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5 ABM Myths to Bust for B2Bs with Limited Resources

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Paroma, aptly nicked ‘Alice in Wordland’ by her peers for her enthusiasm to explore the world of words, crafts compelling features around the fast-growing marketing technology space. As General Assignments Editor, she focuses on the vision of the key players in this industry even while highlighting the interesting side stories around martech companies. With over a decade of dabbling with various forms of writing and working closely with award-winning advertising agencies to launch premium brands in the Travel, Luxury and Real Estate space, she’s now keen to explore all the technology that helps put all this CX interface into place. A music and dance aficionado, Mademoiselle Paroma is as conversant with French as she is with numbers thanks to her five-year stint as an investment banker. She counts ‘Gone with the Wind’ as her fave rainy-day-cuppa-coffee read and ‘Into the Wild’ as the movie she can cozy up on her couch with.

Share your insights into martech happenings with Paroma on paroma.sen@martechadvisor.com

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What do B2Bs want most? Rather, what is it that they need? 
More revenue, more sales, greater ROI!

So, does Account-based Marketing which is in fact picking up pace in the modern marketing sphere help them gainfully achieve their end-objectives? 
 

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Welcome to the 2019 edition of CDP Buyers’ Guide. As customer data platforms are becoming increasingly necessary for enterprise marketers, it is also becoming more complex to choose the best fit CDP platform amongst the pool of new and old vendors.

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The point is, unproductive prospecting costs companies. And this is a cost that can be best avoided, especially if you have limited resources. Today’s easily available and sophisticated marketing automation and inbound marketing software makes gathering and capitalizing on customer data a snap. With a range of choices in marketing technology, automated lead targeting can in fact generously contribute towards this consistent aim of increasing ROI and revenue.

SiriusDecisions once found that 92% of companies recognize ABM as a valuable solution to B2B marketing challenges.

Paired with predictive analytics or sales intelligence, you can then look for specific behaviors that signal a prospect’s readiness to buy, or your team can seek out prospects’ characteristics exhibited by your best customers.

ABM as a process for B2Bs of all sizes can in fact turn out to be a cost-effective solution for Sales and Marketing teams to achieve their goals. 

Read on here to Explore why ABM is An Integral Part of every B2B’s Growth Strategy. 

Have your tried the winning Revenu8 ABM formula? 
Targeted Reach + Increased Awareness + Enhanced Engagement = High Quality Leads 

There are multiple ways to target, nurture or generate demand. Lead collection with ABM can give your potential results a complete shift for the better. 

ABM and ROI

  • Almost 85% of marketers measuring ROI say that ABM outperforms other marketing investments (ITSMA)
  • Almost 85% of marketers said ABM provided significant benefits to retain and expand existing client relationships (Marketo)
  • 97% of marketers surveyed said ABM had higher ROI than other marketing activities (Alterra Group)

But, still some myths exist in the minds of B2B marketers wanting to implement strategic ABM solutions to their overall endeavors. 

Here are 5 myths about ABM to dispel if you have limited resources:

1. You need tech to ABM: Here’s the deal. ABM has been around since long, since the early 1900s! It is not a new concept. What did change over time is the way B2Bs perform ABM activities. The introduction, extensive availability and increasing demand for technology to support various Marketing and Sales functions have led to a fresh, new way to ABM. 

There are several creative ways to get on board the ABM trend. Partnering with other external networks that offer your business the chance to engage with target audiences that have true intent to purchase across multiple channels and devices is one. So, if you have trouble bringing in your own tech, it shouldn’t stop you. 

2. ABM is expensive: Account-based marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. With the support of the right kind of tech and tactics, ABM can actually be much more cost effective as you can focus your limited resources on the individual targets and develop leads that have a much higher chance of succeeding, rather than on a whole bunch of low-potential leads. 

3. ABM is all about precise targeting: Precise targeting is important, but won’t do much if it’s not followed up by a personalized content marketing strategy. In this world of consistent digital noise (which brand doesn’t have a social media presence today?), it is important to focus on offering your prospects important, informative and exciting content. 

Content that resonates and ensures more sign-ups, more registrants, that influence open-click rates and those that turn targets into prospects. So ideally, step two would involve sending out customized, content that inspires conversions. Not just broadcasting content with precise messaging. Because, you don’t want your efforts to drown in the noise, do you? 

There are a multitude of ways to create the right kind of content and for companies who don’t seem to have the bandwidth, custom content creation by external media editors who could also offer content marketing solutions for your brand can serve to support your initiatives. 

Looking for proven ways to optimize your ABM outcome? Get some insights here. 

4. ABM requires more resources: The great thing about technology-driven ABM is that it offers organizations of every size the chance to scale-up at their own pace, based on real-time analytics. Start with the most important must-win accounts, and work your way through the long tail of high-potential accounts. B2Bs can literally work around their respective budgets and employ useful martech-adtech tools that help better their ABM processes with a range of features like automated retargeting campaigns, social media scheduling, targeted or look-alike campaigns, etc. 

But the key here lies in remembering that limited resources cannot and should not affect the quality of your ABM efforts. ABM solutions providers offer a range of models to engage with, and most also offer free trials.

5. ABM is impossible without data: In today’s marketing sphere, every kind of marketing activity needs to be backed by insightful data, not just ABM! With the large numbers of tools offering a range of solutions and access to data, one can improve and enhance their marketing efforts based on real-time insights.  However, not having enough data or easy access to it (yet) should not stop you from going down the ABM route. 

B2Bs today can easily access both first and third-party data with collaborations and syndication programs. In a survey conducted by Avention of B2B sales and marketing practitioners, 31% of respondents felt that their organizations have the right data for sales and just 24% feel that they have the right data for marketing. The truth is, with ABM, practitioners face a range of data related challenges. Without doubt, data is the foundation of your ABM strategy. However, what data problem you specifically have will dictate how you address it and move your strategy forward.

Some of the common challenges B2Bs face with data include:

  • Data deluge
  • Data drought
  • Data disconnect
  • Data deployment

As a resource-strapped B2B, ABM can still (strongly) support ideal demand generation initiatives whilst keeping budgets in place. Know more about it, download our e-book titled ‘Data driven ABM with limited resources’ here today! 

Have you come across myths of your own that don’t align to the core purpose and objective of ABM? Write in or comment below so we can bust them together!

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