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What is Account Based Marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach to business-to-business (B2B) marketing that focuses on individual accounts and their needs, as opposed to a traditional, one-size-fits-all marketing approach.
Unlike a blanket approach to marketing, which ignores the unique needs and preferences of each business, ABM allows your business to tailor your messaging and targeting to specific accounts, which can result in more relevant and personalized interactions with potential customers.
ABM can take a number of different forms, but typically involves identifying key decision makers at target accounts and developing tailored content and campaigns specifically for them. ABM often includes additional activities like lead generation, pipeline acceleration, and account maintenance and nurturing.
Top Challenges with Account Based Marketing
1. Misalignment Between Sales and Marketing Teams
Sales and marketing teams are vital to any company, but they don’t always see eye to eye. This is largely due to having different goals. The sales team is focused on closing deals and meeting quotas, while the marketing team is focused on branding, generating leads, and creating an effective funnel.
Sales teams are often eager to work with new, target accounts as soon as possible. They identify these accounts through their own research and then reach out to the potential customers directly. Marketing teams, on the other hand, are usually tasked with creating a lead funnel that reaches out to a large number of potential customers over time.
This misalignment between sales and marketing teams can cause tension and conflict. The sales team may feel that the marketing team is not doing their job if they are not generating leads from target accounts quickly enough. On the other hand, the marketing team may feel that the sales team is trying to circumvent their process by going after accounts on their own.
A way to resolve this is for the sales and marketing teams to start working together more closely and align their goals. The sales team can provide input to the marketing team about which accounts they are interested in pursuing.
2. Extremely Long Sales Processes
ABM targets B2B accounts with the highest revenue potential. It entails building a relationship with a potential client and nurtures it at every stage of the funnel. Unlike other marketing approaches, ABM focuses on creating a long-term relationship with a customer, rather than making a one-time sale. Therefore, the ABM process is extremely time-consuming and can take many months to get high-quality leads and even longer to nurture and maintain.
Apart from the prospecting and sales process, ABM also includes content creation. Once you have a list of potential accounts, the next step is content that will resonate with them. This often involves creating different pieces of content for each account, such as videos, blog posts, e-books, case studies, and social media posts. With that said, ABM is not a strategy to implement if you’re looking for transactional opportunities with fast turnaround.
3. Lack of Customer Retention
Customer retention is the process of keeping your current customers and turning them into repeat customers. Making sure your customers stick around must be a top priority. After all, it’s five times more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to retain an existing one.
When done right, ABM has the ability to improve customer retention rates, but when done haphazardly, the strategy may result in a higher churn rate. Although ABM is likely to result in short-term gains in customer retention, it’s easy to over-invest in your ABM efforts and neglect other aspects of your customer retention strategy.
How Can Video Help?
1. Help Humanize Your Brand
One way to achieve success with ABM is by using video content. Videos are a great way to capture attention and connect with potential customers on a personal level. It’s a powerful way to humanize your brand and create an emotional connection with customers and build trust and credibility.
Videos can be used to introduce customers to the company's team, products, and services, and they can also be used to show how the company has helped other customers solve their problems.
Videos can be shared on social media, on the company's website, and on other websites where potential customers might visit. It’s a more engaging way to reach your audience than traditional ads.
2. Showcase Your Products and Services
Video is a powerful medium for showcasing your products and services. Not only does it allow potential customers to get a good sense of what you offer, but it also helps them realize that what you’re offering is the best solution.
Through video ads, you can provide information about the features and benefits of your products. In addition, video can help solve specific customer problems or needs. By including videos on your website or social media, you are giving them the information they need to make a decision about whether or not to do business with you.
3. Boost Conversion Rates
Video is fast becoming the most popular content format on the web. Not only is it engaging, but it’s also a great way to boost your website’s conversion rates. There are a few reasons why video is such an effective tool for increasing conversions.
First, videos are a great way to create a personal connection with your audience. People are more likely to buy from someone they know and trust, and videos help you build that relationship with your viewers.
Second, videos are a very visual medium. They allow you to showcase your products or services in a dynamic and engaging way, which can encourage viewers to take action. Additionally, videos can help explain complex concepts or processes in a simple and easy-to-understand way.
4. Provide Social Proof
Social proof puts forth the idea that we are influenced by the actions of others. When we see others doing something, we are more likely to do it ourselves. This is especially true when it comes to buying decisions.
Online marketers have long been aware of social proof’s power and they've been using it to influence buying behavior by using testimonials. The result is a powerful message that can resonate with a wider audience and help persuade them that your product is worth buying. A great example of using video to show social proof is Ellevest, a digital investment platform designed to help women invest their money. The video has an immediate impact on viewers by the sheer influence and star power of Venus Williams. It was able to deliver the message that there is an alternative investment option available to women, which takes into account the unique financial challenges that women face.
5. Increase Team Productivity
As your company grows, it becomes more and more difficult for your team to manage time efficiently. One way to help free up some time is by using videos for training and information sharing instead of in-person meetings or email chains.
Evergreen webinars are a great option for delivering video content to your team. Unlike live webinars, which require a lot of planning and can be difficult to schedule, evergreen webinars can be pre-recorded and released on a set schedule or on demand. Teams can have more time to focus on more critical tasks, instead of wasting time on meetings.
Video also allows for team members in different locations to work together as if they were in the same room. Webinars provide a forum for team members to share ideas and work on projects together. Both video and webinars are great tools for building relationships among team members and improving productivity.
Steps to Incorporate Videos into Your ABM Strategy
1. Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams
Sales and marketing teams can often be at odds with each other when it comes to what buyers to target and how to target them.
However, by using videos, the two teams can work together more closely to determine who the buyers are, what their key performance indicators (KPIs) are, what target keywords to use, and which distribution channels will work best for reaching prospective customers.
Buyer Persona To Target
Video is a great way to get all of the team members on the same page with regard to buyer personas. By creating videos about their ideal customers and their specific needs and wants, both sales and marketing teams can develop a better understanding of who they should be targeting. They can also identify commonalities among different types of buyers as well as any gaps in their knowledge about what these buyers want.
KPIs
There are several key performance indicators (KPIs) that can help you determine if your sales and marketing teams are aligned. One KPI is customer churn rate. If your churn rate is high, it's likely that your marketing team is not targeting the right customers or that your sales team is not closing deals with the right customers.
Targeted Keywords
Sales teams need to know which keywords to target in their efforts to reach potential customers. Marketing teams need to know which target keywords to use, so they can create content that appeals to those customers. These keywords are crucial in generating organic traffic.
Working together, sales and marketing can identify the best keywords to use on videos for reaching their target audience and creating content that converts leads into paying customers.
Distribution Channels
Your sales team and marketing team should be on the same page when determining which channels are most likely to give the desired results. This involves figuring out which channels will generate the most leads and which channels are better for sales conversion. The two teams can then work together to create videos that are distributed through the chosen social media and traditional channels.
2. Determine the Video Formats to Use for Each Stage of Your ABM Funnel
When you're creating a video marketing strategy, it's important to consider the different video formats you'll use to engage prospects at each stage of the ABM funnel.
At the top of the funnel, you'll want to use short, catchy videos that introduce your company and explain what you do. These videos focus on capturing the viewer's attention and generating interest.
As prospects move down the funnel, you'll need to use more detailed and informative videos that explain your products and services in depth. These videos can be longer, but they still need to be engaging and persuasive.
Finally, at the bottom of the funnel, you'll want to use powerful sales videos that close the deal. These videos should clearly explain the benefits of doing business with your company. They should be compelling and persuasive enough for potential clients to respond to your call to action.
3. Develop Your Creative Brief
A creative brief will help you to focus your efforts and ensure that your video content is on-brand and relevant to your target audience. Here are a few tips for developing your creative brief:
In the brief you must be able to define your target market and target account list. Who are you trying to reach with your video content?
You must also determine the goal for the ABM video marketing campaign. What do you want to achieve with this campaign? Are you trying to generate leads, increase brand awareness , or drive product adoption? Once you identify your goal, all your video content must be designed to achieve that goal.
Part of the creative brief is developing a storyboard for the campaign. By creating a storyboard, you can nail down the overall flow of your video and make sure that each scene hits all the key points you want to communicate to your audience. Additionally, a storyboard can help to ensure that your video is both creative and engaging.
4. Invest in the Right Tools
In order to make videos that are both creative and successful, it is important to invest in the right tools. StoryXpress offers a suite of tools that can help your team create high quality videos.
StoryXpress offers the following products that provide solutions to your video creation needs:
- Screen Recorder
- Image to Video Creator
- Video Hosting
- Embed: video recorder, video editor, video player
- Video Analytics
Another tool that is immensely useful is time tracking software, such as Time Doctor. Mounting an ABM campaign is a project management task that needs an employee productivity tool and a windows time tracker and Myhours.
These tools can help you to easily keep track of your team’s progress and productivity. You can see how much time has been allocated to different tasks and video creation projects. This information can then be used to make adjustments as needed in order to ensure that everything is on schedule.
5. Don’t Forget Your Landing Page!
Your landing page plays an important role in implementing an ABM strategy with videos. A well-designed landing page can help you capture and qualify leads. Your landing page must be optimized for search engines, so you can get as much traffic as possible. Embed your video to your landing page to increase engagement and increase the likelihood of conversion.
To track the success of your landing page, be sure to include tracking codes so you can see how many people visit your page and what actions they take while there. This information can help you determine whether or not the landing page is effective in helping you achieve your goals for the ABM video marketing campaign.
6. Incorporate Your Video in Your Ads
Video ads are one of the most effective forms of advertising today. Not only are they more engaging than traditional print or television ads, but they’re also a great way to target specific customers with relevant content.
There is no doubt that video ads are an extremely effective marketing tool for real estate companies, for instance. Those that use video ads see an increase in traffic to their sites. Additionally, viewers are more likely to contact the company or check real estate listings after watching a video ad.
Real estate agents can create engaging and informative videos about their properties and services. These videos can be used on websites, social media platforms, and other online advertising channels. Videos allow potential buyers to get a better sense of what the property is like and what services are offered.
7. Evaluate and Adjust Your ABM Strategy
ABM can be an extremely effective way to target key accounts and boost income. However, like any other marketing strategy , it’s not perfect. There’s no guarantee that your ABM campaigns will deliver the desired results. This is why it’s important to assess and adjust your ABM approach as needed.The first step is to determine what has and has not been successful. This can be done by reviewing performance data, customer feedback, and churn rate. After determining what has worked, the next step is to adjust the strategy to align with the successes. This may mean modifying the target accounts, changing the messaging, or implementing new strategies, especially in video content.
Key Takeaways/Conclusion
The goal of account-based marketing is to create deeper relationships with high-value accounts, resulting in more closed deals, high customer retention, and increased revenue. ABM is all about creating a personalized experience for each and every customer.
ABM is a strategic approach that starts by identifying and targeting key accounts rather than casting a wide net. In any ABM strategy, video content plays a significant role in creating awareness of your products and services. It can also be used to generate leads and increase conversion.
To be successful with ABM, you need to identify your ideal customer profile and create targeted and hyper relevant content and messaging that resonate with them. You also need to track your results and measure the success of your campaigns and make modifications if needed.
