What is account-based marketing, anyway?
Over the past month, I’ve had the incredible opportunity of interning at Terminus and diving head-first into the emerging world of account-based marketing. My first day at Terminus was also my first day moving to a brand new city. I’m originally from a small town in North Carolina with less than 10% of Atlanta’s population, so this in itself was a huge transition for me. I knew that I wanted an internship for the summer and I knew that I wanted to work in a big city, but that was pretty much all I knew. I was happy to find a home in Atlanta at Terminus.
I had no experience in startups and no knowledge of account-based marketing or what it means to #FlipMyFunnel. So when I started, I knew I had my work cut out for me. Lucky for me, Terminus is the most welcoming place I have ever had the pleasure of working at, with the most passionate employees. Because of that, everyone here has been eager to teach me all they know about account-based marketing. I’m a month into my internship and would now consider myself a huge account-based marketing advocate.
On my first day, I started alongside six other brand-new “Terminators,” as we call ourselves, who were just as eager to learn about this unknown world of ABM as I was. In the mix were two advertising operations analysts, an account executive, a sales intern, and a software engineer. We all had different amounts of knowledge about account-based marketing, but we were all thrown into this amazing experience together. A month into all of this and I would say we all have a very firm grasp on #ABM.
This time last year, Terminus had ten employees. With my new class of Terminators, there are now 55 employees at Terminus. These numbers clearly show the growth and evolution of account-based marketing. The future of ABM is so bright; if you’re not already on the train, you should buy your ticket now.
You may be thinking, “Why is she telling me all of this information about her internship?” Because if you’re like me and have a very small amount of knowledge about account-based marketing but are ready to jump into ABM, I’m here to tell you to DO IT! Here’s what I did in the first month of my internship to educate myself on account-based marketing.
- I read Account-Based Marketing For Dummies. You can read the first chapter here for free to see what it’s all about!
- I listened in on account executives’ calls while they explained our platform to potential customers.
- I attended events where marketing thought leaders explained what account-based marketing meant to them.
- I participated in ABM Twitter chats.
- Invited and met one-on-one with people at Terminus talking about the benefits of ABM
Through this, I’ve realized that the original B2B sales funnel is totally inconvenient. So here I am, just one month after first hearing the term account-based marketing for the first time, giving advice to people who are skeptical about joining the #FlipMyFunnel community. (There’s even a VIP Club, y’all!)
Here are the top 3 beginner tips that have won me over and made me an advocate for account-based marketing.
1. Quality vs. Quantity
The first mental note I made about account-based marketing? It’s simply quality over quantity.
Instead of sending out thousands of emails, cold calls, and letters to every lead they can scramble to generate, account-based marketers understand who their best-fit customers are and only target those companies. Sure, getting thousands of leads may help you hit your monthly lead quota, but in the end, are they actually bringing your company revenue?
Account-based marketing helps to not waste time on companies that are uninterested and to spend more time making lasting relationships with companies who are already your customers or could potentially be a customer in the future. We have always been taught that quality is better than quantity, so why would you not apply that to your marketing tactics too?
2. The #ABM Community
Account-based marketing is a community, and a growing community at that. Just check out #ABM on Twitter and you will find dozens of people talking about account-based marketing. Although I’m only an intern at the bottom of the totem poll, I’ve interacted with huge marketing mavens about account-based marketing. Not only have I gotten responses, they’ve even followed me on Twitter. Just last week we had our #FlipMyFunnel Conference in Austin, and I was responsible for interacting with people who tweeted about the conference.
Confession time: There were so many Tweets about #FlipMyFunnel that I broke the Terminus Twitter and couldn’t post for hours. (Sorry about that one, team!)
If you’re considering starting your company on the account-based marketing track but you fear that you may need guidance, know that you will have an abundance of people willing to help. There are tons of other ways to learn about account-based marketing, too, like #FlipMyFunnel events, ABM blogs, and the newly announced Account-Based Marketing University. The #ABM community is truly unlike any that I have ever seen.
3. Account-Based Marketing is Here To Stay
I have heard that account-based marketing is just a trend. But unlike the middle part in my hair that I rocked in seventh grade, this is not a fad.
Account-based marketing provides companies with a solution that they have been looking for for years: marketing to a select group of companies with the right message will create more valuable opportunities for your company than just sending out blind messages to companies who may not care a thing about your product.
In my first month here, I’ve learned more about marketing, ABM, and innovation than I have in the last 21 years. I am so thankful for the opportunity that Terminus has given me, and I can’t wait to see where the next two months of my internship take me. If you have any questions for me or would like to know any more insight from a beginner’s perspective, don’t hesitate to tweet me at @malstrangee with the hashtag #ABM!
Do you want to join the Terminus team in Atlanta?
Does this sound like your dream job? We’re always looking for positive, supportive, and self-starting people to add more fuel to our fire. If you think you’d be a good fit for our team, check out our careers page. We can’t wait to hear from you!
