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If you want to invest in ABM (Account-based marketing); you must stop thinking of ‘engagement’ as the objective or end-goal. ABM can bring value through strong relationship building and communication. This new-age technique is a clever tool that can get you value for money. Through ABM, you can influence and build relationships with high-value targeted accounts or organizations. Tailored content and exclusive strategies for these high-value accounts can bring great results.

Many marketers have already embraced ABM and yet it needs to be fully explored for maximum benefits. Let us discover some simple steps to enhance ABM results through this blog.

Here are some steps that can help you to unlock the true potential of ABM-

Identify high-value accounts-

While you aim at ABM as a mainstream marketing activity, the types of accounts you select matters a lot.  It involves communicating with the customers and analyzing if their present and future needs are aligned with your business proposition.

ABM is also for existing accounts. You can determine the scope of growth of the current accounts that you have and identify them as high-value accounts. You can then plan exclusive strategies that can focus on long term relationship building and revenue generation.

ABM can be for existing accounts but it is also for new revenue generation. You can focus on relationship building and management, and target new ABM accounts for more business.

Know these accounts thoroughly-

Your selection should be based on deep insights that you need to gather about the accounts or organizations you want to target. And once you have made your selection of particular accounts, you need to find out more about them and get more insights about these accounts for successful implementation of ABM strategies.

How to collect insights for the accounts you want to target?

• Conduct primary and secondary research to know deep insights for relationship building
• Interview account directors and other stake holders to identify the right accounts
• Use intent data to gather intelligent data and action-oriented insights to for successful implementation

Focus on content and messaging-

Once you have done the ground-work, it is time to communicate your value proposition. This is the most critical part for both conversions and relationship building. What you say and how you say it will stay with the prospects or people involved in the target accounts. Make sure your messages are specially crafted for these high-value accounts. Include empathy and demonstrate it through your exclusive messaging that addresses their challenges while offering customized solutions.

Conclusion-

There can be more number of ways to build a smart and workable ABM strategy, but for success you need to do the ground work well. Therefore, the accounts that you select, the knowledge that you gather about these accounts and the tailor-made messaging you select can determine the success of ABM accounts in today’s B2B market.

High impact B2B sales and marketing activities can be demanding and can get very expensive. Since B2B today focuses a lot on personalization, marketers need to find the best possible method to enhance personalization and also make B2B cost-effective. ABM (Account Based Marketing) can be a great option if you want conversions and higher ROI. ABM can drive personalization and can be quite cost-effective bringing the desired results.

The very reason why B2B marketers should use this technique is because ABM leads you to focus exclusively on high-value accounts, and high return accounts that can bring a lot of B2B success. With account-based marketing, you can scale personalization and create opportunities for converting more leads.

According to a survey conducted by Gartner, the best way to engage buyers is to personalize communication. Relevance matters a lot in B2B and account-based marketing can help marketers address business challenges of the customers and build long term relationships. This is possible because of the high level of focus that ABM facilitates and marketers can therefore make the best out of this exclusivity.

Here are some benefits of ABM at a glance-

• ABM is result-oriented
• It allows marketers to scale personalization
• Helps build long term business relationships
• Creates highest possibilities of ROI

Account-based marketing is a high-priority marketing technique. One can leverage ABM by taking the following steps-

Identify high priority accounts

The first rule of ABM is that sales and marketing should work in collaboration for best results. Marketing team should work closely with sales team. The next thing is to identify ideal customer profiles, based on high-value data. Data plays an extremely crucial role in ABM as it does in other sales and marketing activities.

Identify needs of the target accounts

Data plays a vital role in ABM because marketers need to collect insights about the needs of the target accounts. Without data it can get very challenging to know what the customer wants. As an ABM expert you must be able to understand each account and tis challenges well. You must be aware of a lot of insights about the buyer’s journey, the budgets, decision-makers in the account or organization, stake-holders, roles and responsibilities and more.

Create personalized content

B2B thrives on personalization! Messaging plays a key role in ABM and other main-stream sales and marketing activities. Email marketing can enhance personalization in ABM. Create relevant messaging that can help the customer to identify the solution. With relevant and personalized content and messaging, the customer is most likely to buy from you. This helps in high-value accounts as ABM is about focus and exclusivity.

Conclusion-

ABM is a cost-effective and result-oriented marketing technique. With ABM you can reach the target audience at a relevant time to convert more leads quickly. Leverage personalization to cater to high-value ABM accounts and increase your revenue successfully.

The pattern in which B2B buyers are evaluating and purchasing products and services has changed drastically over the past two years.  With digital-first B2B buyers, customer-focused data and data-driven decision-making is becoming crucial. In today’s digital context, data means knowledge and knowledge is power! Therefore, insights-driven campaigns are getting popular amid B2B bringing the spotlight on to the powerful tool of today’s B2B market called intent data.

Before we talk more about the advantages and benefits of intent data, let us see some common data challenges that B2B marketers face today—

Data challenges faced by B2B marketers

• Lack of a unified database
• Lack of efficient data management and organization
• Unable to gain knowledge about the customers due to scattered data
• No value from data and lack of predictive intelligence
• Absence of intelligent insights due to poor data
• No scope to prioritize or segment leads for better B2B conversions and results

Intent data offers incredible benefits of timely engagement and hyper personalization making B2B sales and marketing more effective.

Here are some more benefits of intent data-

• Customer-centric engagement
• Helps in identifying precise solutions for specific target audience
• Provides customer-focused data and insights
• Enables data-driven decision making
• Shortens sales cycle
• Helps in ABM planning and implementation
• Provides behavioral data that indicates prospects’ interest
• Timed action can be taken due to intent signals

Things you achieve with intent data

Improved conversion rate-

Intent data signals can tell a lot about your customers. It can highlight where the customer is in the buying cycle and most importantly it can reveal insights about when the customer is most likely to make a buying decision.

These insights can help marketers stay prepared and be present in front of the customer before he takes the buying decision or approaches any competitor. It can also help marketers to create customized solutions as per the customer’s needs and challenges. This increases the conversion rate and ROI.

Increased sales velocity-

Intent data can help B2B marketers accelerate sales. It can help vendors to enhance lead scoring and identify high-value leads that can easily convert into business. This shortens the sales cycle and marketers can accelerate lead conversions and sales.

Increased data efficiencies:

Inefficient data handling, management and organization leaves a room for a lot of errors and this can lead to slowing down of the lead conversion process.  Data is very critical in B2B sales and marketing and intent data is the best tool to help you to accelerate sales. It can help organizations to carry out effective sales and marketing.  

Conclusion-

Intent data can offer a cohesive and structured data for B2B enterprises; the kind of data that actually works. Without data it is challenging to run successful lead generation, demand generation or any other B2B activities today. You can accelerate sales, get to know buyer personas and increase lead conversions with intent data.

We partner with Bombora, the leader in intent data that collects B2B intent, demographic and firmographic data at scale and thus can help you enhance lead conversions and sales.

Today’s customers are everywhere on the web. In order to attract customers, marketers need to be present on different channels and platforms. Multi-channel marketing is therefore gaining popularity, as it is proving to be helpful in widening the reach of b2b vendors in the market and enhancing lead generation and conversions.

This blog highlights different aspects of multi-channel marketing, its various challenges, some necessary strategic elements to make it effective and its impact on lead generation and sales.

To begin with, let us take a quick look at some statistics about the current state of multi-channel marketing—

As per the research report by Ascend2, almost 67% of marketing professionals feel that multi-channel marketing strategy is somewhat successful in helping them achieve their business goals, whereas, 23% marketers feel that multi-channel marketing is very successful or outstanding compared to their competitors.

The fact about multi-channel marketing is that it is a strategic marketing activity and it needs to have some essential elements to make it really successful.

Let us see some strategic elements necessary for the success of multi-channel marketing. But before that, lets us deep dive into some of the major challenges of multi-channel marketing.

Challenges of multi-channel marketing

The market is buzzing with new ideas when it comes to b2b sales and marketing. But not all techniques succeed at all times. There are many challenges that marketers have to face when it comes to implementing activities such as multi-channel marketing.

So, what are some of the most critical challenges?

Other than the above, there are some more challenges that marketers have to face such as conflicting data, disconnected technology stack etc.

Analysis of results is important in multi-channel marketing

Strategic elements matter a lot in multi-channel marketing- the most essential being the accurate measurement of performance. The reason why many marketers aren’t getting the desired success in multi-channel marketing is because they lack in strategic positioning and implementation of this versatile marketing activity.

Therefore, if you want to implement a multi-channel marketing campaign your strategy must include the critical element of measurement of results. You simply cannot carry out this dynamic activity without knowing the response, and without the knowledge of how the current strategy is performing.

Although there are multiple challenges in implementing multi-channel marketing, things are changing in this realm. As per research conducted by Ascend2, almost 86% marketers feel that multi-channel marketing is effective and over 68% say that the change in effectiveness is moderate, while 18% report a significant change.

Although multi-channel marketing is a promising activity in the b2b industry, it needs to have a strategic foundation and marketers need to be willing to address the challenges and fix them in order to fully optimize the potential of multi-channel marketing. The types of channels and the quality of those channels also play a crucial role in increasing the effectiveness of the multi-channel marketing.

Conclusion-

Multi-channel marketing is a complex activity, but it is the need of the time, as users are all over the place on the web. If you want to attract leads and convert them into business, think of using strategic multi-channel marketing that can widen your reach and can give you the desired results.

Did you know that almost 91% of marketers consider lead generation as their most important goal and that content marketing generated three times as many leads compared to outbound marketing also costing less than half? Research says, that the most commonly used b2b lead generation strategies are content marketing which is 67% and email marketing which is nearly 78%.

B2B lead generation is not a simple or straight-forward process. Hence, marketers should avoid repeating the same strategy each time. For best results, one should invest time and efforts in analyzing each stage of the funnel and adopt some unique methods to ease some of the challenges in lead generation.

B2B involves a lot of decision-makers at various stages. Therefore, one needs to deploy variety of methods to nurture leads at different stages of the sales funnel in order to finally convert leads into business. In such a scenario its best that marketers get to know the buyer persona and then customize solutions as per the need of the customer.

Communication is the key-

Communication is important with the customers and with internally too with the team. Cross-functional communication is also important in lead generation. It may not be a technique, but it can help on a certain level.

Once you know the objectives, processes and strategies and the plan, there will be more clarity within the organization. You can then study, compare and analyze the campaigns, resources and later on the results too. For all this to happen smoothly, communication within the organization is critical for success of any campaign.

Right lead information-

Before one proceeds to establish contact or communicate with the prospect, a thorough study of the prospect is necessary. Capturing the right information of the lead can help you to convert that lead easily. Lead-forms play a significant role in conversions too.  How you build the form can impact your results and the information you get at the end of the day from the lead.

Analyzing the funnel-

Analysis of the funnel is a significant process in lead generation.

Lead generation processes involve different stages and the funnel plays an important role in determining how quickly the leads are likely to get converted and to know what the status of the lead is at each stage of the funnel.

In order to get best results, marketers must analyze the funnel performance from time to time. Each resource who is involved at different stages of the funnel must monitor and analyze the results and be very vigilant so that there is a record of which leads are performing as per expectations and which stage of the funnel has maximum loss of leads. After this analysis, steps should be taken to rectify mistakes and create solutions that will reduce the loss in the number of leads at that particular stage of the funnel.

Conclusion-

More techniques and processes can be deployed to make sure each stage of the funnel is optimized so that leads don’t drop out. Lead forms should also be built smartly so that you get the right data. Lead generation is not a simple process, so a combination of techniques and methods can help marketers to accelerate lead conversion.

(Statistics source- Rule analytics, Pipeline, Startup Bonsai)

ABM (Account Based Marketing) has become one of the main-stream activities of B2B. However, many marketers still want to know why they should invest in ABM and how will it benefit their business.

This blog talks about some of the top reasons as to why b2b marketers should invest in ABM.

1) Sales and marketing alignment:

One of the major reasons why you must adopt ABM is because it requires you to align sales and marketing. ABM cannot work if sales and marketing are not on the same page. It’s nearly impossible to achieve results. It’s best that sales and marketing work in collaboration to identify and nurture the high-value ABM accounts. This helps in streamlining sales and marketing for any b2b company.

2) Shortening of sales cycle:

With ABM there is no beating around the bush. Since ABM is a highly focused marketing activity, you can reduce the usual lead chasing activities and concentrate only those high-value accounts that can be easily converted. This helps to shorten the sales cycle and these leads quickly move from one stage of the funnel to another.

3) More revenue:

When you work with a targeted approach with both the sales and marketing teams aligned, the results are bound to be seen. ABM campaigns require high level expertise and resources that can focus exclusively on these accounts. This exclusivity helps to give better results and thus more conversions and revenue. ABM activity is indeed a good investment as it has high returns.

4) Exclusive account management:

In general, lead generation and conversion can get very challenging as there is tough competition in the market. Customers have plenty of choice and if marketers don’t focus on leads they might just go away to their competitors. This is where ABM becomes extremely supportive and helpful in conversions. ABM being an exclusive, high-value account activity it can help marketers to focus on specific accounts. When vendors have dedicated resources and a targeted approach they can get the desired results.

5) Effective use of data:

In ABM, b2b marketers can make use of intent data to get to know the prospect really well. Data is critical, but since ABM is a focused activity why not narrow down the data too. Intent data is predictive intelligence for any b2b marketer. Intent data will save your time and efforts by bringing you the best and the most relevant insights of the prospect or account you are targeting. It can also help you to identify the best accounts and lead to more conversions.

Conclusion:

The popularity of ABM is rising day by day and the reason being that marketers are getting incredible results out of ABM. B2B is a challenging market; hence, ABM is being embraced by marketers for its great results. Adopt ABM today or partner with an ABM expert to get started off. For more information, email us at contact@intellitechsoln.com

Today, everyone knows the importance of personalization and customer engagement and how b2b marketers should prioritize it for lead conversion. Personalization is indeed one of the strong pillars of b2b sales and marketing. However, marketers should also work on optimizing personalization and adopting useful data to enhance it.

According to the predictions by Gartner, almost 80% of marketers who have invested in personalization will abandon it by 2025 due to lack of ROI. This might come across as quite a startling prediction, but before we jump to conclusions, let’s see where the real problem lies.

There is no doubt that personalization is shaping the b2b market and it has created a very positive impact on the customer-vendor relationship. But it can reap more benefits only if marketers look at personalization as not a quick-fix solution but as a comprehensive and long term solution. To optimize personalization one needs to ask certain critical questions before implementing it.

Before marketers start planning and implementing personalization as a solution to lead generation and demand generation, they must know the following-

• How do your customers perceive personalization
• Do your customers really need personalization
• How will it impact the business goals and is it aligned with the personal goals
• What does personalization mean to stake holders across all functions in your organization?
• Is the role of personalization clear to every team member in the sales and marketing
• Which data will be required to implement personalization

These are some of the most critical questions to ask yourself if you think personalization is one of your major goals.

Also, if you have already implemented personalization, do not forget to measure the results. The results will tell you a lot whether personalization is working in your favor, or whether or not you have the right data and is there a real need to adopt personalization at all.

Do you know your customer well?

It goes without saying that it will be a challenge to chalk out a personalization plan before you get to know your customer really well. Still, many marketers make this mistake of not investing enough time, money and efforts into personalization. It’s very important that you know your ideal customer profile to make personalization work for your business. One of the effective approaches that you can adopt is to look at the business goals and identify how personalization can impact those goals instead of focusing on personalization as a goal by itself.

Identify the different business goals, strategies and marketing plans and tailor personalization around these plans and goals. Focus on gathering more insights of the customers by mapping their digital footprints, engaging in conversations to get a clear idea about which customer needs personalization and how it can be tailored from lead to lead.

Data for hyper-personalization-

Without getting to know the customer well, you will not be able to drive your personalization plans effectively. And without data you won’t be able to get to know your customer well. Importance of data has already been established in the b2b domain. You need to prioritize getting the most authentic third-party data that can support your personalization initiatives. You must also adopt intent data for hyper personalization.

Conclusion-

One of the significant elements of personalization is data and marketers can’t forget that. It’s very important that as b2b marketers you invest a lot in data and optimize it for enhanced b2b sales and marketing.

A lot has changed for B2B sales and marketing in 2022. Online sales and digital interface has transformed the way people do business and has also created a paradigm shift in the buying trends and habits of customers. This has also reflected on lead generation and demand generation strategies that are being adopted by companies today.

Let us see some new-age lead generation techniques and what is here to stay!

Meet potential clients wherever they are-

Meet the buyers wherever they are, be it LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. With the online sales and digital outreach it has become possible to meet anyone, anywhere through the support of technology.

One of the key changes in the new lead generation scenario is that customers have more options to search for vendors online and they are making their buying decisions based on their own research and other sources which are usually validated without any help.  This is why it’s important for lead generation and demand generation professionals to meet the customers wherever they are and be in front of them.

Instead of chasing leads, create an ambience to attract, and delight leads so that they communicate with you.

Take maximum support of content-

Your content will decide how and what you will be communicating with your prospects. In today’s online sales and marketing world, content is the key element in building relationships and creating more opportunities. Build content and insights that will help your prospects and make it your value proposition apart from the services and products that you have to offer.

Create content assets that resonate with the sentiments of the customer and talks about solving their challenges. This can help generating demand and ultimately in converting leads into customers. Content plays a pivotal role in email marketing and other b2b sales and marketing activities too. Explore and leverage the power of content across all touch points to enhance the possibilities of lead conversion.

Content syndication is another technique that can help marketers immensely by widening their reach and enhancing the possibilities of more sales. Your content deserves the right audience. Let the purpose of content be served by creating maximum reach so that more and more people get to read your content and insights.

Create insightful content for better impact. Insights, statistics, latest facts and figures should be a part of your content for the b2b audience. The more you share and give; the better will be your chances at developing a loyal customer base and solid relationships.

Build go-to-market teams-

Build go-to-market teams for better results. In today’s changing market environment, b2b sales and marketing teams should be built on the basis of go-to-market strategies. Such teams should also be created across all functions of the organization. Teams should be equipped with the latest knowledge, trends, techniques and tools to have an edge over your competitors. Armed with best content assets; the sales and marketing teams should also be aligned and be on the same page for better results.

Conclusion-

New techniques will keep invading the b2b market. All one needs to do is to stay abreast with the latest in the market, invest time and efforts in understanding the buyer, the buyer’s journey and buyer’s inclinations and map their digital footprints. This will help marketers build solid buyer personas and then implement the new techniques with better results.

‘The best way to make them buy is to help them buy!’ As a B2B solution provider and problem-solver, one must be aware of the b2b buying journey and the various challenges faced by the customers in that buying journey. With so many changes happening in the market, the b2b buying journey has also become more complex and it’s exhausting for customers to navigate through the complex b2b market. Helping the customers navigate through their buying journey can help marketers accelerate sales. Let us find out how!

B2B sales have never been that simple and the evolving b2b customer and his demands have made it even more challenging. Add to it the digital revolution, use of technology and tools that are empowering customers to make their own choices even before sales people get to talk to him; b2b customer engagement is becoming a bigger challenge day by day. But think of the buying complexities from the customer’s perspective and probably easing those challenges could be the solution for increasing the revenue and sales for marketers.

Though they have more choices and all the means to take decisions by their own, they still need help from marketers to arrive at a decision that will add value and revenue to their business. This is where the help from b2b marketers becomes most valuable.

According to Gartner, almost 75% of buyers agree that purchasing has become more complex and difficult.

Typically any b2b buyer has to go through different stages of the buying process. Knowingly, unknowingly they are navigating these different stages. Customers have to first know the problem that needs to get addressed, followed by the stage of exploring options available to them in the market. The next step is to select the right vendor with whatever knowledge they have or can get online and then it is about validating the choice again based on their knowledge of the vendor before they can finally reach a buying decision.

Come to think of it, the b2b customer in most cases is all alone in taking some of the significant buying decisions that are going to impact his business. If b2b marketers help the customer in navigating these various stages of his buying journey it would ease the customer’s challenges and this would in turn ease the b2b marketer’s challenges of customer engagement…this surely would be a win-win situation.

Here are some pointers that show how b2b marketers can ease the challenges of the b2b customer’s buying journey 

• Know the customer well- You can only help him if you know what he is going through- in short, focus on the customer profile and know if you can really help him. Your solutions and his problems really need to align and only then can you be of some help to him. So in order to know that, conduct in-depth research on each buyer persona.
• Know his challenges– You can only offer that solution which is meant to solve their problems. Different customers have different challenges and they do not fully know how to navigate the buying journey. This is an opportunity for you to know if there is anything unique that you can offer in terms of solutions. If not then can you create customized solutions? Knowing their challenges can also help vendors determine whether their solution is in synch with the new struggles of customers in 2022.
• Be in front of your prospect– You must be present and be in front of your prospect. Because, by the time you reach him, he may have made his buying decision already. Generating demand and being in front of the customer with the right solution is one of the best ways to engage your customer.
• Create personalized communication– This is an important element of b2b buying and selling. Create personalized communication through email campaigns or through social media so it can ease the challenges of your customers who are searching for solutions.
• Content and insights– Buyer enablement is an important part of b2b success. It can help shorten the sales cycle and lead to quick customer engagement too. Marketers can achieve buyer enablement with the right content assets and information given to the customers at the right time. This can help customers take informed decisions and establish trust between the customer and the vendor.

Conclusion-

Buyer engagement is critical for successful lead generation. The best way to make them buy is to help them buy—if you follow this principle, may be it can reduce many of your b2b lead generation challenges and accelerate sales.

If you want to know how we have helped customers with incredible solutions, email us at  contact@intellitechsoln.com 

Most B2B marketers focus on getting more leads for enhancing sales. But for consistent business revenue and growth, one needs to focus on strategic marketing activities. Marketers should consider and adopt account based marketing as one of the main-stream b2b techniques that can also help build strong relationships with clients.

Leveraging ABM and its capabilities to its best can be done with the help of data. A data-backed ABM approach is essential if you expect high-value accounts to convert into business.

Here are some top techniques that marketers can adopt to make the most out of ABM.

Importance of Data

Without the right data ABM won’t yield you the desired results, in fact, without data you won’t be able to optimize any other b2b activity to its full potential. In fact, data should be your first priority! Having an actionable data-driven strategy and deriving the right insights from data that you have is the first step you must adopt as a strong foundation for your ABM initiatives.

Not relying on just the existing data; one must necessarily focus on intent data, third-party data to explore more possibilities and achieve more results than before. Intent-based ABM is needed to make sure you know how to make the most out of the high-value prospects and accounts and convert leads or accounts into business in less time. This will not only help you to shorten your sales cycle, but it will also help you to have a loyal customer base, long-term business acquisition and will most importantly lead to a more sustainable revenue generation business model.

Reliable intent data

For marketers who have understood the importance of data and how critical it is to have a data-driven marketing strategy, intent-based marketing is the immediate technique they must consider to get best results.

Not just any data, but intent data should be the main focus in ABM driven initiatives if you want quick and guaranteed conversions. Intent signals will help you to know your high value prospects well enough to be able to offer them the perfect content assets and customized solutions. You can create a robust ABM strategy with the help of insights from intent data that are more reliable and trustworthy. Get data that is aligned with your sales and marketing and ABM goals and thus create a more result-oriented plan with intent data.

Partner with experts

Not everyone can do ABM in-house, in fact, if you are looking at higher and quick sales and conversions its best to outsource ABM at any point of time. It will help you create more opportunities for higher revenue. Your ABM partner should be experienced in handling high value accounts with the best techniques. Any vendor who understands the value of data and uses intent data should be the right ABM partner for you.

Make sure you know their processes, what are their principles and motivation to drive high value accounts to conversion and how much do they understand the value of ABM in lead generation and demand generation. It would be best if the partner you choose also knows and helps his clients with lead generation, demand generation, email marketing etc. because all these activities are integrated when it comes to b2b business growth.

Conclusion

ABM accounts can create high revenue generation with the help of data, more specifically intent data, processes, content assets and a partner who is passionate about ABM and truly understands its value in b2b conversions and revenue generation.

Intellitech Solutions is an expert in ABM! We partner with Bombora, the leader in intent data that collects B2B intent, demographic and firmographic data at scale. For more details, email us at contact@intellitechsoln.com