How To Create Coordinated ABM Campaigns That Actually Work

By Nina Butler on November 29, 2019

Alyce’s Head of Marketing, Daniel Rodriguez, recently sat down with Engagio’s Head of Strategic Marketing, Sandra Freeman, and Outreach’s Head of Partnerships, Stephen Farnsworth, to talk about what it takes to create coordinated ABM campaigns that actually work to drive pipeline with target accounts.  We’ll be recapping this session in this blog post.

There’s been so much noise and “thought leadership” around ABM for years now, but the problem I’ve noticed is that barely anything I’ve read or listened to has given me anything truly actionable to take away.  It’s all been theoretical, not very practical.

Marketers have been promised that the ABM buried treasure looks something like this: 

• More effective marketing campaigns
• Highly personalized interactions
• Stronger relationships with prospects and customers
• Tightly aligned sales and marketing efforts 
• Shortened sales cycles
• Improved ROI

The issue is, they haven’t had a map to tell them how to get there.  Marketers are still asking:

1. Which accounts should I target?
2. Which accounts should I focus on engaging right now?
3. What do I do to engage these accounts?
4. How do I measure and optimize my ABM efforts? 

 

I hear these questions all the time, and they’re great questions- questions that any ABM practitioner should be asking themselves to create a successful ABM strategy.  And I’ve seen marketers make strides in answering questions 1, 2, and 4. Companies have come around to the idea of creating named account lists, prioritizing those lists based on intent, and having the right tools to measure those efforts. 

But what I’ve seen makes or breaks an ABM strategy, is how you answer the third question: can you actually create the right ABM engagement mix to connect with buyers. 

To oversimplify it: it’s about getting the right message, to the right people, at the right time.  

 

And there is no silver bullet for doing that.  There is no singular magic tactic or channel that’s going to be the key to unlock the engagement you’re looking for.  To truly maximize your ability to penetrate target accounts and make real connections with your targeted buyers, you need to create campaigns that are coordinated, and multi-channel.  

72% of buyers say they would rather connect with brands and businesses through multi-channel marketing (Zoominfo) and 90% of buyers expect consistent interactions across those channels.  

Yet today, only 14% of organizations say they are currently running coordinated marketing campaigns across all channels (Zoominfo). 

Bottom line? Your buyers are going to engage on their own terms, not yours.  You need to do your best to meet buyers where they are and give them options to engage, without being pushy.

This means knowing where your buyers are in their journey, and having a multi-faceted but aligned approach to get them what they need, at the right time, in the right way. 

In a webinar we ran two weeks ago, Sandra from Engagio, Stephen from Outreach, and I all came together to get into the weeds and detail how to actually create coordinated campaigns that will maximize your ability to engage targeted prospects, and turn that engagement into meaningful pipeline. 

Together, we ran through the three major steps you need to take: 

1. Identify your ABM play: What is the purpose and goal of your campaign(s)?
2. Crafting your cross-channel ABM play: What tactics and channels do you employ and how?
3. Coordinating campaigns to be buyer-centric: How do you orchestrate your campaigns to align to your buyer’s needs? 

If you want to learn more and didn’t have the chance to tune in a couple of weeks ago, we’ve got you covered with the recording. Check out the link below to give it a listen! 

Coordinating campaigns to maximize success.