In their 2017 benchmarking survey, ITSMA found that, “87% of marketers implementing ABM say that it provides higher ROI than any other type of marketing. Similarly, strong majorities say that ABM drives improvement in the “Three R’s” of strategic marketing: Reputation, Relationships, and Revenue.” This is because of the power of personalisation.
Account Based Marketing (ABM) focuses upon targeting very specific accounts and organisations with content that is relevant to their individual perspectives. Every account should be treated as its own entity with the content they see reflecting this.
A successful ABM approach complements the work of your consultants and sales team by approaching clients in the same way, with personalised messaging and an understanding of their requirements.
Although that sounds challenging it can be done quickly and easily through predictive targeting technologies that now exist, so your firm can provide personalised marketing without a labour-intensive process.
Below are some of the reasons why we feel it’s so important for professional services firms;
Better conversion rates
An Experian email marketing study showed that personalised emails deliver 6x higher conversion rates yet many firms still don’t capitalise on this. ABM can take this a step further by customising your offering and the touchpoints where you interact with your buyers.
Being able to cater to a buyer’s specific point of interest will mean that your conversion rates will increase significantly. This differentiates you from the crowd and allows you to sell your services in a way that can’t easily be replicated by another consultancy.
Save time qualifying leads
One of the most arduous parts of the sales process is qualifying and prospecting leads and opportunities. Without this, your sales team can be much more effective in their roles by approaching leads which are ready to convert.
Due to the amount of research that goes into ABM to identify a key account, the qualifying process has already been done. These leads have been hand-picked to fit your buyer personas making them valuable leads.
More efficient use of resources
The reason ABM is so effective is because it pulls both your marketing and your sales departments together. Having a clearly defined direction for your marketing and sales can save you money compared to the wide spread approach that so many firms take.
By aligning marketing and sales together not only do you help to build stronger communication channels between departments, but you also create content that is better focused to your key accounts. This process will maximise the efficiency of those tight marketing budgets.
ABM is an area where professional services firms can save both time and money while more actively engaging the target demographic. If you would like to learn more about ABM and how you can introduce it into your marketing approach please give us a ring.