Account-based marketing has arrived here to stay.
And this is not about a battle between lead-based marketing as the “traditional” approach and account-based marketing as the “hot trend” that everybody will talk about today — and forget later on.
Because, firstly, both aren’t traditional ways or approaches to understanding marketing.
And, apart from that, certain trends just come and go in digital marketing as it happens in the fashion realm constantly with “new” colors and “new” patterns.
And, as it’s always the case with digital marketing, everything is much more complex than what it looks like at first glance — and at the surface.
This becomes crucial in an environment where everything is moving extremely fast and there are “new” things going on all the time.
Endless updates and algorithms are waiting for us to catch up, right?
And thus, they’re waiting for us to act accordingly in our everyday marketing strategies.
But don’t get lost in the online trifle.
You should never overlook the power of account-based marketing.
Because ABM is not just another hot trend, or a cute acronym, or the new shiny object to pursue because everybody seems to be talking about it.
Like everybody is talking about
- synergy
- teamwork
- cooperation
- innovation
nowadays.
Account-based marketing entails a whole new mindset and a holistic work vision.
If you want to go deeper into the matter of ABM, read “ABM is B2B: Why B2B Marketing and Sales is Broken and How to Fix it” by Sangram Vajre.
But, what about the part that lead-based marketing has come to play in the current B2B scenario?
Lead-based marketing and account-based marketing are not a black and white issue.
Not at all.
Fortunately, they can absolutely compliment each other as long as the business goals are clear enough.
Sometimes the matter still may seem more black and whiteish than it really is.
But what’s the explanation behind it?
In simple words, as I said above, it depends on the business goals at stake.
Both ABM and LBM can be more accurate for certain contexts within the same company.
Whether we’re talking about a personal brand or a company brand.
And fortunately, both LBM and ABM can coexist under the same marketing roof.
That’s why, today, we’ll start diving into the account-based ocean.
And we’ll clear the clouds for
- better customer experiences which are obsessively customer-centric
- but more sales
- and more tangible (and measurable!) results
Because B2B will definitely need to pack account-based marketing for 2020.
And more than a mere collection of marketing tactics, ABM will require a whole different business approach.
But let’s cut to the chase.
Account-based marketing:
Account-based marketing, according to HubSpot, is a highly focused business strategy in which a marketing team treats an individual prospect or customer like its very own market. The marketing team can create content, events, and entire campaigns dedicated to the people associated with that account, rather than the industry as a whole.
When done well, ABM lets integrate sales and marketing in a super personalized approach that takes really good care of just a few accounts.
If you want to study successful examples of ABM in B2B, here you can download free samples about the following companies:
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- O2 Business
- Fujitsu
- Couchbase
- Oracle
Lead-based marketing:
Long story short, lead-based marketing is all about analyzing consumer behavior really in-depth and building long-lasting relationships with customers.
It´s not about the brand finding the clients like it’s still done traditionally but vice-versa. But in order to do this, you need to carry out super in-depth research of your customer personas.
When you apply the inbound methodology effectively, the ideal clients find your brand in a natural way because of the right content marketing practices that are carried out in a certain order (and with a clear strategy defined beforehand).
With the recent massivity of social media and the explosion of eCommerce, consumers are more informed than ever. And that has totally changed the way we buy, sell, and talk about products and services.
Brands have little control over their audiences.
And that may seem scary for some because you can’t control online conversations.
However, through the right use of the inbound methodology, you can create attractive content belonging to the different buying stages your potential clients go through. And that way, you can save energy and maximize sales.
This way, you get your leads into what´s called a sales pipeline.
Some companies are having a hard time understanding this. Major companies.
Here we can see in detail more information about inbound leads and sales funnel with a sales rep from HubSpot:
Luckily, it seems like most brand new brands are getting it right from the beginning.
The perks of understanding how to combine inbound marketing and account-based marketing:
- If you implement ABM effectively, ROI is easy to measure
- Clients will appreciate it because it feels highly personalised
- You can kickstart your marketing strategy with ABM and then use inbound to maximize your sales (that means applying an effective content marketing strategy, among other tactics)
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