It is no secret that the adoption of account-based marketing (ABM) programs are becoming more of a priority for B2B marketers.
As detailed earlier this year, #FlipMyFunnel discovered that over the past 12 months, the percentage of B2B marketers who say they use ABM has increased from 49 percent to 81 percent.
And in early 2016, the “2016 ABM Metrics Report” revealed that 80 percent of respondents indicated their success with ABM was either moderately or highly successful, and none plan on scaling back efforts.
But here is the key question:
What strategies and tactics are helping B2B marketers achieve their most important objectives for ABM?
In an effort to answer this question and others, I’m excited to announce findings from our latest research, developed in coordination with Ascend2: Account-Based Marketing for B2B Marketers: Strategies and Tactics for Achieving Objectives.
We asked B2B marketers what their most important objectives and tactics of account-based marketing strategy were, as well as critical challenges faced.
We also wanted their opinion on the effectiveness of tactics used in their account-based marketing plan of action.
Important Takeaways for B2B Marketers
It is no surprise that a 62 percent majority of B2B marketers indicated that growing revenue generated from existing accounts is a top priority for account-based marketing. There was a significant gap between this and the second highest priority, unifying marketing and sales teams (50 percent).
Don’t be misled by the fact that 42 percent saw increasing the number of new accounts as important. This objective refers to converting existing prospects to customers and not the process of acquiring completely new leads.
B2B ABM Tactical Effectiveness Versus Effort
While we are encouraged by the fact that personalized content and messaging was identified as the most effective tactic used for account-based marketing, it also requires the most effort to perform.
Arguably, a greater investment in developing target account segments and content delivery channels, which both ranked towards the bottom of our survey, could lead to greater effectiveness in top tactics like personalized content.
Why would this be the case?
Tactics like the development of account segments and better content delivery channels rarely leads to immediate results. This is because they are largely dependent on the actions taken from the information and quality of content development.
What is most important is that these tactics provide better opportunities to learn about target B2B buyers, which can be translated into more impactful (and personalized) communication and content development.
Final Thoughts
There is still much to learn about how B2B marketers effectively adopt account-based marketing programs. That said, we’re encouraged by the fact that the keys to success appear to be aligned with building a better experience and relationship with the B2B buyer.
The full report, including additional analysis, marketing charts, and methodology can be downloaded here, with brief form submission.
A special thanks goes out to the team at Cre8d for their assistance with the report, including chart layouts and design.
