We had a ton of fun this week learning from all of the speakers at MarketingProfs 2015 B2B Marketing Forum. As we were reviewing the feed, we realized that there were some “hidden” ABM lessons and wanted to highlight some of them here on our blog.
Here are 9 Tweets from #MPB2B and Why They Matter for ABM:
Authenticity, transparency and simplicity is the new B2B voice. WRITE the way you SPEAK. @dougkessler #mpb2b
— Amanda Jerome (@amandamaks) October 22, 2015
1. When you’re targeting a specific account, remember those are real people within those contacts. People who want to be communicated with in a conversational way. “Authenticity, transparency, and simplicity” are all important. These contacts and accounts will be much more likely to respond if you can talk to them as humans.
Think about your resources: budget, writers, designers, technology ~via @jeffreylcohen #mpb2b #contentmarketing
— Holly Chessman (@HollyChessman) October 22, 2015
2. Your team needs to be acting with the an account-based marketing mindset. If half of your team if focused on generating leads and the other half of your team is focused on winning key accounts, there will be constant conflict in terms of priorities. You team, no matter the position, should all be operating on the same wavelength with the same priorities
"B2B buyers don't check their emotional brain at the door and make decisions based solely on logic." – @TRiesterer #mpb2b
— the REAL MTG (@MattTGrant) October 22, 2015
3. You need to fully understand the personas you are targeting within an account and create messaging that appeals to those personas. You also need to expose them to that messaging on their terms so they will be more receptive and responsive.
Never make a mktg claim w/o backing it up w/evidence. Use social proof. Signup best practice: Prominence, promise, proof! @crestodina #MPB2B
— Dave Cutler (@CutlerDave) October 22, 2015
4. Customer experience isn’t just the latest buzzword. How you treat decision-makers in accounts throughout the buying process and after they have signed the contract will make a huge impact in your ability to turn them into advocates later on. Advocacy is the best form of social proof and can help drive additional best-fit customers into your pipeline.
#mpb2b Account-based marketing shortens forms. Remove fields for which you already have data. @jfewlessb2b #client pic.twitter.com/TaAsg5HZdc
— Christopher S. Penn (@cspenn) October 22, 2015
5. Conversions should never be the goal of account-based marketing because you usually have all of the data you need. In most cases, you probably do not even need a form because the main goal is to move the account through the pipeline. Don’t be a roadblock to your sales team by driving named accounts to a piece of gated content. A better alternative is to direct them toward an ungated blog that will educate them.
Breathe life back into your #BuyerPersonas – if they haven't been updated in 3 yrs…they are out of date via @KatieMartell #mpb2b
— erika goldwater (@erikawg) October 22, 2015
6. Buyer personas are crucial to success in ABM and should be developed in collaboration with your sales team. Having weekly sales and marketing meetings will provide a good “gut-check” on whether your personas are accurate. You should also consider a quarterly persona review meeting with your sales counterpart to review the personas for effectiveness and determine ways they can be improved.
https://twitter.com/kaylaplante10/status/657209840025120768
7. Your ABM Center of Excellence is your marketing, sales and customer success teams. When these three teams collaborate frequently, you can ensure that best practices are shared, best-fit customers are identified and everyone involved becomes stronger and more valuable to your organization.
We're finding ways around conversation. You're missing out when you only send emails and skip the conversation #mpb2b
— ZoomInfo (@ZoomInfo) October 22, 2015
8. We often think of ABM as something that only happens online. While sending targeted emails and running targeted account ads can be effective, you can also run direct mail campaigns to break through the noise of your account’s day-to-day communications. Another approach is hold VIP dinners with decision-makers at targeted accounts as your guests. This facilitates human-to-human interaction between you and the account which may be just what they need to sign off on the contract.
Per @avinash the funnel sucks so let's reinvent how B2B marketing supposed to be – #mpb2b https://t.co/p7LoJBw2iE
— BlockDAG Network (@blockdagToken) October 21, 2015
9. Our CMO, Sangram, said it best here when he quoted Avinash Kaushik. The traditional sales and marketing funnel that is still in practice today in many B2B organizations just isn’t effective. Instead of trying to optimize it, it’s time to flip it on its head and start thinking smarter by focusing on best-fit customers first.
Live-Tweeting the competition's (or your own) event is an example of newsjacking from @dmscott #MPB2B
— Sharon Mostyn (@sharonmostyn) October 21, 2015
10. If you’ve gotten this far in the blog, you’ll realize that newsjacking is exactly what we are doing here. The reason why we are doing this is because we have target accounts and prospects who attended this conference and we want to make sure we are part of the conversation. Knowing the persona of your target accounts involves knowing where they hang out both online and off-line.
The reality is that B2B marketers of today can’t afford to ignore account-based marketing and we hope to see a more lively discussion around this at the next MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum.
