In today’s highly competitive business landscape, standing out from the crowd and connecting with your target audience is more important than ever. Traditional marketing approaches that rely on mass messaging and generic campaigns are no longer effective in capturing the attention and loyalty of potential customers.
B2B buyers need more attention and information to make a purchase decision, ideally, a personalized buying experience. That’s where account-based marketing (ABM) comes in. ABM is a strategic approach that focuses on personalized marketing efforts tailored to individual accounts based on data, allowing you to build stronger relationships and drive targeted revenue growth.
The Role of Data in ABM
ABM relies on data from start to finish. You need to use data to identify in-market accounts and their buyer personas. Data will also help you create personalized experiences and messaging that resonate with those decision-makers. Data-driven ABM also enables you to monitor the effectiveness of your campaigns more accurately. You can determine optimization opportunities by measuring success based on real-time pipeline impact and maximize your budget by evaluating program performance throughout the campaign instead of waiting until the end and wondering what went wrong.
By leveraging data for better targeting, personalization, and optimizing campaigns based on buyer needs, B2B marketers can drive higher engagement and accelerate the conversion of target accounts across the sales cycle.
Why Personalization Matters
Today’s buyers no longer want a personalized experience; they demand it. McKinsey research reveals that 71% of consumers expect brands to deliver personalized interactions and 76% get frustrated when it doesn’t happen. With more personalized content and messaging, you can establish a deeper connection to build brand awareness and trust.
However, true personalization goes beyond just addressing a customer by their name. It involves an engagement strategy that delivers content and messaging that speaks to the buyer’s specific and individual pain points at each stage of the funnel. It shows that your brand is empathetic to its customers.
With data-driven ABM, you engage with an account at a level that demonstrates empathy in a way other B2B tactics don’t. And it works. According to Forrester, 56% of marketers validate this approach, saying personalized content is key to a successful ABM strategy. By delivering tailored content and messaging at every stage of the sales cycle, a data-driven, account-based approach increases conversion rates by building awareness and trust.
How to Leverage Data-Driven ABM to Deliver More Personalized Customer Experiences
Every successful ABM strategy starts with data. Amplify your efforts with a systematic approach that combines data-driven insights with personalized outreach efforts. Let’s explore the 4 practices of using data in ABM:
1. Identify and prioritize the right accounts and personas
Data is key to not only understanding the accounts actively in-market, but the individuals within these trending accounts who are researching and engaging with relevant content and messaging. While your first-party data provides key insights and characteristics of your target accounts, you also need access to historical performance, technographic, and intent data to create a clearer picture of the accounts demonstrating the highest propensity to purchase. Once you’ve identified your target accounts, use this intelligence to create detailed buyer personas that encompass the specific pain points and needs to guide your content strategy. Understanding your audience holistically helps you decide which content best resonates with them to personalize their experience.
2. Personalize the campaign strategy at every stage of the sales cycle
Increase conversion rates by choosing content and messaging that uniquely meets each member of the buying committee with the information they need. By matching content to the buyer’s mindset within their customer journey, you can balance the brand-building necessary for long-term revenue growth. Next, activate a multi-channel ABM strategy that surrounds them with personalized content and messaging in the places they spend the most time, not just on one channel. A true multi-channel approach ensures that your brand is where your buyers are to help build brand awareness and capture opportunities to educate and inform their purchase decision. With Gartner research revealing the average software buyer spends just two minutes on a seller’s website but spends hours a day online, full-funnel, multi-channel ABM builds the trust necessary to ensure your solution stays top-of-mind.
3. Optimize campaign performance in real time
Data unlocks a more accurate picture of the buyer’s journey and provides a more thorough understanding of engagement and pipeline impact. Uncovering each account’s most effective channels, content, and advertising makes it easier to determine optimization opportunities faster. Instead of looking at vanity metrics like impressions, open rates, site visits, and downloads, focus on data points that help drive improvements over time. This could be the changes in pipeline volume, velocity, and the measurable value an account provides. These insights allow you to take a data-driven approach to campaign optimization that generates more revenue from target accounts, improves the ROI of your marketing efforts and increases win rates through more relevant and personalized marketing content for your target accounts.
Unlock the Power of Personalization with Data
Account-based marketing is a powerful strategy that enables you to personalize your outreach efforts and drive revenue growth. By leveraging data, you gain valuable insights into the interests, preferences, and behaviors of your target accounts to create highly relevant and impactful marketing campaigns. Through personalized content, multi-channel strategies, and data-driven optimization, you can build stronger relationships with target accounts and increase the likelihood of converting leads into customers. Embrace the power of account-based marketing and leverage data to create personalized experiences that resonate with your target audience and drive long-term revenue growth.
