Introduction

If you're looking to improve your marketing and sales efforts, you may have heard of account-based marketing (ABM) and inbound marketing. Both strategies can be highly effective, but they operate differently and may seem incompatible at first glance. However, by integrating the two approaches, you can achieve even better results.

Understand ABM and Inbound Marketing Principles

Before we delve into how ABM and inbound marketing can work together, it's important to understand their basic principles.

• Account-based marketing (ABM): ABM is a highly targeted approach that focuses on individual accounts or customers. Rather than trying to appeal to a broad audience, ABM targets a select group of high-value accounts and tailors marketing and sales efforts specifically for them.


• Inbound marketing: In contrast to ABM, inbound marketing targets a broader audience by creating valuable content that draws customers in. By creating content that addresses customers' pain points and interests, businesses can attract prospects and build trust over time.

How ABM and Inbound Marketing Can Work Together

While ABM and inbound marketing may seem at odds with each other, they can be combined to create a more effective marketing strategy. Here are a few ways that the two approaches can work together:

• Use inbound marketing to attract and engage key accounts: By creating content that appeals to the interests of your high-value accounts, you can attract them to your brand and build trust over time.


• Use ABM to tailor content and messaging to individual accounts: Once you've attracted your key accounts, use ABM to create personalized content and messaging that speaks directly to their unique needs and pain points.


• Use inbound marketing to nurture leads: Even if a lead isn't initially considered a high-value account, you can use inbound marketing to nurture them over time and eventually convert them into a high-value account.


• Use ABM to close deals and retain customers: Once you've attracted and nurtured your key accounts, use ABM to close deals and retain those customers over the long term by continuing to provide personalized content and support.

By combining ABM and inbound marketing, you can create a powerful marketing strategy that targets the right accounts and builds relationships over time. ExactBuyer can help you implement this strategy by providing real-time contact and company data, audience intelligence solutions, and AI-powered search capabilities. Contact us to learn more.

Tip 1: Define Your Ideal Customer Profile

Defining your ideal customer profile is crucial to the success of your account-based marketing strategy. By identifying the target audience you want to reach, you can develop a personalized messaging strategy that speaks directly to their pain points and needs. Here's a step-by-step outline for defining your ideal customer profile:

Step 1: Evaluate Your Existing Customer Base

• Identify your top-performing accounts and analyze their common characteristics


• Look for trends in industry, company size, purchase history, and pain points

Step 2: Conduct Market Research

• Research industry trends and changes that may impact your target audience


• Identify your competitors and analyze their target audience and messaging strategy


• Use data and analytics to gather insights on your target audience's behavior

Step 3: Develop a Persona

Use the insights gathered in steps 1 and 2 to develop a persona that represents your ideal customer. This persona should include:

• Demographic information


• Job title and responsibilities


• Challenges and pain points


• Motivations and goals


• Where they go for information and what messaging resonates with them

By following these steps, you can develop a comprehensive understanding of your ideal customer profile and tailor your account-based marketing strategy to their specific needs.

Tip 2: Align Sales and Marketing Goals

In order to successfully integrate account-based marketing with your inbound marketing program, it's crucial to ensure that your sales and marketing teams are aligned towards the same goals and are working together effectively.

Here's an outline of how to align your sales and marketing teams:

1. Establish common goals

• Hold a discussion with both teams and establish common goals that both departments agree to work towards.


• Ensure that these goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

2. Define buyer personas

• Work together to create detailed buyer personas that will help guide your marketing and sales strategies.


• Develop a shared understanding of your target customers and their pain points.

3. Develop a shared content strategy

• Create a content strategy that aligns with your buyer personas and goals.


• Ensure that both teams are involved in the planning and execution of the strategy.


• Identify the types of content that will be most effective in reaching your target audience, such as blog posts, whitepapers, or case studies.

4. Establish clear communication channels

• Establish regular meetings between the sales and marketing teams to discuss progress and identify areas for improvement.


• Use a CRM system to share information about leads and customers between the two teams.


• Create a shared dashboard that displays relevant metrics and performance indicators.

By aligning your sales and marketing teams towards common goals and developing a shared strategy, you can successfully integrate account-based marketing with your inbound marketing program and drive better results for your business.

Tip 3: Develop a Targeted Content Strategy

To effectively integrate account-based marketing with your inbound marketing program, developing a targeted content strategy is crucial. Without relevant and engaging content, your ABM efforts will fall flat. Here's how you can develop a content strategy that resonates with your target accounts and profiles:

Deliver an Engaging Content Experience

Your content should be presented in a visually appealing and easy-to-navigate way. Use images, videos, and infographics to make your content more engaging. Ensure that your content is mobile-friendly and that your website loads quickly to provide a seamless user experience.

Personalize for Your Target Accounts and Profiles

Your content should be personalized to the specific needs and pain points of your target accounts and profiles. This can be done through targeted messaging, industry-specific content, and case studies or success stories that showcase how you've helped similar companies overcome similar challenges.

• Segment your target accounts and profiles


• Create content that speaks directly to each segment


• Use personalization tokens and dynamic content to tailor your messaging

Effective content is key to successful ABM. By following these tips, you can develop a targeted content strategy that engages and resonates with your target accounts and profiles.

If you need help creating targeted content for your ABM efforts, ExactBuyer provides real-time contact & company data & audience intelligence solutions that can help you build more targeted audiences. Try out our AI-powered search and contact us today to learn more.

Tip 4: Use Dynamic Website Personalization

If you want to provide a unique and personalized experience for each visitor to your website, then dynamic website personalization is the way to go. With the help of this technique, you can tailor your website content, messaging, and calls-to-action to meet the specific needs and interests of your visitors.

How to Create a Personalized Experience?

To create a personalized experience for each of your website visitors, you need to collect data about their interests, behavior, and demographic information. This data can be collected through various sources like web analytics tools, social media platforms, and customer relationship management software. Once you have collected the necessary data, you can use website personalization software to create dynamic content and messaging that changes according to your visitors' preferences.

Here are some tips to get you started with dynamic website personalization:

• Segment your audience: Divide your visitors into different groups based on their interests, behavior, and demographics.


• Create targeted content: Develop customized messaging and content for each segment of your audience.


• Personalize calls-to-action: Use personalized calls-to-action to encourage specific actions from your different segments of visitors.


• Track performance: Use analytics tools to measure the impact of your personalized content and calls-to-action.

By using dynamic website personalization, you can provide your visitors with a tailored experience that is more engaging and relevant to their needs. This can help increase conversions, customer satisfaction, and loyalty.

Tip 5: Leverage Retargeting Ads

Retargeting ads are a powerful tool for keeping your brand top-of-mind and attracting qualified leads. By targeting people who have already interacted with your website or content, you can increase the chances of conversion by engaging with them again and presenting relevant content or offers.

How Retargeting Works

Retargeting works by placing a piece of code, known as a pixel, on your website that tracks visitors and enables you to serve them ads on other platforms, such as social media sites or Google Display Network. This ensures that your brand stays in front of potential customers, even when they're browsing elsewhere online.

Benefits of Retargeting

• Keeps your brand top-of-mind


• Increases brand awareness


• Drives more traffic to your website


• Engages qualified leads


• Increases conversion rates

Best Practices for Retargeting Ads

• Use eye-catching visuals and messaging


• Clearly present the value proposition of your product or service


• Segment your retargeting audiences based on their behavior and level of engagement


• Avoid overexposure by limiting the frequency of retargeting ads


• Use A/B testing to optimize ad performance

By leveraging retargeting ads, you can stay front and center with your target audience, increase brand awareness, drive more traffic, and ultimately boost conversions.

Tip 6: Implement Social Selling

In order to succeed in the modern market, businesses need to leverage social media to create personalized interactions with both prospects and customers. Social selling is a strategy that can help in establishing these relationships and building a strong personal brand.

What is Social Selling?

Social selling is the art of using social media to find potential customers, educate them, engage with them, and then convert them into actual customers. It is a multi-step process that requires a strategic approach to build relationships with prospects over time.

Why is Social Selling Important?

• Helps in establishing a strong personal brand


• Allows businesses to stay top-of-mind with their prospects and customers


• Facilitates building long-lasting relationships with customers


• Helps in generating leads and increasing revenue

How to Implement Social Selling?

Here are some steps to follow when implementing social selling:

1. Identify the right social media platforms to use


2. Create a social media content plan that addresses the questions and concerns of your target audience


3. Engage with your prospects and customers by commenting on their posts and sharing relevant content


4. Use social media listening tools to monitor relevant conversations and identify opportunities to engage with potential customers


5. Personalize your approach by tailoring your messages based on the individual's interests and needs


6. Measure your success by tracking key metrics like engagement, reach, and conversion rates

By following these steps, businesses can create a social selling strategy that helps in driving revenue and building long-lasting relationships with customers.

Tip 7: Use Intent Data to Identify Buying Signals

When it comes to account-based marketing, identifying buying signals is crucial for success. With intent data, you can track buyer behavior and gauge their readiness to purchase. Here's how:

Track website behavior

By monitoring website behavior, such as page visits and time spent on certain pages, you can get a sense of which accounts are actively researching your products or services. This information can be used to prioritize your outreach efforts and tailor your messaging to their specific needs.

Monitor content engagement

Content engagement is another useful way to identify buying signals. By keeping track of which accounts are opening and engaging with your content, you can get a better sense of their interests and pain points.

Use predictive analytics

Predictive analytics allows you to analyze historical data to identify patterns and anticipate future behavior. By combining intent data with predictive analytics, you can more accurately predict which accounts are most likely to convert and tailor your outreach efforts accordingly.

Overall, intent data is a powerful tool for identifying buying signals and optimizing your account-based marketing program. By leveraging this data, you can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your outreach efforts and drive more conversions.

Tip 8: Measure and Optimize Results

One of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy is tracking progress over time. This allows you to see what's working and what's not, so you can adjust your strategy as needed.

Use Analytics and Measurement Tools

To track progress effectively, it's essential to use analytics and other measurement tools. This can include tools like Google Analytics, which lets you track website traffic, as well as tools for tracking social media engagement, email open rates, and more.

By using these tools regularly and keeping a close eye on your metrics, you can gain valuable insights into how your marketing efforts are performing. This allows you to identify any areas that need improvement and make adjustments accordingly.

Adjust Your Strategy as Needed

Once you have a solid understanding of how your marketing efforts are performing, it's important to be willing to adjust your strategy as needed. This might mean tweaking your messaging, changing your targeting parameters or adjusting your budget to better align with your goals.

• Regularly review your metrics to identify trends and anomalies


• Test different strategies and messaging to see what resonates with your audience


• Make adjustments based on your findings to maximize your results

Overall, the key to success in any marketing program is a willingness to measure and optimize your efforts over time. By using analytics and other measurement tools and being willing to adjust your approach as needed, you can maximize the impact of your marketing efforts and achieve greater success in the long run.

Tip 9: Align Your ABM and Inbound Marketing Metrics

Successful integration of account-based marketing (ABM) and inbound marketing requires alignment of goals and strategies. This includes selecting and tracking metrics that help measure and evaluate both ABM and inbound marketing efforts effectively.

Ensure Metrics Alignment

When selecting metrics, ensure they align with both ABM and inbound marketing objectives. This helps measure the success of integrated campaigns and get the most out of your efforts.

• Identify metrics that indicate progress towards ABM goals, such as the number of targeted accounts engaged, the rate of engagement with accounts, and the velocity of target accounts through the sales pipeline.


• Select metrics that align with inbound marketing objectives, especially awareness, interest, and engagement. These could be the number of website visitors, the level of engagement with content or campaigns, and the number of leads generated.


• Ensure that the metrics you select are clear and specific, so that they can be easily measured and compared across campaigns.


• Regularly track and evaluate metrics, analyze results, and make any necessary adjustments to improve the integration and alignment of ABM and inbound marketing.

By aligning metrics, you’ll be able to accurately measure your integrated ABM and inbound marketing campaigns’ performance, optimize your strategies, and ultimately achieve better results.

Conclusion

In conclusion, integrating account-based marketing with your inbound marketing program can have a significant impact on your business growth. By aligning your sales and marketing efforts, you can create a more targeted approach to reaching your ideal customers and closing more deals. Here are some key takeaways to help you get started with your own ABM campaign:

• Define your ideal customer: Take the time to identify your target accounts and their specific needs and pain points.


• Create personalized content: Develop content that speaks directly to your target accounts and addresses their specific challenges.


• Align your sales and marketing teams: Ensure your teams are working together to achieve your goals and are on the same page when it comes to messaging and targeting.


• Use technology to scale: Leverage technology like ExactBuyer's AI-powered search and real-time data to identify and target the right accounts at the right time.


• Measure and iterate: Continuously measure the success of your campaigns and make adjustments to improve ROI and drive business growth.

By following these tips and leveraging the power of ABM and inbound marketing, you can unlock new growth opportunities and drive lasting success for your business.

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