:1 categories, this is a strong position to be in, as you’re constantly topping up ABM with new accounts, that are warm and relevant.
If you need help or advice on getting started with ABM, then give us a call.
