What is account-based marketing?
Also known as key account marketing, account-based marketing (ABM) is the strategy to engage and communicate with a specific set of clients who have attained a level of spend, loyalty or favourability with the business. The aim of course is to encourage further sales growth.
This marketing tactic is often created in tandem with the sales team to create personalisation and a deep-level understanding of what perks, offers and benefits a top-tier customer ‘club’ might look like.
In this blog post, I want to run through a brief history of ABM and what types of B2B content you might create for it.
A brief history of B2B account-based marketing
The concept of account-based marketing has been around for several decades and has gained increased popularity in recent years as B2B marketing has shifted from a traditional, mass-market approach to a more targeted, personalised one.
ABM took off in the late 1990s and early 2000s when B2B companies started to focus more on individual accounts rather than entire markets. At that time, ABM focused on direct mail and telemarketing campaigns targeted at specific accounts. Over the years, advancements in tech and analytics have enabled ABM to evolve into a more sophisticated and integrated approach that spans multiple marketing channels.
Today, ABM has become a key strategy for many B2B companies, helping them to build stronger relationships with their most valuable accounts and drive higher marketing conversions, sales revenue and ROI.
You will also see the same approach happening with B2C marketing, where specific offers are set up for the very top-tier clients.
How to create B2B content for ABM
Because your B2B account-based marketing approach is multi-channel your strategy needs to cover a breadth of content as well as targeted copy for specific campaigns.
Here’s how I’d recommend you make a start looking at your B2B content strategy:
Identify target accounts - Determine which of your client accounts are most valuable to your business and create a list.
Research target accounts - Gather information about each target account, including their industry, challenges, and pain points. This helps you build up personas for each account and track similarities across this top-tier customer base.
Create personalised content - Create tailored content for each target account that speaks to their specific needs and challenges. This may include blog posts, white papers, case studies, or webinars.
Use data-driven insights - Make sure you use your analytics to keep track of account behaviour and engagement to inform your content strategy and personalization efforts.
Leverage technology - Use marketing automation tools to automate and scale your ABM efforts, including personalised email campaigns and targeted landing pages.
Measure success - Continuously measure the success of your ABM content efforts, including metrics such as engagement, conversion rates, and revenue generated from target accounts.
Remember to make your content relevant, valuable, and timely to your target accounts to drive engagement and build lasting relationships.
What are the best examples of B2B ABM content?
Here are some of the best examples of B2B account-based marketing content:
Personalised website experiences - Creating targeted landing pages with custom messaging and images for each target account is a great way to engage and hook your audience.
Account-specific case studies - Highlighting successful projects or solutions that you have delivered to related target accounts really helps. Make sure you build in how clients benefited from your products/services.
Customised research reports - Providing in-depth analysis and insights specific to a target account's industry, challenges, and pain points.
Interactive webinars - Hosting webinars on topics relevant to target accounts and engaging with attendees through Q&A sessions. Remember where your audience likes to engage, so it might not be a webinar over Zoom, it might be a Facebook Live inside of a private client group.
Direct mail campaigns - Sending personalised packages, such as product samples or promotional materials, directly to key decision-makers at target accounts.
Email marketing campaigns - Sending personalised emails that arrive primed with value at exactly the right time in your client’s buyer’s journey.
Executive events - Hosting executive-level events or dinners to build relationships with key decision-makers.
Remember to focus on the needs and challenges of your target accounts and create content that offers value and relevance to them.
Which brands do ABM well?
There are many brands across various industries that have been successful with their account-based marketing approach. Here are a few examples of brands known for their successful ABM campaigns:
Salesforce - A leading customer relationship management (CRM) provider, Salesforce leverages ABM throughout the client journey. It even shows its clients how they can help do the same for their own customers.
Microsoft - Tech giant, Microsoft uses ABM to effectively engage with its target accounts by hosting everything from webinars to personalised suggestions for higher business efficiencies.
Lego - eCommerce titan Lego personalised every step of its buyer journey, but with top-tier accounts, they create specific offers that increase sales opportunities.
By focusing on the needs and challenges of their target accounts, these brands have built lasting relationships and become trusted partners to their most valuable customers.
How ABM affects your B2B blog strategy
As a freelance B2B blogger it makes sense that I speak to you about account-based marketing in relation to your B2B blog - so here goes! ABM can impact your blog strategy by requiring a more targeted and personalised approach to content creation.
Instead of focusing on creating general blog posts that appeal to a wider audience, ABM requires creating content specifically for your target accounts, with their specific challenges, pain points, and interests in mind.
Here are a few ways ABM can affect your B2B blog strategy:
Targeted topics - ABM is a bottom-of-funnel marketing stage. This means that you need to work into your blog strategy room for content relevant to target accounts, addressing their specific pain points and challenges.
Personalised blog posts - Consider creating custom blog posts tailored specifically to each target account, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. You can then use these to provide specific value to customers and nurture their sales progress. These aren’t SEO-driven posts, but they hold a huge value in relation to potential conversions from already loyal customers.
Collaboration with sales - Work closely with your sales team to identify opportunities for blog content that supports their outreach and engagement efforts with target accounts. This will help you come up with topics and tone of voice differences.
Integration with ABM technology - Use marketing automation tools to deliver targeted blog content and track engagement from target accounts.
By aligning your B2B blog strategy with your ABM efforts, you can create a more targeted and effective content strategy that drives engagement and generates leads from your target accounts.
If you need a copywriter to create compelling copy, someone who understands the customer journey, fill in the project brief form below!
