Amy Kenigsberg, COO & Co-founder, talks about how K2 can up your ABM game
Ask any marketer - account-based marketing, which targets and engages specific accounts with personalized campaigns, is a powerful and profitable strategy.
Q: Amy, why the big shift to account-based marketing?
A: Most marketers have seen a positive impact since adopting ABM, with significant improvement in win rates and customer lifetime values.
At the same time, ABM faces challenges. A good number of companies do not have dedicated ABM leadership, resulting in missed objectives, which translates to money left on the table. A major hurdle is getting these two teams on the same page. Other common problems are having the resources to produce highly customized content and coordinating programs across marketing and sales, both of which are very time consuming.
Q: ABM may be much talked about, but it’s under-implemented. Why do you think that is?
A: Well, it’s easy to say, “Let’s adopt ABM,” but it’s not so easy to implement it. The steps involved in putting an ABM program in place present their own challenges, and, as I mentioned, it is extremely time consuming.
Aligning sales and marketing is, of course, job one, and you should definitely not assume they’re on the same page. Team building is critical. Everyone needs to be on board for it to succeed.
Once you have buy-in from everyone involved, you’ll need processes to help you identify the right-fit accounts. Once you’ve pinpointed your key accounts, you’ve got to personalize communications. How do you produce content, or create a website that engages the key individuals within your target account? How do you connect with the person making the buying decisions? What do you do when a prospect likes your content but will not speak to sales?
Q: What special capabilities are needed to make ABM happen?
A: It requires leadership and collaboration among the key players as well as focused strategies and tactics:
- Deep understanding of the target account
- Rigorous data tracking to assess opportunities and measure efforts
- Developing personalized value propositions
- Creating tailored content
- Implementing ABM-focused marketing technologies
Q: What are the advantages of outsourcing an ABM program?
A: Identifying key accounts and developing personalized campaigns demands a big investment, and you’ll want this to give you a better than average payoff.
If you’re not 100 percent confident in implementing ABM in-house, it’s best to bring in skilled consultants who can work with your team to fill in skills gaps or outsource it to a third party with specific ABM knowledge and expertise who can manage your ABM project.
Q: What does K2 bring to the table?
A: K2’s approach is to always synch communications to your business goals. With niche-focused, multichannel strategies, we deliver targeted, clear, and persistent communications that appeal to your key account prospects. With our decade and a half of experience working with B2B clients, we know first-hand what works for whom and why - and what doesn’t – allowing us to identify the gaps in a company’s approach and help guide them.
If you’re ready to adopt ABM to capture accounts and boost revenues, contact K2 Global Communications.
