Account Based Marketing is not new and has been around for quite some time. As per a study by Sirius Decisions, 92% of B2B marketers say that Account Based Marketing is extremely important for their marketing initiatives. 

Before we jump into the question of finding the right tools for ABM strategy, let’s check whether Account Based Marketing is right for your organization.

Things to keep in mind before you begin Account Based Marketing

Tip 1: Is ABM right for your organization?

While organizations come in different shapes and sizes, it is important to find whether ABM is the right strategy for your business model. Here's a quick checklist before you jump on the ABM bandwagon:

• You have a clear and defined buyer persona
• Your prospects are well-known
• You have the complete targeting data 
• Your sales and marketing teams are closely knit  
• Your organization is keen to penetrate and expand services/products to existing customers 
• You have an array of services/products to upsell and cross-sell

If you tick most of the above boxes, then ABM should be a part of your marketing strategy. Also, read 5 ABM trends that you should implement in 2020.

Tip 2: How to Choose the Right ABM Tool?

If you are a marketer, and looking out to purchase a tool that crafts ABM campaigns, then there is no shortage of tools to choose from. The software you select for ABM programs must cater to the complete lifecycle starting from conceptualizing a strategy, identifying target accounts, distributing personalized content across channels and measuring the effectiveness of campaigns. 

So if you want to execute ABM programs at scale, you need to have a comprehensive and robust tool at your disposal.

The key features that should be in your evaluation criteria are as below

Account Identification and Targeting

ABM tool should help you choose various accounts based on firmographics (annual revenue, company size), intent (digital activity), and internet data (content and web engagement)

CRM and MarTech Integration

ABM tool should support seamless integration with your current CRM such as Salesforce and marketing automation platforms such as Marketo, and HubSpot among others. 

The tool should possess the capability to leverage historical data present in the existing CRM, marketing automation systems

Lead Management and Campaign Automation

Mapping new leads with current accounts in addition to enabling the execution of cross-channel campaigns across mail, ad platforms (Google, Bing, Twitter) and native networks (Taboola, Outbrain)

Analytics and Reporting

It is important to measure and analyze the various ABM activities and the impact ABM is having on the sales pipeline. Marketers should consider tools that give full-funnel analytics that spans the entire customer lifecycle.

Training and Customer Support

Another key question you should pose to ABM solution providers is the support they offer to customers and the training that is required to realize the complete potential of the tool. Offering training programs for both sales and marketing teams will be at the core of the tool adoption

Trust these two tips will keep you in good stead when you get started with Account Based Marketing. 

In our next part of the ABM blog series, we will bring to you a detailed analysis of various tools that can be used for ABM implementation and success stories of companies that shifted from lead-based strategy to ABM strategy.