ABM + Inbound: Flipping a new Funnel
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
2 likes•796 views
This webinar was conducted in partnership with Wpromote and #FlipMyFunnel. The idea is how ABM and Inbound Marketing can peacefully co-exist together. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to ABM + Inbound: Flipping a new Funnel
Similar to ABM + Inbound: Flipping a new Funnel (20)
More from #FlipMyFunnel
More from #FlipMyFunnel (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
ABM + Inbound: Flipping a new Funnel
- 1. ABM + Inbound: Flipping a New Funnel Presented By: Wpromote and #FlipMyFunnel
- 2. @sangramvajre#FlipMyFunnel Presenters Sabrina Gilmore-Kochanski Director, Business Development Wpromote Sangram Vajre Founder, #FlipMyFunnel Co-founder & CMO at Terminus #FlipMyFunnel
- 3. @sangramvajre#FlipMyFunnel @FlipMyFunnel#FlipMyFunnel ABM. SO HOT RIGHT NOW. @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 4. And you don’t have to take our word for it. Check out “account-based marketing” in Google trends. B2B marketers are buzzing about ABM. Source: Terminus, “17 Account-Based Marketing Statistics to Know & Love in 2017.” #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 5. “Don’t count the people that you reach; reach the people that count.” – David Ogilvy #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 6. What is the #1 objective of your digital marketing efforts? B2B marketers are fully focused on lead quality. Deliver quality leads 47% Drive more leads 23% Increase marketing ROI 12% Improve brand awareness 9% Increase website traffic 4% Other 4% Not sure 1% 26% YoY increase in marketers choosing “deliver quality leads” as their top marketing goal for 2017. Source: Wpromote, “2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing Report.” #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 7. The number of marketing solutions from 2015 to 2016 grew by over 75%. Marketing technology has seen exponential growth. Source: Scott Brinker, “Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2016).” This is even more striking when we look at solutions tailored to ABM. #FlipMyFunnel Source: #FlipMyFunnel Account-Based Marketing Stack @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 8. Source: Demandbase, “2017#FlipMyFunnel Account-Based Marketing Benchmark Survey Report.” “64% Of B2B Marketers Plan To Implement ABM In The Next Year” “…58% of companies plan to invest in [ABM] services or technology.” B2B marketers are investing in ABM. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 9. ABM & Inbound are not mutually exclusive. Just like a good cup of coffee, you need to find the right blend. 1 ABM is NOT a channel or a technology, it’s a strategy. Let’s debunk three common misconceptions about ABM: 2 ABM is NOT synonymous with outbound marketing. 3 ABM measurement should NOT be the same as inbound marketing. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 10. HOW TO BREW THE PERFECT B2B BALANCE. BUILDING AND MEASURING YOUR IDEAL CONTENT AND ADVERTISING MIX. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 11. Define which level of ABM makes sense for your organization. First, build your target account list. Source: TrackMaven, “Inbound vs. Account-Based Marketing: Avoiding the False Choice #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 12. Work with marketing, sales, and fulfillment to identify top customers and shared traits. First, build your target account list. 1 2 Industry Company size 3 Annual revenue 4 Location Firmographic factors: #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 13. Identify the purchase decision-makers and influencers for your target accounts. First, build your target account list. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 14. The number of accounts in each tier will largely depend on team resources. Second, organize accounts by tier based on resources. Source: Engagio, “Engagio’s Clear & Complete Guide to ABM.” We highly recommend reading this eBook cover to cover! This is an incredibly important point! #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 15. The number of accounts in each tier will largely depend on team resources and budget. Second, organize accounts by tier based on resources. Source: Marketo, “5 Ways to Scale Your Account-Based Marketing Strategy.” Map your marketing activities to each tier to help you plan! #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 16. Here’s an example of how to begin by mapping the buyer’s journey by tier. Third, build a content marketing plan for each tier. Here’s where content for ABM comes into play. Buyer Stage Awareness Evaluation Purchase Product Keyword Theme (Keyword Example) Educate prospects on the value of your product & foster thought leadership. Build the business case for why the prospect needs to invest in your product or service. Give the prospect a reason to choose you over your competitors. Marketing Automation Software Marketo/Branded (Marketo features) Marketing Automation Software Automated Email (marketing email automation) Marketing Automation Software Best Automation (best marketing automation software) Content Offer Demo Request Page: Schedule a 30-Minute Demo with our Team eBook: 5 Things to Know About Marketing Automation Software Webinar: How to Choose the Right Marketing Automation Software Tier 3 = Company Size Tier 2 = Industry #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 17. Here’s how this pans out on your site navigation. Third, build a content marketing plan for each tier. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 18. Here’s an example of how to begin by mapping the buyer’s journey by tier. Third, build a content marketing plan for each tier. Here’s where content for ABM comes into play. Buyer Stage Awareness Evaluation Purchase Product Keyword Theme (Keyword Example) Educate prospects on the value of your product & foster thought leadership. Build the business case for why the prospect needs to invest in your product or service. Give the prospect a reason to choose you over your competitors. Marketing Automation Software Marketo/Branded (Marketo features) Marketing Automation Software Automated Email (marketing email automation) Marketing Automation Software Best Automation (best marketing automation software) Content Offer Demo Request Page: Schedule a 30-Minute Demo with our Team eBook: 5 Things to Know About Marketing Automation Software Webinar: How to Choose the Right Marketing Automation Software Tier 1 = Individual Account Tier 3 = Company Size Tier 2 = Industry #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 19. Tiers 2 (industry) and 3 (solution) audiences can be built with remarketing and/or Google Customer Match. *Requires 1,000 matched emails. Fourth, build an account-based advertising plan for each tier. Now we can specifically target Marketing Directors in the software industry that visited, but didn’t convert. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 20. Take it to the account-based level with either programmatic or social advertising solutions like LinkedIn. B2B Marketing Audience B2B Software Marketing Audience We customized the report by industry to serve specifically to our list of ABM accounts. Fourth, build an account-based advertising plan for each tier. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 21. Have you ever tried, or are you currently engaged in ABM? If yes, do you think your current ABM strategy is effective? No 50% Yes 37% Not sure 12% Yes 46% Not sure 36% No 18% If yes, has your ABM strategy produced revenue? Given account-based marketing’s new found popularity, B2B marketers still need time to define, measure, and test KPIs. Source: Wpromote, “2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing Report.” Finally, KPIs should adjust for a blended approach. Yes 42% Not sure 40% No 18% #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 22. We’re all familiar with inbound metrics. Awareness Consideration Comparison Conversion Retention/Upsell Website visitor Qualified leads fill out form (MQL) Ready to talk to sales (SQL) Closed-won deal Customer considers investing more. % % % % Finally, KPIs should adjust for a blended approach. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 23. But, how will you measure and report on ABM? Source: Engagio, “Engagio’s Clear & Complete Guide to ABM.” Awareness Consideration Comparison Conversion Retention/Upsell Website visitor Qualified leads fill out form (MQL) Ready to talk to sales (SQL) Closed-won deal Customer considers investing more. % % % % Finally, KPIs should adjust for a blended approach. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 24. 1 2 Don’t misconstrue the two strategies as mutually-exclusive. Understand what level of ABM investment makes sense for your organization. Craft the perfect blend of ABM + Inbound. 3 Build a tier-based, content marketing and advertising plan to support this blended approach. #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
- 25. @sangramvajre#FlipMyFunnel Let’s Take A Few Questions! #FlipMyFunnel @sangramvajre @sabrinagilmore
Editor's Notes
- B2B marketers are buzzing about ABM. And you don’t have to take our word for it. Check out “account-based marketing” in Google trends. As our friends at Terminus pointed out, 2016 was the year of category creation for account-based marketing. There are dozens of conferences dedicated to this subject, the first Account-Based Marketing for Dummies book was created, etc. It’s safe to say at the at very least, ABM is having a moment. For B2B marketers, ABM is everywhere you look . So today, we want explain and explore together: What’s all the fuss about? Is the excitement surrounding ABM just an over-hyped trend? Or, does the rise of ABM mark a major shift in the way B2B marketers will approach demand generation moving forward? And, finally, and perhaps most importantly, how does this impact inbound marketing strategy?
- With this swift and sudden movement toward ABM, this leaves a lot of folks asking, “Why now?” After all, the concept of account based marketing isn’t exactly new. Sales has always focused on selling to top accounts, and as, the father of advertising himself, David Ogilvy, once said, “Don’t count the people that you reach; reach the people that count.”
- Well, the first reason ABM is having a moment right now is because of it’s focus on quality over quantity. In our 2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing survey, we asked “What is the #1 objective of your digital marketing efforts?”, and for the second year running, B2B marketers chose lead quality over quantity. While a combined 70% of B2B marketers are all about lead gen, nearly half (47%) of B2B marketers are focused on lead quality. In last year’s study, we saw the balance tip in favor of focusing on qualified leads over lead volume, but this year’s survey solidifies the trend with a 26% YoY increase in marketers choosing “delivering quality leads” as their top marketing goal for 2017. ABM’s focus on lead quality really resonates with today’s B2B marketers because it presents a solution to some of their toughest challenges: Cutting through the noise in a highly saturated content marketing landscape. (Over 27 million pieces of content are shared each day! It’s a smart move to focus on creating great content for key accounts, rather than trying to win the masses and hope for the best) Alignment with Sales helps to efficiently grow pipeline opportunity and closed-won deal size.
- The second reason ABM is on the rise is marketing technology has seen exponential growth over the last few years. Scott Brinker’s infamous “Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic” details this for us. From 2015 to 2016, alone, we’ve seen about a 75% increase in the number of marketing technology solutions on the market. Now, what’s even more striking, is when we look at how many of these solutions are tailored to or at least support a key aspect of Account-Based Marketing - everything from account selection, personalization, infrastructure, and orchestration. As we’ve seen a recent proliferation of these solutions that aim to scale and improve ABM, it’s no wonder we’re seeing a resurgence of account-based marketing.
- Now, it’s important to emphasize this isn’t just lip service or hype. B2B marketers are actively investing in ABM. The 2016 State of ABM by SiriusDecisions, found that 70% of B2B companies have staff that are fully or partially dedicated to driving ABM-specific programs. In that same study 58% of companies said they’re planning to invest in [ABM] services or technology this year. So, to answer our first question, Yes, it seems ABM is much more than just a trend, it’s becoming a key aspect of successful B2B demand generation. It’s focus on lead quality and alignment with sales to grow deal size makes it an invaluable approach to B2B marketing. But, in our experience, as ABM is still new to many marketers, a lot of B2B marketers wondering….
- What does this mean for “traditional” inbound marketing? One of the most important points we want to highlight here today is that ABM & Inbound are not mutually exclusive. For most marketers, just like a good cup of coffee you need to learn how to brew the right blend of BOTH to grow pipeline revenue for your organization. ABM is a strategy that relies on attracting, engaging, and converting your target accounts with an array of inbound and outbound marketing activities which can and should include content marketing, SEO, paid search, display, social ads, email etc. So, to be clear, before we dive into how to find the balance in your overall demand gen strategy, there are a few common misconceptions about ABM that we want to debunk today: 1. ABM is NOT a channel or a technology, it’s a strategy. ABM is a strategy that relies on attracting, engaging, and converting your target accounts with a variety of marketing activities and technologies 2. Often times, we see marketers confusing ABM as being synonymous with outbound marketing, and yet this isn’t the case. Outbound tactics should be an element of your overall demand generation strategy. 3. And finally, ABM success cannot be measured the same way as inbound marketing. We’ll get into this more toward the later half of our presentation, but essentially since ABM is often times a strategy formed by picking accounts by firmographic characteristics instead of behavior, this is a strategy that is often longer term and should be measured in months and potentially even years, not days and weeks like many behavior-based, inbound channels should be judged. Which again brings us full circle to the original common misconception about ABM – most B2B marketrs need to balance this with their ideal mix of ABM and inbound. So in our next section we’ll cover exactly how to do that.
- How to find the right blend of account-based and inbound marketing for your business and how to measure that success.
- The first step is to build your target account list. This means we need to start by deciding which level of ABM investment makes sense for your team A great place to start is by asking: Does our organization sell to a select number of logos, a wide-range of customers, or somewhere in between? TrackMaven details a great framework Joe Chernov, VP of Marketing at InsightSquared, built to guide marketers on finding where their brands fit on the ABM to inbound spectrum Organizations selling to a finite list of buyers, like the Fortune 500, could opt for an ABM-heavy approach, while those selling to let’s say, the Fortune 500 Million, could rely heavily on inbound. It makes sense for a manufacturer in the aerospace and defense industry, for example, to take a primarily account-based approach. In this case, the organization most likely has a limited list of potential clients that is unlikely to drastically change or grow. On the other hand, a digital marketing analytics software could, in theory, sell to any organization with a website and the right budget. In this scenario, we’d want to blend the benefits of both ABM and inbound by giving special attention — or, in other words, allocating more budget and resources — to key accounts with a high likelihood of becoming large customers, while balancing a steady flow of ready-to-buy, inbound opportunities. Most of us B2B marketesr fall into this group, a blend of both.
- Next sit down with sales and fulfillment to identify top customers and their traits. What characteristics make them successful, long-term clients of yours? Which accounts has your team successfully upsold and grown over time? Define their shared firmographic characteristics and then look for prospective accounts that match these traits. Often, companies prioritize accounts by industry, company size (in terms of employee count), company size in terms of annual revenue, and location. Sometimes it makes sense to group them by tech stack, but each organization will obviously vary.
- Then, identify the purchase decision-makers and influencers for your target accounts. Who at these companies do you need to reach? Keep in mind, on average, 5 people participate in the modern B2B purchase. Think beyond who signs the contract and include the various influencers and stakeholders in this decision.
- Next, organize accounts by tier based on priority and team resources. This is an INCREDIBLY important concept to understand when building a blended ABM and inbound approach. This image is from Engagio’s Clear & Complete Guide to ABM” which I highly recommend reading if you haven’t already – it’s truly awesome and gives very specific tips and advice on how to build some really great ABM programs. Here, in this chart, Engagio’s lays out a template for building a tier-based ABM structure. While the number will vary for your organization (for example, not every company has the resources to create truly,1:1 personalized content for 50 accounts) scale this concept to what makes sense for your business. In this model, tier 1 focuses on creating personalized content journeys for each account or company. Tier 2 focuses on hundreds of accounts that fall into a particular segment like industry or vertical for example, while tier 3 would focus on potentially thousands of accounts that qualify for a particular solution or product. (For example, if you’re a B2B software company, maybe you know enterprise accounts are more likely to go for one of your premier product packages, while mid-market companies tend to go for a different product line first.) Again, this Engagio template highlights an important point, at the tier 3 level, you’re most likely going to use marketing activities and channels that are often associated with inbound to attract and engage such a large number of accounts. (Again we’ll go into more detail aboutwhat exactly those activities are in a bit, but next…)
- Next, it’s time to figure out how many accounts to group into each tier by evaluating your resources and budget. Marketo’s recent blog “5 Ways to Scale Your Account-Based Marketing Strategy” provides an example we really like of how to brainstorm and estimate this in a simple spreadsheet format. Start by listing the type of programs you have within your mix (and maybe ones you’re planning to add!) here. Then break that down generally into high-cost vs. low-cost, or highly-personalized content vs. content with limited personalization, and check this off for each applicable tier or group of accounts. (Walk through a few of the examples in the chart.) As you can imagine, this is just a few examples of program types, but you’d definitely also want to include plans for ads and content by tier into this chart, which brings us to our next and probably one of the most important tasks…
- Building a content creation and content marketing plan that supports both ABM and inbound, or in other words, supports each tier of accounts. The easiest way to build this out is by starting with the classic buyer’s journey. Just like you would for an inbound content marketing strategy, start by using organic search data to inform your content marketing strategy. What better way to quantitatively measure and understand what your target market is looking for or what challenges they’re trying to solve within your industry than by analyzing the search queries they type into Google at each stage of the funnel? You can use a free tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to help you out with this or use an advanced software like BrightEdge. (We use both!) Once you have a sense of how keyword themes map to each stage of the funnel by analyzing user intent, create corresponding content offers and call to actions. (walk through a few examples) Once you have this part down, here’s where ABM comes in. Since we’re using Marketo as our example, in their general demand gen funnel, they’re most likely targeting marketers in a wide range of industries. Maybe their Tier 3 list of ABM targets would be guided by company size and/or B2B vs. B2C factors when determining what types or level of solutions they should be marketing to them. For example, let’s say the company size we’re targeting here is enterprise. In this case, maybe our eBook would be titled something along the lines of “5 Critical Marketing Automation Solutions for the B2B Enterprise.” Or maybe, the tier 3 is segmented by “solutions” for B2C accounts vs. B2B. The eBook content would look very different for these two groups. Next, Tier 2 would be marked by another level of firmographic requirements which could be industry, for example. Let’s say within the B2B companies we segmented in tier three, the next version of that content would be specifically tailored to B2B marketers in the tech space.
- Breaking away from this chart for a second, we wanted to show you how inbound supports this tier-based methodology of content personalization. Again while outbound, is certainly a key part of this, depending on how you’ve segmented your accounts, you can actually use SEO to help attract the right accounts by adding these tier 3 and maybe even tier 2 segments to your website’s navigation. A lot of you might already be doing this, and if so amazing job!, but here’s an example we found on Marketo’s website to illustrate this: In the solutions category, they have pages that might appeal to a tier three level of personalization by solution like “customer base marketing”. Then they take it a step further with a potential tier 2 level of personalization or segmentation with content by industry. When you click on the page for each industry it’s important to note that they have unique content (important for SEO) that is tailored with content, case studies, and client logos that are relevant specifically to that industry. Here’s what happens when you click on the Tech solutions page. (Walk through the technology example.) Now again, we’re just highlighting how the inbound aspect of ABM applies here, but this should also be a cross-channel strategy. This industry specific content should be complemented by industry specific ads and emails. Depending on your marketing tech resources you can also you personalization at these levels and of course loop in offline tactics like direct mail and/or events.
- And, finally, tier 1 would be in our content plan would be content that is specifically meant for an individual company or account. Within B2B tech, maybe one of our target accounts is MongoDB. We would then tailor that eBook specifically for MongoDB. (walk through example) If you’re overwhelmed by the amount of content this requires, you’re not alone. ABM requires a tall order of content and many B2B marketers, about half in our 2017 SDMR study, outsource content creation to agencies to help them with this, but the investment is worth it, because top-notch, quality content is not only essential to marketing in general, but critical in account-based marketing.
- Next is building an account-based advertising strategy. At the industry or solutions segment level, or in today’s example that would mean tier 2 and tier 3, we recommend using remarketing and/or Google customer match to create solution-specific or industry-specific ads for your tiered audience segments. This puts you well on your way to creating a cross channel nurture track. If you have the pages built on your website for the tier 2 and tier 3 segments, you can build out remarketing segments the old fashioned way with information on who visited these tailored pages on your website and/or your can use Google Customer Match to leverage the email within your CRM! One caveat here is that your need your audience size for both of these to be large enough but this is very effective when feasible.
- Now, we can take it to the account-based level with either programmatic or social advertising solutions like LinkedIn.
- And, finally the last step is to adjust your marketing KPIs for a blended approach. While B2B marketers are moving quickly to adopt ABM, they are struggling with how to measure success. In our 2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing report, here’s what happened when we asked B2B marketers a series of questions to try and gauge ABM performance: When we asked, “Have you ever tried, or are you currently engaged in ABM?” 37% of marketers said Yes. For those that answered yes, we then asked “Do you think your current ABM strategy is effective?” 42% said yes, while a surprising 40% said they were ”Not sure”. Now again, for those practicing ABM, we also asked whether or not ABM had produced revenue for them yet. Again we see a similar split, 46% said yes, and 36% said they were not sure. What’s probably going on here is that B2B marketers most likely need time to test and build confidence in their ABM approach in terms of both measurement and strategy. And most , importantly given that ABM’s focus is on target accounts, we cannot apply the same metrics we would to traditional demand generation. Why? Let’s take a look.
- We’re all familiar with the metrics of the inbound marketing funnel. You need a certain amount of website visitors to turn into leads which hopefully turn into sales qualified leads and hopefully closed-won deals. This is a numbers game that also highly depends on savvy CRO to improve and accelerate this funnel. This is still valid and definitely important BUT, as ABM focuses on bringing the right accounts over time which should in theory bump up the average deal size and upsells, we have to measure this differently..
- So, how do we measure and report on ABM? Because ABM is a long-term game and unlike inbound, is not behavior based and does not depend on volume, we need different metrics to understand the impact and success of ABM. Again we have some great insights from the Engagio ABM eBook on how to shift your measurement process for tier 1 and in some cases tier 2 accounts. (walk through the new metrics.) To be clear, the funnel metrics on the left are still incredibly important, but it’s equally important to understand that as you’re investing more resources in the long term game of converting top accounts, you need to adjust measurement to prove the ROI of these efforts. ABM takes month and sometimes years to show revenue for those tier 1 target accounts, especially when dealing with long B2B sales cycles, so we need to be prepared to measured both aspects for a blended approach.
- (Walk through recap & takeaways.)