Whether you’re dabbling in account-based marketing (ABM) or running a full-fledged program, you know that personalization is at the core of any successful ABM strategy. ABM is a B2B marketing approach where a marketing team identifies and targets specific accounts and prospects, rather than targeting a whole market.
According to the Information Technology Service Marketing Association, 87% of B2B marketers say that ABM delivers a higher ROI than other forms of B2B marketing, like inbound marketing.
While hand-picking a targeted list of accounts and prospects implies a more personalized approach, this is just the beginning of all the ways you should personalize your ABM efforts. You’ll likely consider different levels of personalization for different tiers of accounts (e.g. one-to-one personalization for top tier accounts and one-to-many personalization for lower-tiered accounts) and accounts that are at different places in the customer journey (e.g. marketing lead vs. sales opportunity). Either way, when you mix thoughtful personalization with ABM—one of the highest-converting marketing strategies—the results are impressive.
According to Econsultancy, 93% of companies experience a lift in conversion rates from personalization. Understanding the importance of personalization and how to incorporate it effectively into ABM can help you fuel your most successful campaign yet. In this article, we’ll discuss the various components of personalization in account-based marketing and how you can personalize your own ABM efforts.
Account-based marketing is all about capturing the attention of and convincing your target accounts that you’re the right solution for them. Personalization is a powerful way to transmit that message. By taking the time to research your target prospects and craft tailored messages that speak to their specific interests and pain points, you’ll show them that this isn’t just another sales pitch and that your solution truly is the right fit for their needs.
Personalization in ABM means customizing your message to suit one particular prospect (or group of prospects) instead of using a one-size-fits-all message. Personalized ABM could include the following tactics:
Personalization is increasingly important in today’s marketing landscape. As personalized marketing becomes more common across B2B industries, more prospects will be waiting for customized offers that solve their specific challenges.
Across sectors, B2B marketing strategies are leaning on personalization, and this trend is continuing to increase and become the norm. As more technologies that enable personalized ABM become more widely available, early adopters will see a competitive advantage, since they’ve already worked out the kinks and determined the dos/don’ts. And those who continue deploying more traditional marketing strategies may fall behind.
As you get started with personalization, here are some steps to prioritize:
Now that you understand what it means to personalize your ABM efforts, the next step is to develop a strategy that targets the right people and delivers the results you want. As your business begins to tackle personalized ABM, you can break down the process into three key components:
Data is key in determining what matters to a specific account. Consider looking at the following types of data when researching your ICP accounts and prospects:
A personalized ABM strategy generally results in higher sales closed/won conversion rates. However, that isn’t the only benefit associated with this approach –– let’s take a deeper look at the top benefits of personalization in ABM.
There’s a reason most B2B marketers say ABM delivers the highest ROI of all marketing strategies. For one thing, it improves efficiency within your sales and marketing teams since they are focusing on a targeted account list and not wasting time on accounts that aren’t a good fit for their solution. For another, it makes your advertising spend more efficient by targeting only prospects that are more likely to recognize your value and convert. Personalized ABM helps your organization save precious time and money while increasing your chances of converting ICP accounts into sales opportunities and closed deals.
Personalized ABM is a great way to build positive relationships with prospects: almost 85% of marketers say it significantly helps nurture customer relationships, according to research from Marketo. People appreciate personalized marketing because it makes them feel special, delights them with unique experiences that they’re not getting from other vendors, and cuts down on information overload by providing the exact information they need.
In this way, ABM greatly improves the customer experience and can even fuel brand advocacy. A personalized ABM campaign is more likely to create a customer journey that people will enjoy, remember, and talk about.
Now that you understand the benefits and building blocks of account-based marketing, you’re ready to start putting your ideas to work. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular personalization tactics you should consider using as part of your ABM efforts.
Your website is the most important touchpoint to personalize in your prospect’s journey. Just think: all of your other ABM efforts drive prospects back to your website, and a prospect’s chance of converting will be slim if they land on a static, one-size-fits-all page that doesn’t speak to their needs or interests. That said, website personalization should be your first priority.
Here are a few ways you can provide a super personalized and relevant experience to keep your prospects moving down the funnel:
Just as important as your personalization ideas is choosing the right website personalization software. Every business is unique and certain types of solutions will fit your needs better than others. Two common types of personalization software you might consider are:
Social media ads are a great way to connect with a targeted decision-maker and drive them to your personalized website; in fact, 84% of C-level and VP-level buyers are influenced by social media, according to Articulate.
When creating personalized social media ads as part of your ABM program, consider the following:
Whether you’re connecting with one prospect or many, personalized email campaigns are a beneficial tactic to include in your ABM program. Here are two types of email campaigns you might consider sending to your prospects:
Of all of the personalization tactics we’ve mentioned above, we want to reiterate the importance of incorporating website personalization into your ABM strategy. Your website is an inevitable part of your ABM prospect’s journey. In order to convince your prospect to convert into a paying customer, it is crucial to personalize your website in a way that addresses all of their needs, interests, and pain points and reassure them, without a doubt, that they’re in the right place and your product or solution is a fit. Machine learning-based website personalization can help you do just that.
With Intellimize’s Continuous Conversion™ solution, machine learning automatically delivers the best personalized experience to each unique website visitor in the moment. Intellimize has helped Snowflake’s ABM team achieve 60% more landing page conversions and 49% more meetings booked.
Request your demo of Intellimize today and see how we can help you master the intersection of ABM + website personalization and convert more of your ABM target accounts.