Account-Based Marketing: From Strategy and Plans to Execution and Insights

HEIDI BULLOCK, CMO, ENGAGIO

@HeidiBullock

JOHN DERING, DIRECTOR ABM TECH & STRATEGY, DEMANDBASE

@D_Rang

B2B MARKETING IS TOUGH

2

Not enough –

of the right

types of leads

Poor quality –

many leads

never convert

to Sales

Sales alignment

- Poor efficiency

Issues with

churn and

retention

Missed

Targets

EXAMINE YOUR CURRENT ACQUISITION STRATEGY

3

Broad-based

Mostly inbound

Lead-centric

Goal is volume

A MARKETERS’S PLIGHT

- Miller Pierce, 2014 VOC Study

50%of marketing generated leads are

never followed

up by sales.

THE GREAT SALES & MARKETING DIVIDE

Leads

Personas

Quantity

Individuals

Opportunities

Buyers/Influencers

Quality

Accounts

MARKETING SALES

THE OLD MODEL OF THE SALES FUNNEL

MARKETING SALES

MQL

IDE

NT

IFIF

Y

CLO

SE

THE NEW MODEL OF THE SALES FUNNEL

CLO

SE

IDE

NT

IFIF

Y

MARKETING

SALES

EVOLUTION OF ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING

1995- 2005 2005-2012 2012>>>

• Limited in scale

(25-50 accounts)

• Field Mktg centric

• Analog in approach

• Improved scale

• Email centric

• Industry focused

• Post hand raise

• Reactive

• Fully scalable

(5000+ accounts)

• Full funnel

• Multiple targeting

options

• Pre hand raise

• Proactive

THE RISE OF ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING

ABM

in 2015

SiriusDecisions: State of ABM 2015

of B2B companies have

ABM program older

than 1 year

20%

of B2B companies have

a skills gap for ABM

47%

THE RISE OF ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING

ABM

in 2016

SiriusDecisions: State of ABM 2015

of B2B companies have

ABM program older

than 1 year

41%

of B2B companies have

staff partially or fully

dedicated to for ABM

70%

THE IMPACT OF ABM

ABM OUTPERFORMS

TRADITIONAL

METHODS

B2B Marketers Are

Realizing Greater

Benefits From ABM

Across Multiple Areas

TOPO: ABM State of the Market

ABM provides much

greater benefit than

traditional approach

ABM and

traditional

are same

Traditional

approach benefit

is much greater

3.98

4.00

4.02

4.14

4.20

4.31

4.64

1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Customer Retention Rate

Initial Contract Value

Close Rate

Return on Sales &Mktg. Investment

Upsell/Cross-sell

Overall LTV

Alignment BetweenSales & Marketing

THE IMPACT OF ABM

ABM BENEFITS

INCREASE OVER TIME

The Benefits Of ABM vs.

Traditional Marketing are

more Pronounced as you

Scale your Efforts

TOPO: ABM State of the Market

3.89

3.81

4.12

4.15

3.70

4.23

4.44

4.17

4.18

4.30

4.32

4.38

4.39

4.87

1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Customer Retention Rate

Initial Contract Value

Close Rate

Return on Sales &Mktg. Investment

Upsell/Cross-sell

Overall LTV

Alignment BetweenSales & Marketing

1 yr+ <1yr

THE IMPACT OF ABM

ABM DEDICATION

INCREASES BOOKINGS

TOPO: ABM State of the Market

A Main Driver for Adopting

ABM is Increasing ACV $71,941

$195,294

$0

$50,000

$100,000

$150,000

$200,000

$250,000

Pre-ABM ACV Post ABM ACV

ACV: Before & After ABM

171%

BUDGETS FOR ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING IN 2017

ABMsuccess is driving

demand for increased

investment

SiriusDecisions: State of ABM 2015

of marketing budget

dedicated to ABM

26%

of companies planned

to increase their ABM

budget in FY2017

72%

ABM LEADERSHIP TEAM

ESTABLISHED ABM LEADERSHIP TEAM

Finance VP of Finance

Finance Director

Operations Sales Operations

Marketing Operation

Marketing CMO

Director, Integrated Marketing

Director, Demand Generation

Director, Field Marketing

Sales CRO

VP of Sales

Enterprise Director

Mid Market Director

VP, Customer Success

Director, Inside Sales

LEADERSHIP TEAM RESPONSIBILITIES

Communicate Objectives

Reset Expectations

Ensure Compliance

Reinforce the Target

Account List

Collaborate Regularly

OperationsSales Marketing

Knowing Makes Alignment Easier to Execute

HOW WILL THIS IMPACT THE ORGANIZATION?

Prioritize outreach/follow up on Target Accounts

Follow up on signals, with key contacts

Rework focus: Inbound vsoutbound; sales territories

Collaborate with marketing on programs

Evaluate programs on the Target Account List

Hand over intelligence, not just leads

Re-focus budget

Connect impact to Revenue –KPIs/MBOs

Evaluate and implement new technologies

Alter the use of current technologies

Build models and reporting to focus on target accounts and key

business objectives

SELECTING TARGET ACCOUNTS

BUILD AND BRAND YOUR TARGET ACCOUNT LIST

These are the companies that

are most likely to buy from

you, due to characteristics

that set them up for success.Shares Focus

Aligns Resources

Facilitates Compliance

Role of the List:

TARGET ACCOUNT LIST

It’s a collaborative process

Build an initial list

Secure agreement from ABM Leadership Team

Verify and iterate with field sales

Update at regular intervals

1

2

3

4

WAYS TO APPROACH LIST BUILDING

Target your most

successful segments

Select accounts

with a predictive toolUse an account

identification solution

Combine approaches

and iterate

SEGMENT YOUR LIST

Segments you select must

have discrete business

objectives that marketing

can build programs to

support

Understand that only a

portion of your revenue will

come from this list - it may be a majority or minority

depending on your business model

GROW YOUR LIST (CAREFULLY) OVER TIME

37%

57%

68%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2014 2015 2016

% of Revenue from Target Accounts

DB3k Non-DB3k

2014: Lookalike model

1,500 Accounts

22 Reps

2015: Predictive Model

3,000 Accounts,

35 Reps

2016: AI Model

3,500 Accounts

39 Reps

ANONYMOUS BUYING SIGNALS

MARKETING INTEGRAL TO SALES PROCESS

- SiriusDecisions, 2013

67%Of the buyer’s journey is

Now done digitally.

TODAY’S ANONYMOUS BUYERS JOURNEY

SALES

CALL LEAD

SOCIAL

MEDIA

WEBSITE

VISIT

SEARCH

DETERMINE

PROBLEM

WEBSITE

VISIT

WEB

RESEARCH

FRIENDS &

COLLEAGUES

INT

ER

ES

T

Marketers miss out on the

buying signals that occur

pre hand raise…

…and the signals that occur once

a prospect is in a sales cycle.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY TO B2B ADVERTISING SUCCESS

Always-on advertising see better results than discrete campaigns

29% increase in

companies lifted

127% more website

engagement

WEBSITE ACTIVITY BY COMPANY EXAMPLE DISCRETE CAMPAIGN

CAMPAIGN

AVG. DROPOFF

-90%target account traffic

*DemandGen Report

70%of buyers indicated

that the vendor’s

website was most

influential in their

purchase*

PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCES ACROSS THE JOURNEYPersonalize by industry, company, or custom attributes

AD CREATIVE WEBSITE

Creative developed for demonstration purposes; not reallcreative

HARDER TO OPTIMIZE AT SCALE

15 INDUSTRIES

10 PERSONAS

3 CUSTOMER

TYPES

6BUYER STAGES

1000 WEB PAGES

4000TARGET

ACCOUNTS

5 COMPANY SIZE

BANDS

8PRODUCTS

Billions of possible combinations to evaluate, personalize, test, and optimize.

RESULT:

Example inputs for a typical B2B website to analyze:

Predicts future behavior

on the website

Calculate all the possible

paths to your goals

Proposes content that

speeds the visitor towards

those goals

And away from

undesired pages

OPTIMIZATION FOR UNIQUE VISITOR PATHS

DESIGNING ABM PROGRAMS

TIER 1: 5-50 accounts (“tens”)

Rich account plans

Every touch personalized

TIER 2: 50-1,000 accounts (“hundreds”)

Light research + data build out

Personalized touches to key personas

TIER 3: 1,000+ accounts (“thousands”)

Automated touches OK

Industry and persona customizationOne-to-Many

ABM

One-to-Few

ABM

One-to-One

ABM

TIER YOUR ACCOUNTS

ASSIGN PROGRAM ENTITLEMENT

Type of Program Accounts

Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3

Direct Mail High value Post card – lower value Post-card lower value

Field Events Lunch and learn + dinners +

on-sites, custom workshops

Lunch and learn Lunch and learn (resources

permitting)

Tradeshows Special dinner

Playmaker sends Yes Yes Yes

Database sends In some cases OK Yes Yes

Targeted Ads Yes + tailored content + logo Yes + industry Yes – industry

Content Syndication Yes – verticals and key

companies

Yes – verticals Yes -verticals

Sales outreach Yes (calling campaigns, drive

attendance)

Yes (calling campaigns, drive

attendance)

No

Appt Setting Yes Yes No

Contact Discovery Yes Yes No

Customer content

Custom streams (nurture)

Yes (tier 1 and 2)

BE HONEST…

• What can Sales realistically support?

• What can Marketing support?

–Resources

–Budget

36

What do we want to say?

(offers)

Who should we say it to?

(segments)

Who are we trying to reach?

(accounts)

Whatshould we say?

(message)

Where should we say it?

(channels)

Whereshould we say it?

(channels)

Dem

an

d G

en

Acco

un

t B

ase

d

Mark

eti

ng

DEVELOP ABM PROGRAM FRAMEWORK

#1 - DEFINE “WHO” IN THE ACCOUNT (BUYING CENTER)

#2 - DEFINE THE “WHAT” KEY PERSONAS CARE ABOUT

MAP CONTENT FOR KEY STAGES PERSONA – A BUYER’S JOURNEY

STAGE GOAL AWARENESS CONSIDERATION PURCHASE ADOPTION X-SELL/UP-

SELL

ADVOCACY

BUYER GOAL I think I have a

problem

How do I fix my

problem and why

you?

What do I need

to buy?

I can I get

going fast and

be successful

with the

product?

I like product x, I

would like more

seats, or I am

interested in

product y.

I love the

products – I am

happy to

recommend to

others!

CONTENT Targeted ads,

blog posts,

ebooks, events,

webinars

Video testimonials,

field events, case

studies, analyst

reports

Product video,

on-site

workshops,

demos

Workshops

Online tutorials

Product

webinars, video

testimonials,

case studies

Early access to

new features

Source: ITSMA

WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT WORKS?

RIGHT SIZE CONTENT FOR TARGET ACCOUNTS

ABMOne-to-One

ABMOne-to-Few

ABMOne-to-Many

CONTENT EXAMPLES

Targeted Ads Personalized eBook Personalized Video

IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING TODAY...

Random acts of kindness = good Random acts of marketing = bad

#3 - DEFINE THE “WHERE” – BUT HAVE A BASELINE FIRST

WEB

PERSONALIZATION

DIRECT

MAIL

TARGET

ACCOUNT

FIELD

EVENTS

PERSONALIZED

EMAILS

CUSTOM

WORKSHOPS

TARGETED

ADVERTISING

WHERE DO YOU HAVE COVERAGE?

Do you have sufficient data, opt-in contacts, and account plans for each target account?

WHERE DO YOU NEED TO DRIVE AWARENESS?

Which target accounts have any awareness of us? Are they visiting the website?

NOW FIGURE OUT YOUR PROGRAM STRATEGY

48

Goal: Awareness

Is the account aware of your

products / services?

Goal: Engagement

Are the right people in the

account engaged?

Goal: Action

Do the right people have what

is required to make a

decision?

Ask: What set of tactics make sense for these objectives?

1. Multi-Channel Prospecting

2. MQA Follow-Up

3. Sales Cycle Acceleration

4. Deal Nurture

5. Live Event Invite

6. Field Marketing

7. Upsell/Cross-Sell

8. Customer Advocacy

EXAMPLE OF PLAYS FOR THE ACCOUNT LIFECYCLE

Targeted adsentire account

EmailT: Head of SalesF: ADR

Direct MailKey personas

EmailT: Head of MarketingF: ADR

ChecklistPackage received?

PhoneT: Head of SalesF: ADR

GOAL: EARLY STAGE – PENETRATE NEW ACCOUNTS

52

GOAL: LATE STAGE – ACCELERATE DEAL CYCLE

205 193 113 45 24 1Mtgs Opps Deal(so far)

EngdPkgs Resp

22%

Meeting Rates

Books only: 25%

Kindle only: 21%

Ads and Kindle: 21%

Ads and Books: 13%

Web Traffic Visitors

Ads +43% +47%

No Ads +22% +8%

Directionally meaningful but not significant

34.2x pipeline to spend

Tip 1 - TESTING IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT

54

Tip 2 - MAKE IT PERSONAL TO DRIVE RESULTS

3% response

rate

43% response

rate

55

Tip 3 - SUPPORT SALES TO HELP THEM ACT IN A TIMELY WAY

ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING METRICS

Don’t count the people you reach;

reach the people that count.

– David Ogilvy

Challenge: Account Based Analytics are different

2002 2017

59

MARKETING QUALIFIED ACCOUNTS (MQAs)

Focus on quality not quantity

Track accounts not leads (MQAs not MQLs)

Time spent (engagement minutes)

Track impact and influence more than try to apportion ‘credit’ (team effort)

Measure long-term success – pipeline and revenue

60

ACCOUNT BASED METRICS ARE DIFFERENT

61

Do you have

sufficient

data,

contacts, and

account

plans for

each target

account?

Are the target

accounts

aware of your

company?

Are the right

people at the

account

spending time

with your

company? Is

that

engagement

going up over

time?

Are

marketing

programs

reaching

target

accounts?

Are ABM

activities

improving

key sales

outcomes?

COVERAGE AWARENESS ENGAGEMENT REACH IMPACT

WHAT TO MEASURE

62

THE BUING CYCLE FOR B2B HAS GOTTEN LONGER

•52% of respondents said the number of buying group members had increased significantly.

•77% agreed that they conduct a more detailed ROI analysis before making a purchase decision.

•78% agreed that they “spend more time researching purchases”.

•75% agreed that they “use more sources to research and evaluate purchases”.

Source: Demand Gen Report 2017 B2B Buyers Survey Report

“You can’t wait a year to see results [in ABM].” Megan Heuer, SiriusDecisions

63

Early Stage Metrics Later Stage Metrics

1• Coverage

2• Awareness

3• Engagement with key programs

4• Meetings

1• MQAs

2• Opportunities in target accounts

3• Pipeline

4• Impact/ ROI

Tip 1 - MEASURE AT DIFFERENT TIME POINTS

Tip 2 - MEASURE FROM DAY ONE – HAVE BASELINES!

64

Tip 3 - UNDERSTAND WHICH CHANNELS AND PROGRAMS ARE EFFECTIVE AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF AN ACCOUNT JOURNEY

Tier # of

AccountsAwareness MQA

Sales

ApptOpps

Pipeline

ACV

Conversion

to OppC/W Deals

C/W

ACV

Conversion to

C/W

Tier 1 # # # # # $ % # $ %

Tier 2 # # # # # $ % # $ %

Tier 3 # # # # # $ % # $ %

Courtesy of VersionOne

Tip 4 - HAVE A DASHBOARD FOR REPORTING

KEY TAKE-AWAYS

1. ABM’s impact is real.

2. Establish an ABM Leadership Team.

3. Build a target account list.

4. Have a diligent approach program entitlement.

5. Understand where your accounts are before executing programs.

6. Measurement is different with ABM – it’s about quality not quantity.

7. You can start small – just START.

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KEY TAKE-AWAYS