What We Mean By “Account-Based Marketing Orchestration”
Account-based marketing orchestration refers to a deliberate series of marketing activities and sales touches throughout a target account’s buying process.
In other words, it’s an account-based roadmap that will help you engage the right people on the right channels at the right time.
This means working with your ABM team to:
- Create a timeline of marketing and sales activities throughout your marketing campaigns
- Plan sales development outreach cadences
- Write voicemail scripts and phone call talk tracks
- Draft email templates
- Coordinate direct mail sends
- Execute account-based advertising campaigns
Creating a campaign orchestration roadmap is the key to keeping your sales, marketing, and customer success teams on the same page throughout your entire ABM campaign. You will need to develop a clear timeline that lays out the touchpoints each persona at your target accounts will have with your company.
But as with any journey, you have to be open to detours. Not all accounts will follow the exact same path, and your team should to be prepared to change course if necessary. Just make sure all your team members are on the same page with the changes you’re making and why.
Do this first! Before you start orchestrating your ABM campaign, make sure you set goals and understand the KPIs you’ll need to track throughout the campaign. Use these editable worksheets to help you plan for 7 different account-based marketing strategies.
Stage-Based ABM Campaigns
The beauty of stage-based account-based marketing campaigns is how dynamic they are. As accounts flow in and out of stages of your sales cycle, you can deliver the messaging and one-to-one interactions that are most relevant to them.
Time-Based ABM Campaigns
Time-based account-based marketing campaigns are most often orchestrated with a very specific goal in mind. For example, you can launch a time-based campaign to drive event attendance from target accounts, kick off demand generation at the beginning of a new quarter, or renew your contracts with current customers.
Then, when a target account completes that goal — by setting a meeting with your sales team or renewing their contract, for example — you would remove them from the campaign. (One exception to this rule is when you’re promoting an event. In that case, your campaign will extend through event follow-up.)
How To Use The Campaign Orchestration Template
The Account-Based Marketing Campaign Orchestration Template is a Google Sheets document with four tabs — two customizable account-based marketing templates you can fill out and two sample campaigns to inspire you.
To create an editable version of the doc, simply go to File > Make a Copy. Now you’re ready to start filling in your account-based interactions and orchestrating your campaign!
Tab 1: Stage-Based Campaign Orchestration Sample Campaign
This sample campaign plan demonstrates what a Human Relations Management Software company’s stage-based ABM campaign might look like. The campaign spans four stages: Awareness, Marketing Qualified Account, Sales Qualified Account, and Sales Accepted Account. Each stage has its own marketing activities and sales touches based on how far an account is in the buyer’s journey.
Tab 2: Stage-Based Campaign Orchestration Template
Fill out the (Stage) cells with the stages of your sales process. Make sure you align these stages with the way you define them in your CRM. Depending on how you’ve set up your CRM, these stages may be defined in the Opportunity Stage, Account Status, Working Status, and/or Lead Status fields. Of course, no two B2B sales processes are the same, so you may need to add additional stages to the spreadsheet based on your company’s sales cycle and the scope of your campaign.
Tab 3: Time-Based Campaign Orchestration Sample Campaign
Instead of spanning a large portion of the sales process, this time-based campaign is focused on a specific goal: driving target accounts to an in-person workshop. All the sales and marketing activities leading up the workshop are intended to open the door to a conversation and drive registration to the event.
Tab 4: Time-Based Campaign Orchestration Template
Before you get started planning your own time-based campaign, make sure you write down your goal at the top of the template. To plan for that goal, it might help to start at the end date and work your way backward. What activities and interactions will you orchestrate to help progress your accounts? You might need to narrow or extend the length of the template to fit your campaign timeline.
Check out the template now to start planning your next ABM campaign. If you have any questions, feel free to leave us a comment or, if you’re a Terminus customer, contact your CSM. We’re here to help!
