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Account-Based Marketing is all the rage in 2019. We're not going to lie: even at StoryXpress we are implementing ABM to consistently find (and land) clients who we feel can benefit from our video technology.
If you feel like a newbie, and aren't comfortable with all these acronyms floating around, let's back up a bit and start from the very beginning.
Once upon a time...
Account-Based Marketing - The Day 1 Stuff
Before we can get into the experts’ discussion on how to take your ABM program to the next level, let’s back up a bit. There are varying definitions of what account-based marketing is, so to provide valuable insights for your ABM strategy, it’s best to define it for the purposes of this blog: ABM’s focus is on generating awareness and demand within targeted customer accounts rather than individual leads.
Instead of the ‘spray and pray’ mentality of putting your marketing out there and hoping you’ll hit someone who’s interested, account-based marketing is more like a ‘dart gun’ approach, where you determine which companies are most likely to become customers, and then you target them specifically with your marketing efforts.
Traditional marketing involves a 'spray and pray' approach, meaning that marketers try to create mildly relevant content that applies to a large prospective customer base, and then hope that at least a few prospects will be intrigued enough to register their interest and move forward in the sales funnel.
In stark contrast, ABM involves nailing down a list of accounts that your company wants to go after, and then customizing your marketing and sales pitches in such a way so as to specifically appeal to each prospective client. While personalizing (for companies) these pitches can take up a significant amount of research and time, ABM also yields better results than conventional marketing.
In fact, 92% of marketers worldwide believe that ABM is important to their marketing efforts. Especially for B2B businesses, taking the time to know the specific pain points of your enterprise prospects can make all the difference in accelerating the sales cycle.
Not only do you need to attract the right people, but also convince them to make a decision to let your product into their organization, something that will only happen if you are well-versed with their problems and can, in no uncertain terms, prove that your solution is one that will provide them with huge benefits (both to the company and the professional reputation of the decision maker, who is staking his power to introduce your product).
ABM is focused on building your champions: clients that are so impressed by your understanding of their problems that they become staunch advocates of your product. This will, obviously, open up immense opportunities to upsell, cross-sell, and most importantly, gain referrals to expand your userbase. In B2B businesses, there is absolutely nothing more valuable than a client who will actively refer your solutions to their peers.
Where Does Video Come In
We know that e-mail campaigns can be made extra sharp by equipping them with video content. However, personalized videos and renders of your products can seal the deal the moment the email is opened by a decision-maker at a target account holder.
Personalization of video can be done at two levels: informational and custom labelling. Information personalization refers to creating custom content that specifically speaks to the pain points of your target accounts. This is definitely the more integral part that you need to spend time on.
By custom labelling, we mean that you should use little, deft touches like using the viewer's name, designation, as well as their company name and logo within the specific videos created for them.
Wondering how to create specific videos for a large number of clients? Check out StoryXpress today!
Even seemingly small details can add a lot of value. In fact, one study concluded that emails using a personalized thumbnail image of the video saw a 300% to 1000% lift in click-through rates. Yes, this was one isolated study, but the point is that those are very serious numbers that indicate that video personalization can be an extremely advantageous tool if executed with an attention-to-detail mindset.
Other opportunities for using video include outbound sales campaigns, as well as assistance and promo videos to keep prospects engaged at every step of the funnel. This can help you minimize the risk of hard-earned prospects falling out of the funnel unexpectedly. Time and time again, multiple campaigns and studies have pegged the amplification provided by a personalized video marketing strategy at roughly 5-8x compared to a purely text-based email message.
Video Analytics + ABM
The other key aspect of video which gels very well with the micro-focused nature of ABM is the fact that videos empower you to use highly detailed anaytics, allowing you to make changes on the fly after analyzing how prospects interact with your video content.
With a normal e-mail message, it is impossible to gauge the subjective reaction of the prospect, but video analytics can unlock a whole new world of possibilities where you can build upon the knowledge gained from the data to create even more hard-hitting videos that can finally help you convert that elusive prospect.
