Is Account Based Marketing Right For You?
The problem with traditional inbound marketing techniques is they may bring in traffic to your site, but only a small amount of it converts. The goal is to drive as much traffic as possible to the site with the hope that someone will buy something.
While this may be fine for the mom and pop store in a small town, B2B companies looking to score major enterprise level accounts want something more solid. Account-based marketing turns the customer funnel on its head and by doing so increases the opportunity for major client conversions.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
The traditional sales funnel starts with the largest number of people at the top and then shrinks as you target specific companies or demographics. The selection process is far down the funnel and wastes time.
Account-based marketing starts by identifying specific companies for digital marketing campaigns and then creates and strengthens relationships until they become clients. Once clients, the company continues the relationship, which leads to more opportunities.
If you’re looking for thousands of conversions in a short time, then inbound marketing is likely a better choice. If you want fewer conversions, but high-value conversions, then account-based marketing should be your choice.
It’s tailored to reduce your marketing team’s time sorting through leads and instead focus them on building relationships with specific accounts.
Focus on Accounts Not Industries
When you’re a B2B business seeking that big fish client, you don’t go after everyone in the industry. There could be companies of all sizes, but you need a major player. Account-based marketing starts by choosing the company and not going after a specific market or industry.
Once you select the companies, the marketing team researches who should be the best people to contact. The sales and marketing teams work together to determine how to best contact them and the message you want to send.
This could be email newsletters, in-person meetings, visiting events, ad targeting, and more. The key component is they are connected to specific accounts and not the general populous or industries.
Inbound and Account-Based Marketing Working Together
The goal of this article isn’t to say account-based marketing is better than inbound. They are two separate marketing strategies that can work together. In the beginning, we talked about the marketing funnel and how account-based marketing upends the funnel.
Instead of abandoning inbound, you can simply add it to your account based funnel. Your content is still bringing in leads, but you can sift through the leads faster you know what you’re looking for. Thanks to your research, you know the type of client you want and can pick them out of inbound marketing leads.
Competition is fierce in today’s B2B world and account-based marketing can help you overtake your competitors. While they’re sifting through leads, you’re signing contracts with major companies.
If you want to learn more about account-based marketing and if it’s right for your business, then please contact us or schedule a call.
