Why account based marketing is the perfect B2B strategy

Wouldn’t it be a dream to work with a brand with the global profile and reach of Coca-Cola? Why not a hugely influential brand in a specialist B2B sector like Microsoft? How about a brand that has international artistic acclaim and consumer pulling power like Nike? 

There’s no chance of that, though, surely. They’re global enterprises that court billions of people on a minute-by-minute basis. They won’t have time to listen to you… Or will they?

You stand every chance as a B2B business of attracting the attention of larger brands, if you build an Account Based Marketing (ABM) strategy that specifically targets the most important influencers and decision makers at that company.

How does ABM differ from inbound?

It’s much easier than you may think to reach out to big brands and key decision makers, especially if you’re already practising inbound marketing.

Though inbound marketing should be a key component in any ABM campaign, there is a key difference between these two lead generation techniques.

We believe that inbound marketing, when done properly, is the perfect way to attract new leads and prospects. Inbound marketing works by advertising across the channels favoured by your specific market, sharing creative messages with people organically via a strong search presence, social media, email marketing and more.

Inbound is much better than annoying prospects and driving potential leads away by spamming them and cold-calling. But while hugely effective at drawing in people who have a real intention of finding a B2B service or supplier like you, it’s also somewhat of a blanket strategy when considering the broad personas you’re looking to attract.

In contrast, ABM campaigns help marketers to target very specific companies and the individuals they want to work with, no matter how ambitious these plans may be. This suits ambitious managers and CEOs who set their sights high and aim to speak with industry whales; key decision makers with real influence.

These ambitious managers and CEOs believe they can offer their whale a better B2B service than the one they’re currently using. And why wouldn’t the whale be interested? After all, businesses are always on the lookout to build new, strong relationships with other professionals if it can make their lives easier and improve what they offer to their own clients.

The devil is in the detail with ABM

So, how do you attract and build relationships with the people you want to work with?

ABM can help to transform the perception of your business from a vendor amongst vendors to a trusted B2B partner that can provide serious long term service and value.

Luckily, ABM is extremely similar to inbound marketing and takes a lot of cues from it. For B2B providers already investing in inbound, they may just need a slight tweak to their current strategy instead of a total overhaul.

How exactly? It’s a question of strategy. The content and online activity you’ll be producing will be focused specifically on an ABM approach, designed specifically to target the highest-value leads and prospects through the channels they use most, with offerings most relevant to their position within the company.

Whether you’re approaching multiple decision makers across a targeted sector or single influencers within a Fortune 500 company, ABM presents the opportunity for B2B professionals to better align themselves with the people they most want to work with, and build solid relationships with the people who matter most.