4 Steps to Account Based Marketing Success

4 Steps to Account Based Marketing Success

ABM is gaining ground with many companies, especially IT companies and businesses with complex products and long sales cycles. The reality is that most B2B companies realize 80% of revenues from just 20% of their customers. Still, traditional marketing is evenly spread through out the whole customer base, generating in a great deal of wastage.


Account Based Marketing is targeted marketing to the accounts that stand for the largest potential in revenue. If you’re thinking it’s time to get started or improve your ABM, here are four steps to set you on the right path:

1. Begin by identifying your top accounts

The majority of B2B marketers fail to produce reliable lists of their top accounts. Doing so is vital. The key to getting a high ROI from AMB is understanding targeted accounts.

First and foremost, establish the business value of your accounts Identify where the largest sales potential lies  Establish where each account is in the buying journey  If they’re current accounts, understand which products they have or have not purchased

Work together with sales and finance to create a list of high-profit target customers and document the information you need. Your initial investment in this process will enable you to make smarter investments, delivering the relevant content to the right people at the right time and generate sales.

2. Create valuable content

Your ABM program will feature ads to draw target customers to content published on your website. In this age of self-serve customers, your website needs to offer a much heavier dose of useful content relative to its sales pages.
You need a content marketing plan that becomes a roadmap to consistently producing valuable content in the form of blog posts, eBooks, video, research studies, infographics and more. As you create a content marketing plan, consider the following:
An ideal way to discover your customers’ information needs is to interview them. Also, ask your best sales people to create a list of questions they’re often asked

Audit your existing content. It’s possible you have useful content in various forms that aren’t published on your website. Even content on your website could become more valuable and relevant to current needs with some updates  Create customer case studies when possible, and include industry specific references in your content Communicate big ideas to establish industry expertise and become perceived as a thought-leader

3. Use a targeted distribution platform

Target via social media. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook advertising programs offer highly targeted advertising programs Align marketing activities such as events and email campaigns with your ABM plan Vendemore offers an ad distribution service where top accounts are targeted based on their IP address. Learn more about how to place ads on large media networks to be seen by the employees on your target list

4. Measure your marketing efforts based on accounts

With ABM tactics website visits will come from people within the companies you’re targeting. Your challenge is to measure and assess user behavior.

Record ad impressions by account Use Google Analytics to gauge traffic and record engagement metrics from top accounts Set up systems with your CRM and marketing automation enabling you to measure win rates Establish revenue per account measures Consult with analytics professionals to develop a useful formula to measure sales and marketing costs per account

Informed by the type of analytics outline here, you’ll work with your sales managers to create smart follow-up strategies to nurture and/or close deals.

ABM takes time

Be fair and understand ABM takes time to gain traction. If your sales process usually takes over six months or more, resist evaluating results after just a month or two. Gather metrics on a monthly basis, but give it at least six months before you draw any conclusions

Email Marketing and Marketing Automation – How Similar or Different are They?

Email Marketing and Marketing Automation – How Similar or Different are They?

Most people would agree that marketing has become extremely technology-intensive. IT spends in various other sectors may be paltry, but the spends by marketing on technology have remained steady, despite the sluggish economy.
Email marketing is a key component of marketing technology. Most companies may already be using it in one form or another. Another related component is marketing automation. However consumers often mention the two components in the same breath. There are even debates in the industry about marketing automation being what email marketing aspires to be. However, in reality, they are an adjacent, but comparable, bunch of tools.
Email Marketing and Marketing Automation – The overlap

• Email marketing was traditionally used to reach out to individuals, keep them informed and stay connected. Companies would purchase email databases and use an email server with the capacity of high-volume mail blasts to send out mails to those in that database. Better capabilities emerged over time including:
• The ability to get leads from alternate sources
• Management of such leads
• WYSIWYG editors to draft emails using templates
• Monitoring and analytics

Marketing automation goes a step ahead with:

• Automating email campaigns
• Not only manage but score, prioritize, and nurture leads
• Not limited to email campaigns but includes mobile and social campaigns

However, some providers and vendors of email marketing claim that they too offer these capabilities, thus confusing customers.
How they work?
All of these tools help you develop, improve, and promote leads effectively to a “marketing database.” In B2B set-ups, tools help qualify and nurture leads until the point where sales teams can engage them using CRM platforms. In the case of B2C, such platforms will likely produce specialized offers to further engagement or drive transactions. Users can segment databases into certain subsets and prioritize and engage them, depending on behavior and attributes.
What exactly do they do?
Managing leads
Marketers must understand how to manage leads and prospects. Some of the high-level capabilities that can be considered include:

• Lead acquisition
• Information management
• Lead prioritization and routing
• Lead nurturing and engagement

Managing campaigns
While email messaging is important, social campaigns are also becoming imperative. Several vendors’ social widgets aim to grab enrichable email ids so that one can continue proactively marketing to that person. The capabilities that can be included here are:

• Campaign design and management
• Campaign creation and development
• Campaign implementation
• Campaign monitoring and analysis

One area where email marketing is distinguished from marketing automation is Landing Pages. While one can consider building and managing of landing pages as an extension of campaign management, they must be examined as a distinct challenge. Some capabilities to check for are:

• Page form and creation
• Testing and optimization
• Integration of web content and experience management

While email marketing and marketing automation are equally essential in the toolkit of a digital marketer, both have significant overlaps. While email marketing vendors focus on B2C use cases, marketing automation vendors target B2B use cases. However, a fair amount of crossover is observed among subscribers sometimes.

Marketers must thus, while evaluating tools, learn what each tool does and check what best matches their requirements.

Customer Experience Lifecycle / journey

Get Ready for Customer Experience Design Now! #CXDNow

 I will be interviewing Doug Folds, the product manager for IBM’s new Journey Designer product and one of the sponsors of the show to discuss his plans for bringing the practice of Customer Experience Design into the mainstream as a #NewWayToEngage.
If you are a customer experience designer, a journey mapper, an omni-channel marketer, a startup founder, a product manager or just someone who is interested in understanding this important topic further, #CXDNow is where you will expand your knowledge and hone your skills. Over the course of the series we will develop a body of work for the community that examines the business case, the core concepts and the specific practices that will enable you to design great experiences that enable your customers to find success on their journey.
While CXD has been around for quite some time now (often referred to as simply #CX, a cousin to #UX), it is just now finally coming into it’s own, hence the name of the show, #CXDNow. The Intention is to not only address the current state of the field but also to impress upon the business community the urgency for adopting these practices NOW. Given the soon to be released book, “X – The Experience of Business Meets Design” from my friend and colleague Brian Solis, and the other increase in interest and focus on this subject from organizations like IBM and others, the time to better understand this subject is definitely upon us.
I first began exploring the idea of journey mapping while working as the Chief of eBusiness at the United States Mint back in 1999, where I was charged with digital marketing responsibilities for the numismatist community (aka coin collectors). It was there that I developed what I called the “Customer Experience Lifecycle” (below), which later lead to my development of the Engagement Matrix while working with Palm and ultimately the Engagement Wheel while working with the American Heart Association while serving as a Social Business leader at Deloitte Digital.




What I came to realize was that organizations needed to go beyond customer-centricity, especially given how much lip service had been paid to that idea over the years without practical change in attitude or action. Now as a result of our increasingly transparent, connected market, it’s time for radical action, it’s time to embrace greater empathy, not only for customers, but also for employees, contractors and partners. In fact, as I think of #CXDNow, I believe there are three primary pillars that need to be explored:

1. The business value of customer empathy
2. Design thinking applied to the overall customer experience
3. How we work together to create greater success

While each show in the series and posts to this blog will address its own set of issues, I am, as is often the case, looking at this opportunity more holistically. At the end of the series, it is my hope that we will have produced a unique collection of insights and resources that can be utilized to bring Customer Experience Design to more organizations and more opportunities to customer experience designers as a result.

how content marketing and native advertising are different, simply, practically.

Heres how content marketing and native advertising are different, simply, practically.

Here’s the difference between content marketing and native advertising at a basic scientific level.

 Native advertising makes customers look you up.
Content marketing can ‘convert’ the customers who look you up.
 That’s as basic as it gets. First up, this article applies those who;
1.  have a product/service that can make a unique claim.
2. are a B2C company.
Your ad agency tells you that 30 crores/year is a good budget to get your brand noticed. They would be absolutely right. You have one crore in hand. Naturally, you are worried.
1What if my campaign gets missed?
2What if the consumer doesn’t see what I want to show?
3What if all the money gets spent and nothing happens?
 Rule no. 1: Just because advertising is expensive, doesn’t mean that content marketing is going to come any cheap
Here are five great examples of content marketing that will tell you why it doesn’t come cheap.
1The Lego movie – obviously!
2Steve Jobs launching his products in his style: that's a 2 hour speech more powerful than any content so far known to man.
3Microsoft stories: have you visited the most persuasive story telling site in modern business history?
4Closer home – remember Kolaveri D? Catchy content that bulldozed language barriers.
5Visit Amul India’s Facebook page for a free MBA on content marketing. Yes, they do native advertising too, but Amul’s content gets shared willingly, at zero cost. Their books compiling decades of content are collector’s items.
 Rule no. 2: In content marketing, you own the media. If you’re lucky, other established media will give your content free mileage
So you have one crore in funds and you have set up all your owned content pages; such as your Facebook page, YouTube channel, Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slideshare channel and even an Instagram account. You also have a media relations team that constantly tells you what kind of content you need to create and where you need to pitch it.
Can you ‘put out’ content in the above mediums that will have ‘shock’, ‘interest’, ‘remark’ value? Content that is so remarkable, that mediums with greater media outreach like television and print and online media, will write about it free of charge? Will it be shared by people willingly?
You don’t buy any external media; but you spend on strengthening your proprietary pages and channels. Simply put, you may not have enough audience to drive your content program. Therefore, you advertise on social media platforms and work to drive traffic, engagement and conversion into your platform.
Key point – don’t fire on all platforms. Choose what works for you and then build that one.
Rule no. 3: Content marketing and native advertising, both are exact sciences.
There’s a cause–effect relationship between what you do and the outcome you generate. A good campaign takes this into account. Kim Kardashian knows this; and she’s is a great content marketer. If you shock people, they will talk about you.
Pope Francis blessed thousands of Harley riders and their bikes as part of a four-day Roman holiday celebrating the company’s 110th anniversary. Harley Davidson, which claims to spend only 15% on traditional media advertising, spends 85% on creating experiences for its customers. When you create ‘communities’ united by experiences, people will talk about you!
You focus on building relationships and appeal directly to the old brain. That’s plain science.
Rule no. 4: It’s always ‘us’ versus ‘them’

You may use technology to standardise a product/service but your customer communication has to be one on one. It has to focus on human beings connecting with other human beings.
Hence, while it is important to be very focused on what you are, it’s equally important to clarify ‘what you’re not’.
Hence, never put out puzzles and ‘low IQ’ contests (what is the colour of a tomato?) on your Facebook page just to have people respond to your post. The people who know what your brand represents, and are choosing to like your page, will disrespect the content you put out and go elsewhere.
Rule no. 5: Nobody is interested. You can keep shouting!
You can’t make people listen! No one’s life changes because you don’t put out your ad. People are really good at ignoring what does not apply to them.
You may be able to figure out who’s likely to listen. Whose life is likely to change because you put out your ad. Your aim is not to entertain people, but to market your product to them in an ‘eyeball-grabbing’ and memorable way.
Content will make its way to an interested audience, provided it has ‘glue-power’.
Shock, connect (hummable tunes), innovation, community value are forms of ‘glue-power.’
In native advertising, which is extremely powerful, provided you have the budget to do it effectively, you are paying someone else to distribute your content. It works just fine, and is extremely valuable, provided it also sticks to the principles of ‘glue-power.’

Both content marketing and native advertising have their own place in the life cycle of a customer-centric organisation. Content marketing also brings in the ‘early adopters,’ who are targeted initially by companies before they launch their native advertising. They subsequently become influencers.

The Automotive Digital Marketing Pyramid

The Automotive Digital Marketing Pyramid

Before diving in, a bit of context may be helpful: the framework of this article was originally designed while I was successfully implementing a digital strategy as the Director of Digital Marketing for a 5-rooftop dealer group. I have since moved on to a marketing agency as the National Director of Automotive, and I now train our army of automotive reps on this same sequential process that I developed while working at that dealer group. This approach allows our partner dealerships to achieve the highest level of ROI while growing their digital marketing acumen.
The field of automotive digital marketing is constantly shifting. Unfortunately, without the proper strategy, success may be hard to come by. While we should all strive to be better than we are, I feel that there is, often times, a very important concept missing from the conversation between dealerships and digital marketing agencies. You don't become the best by looking for shortcuts- you become the best by building a solid foundation, properly executing the basics, and building upon early successes.

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals. - Jim Rohn, American speaker & author

When it comes to digital marketing and advertising, there must be a logical game plan in place, and that plan must see past the end of the month (or quarter). I can tell you from experience that if you can get a meeting with a Dealer Principle or General Manager, your odds of selling a dealership the latest technological wonder goes through the roof. This is true not because they are ill-informed or because they are suckers- it's because they specialize in selling cars and not in crafting sequential, long-term marketing plans. So, with that in mind, I would like to suggest a blueprint for optimizing and growing digital performance within a dealership.
I have formed this blueprint using a pyramid model, meaning it should be tackled from the ground up, each level building upon the one that came before it. Just like a pyramid, Digital Strategy must be built on a solid foundation if there is to be any hope of success. Start with the foundation, and don't move on to more advanced techniques until the levels below it are there for support.

Base Tier of the Pyramid

The Website, & Website Optimization

Start with the website. Digital efforts typically have the goal of driving traffic to your digital storefront, so make sure that it is ready for primetime. I recommend the following:

• A responsive website design (so that it looks great to users of any screen size).
• A clean customer interface. Intuitive usability is tantamount.
• Custom content (don't rely on whatever came with the site when you signed up for it). Make sure to include strong "Why buy" statements that set you apart from the competition. Come up with a consistent content plan that will add useful information to your website that customers will actually be interested in.
• Compelling call-to-actions. Don’t overdo it! Fewer CTA’s actually lead to more conversions.
• Hosted chat (please don't attempt to handle this in-house).

Analytics & Attribution

Now is the time to install Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, and Google Tag Manager on your website and then learn how to use them. Take the free courses that Google offers and get your certification. This is the basis of everything that comes next since it is hard to make quality marketing and vendor decisions if you don't know how to properly analyze the data. Please, please, PLEASE don't just rely on reports that you get from your website company. They are a vendor just like the rest, and they need to be held accountable with unbiased, third-party data.
It isn’t just web traffic that needs to be analyzed for a car dealership. Also needed are both phone call and email analytics. Top-tier call tracking services will even quantify how many calls were fresh sales or service opportunities, and whether they converted. With email, use the Google URL Builder to create custom links for email campaigns so that you can track their effectiveness in your newly-created Google Analytics account.

Search Engine Optimization

Investing in SEO is investing in the future of your dealership. It takes time to do right, and helps improve the effectiveness of tactics found higher up the pyramid. Think long-term.

Second Tier of the Pyramid

Paid Search & Display

The website is ready, and your tracking mechanisms are in place - now it’s time to drive some traffic! Do not blindly sign on with whatever “preferred vendor” your manufacturer recommends. You owe it to your dealership to do some research and make your own decision, so schedule a ton of meetings, listen to all the pitches, and then pick the vendor that feels right for you. They may not even be the most qualified on-paper, but sometimes it makes sense to look at other factors (how well you work together, geographical proximity, recommendations from trusted friends in the industry, etc.). Start with simple search campaigns, and once mastered, move on to display (in that order). Also, if you can find a vendor that will work in conjunction with your SEO team, then that will lead to major gains in efficiency. Another tip is that if your dealership does direct mail (who doesn’t!), IP-targeted display advertising can greatly enhance the ROI of those mail campaigns.

Email Marketing

Let's take advantage of that email database! Some words of caution, however- please don't send an email to the entire customer database every time your sales manager is one unit away from hitting his bonus. That's a great way to lose your email database. Focus is the key, and remember that the goal of digital marketing is "right person, right message, right time."

The goal of digital marketing is right person, right message, right time.

Work that internal database, and then branch out into conquest campaigns.

Third Tier of the Pyramid

Video Advertising (AKA Pre-Roll)

Video advertising offers an excellent ROI and is very cost effective- at least it can be. It can also be a tremendous waste of time and energy if attempted too soon or without the proper creative assets. The worst part is that it’s impossible to tell which is which without the proper reporting and skill to analyze the return. Once mastered, however, pre-roll is top-notch in engaging customers and telling your own, unique story.

Social Advertising

Social advertising is still a fairly new arena, and it takes a more mature digital advertiser to make the most of it. The ROI can certainly be there, and by the time this point in the pyramid is reached, you will have a solid social footprint in place to capitalize on it. All the cool kids say this is the up-and-coming opportunity for advertisers, but don't throw away money before your digital foundation has been solidified.

Top of the Pyramid

Everything Else!

Seriously. If I haven't already listed it, save it until this part of your journey. Here's looking at you, Mobile Apps & Geo-Fencing!

In conclusion

There is no shortage of vendors, and some are absolutely amazing. Some, however, want nothing more than to pull the wool over the dealership’s eyes while collecting fat checks. Keep in mind, though- simply signing a contract will not make it successful. Your digital marketing absolutely must be strategically built on a solid foundation, one piece at a time.

How To Avoid The Pitfalls Of Marketing Automation

How To Avoid The Pitfalls Of Marketing Automation

Setting up marketing automation for your business may seem like a daunting task but it is absolutely necessary and worth it. Once you have your marketing automation software set up it can be like an ATM machine that will produce a consistent income.

What are some marketing automation pitfalls and best practices that you must know when you are just starting with the implementation of your marketing automation software? In this post we go through some do’s and don’ts that our co-founder, Trent, discussed in an interview with marketing automation expert Dan Faggella.

Your Optin Follow-Up Email Should Be Triggered As Soon As Possible

Leads get cold. People that were interested in some kind of offer or content that you had a week ago might not be so interested now. You waited too long and the interest waned.
The best practice is to immediately send a follow-up email after someone has opted in to one of your content offers. The email should contain intelligent suggestions for more of your content instead of just being a thank you note.

Marketing Automation Segmentation

Subscribers to your email list need to be segmented into categories based on what they are interested in so you can send them more of that. The different consumers of your content are going to be interested in different things. That is why you need a whole range of content offers so you can make it as a custom designed experience as far as humanly possible that is still automated but feels personal.
There are two ways that you can segment your email list. The first one is to send them more offers based on the content that they are already interested in. For example, if they requested a white paper on LinkedIn marketing you can send them an offer suggesting more content that has to do with social media marketing.
The second way to segment them is a more accurate way because you ask them to segment themselves into a category. You do this by using a drop down categorization menu on the opt-in form. So instead of asking for just a name and email you are asking for an extra piece of information. An example of this could be for them to select one of the following:

• I am a person that is looking for a new business idea.
• I am looking for a way to scale my business idea.
• I am in a corporate job and I am looking for a way to start my own business.
• I am in a corporate job and looking for ways to improve my company’s online presence and marketing.

These different categories have different needs. When you know who is reading your content and what their needs are you can give them more of what they need and move them down your sales funnel faster to see if they are a good fit for whatever you are selling.

Identify Your Closing Channel Of Communication

You need to identify which channels of communication you usually use at the end of the deal when it is time to close. All your content assets need to gently nudge your prospects in the direction of where your majority of sales come from.
It doesn’t make sense to push your prospect to an e-commerce buy page if you are selling high ticket monthly retainer consulting services. Those deals are usually closed over the phone or in person. So when you’re nudging your prospects towards the bottom of the funnel you can start mentioning an upcoming phone call or an option to schedule a meeting in your content.
If you are selling a physical product and you go and copy the marketing automation process of someone selling online services you are not going to be optimized to sell. Identify your strongest selling channel and build your marketing automation around it.

Thank You Page

What you see a lot after downloading a piece of gated content or after buying something online is a thank you page that simply says “thank you for your order” or “thank you for downloading.” A better way would be to use it as an opportunity to move prospects further down your sales funnel. Offer them more content that they might be interested in.
If you want to be aggressive after a sale you can offer an up-sell. If that is not your style ask your new customer to tweet about the product they just bought. Capitalize on their excitement after just buying something and let them help you spread the word.

Don’t Send “We’re Still Alive” Newsletters

You see this pretty often, companies that have nothing to say sending out the same spammy emails month after month or even worse, week after week or day after day. This is a feeble attempt to keep top of mind with your email list. If you don’t have quality content to send, mail your listless frequently. If you spam your email list you will lower your open rate and your unsubscribe rate will go up. Some of the most successful email marketers don’t send an email every day and some don’t even send one every week but when they do it is super high quality and the people on their list look forward to their content.

Conclusion

Email marketing is far from dead and can still be a great source of business. Automating it can make your life so much easier but you need to have quality content for marketing automation software to be effective. If you are looking to implement marketing automation software in your company, that is a service we offer. We invite you to initiate a conversation with us.

Digital Tactics Work Across the Buyer Journey

Social media is the No. 1 channel at every stage except conversion

Some marketing tactics are best when the audience is early in the purchase process, while others shine closer to conversion. But social media, websites, email and other digital approaches are effective throughout the customer journey, according to polling from June 2015.

The CMO Club surveyed CMOs in Europe and the US about marketing and the buyer journey. When asked which were the primary marketing channels they leveraged during various stages, more chose social media than any other option for every stage of the purchase process except buying itself.
When it came to conversion, websites and email both edged out social. These two channels were also among the top three at every other stage queried, from discovery to advocacy.
Digital advertising, like AdWords and banners, also rated highly across most stages of the buyer journey. The leading nondigital channel was events, which were most likely to be named a primary marketing channel for discovery and usage. Apps also performed well, especially for the “try” phase of the cycle.
The survey also found that CMOs are investing the biggest share of their marketing budget on the “buy” phase, but not by much. That took 21% of budgets, on average, followed by 20% for discovery and 16% each for learning and trying.