ABM or JGM (“Just Good Marketing”)

I have sat through numerous well-intentioned presentations from enthusiastic marketers sharing their account-based marketing case studies. While the stories are interesting and the results are compelling, some situations make it difficult for me to differentiate between ABM and JGM (“Just Good Marketing”).

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:

“We had inbound activity but a majority of that activity was from companies and people that didn’t convert or didn’t fit our customer profile. Only a small percent of inbound activity actually turned into marketing qualified leads. While our inbound programs are important we had to do more to generate interest at the right companies that would good candidates for our solutions.

Our new approach was to create a targeted account list and create and execute focused marketing programs and tactics at those accounts.”

While that is certainly a smart approach and commendable, being account-centric is not the same as implementing account-based marketing strategy.

What differentiates an account-based marketing strategy from an account-centric strategy is customer insight. Customer insight is the heavy research, mapping, and monitoring that is necessary to establish yourself as a trusted advisor and potential solution provider to an account.

Audience and customer-centricity are table stakes for an account-based marketing strategy. If you’re going to market by product, have sales teams that are segregated by product, and are having product marketing creating product-focused content about products – then you are not set up to pursue a true account-based marketing strategy.

… even if you’re only marketing to a defined set of target accounts.

… and using some light personalization.

Knowing the organizations who are a good fit for your product and marketing to them is JGM, not ABM! If you can assemble the criteria of a target market, then they can be yours to pursue, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. However, calling that activity “account-based marketing” is rendering the term meaningless.

I am proposing that instead of the generic term ABM, we go a step further to specify what type of ABM we’re practicing. This helps marketers share challenges, solutions, and case studies that reflect ABM environments more similar to one and other. ITSMA, Jon Miller, co-founder of Engagio, and others have used a 3-tier system that describes the vastly different types of account-based marketing. I recommend we adopt it as a community of B2B marketers.

Tiers of ABM

All great ABM is customer-focused, insight-led and tech enabled. The secret sauce of account-based marketing at any tier lies in the insight. ABM at any tier features coordinated, parallel efforts or plays between marketing and sales to understand their accounts and markets.

That said, the level of customization in your tactics, messaging, and content, along with total number of accounts and overall business health dictates what tier of ABM is best for your organization.

Nowadays it might be tempting to refer to all forms of good, common sense marketing as ABM, but that would be misrepresenting the discipline. In doing so – we do a disservice to JGM’ers and ABM’ers everywhere.

Which ABM approach makes sense for your organization?

In my last article, I introduced the most probable reasons for account-based marketing’s new popularity – despite the fact that the discipline has been around for over a decade!

For a concise, helpful refresher on how to marry the concept and execution of ABM, check out Engagio’s  Clear and Complete Guide to Account Based Marketing.”

If you’re thinking ABM might be right for your organization, at least in part – take a look at your go-to-market strategy to determine which ABM approach makes sense. Below are some decision criteria to help you decide:

Strategic Key Accounts

• Number of accounts: 1-100, with a marketer focused on 3-5 accounts.
• Focus: Sales and Marketing know each account individually. Research is conducted to understand each account and their key business challenges and needs.
• Value Proposition: Messaging is focused on the client, customized to the key business issues facing the account and tailored to the individual(s) trying to address the challenge. It is truly one-to-one marketing, in which you learn about the client through research to deliver what is important to the client.
• Offering: Packaged and marketed as tailored to your account’s particular need. It may be customized to meet the unique needs of the account.

ABM Lite

• Number of accounts: Up to 500, with marketers assigned a particular industry, vertical or sub-segment.
• Focus: Vertical or sub-industry effort. Industry knowledge.
• Value Proposition: Industry or vertical messaging using industry terminology with a deep understanding of the issues and challenges facing that industry.
• Offering: Applied with a vertical or sub-industry customization.

Segment

• Number of accounts: Up to 5,000.
• Focus: Broad-based marketing directed towards Mid-market or Enterprise segments. Strictly a technology enabled account targeting approach.
• Value Proposition: Segment messaging highlighting a Mid-market or Enterprise emphasis.
• Offering: Tailored to segment needs.

The key to success with any market approach is to understand your buyer and their buying process, and let that insight inform the strategy, process and technology. The fundamental design of your marketing has to be patterned on the buyer. This is where the type of ABM you choose comes in.

Ask yourself these questions:

1.  What are the issues facing the segment or industry or account/buyer?
2. How will your segment, industry or account/buyer address those challenges?
3. What are their strategies and initiatives for ensuring they are winners in their marketplace?
4. What information does your segment, industry or account/buyer need to determine what solutions can help with their challenges/initiatives?
5. What information does your segment, industry or account/buyer need to evaluate their options?
6. What information does your segment, industry or account/buyer need to address any concerns they have?
7. How will your segment, industry or account/buyer make a decision?

With the ABM technology available today, you can deliver information tailored to the issues buyers need addressed at each stage of their journey. For example, Engagio integrates with marketing automation platforms and offers deep engagement analytics that reveal levels of interaction at the account level – something that’s been difficult to see before now. Added visibility begets opportunity: to test, course-correct, and plan.

ABM is an idea whose time has come! Think about where it can fit in your go-to-market strategy, and see how it can make your company more successful in winning deals.

To learn more about account-based marketing check out the upcoming ABM online workshop “Engagio Thought Leadership Series: Featuring Insights from The Clear & Complete Guide to Account-based Marketing.”

Account-Based Marketing: An idea whose time has come

In the last 18 months, account-based marketing or ABM has become the hottest thing for B2B marketers.

I have been conducting ABM workshops for large technology companies and developing ABM marketing plans since 2007. At that point, ABM had a very clear definition, courtesy of ITSMA: “Treating individual accounts as a market in their own right,” or, more specifically, “A structured approach to developing and implementing highly customized marketing campaigns to markets of one, i.e., accounts, partners, or prospects.”

With technology available now to support a more account-focused approach, ABM has taken on different meanings depending on the context. ABM can now be divided into three categories:

Understanding the different types of ABM allows you to determine the approach that’s best for your company. For example, do you focus on:

• Volume/segments (i.e. SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise, Federal, State/Local, etc.)
• Vertical/industry (financial services, healthcare or even sub-segments such as hospitals, home health care, or pharmacies)
• Key accounts (must-win strategic companies)

No matter which approach you choose, the underlying principles don’t change—what changes is the level of specificity.

The key to success with any market approach is to understand your buyer and their buying process, and let that insight inform the strategy, process and technology. The fundamental design of your marketing has to be patterned on the buyer. This is where the type of ABM you choose comes in:

• What are the issues facing the segment or industry or account/buyer?
• How will your segment, industry or account/buyer address those challenges? What are their strategies and initiatives for ensuring they are winners in their marketplace?
• What information does your segment, industry or account/buyer need to determine what solutions can help with their challenges/initiatives?
• What information does your segment, industry or account/buyer need to evaluate their options?
• What information does your segment, industry or account/buyer need to address any concerns they have?
• How will your segment, industry or account/buyer make a decision?

Will the information you gather be at the segment level, industry level or account level? With the ABM technology available today, you can deliver information tailored to the questions buyers need answered at each stage of the buyer’s journey. However, addressing those questions at a segment, industry or individual account level can involve varying degrees of effort—from general market understanding to vertical expertise to in-depth research on individual accounts. Your company, go-to-market, product and solution price point will determine which method is best for you.

ABM is an idea whose time has come. Think about where it can fit in your go-to-market strategy and how it can make your company more successful in winning deals. Because at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

To learn more about account-based marketing check out “The Clear and Complete Guide to Account Based Marketing”. It not only defines ABM clearly but also shows how to implement ABM efficiently and effectively. If long-cycle deals are critical to your company’s success, you couldn’t ask for a better roadmap.”

http://www.engagio.com/clear-and-complete-guide-to-account-based-marketing/?partner=Inverta