Account-based marketing has been the talk of the town for almost a year and its popularity seems to be on the rise. Although most people know the basic principle of it they are hesitant to take the leap due to myths that surround it. Now is the time to break through these roadblocks and focus on facts about how account-based marketing can be helpful for your business. Marketing at the end of the day is building relationships, one that will last for years and keep getting you more business.
Account-based marketing means that you move from treating each lead as an individual and towards treating them as an account. Making the move from demand generation to account-based marketing may be a tedious one but in the end, it is the results that matter most of all.
Let’s look at the myths that may be coming in the way of your success.
Many marketers are under the impression that account-based marketing is a new concept that will need them to revamp their current systems. However, this is not the case. Account-based marketing is just an old concept that has been reborn with a more strategic, comprehensive, and technological-based focus. Marketers know that they must get to the prospect from any angle they can, and this has led to them try and find multiple contacts in the same company. This is the basic principle that account-based marketing is built around.
It may be true that account-based marketing is far more suited to the million-dollar accounts as it will help businesses get more revenue. However, this concept is highly scalable and can help add a personalized and individualized touch while targeting any account.
Most marketers are under the misconception that account-based marketing is a singular concept. On the contrary, this type of marketing can be customized to fit any sized business in any industry. Currently, there are three types of account-based marketing techniques being used.
Strategic Account-Based Marketing: This is where one marketer handles a single account.
Programmatic Account-Based Marketing: This is the newest form of account-based marketing in which the system is automated so that a single marketer can handle hundreds of accounts.
Don’t be fooled by the name, account-based marketing is a symbiotic relationship between the marketing and the sales departments. Marketing gets information from the sales department about the key accounts and what is the best way to target them while the sales team gets sales-ready leads that can be converted easily. Without the help of both these departments this strategy would not work.
In contrast, these two concepts get along very well. Most companies do not directly take the plunge into account-based marketing. They take the slow route and use account-based marketing to complement their current processes. This makes the transition easier at a later stage when the company does decide to exclusively use the account-based marketing process.
This is a targeting system; the right strategy will be able to help your company to a great extent. However, it may not be able to give you the unexpected wins that were usually a possibility in other techniques. If you have done the right amount of research and know exactly who to contact, then you will be able to reach your end goal effectively.