Account-Based Marketing For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 4 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 5 Part 1: Getting Started with Account-based Marketing 7 Chapter 1: Introducing the Basics of Account-Based Marketing 9 Defining Account-Based Marketing 10 Pouring leads into the funnel 10 Moving away from lead-based marketing 12 Flipping the Funnel 14 Identifying your best-fit contacts 15 Expanding contacts into accounts 16 Engaging accounts on their terms 16 Creating customer advocates 17 Chapter 2: Making the Case for Account-Based Marketing 19 Understanding Why B2B Companies Need Account-Based Marketing 20 Measuring leads is no longer enough 22 Maximizing your marketing efforts 22 Starting the Conversation about ABM 23 Investing your resources the right way 23 Supporting sales productivity 23 Influencing customer sentiment 26 Driving More Revenue from Account-Based Marketing 28 Generating qualified opportunities 29 Closing more new business 29 Preventing customer churn 30 Chapter 3: Aligning Sales and Marketing 31 Setting the Right Marketing Goals 32 Changing the B2B game 33 Creating a message that works for sales 35 Driving Revenue through Teamwork 36 Selling the dream 37 Building your “A” team 38 Renewing the Vows between Marketing and Sales 40 Connecting to marketing 41 Talking to your sales team 41 Setting realistic expectations 42 Playing to your strengths 44 Chapter 4: Selecting Tools 45 Understanding Marketing Technology 46 Determining your MarTech needs 46 Assessing your resources 48 Building a MarTech Stack 48 Defining your digital presence 54 Setting Up Your Platforms 54 Integrating your software 54 Managing ABM tools 56 Tying everything back to an account 57 Types of Marketing Activities 58 Advertising 58 Social 59 Events 59 Direct mail 60 Content 61 Webinars 63 Email 64 Calls 66 Part 2: Identifying Accounts for Marketing 67 Chapter 5: Targeting Your Best-Fit Accounts 69 Focusing on the Right Market 70 Specifying the industry 70 Sizing the company 71 Segmenting by industry and company size 71 Creating an Ideal Customer Profile 72 Determining your ICP 73 Crafting personas 74 Understanding personas’ motivations 75 Making a Value Proposition 76 Differentiating value based on roles 76 Tailoring your message 76 Remembering everyone is different 76 Building Your List of Target Accounts 77 Starting with a tiered list of companies 77 Applying your ICP to the company list 78 Laser-focusing on best-fit 80 Prospecting within accounts 80 Chapter 6: Fueling the Account-Based Marketing Engine 81 Managing Your Existing CRM Data 82 Leveraging your customer data 82 Comparing customers with your ICP 84 Figuring out what you can use 84 Obtaining New Data on Target Accounts 84 Gathering the right data 85 Acquiring correct company information 85 Finding the right people in those companies 87 Utilizing predictive analytics 89 Creating New Accounts 91 Completing a full profile 92 Avoiding duplicate accounts 92 Assigning new accounts to owners 94 Protecting Data Quality 95 Profiling your data records 96 Determining whether your data is bad 97 Updating account information 98 Chapter 7: Qualifying Your Target Accounts 99 Gauging Interest 100 Comparing inbound and outbound activities 100 Discovering BANT 100 Asking the right qualification questions 101 Intending to buy 103 Converting Accounts to Opportunities 104 Nurturing or converting 104 Monitoring activities for buying signals 104 Triggering at the right time 105 Communicating with your accounts 106 Qualifying a Revenue Opportunity 106 Examining the account’s journey 107 Agreeing on sales-ready opportunities 108 Building a full view of an account 109 Finding multiple opportunities within one account 109 Part 3: Expanding Contacts Into Accounts 111 Chapter 8: Reaching the Right People in Target Accounts 113 Preparing Your Account-Specific Plan 114 Finding the right stakeholders 114 Enabling your champion 117 Pointing out potential detractors 118 Discovering your power sponsor 118 Using Tools for Expansion 119 Selecting the right software 119 Avoiding manual data entry 121 Continuing to expand accounts 121 Adding Contacts to an Account 121 Appending more contact data to accounts 122 Writing out your organizational chart 122 Working with new contacts during the sales process 123 Identifying buying centers 123 Chapter 9: Using Marketing Automation for Your Account Strategy 125 Strategizing Your Expansion Tactics 126 Nurturing for inbound vs outbound 126 Monitoring marketing activities 130 Filtering for the right contacts 131 Advancing from initial touch to account nurture 134 Learning the Fundamentals of Scoring and Grading 135 Scoring based on activities 135 Combining scores for a single account 137 Grading based on best fit 137 Flowing Data Back into Your CRM 138 Integrating your platforms 139 Assigning tasks and follow-up 139 Determining the next steps 140 Chapter 10: Distilling the Key Roles of “Smarketing ” 141 Making Sales Your Marketing Team’s Number 1 Customer 142 Reestablishing marketing’s mission 142 Finding urgency among your accounts 143 Providing air cover throughout the sales process 144 Benefitting from “Smarketing” Alignment 146 Going for your goals together 146 Targeting accounts across all stages 148 Lining up your pipeline 150 Banking on Your Strengths 150 Creating a sustainable process 151 Serving and selling 153 Greasing the wheel to revenue 153 Part 4: Engaging Accounts on Their Terms 155 Chapter 11: Generating Velocity for Sales 157 Accelerating Your Pipeline from Click to Close 158 Launching a pipeline acceleration campaign 158 Executing with your sales team 160 Focusing on the right deals 161 Advancing Opportunities to Closed-Won Deals 163 Nurturing throughout the buying process 164 Selling value, not product features 164 Converting opportunities 165 Growing Revenue Using ABM 166 Creating clear metrics 167 Linking your ABM strategy to revenue 167 Turning opportunities into deals: a case study 168 Chapter 12: Personalizing the Buyer’s Channel 171 Mobilizing Your Message 172 Working outside of business hours 172 Networking in-person and online 174 Ensuring your message resonates 176 Advertising on the Right Platforms 177 Building your advertising campaigns 178 Pushing the envelope 181 Changing your message at every stage 183 Automating stage-based advertising for every opportunity 185 Launching form-free 186 Engaging on Social Media 187 Connecting with your contacts 187 Following accounts 189 Sponsoring posts 190 Chapter 13: Developing Content for Campaigns 191 Creating a Content Library 192 Storytelling and its importance 197 Taking an ABM lens to your content 199 Producing content by industry vertical 200 Basing content on personas 201 Humanizing Content 204 Demonstrating thought leadership 205 Addressing wants, needs, and pain points 206 Personalizing your message 207 Developing a brand identity 207 Reaching Through Technology 209 Employing a content strategy 209 Delivering content on the right channel 212 Cross-promoting your content 212 Measuring your content’s effectiveness 213 Chapter 14: Executing ABM: A Playbook 215 Centering a Strategy 216 Listing your accounts 218 Progressing accounts to the next stage 219 Planning your tactics and activities 221 Coordinating Your Efforts 231 Strategizing your content 231 Launching advertising campaigns 232 Assigning “smarketing” tasks 233 Ranking Your “Smarketing” Success 235 Winning with new revenue 235 Learning from mistakes and opportunities 236 Brainstorming new ideas 236 Part 5: Turning Customers Into Advocates 237 Chapter 15: Elevating the Buyer to Customer Journey 239 Prospecting to Contacts 240 Furthering opportunities through the pipeline 241 Closing the deal 241 Establishing a Customer Journey 242 Adopting your technology 242 Engaging end-users 244 Continuing education 245 Selling to Existing Customers 245 Landing and expanding accounts 246 Cross-selling in the account 247 Upselling new or upgraded products 248 Chapter 16: Valuing Customer Advocacy 249 The Rising Influence of the Customer Voice 250 Providing customer joy 250 Surprising your clients 251 Establishing relationships 252 Making Your Customers Your Marketers 254 Getting your customers talking 254 Interviewing your customers 257 Driving referrals and references 259 Reaching new contacts 261 Event marketing with your clients 261 Building buzz 262 Engineering Product Development 263 Reviewing your existing product 263 Asking for input on your product roadmap 264 Factoring in feedback 265 Chapter 17: Aligning Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success 267 Nurturing Never Stops 268 Advertising to your customers 268 Advocating for your users 269 Promoting customer content 270 Collaborating with Customer Success 272 Thinking of customers as prospects 272 Producing effective customer case studies 274 Sharing best practices 276 Planning Your User Conference 276 Picking the right venue 277 Treating your clients like VIPs 277 Programming the best content 279 Partnering with sponsors 279 Announcing new product developments 282 Part 6: Putting It All Together 283 Chapter 18: Measuring the Success of Campaigns 285 Setting Key Performance Indicators 286 Attributing metrics at the account level 287 Comparing cost per click 291 Showing impressions 292 Expanding your audience 293 Engaging accounts 294 Testing Your Campaigns 295 A/B creative testing 295 Trying new content 296 Combining your offers 297 Knowing You Aren’t Wasting Money 297 Budgeting the right amounts 298 Attributing advertising spend to revenue 298 Showing engagement in the buyer journey 299 Chapter 19: Tracking Metrics for Every Account 301 Ongoing Account Maintenance 302 Delivering reports and results 302 Creating a review process 304 Executing on tasks 305 Gauging Potential Opportunities 306 Limiting the margin for error 306 Anticipating future needs 307 Building an engagement report 307 Providing Value Add 308 Living up to expectations 308 Continuing to improve 309 Part 7: The Part of Tens 311 Chapter 20: Ten Reasons B2B Companies Need Account-Based Marketing 313 Doing the Math 314 Needing a Strategy 314 Focusing on Sales Productivity 315 Utilizing Your Technology Stack 315 Prioritizing Tech Investments 315 Building New Skills 316 Leveraging Customer Experience 317 Treating Clients Differently 317 Developing ABM Relationships 318 Measuring More Than Leads 318 Chapter 21: Ten Obstacles Facing Account-Based Marketing 319 Measuring Leads as Success 320 Blasting Emails Too Quickly 320 Expecting to Engage Every Time 320 Relying on Marketing to Do It All 321 Sending All Leads to Sales 321 Asking for More Leads 322 Not Paying Attention to Customer Retention 323 Forgetting About Your Customer Advocates 323 Selling Instead of Serving 323 Changing the C-Suite’s Assumptions 324 Chapter 22: Ten Account-Based Marketing Blogs to Read 325 MarketingProfs 325 ClickZ 326 Funnelholic 326 Business2Community 327 CustomerThink 327 MediaPost 327 Heinz Marketing 328 Chief MarTec 328 MarketingLand 329 MarTech Advisor 329 Chapter 23: Ten ABM Thought Leaders to Follow 331 Jill Rowley 331 David Raab 332 Craig Rosenberg 332 Jon Miller 333 Chris Engman 333 Ann Handley 333 Matt Heinz 334 Megan Heuer 334 Scott Brinker 335 Jim Williams 335 Index 337