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INBOUND AFTER HOURS: The benefits and pitfalls of account-based marketing

Picture of Raza Kazi

Ah, account-based marketing (ABM). That fresh, new strategy everyone in marketing is talking about. There's been a huge uptake in ABM interest, it's becoming even more notable and HubSpot also announced ABM-specific tools marketers can use at INBOUND last year.

Where do you start? What does the data say? Who does it work for? How do you avoid some of the common pitfalls? You probably have all these questions and plenty more on doing ABM while getting actual results.

In this week's episode of Inbound After Hours, Rikki and Andrew run through what you need to know about the benefits and pitfalls of ABM, HubSpot's positioning on it and more. Check out these insights by hitting the play button below.

 

 

ABM benefits and pitfalls to avoid

Okay, ABM isn't something brand new that launched last week. It's been around a while but since last year, it's started to get a whole lot of traction. According to Rikki, one positive change ABM has brought to the marketing world is it's making sales and marketing teams work closer together.

ABM is all about growth, so it fits in nicely between sales and marketing. In the past, aligning the teams was a real challenge. Here's what else the guys run through in this episode:

  • With shared data, you can set lead scoring for ABM, bring in leads, assign to sales reps with a playbook and automate it while scaling up
  • Targeting is getting better and better on social channels
  • Doing ABM on top of content and inbound marketing can lead to even better success - ABM is a natural extension of these strategies
  • ABM technology is getting better with platforms like HubSpot embedding ABM tools now
  • Collate and share your data. To make sure your ABM strategy doesn't fall flat, have confidence in your data

Classic pitfalls to avoid

  • Pitfall 1 - not having the relevant data on hand and keeping it up to date
  • Pitfall 2 - going too niche means you might miss out on key accounts
  • Pitfall 3 - have a good reason to talk to your target account. Without a good reason and a strong message, you're likely to fall short
  • Pitfall 4 - not having buy-in or commitment from everyone involved
  • Pitfall 5 - knowing when to pick up the phone and not talking through a generic pitch
  • Pitfall 6 - don't be afraid to pivot based on the data. Be willing to switch stuff of, change messaging and don't sit on strategies that don't work

And that's just a top-level overview of what the guys talked about this week. In a nutshell, if you don't have aligned sales and marketing teams with shared goals and KPIs, you won't be getting the results an ABM strategy can bring.

Want more detailed insights on ABM? Including the technical side of the strategy, more benefits and avoiding pitfalls? Make sure to hit play on the video above or listen on Soundcloud while you're on the move.

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