Put away your net and sharpen your spear.
If you want to tackle Account-Based Marketing (ABM), you’ll need to shift your approach away from the lead-centric demands of mass marketing. Bringing in as many leads as possible can hinder your ABM pursuits, and you’ll require some extra steps to be an effective marketer on your accounts.
Fortunately, Jon Miller gave a presentation on what he calls the “Big 5 Metrics” of Account-Based Marketing at a #FlipMyFunnel event in San Francisco. With these five in mind, you’ll be on your way to understanding the fundamental differences between traditional marketing and ABM, as well as how to quantify your success.
Nets and Spears
Let’s establish a foundation first.
How should you differentiate traditional marketing and ABM? Think about fishing. With mass marketing, you’re using a net—trying to draw in as many catches and as much revenue as possible. You have a clear set of steps to follow in transforming your opportunities into customers.
And if mass marketing is a net, ABM is a spear.
[Tweet “”And if mass marketing is a net, ABM is a spear.” -@jonmiller #FlipMyFunnel “]
“Don’t count the people you reach,” says David Ogilvy, “reach the people that count.” When you’re pursuing accounts, consider the whole picture of the potential client. You’re still, in a sense, chasing a lead, but your pursuit is based on focused research into what the client needs.
It’s an outreach approach. Not an inbound response.
The Big 5 Metrics
With that infrastructure in place, we can move on to dissecting what makes each of Jon’s metrics so effective in measuring your success in Account-Based Marketing.
The first of which is Coverage.
Consider the accounts you already have in your database. Consider the role-players within those accounts. How many of those people are director-level or higher? Are you able to reach the key decision makers within your target accounts?
And if you need to develop better relationships with those higher up role-players, ask yourself which programs got the first leads engaged in the first place.
Second, consider the sharpness of your spear by measuring Awareness.
Jon describes it like this: “How many of my target accounts have any awareness of us at all?” If you send your targets relevant emails, are they even opening the messages? Are they reading your content? Are they clicking your links and spending time on your personalized website?
If you can measure the time your target accounts do or don’t spend with your content, you can define and quantify “awareness” by any threshold you see fit. Positive trends in time spent and awareness are marks of healthy ABM.
Perhaps the most important metric—and one of the biggest buzzwords in marketing—is Engagement.
[Tweet “”Perhaps the most important metric…is Engagement.” -@jonmiller #FlipMyFunnel”]
Like awareness, you’re looking for positive trends in how much time target and landed accounts spend time with you. If you want to succeed here, constantly evaluate the kind of draw your programs have in keeping accounts invested in them.
Don’t just measure engagement in clicks. Clicks tell you nothing about how much time target accounts are spending with your content. Instead, track everything your target accounts do in relation to your outreach and boil down that activity into minutes.
Did the account visit your website? That’s a minute of engagement you can build upon. Did they fill out a form you gave them? Another minute. Did they download an eBook you offered? That’s five minutes. Did they go as far as to attend a webinar? That’s a whole thirty minutes.
Once accounts reach a threshold of engagement—which you set yourself—you can start following up and cultivating relationships with more key decision makers within the account.
Next, consider your efficiency with Program Reach.
Are your programs even reaching the target accounts? Are you reaching the people who, in David Ogilvy’s words, count? Consider the waste you accumulate when chasing your targets.
“If I have 1,400 people register for my online event,” Jon says, “and 600 show up, what percentage of those 600 are directors or higher from target customers? That focused percentage is a great way to triage your programs to know if you’re going after the right accounts.”
After you’ve gained an understanding of your program efficiency, you’re ready to analyze the fifth metric: Program Impact.
Look at how your ABM programs are affecting your accounts’ sales outcomes. How does your content impact the deal velocity, win rates, average contract values, retention, and net promoter scores of your participant accounts?
Put another way, Jon says, “If I hold a webinar, do the accounts that attend that webinar end up having better win rates?”
A Simple Acronym
All five metrics sum themselves up in a simple idea: are you actively engaged in cultivating relationships and community with the role-players within your target and landed accounts?
To keep the “Big Five” straight, remember I.C.A.R.E.
Impact. Coverage. Awareness. Reach. Engagement.
This blog is based off a #FlipMyFunnel podcast episode. You can check out the full episode here!
