Small and medium businesses are always in a dilemma on whether they should invest in Account-Based Marketing (ABM) given the fact that the average cost for implementing account-based marketing is $8000 to $10000 a month using tools like Adobe Campaign, Terminus, Demandbase, etc. Also, the sales cycle for converting a B2B prospect into a qualified lead to a client takes somewhere around 4 months to 6 months, depending on the industry, technology, and type of service offered.
Account-based marketing has become quintessential for B2B, irrespective of whether they are small, medium, or large-sized businesses. As per Hubspot, more than 60% of the companies plan to launch an ABM campaign by the end of 2020.
A growing number of marketing professionals are embracing ABM as part of their overall marketing strategy.
Account-based marketing uses highly targeted, personalized campaigns to win over particular accounts. Rather than relying on blanket campaigns that are meant to appeal to an entire market, ABM treats “individual accounts as markets in their own right” (by ITSMA’s definition – the Information Technology Services Marketing Association).
How does Account-Based Marketing work?
- Two layers of the filter are used to target ads based on IP address (IP address public registry database for each company and above that is the cookie layer)
- Unlike Google double click exchange, OpenX, App Nexus and other premium ad exchange is used to serve ads
- Company IP address is tracked, and the web behavior is analyzed.
- Data is taken using Spiderbook (acquired by Demandbase) or other similar tools
- Based on this data, the ad is served in those websites using the ad serving tool for Account-Based Marketing
- Then the click behaviour for these ads are analyzed and optimized
- The report from campaigns run using the tool will show from which organization and city the clicks were driven
- Names are not revealed as per privacy law
- Only accounts that are to be targeted using IP addresses are region-specific. Ad exchange websites are not region-specific they are based on the online behaviour of the tracked IP address
Account-Based Marketing using LinkedIn
The LinkedIn marketing solution can be used for Account-Based Marketing. You can identify target accounts, provide relevant content, such as an article, video, blog, or infographics to prospects in those accounts identified.
Small and medium businesses that need ABM as part of their strategy but do not want to spend heavily on it, can use the following approach using LinkedIn:
Identify the target accounts
Identifying the target audience is fundamental to any marketing initiative. This involves a collaborative effort between sales and marketing based on various parameters such as industry, company size, annual revenue, location, etc.
Identify key decision-makers and influencers
Once the key accounts have been identified, the next step is to map the key decision-makers and influencers associated with these accounts.
Creating account-specific content
The content plays a pivotal role here. Based on the set of accounts identified, they can be bucketed into categories on the set of services or products that can be positioned to these categories of accounts. Specific content needs to be churned out for each category of accounts. You can re-purpose the old content, but you will need to customize it for the key accounts you’ve identified.
Running targeted campaigns on LinkedIn
Once you’ve chosen your target accounts and individuals, you need to develop personalized campaigns designed to resonate with them. One landing page doesn’t fit for all the categories of accounts since the requirement and the product/service positioned are different. There will be a separate campaign with a specific landing page running for a particular set of identified accounts.
Pixel Based Retargeting
Before launching the campaigns, make sure to use the pixel-based retargeted campaigns feature on LinkedIn. Marketing and sales engage with targeted accounts on an individual level using a personalized approach that makes sense for each contact. Campaigns can include an array of tactics, including event pixel, landing page-based retargeting, email, special events, and more.
Monitor, Measure and Engage
Use the advanced reporting and analytics in LinkedIn Campaign Manager to find out which ads, content, and campaigns are performing better. Based on these insights refine and fine-tune your content and ad. Monitor the call to actions and reengage with the prospects until they become a qualified lead in the sales funnel.