In an era where B2B brands leverage social media and account-based marketing (ABM) to revolutionize sales outcomes, many still miss tapping into the goldmine that is social media.
25% of B2B marketers say that content on social media gets the most engagement to build brand awareness. So no wonder the time is ripe for savvy marketers to harness these channels.
So buckle up and get ready to dive in as we decode how top brands are amplifying their ABM results using 5 fresh social media tactics.
Why Add Social Media Marketing to Your ABM Strategy?
With 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level executives being influenced by social media when making purchasing decisions, both your sales and marketing teams should recognize that it becomes a no-brainer; social media needs your attention.
Platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter are where target accounts and the people in those buying committees congregate, discuss challenges, and express opinions.
Savvy marketing and sales teams are tuning into these social conversations for invaluable insights to fuel go-to-market strategies. Social media is a goldmine for identifying and learning about ideal prospects before initial outreach.
Tailored social campaigns also allow for specialized targeting and engagement with your target audience and key accounts.
So without further ado, how can we freshen up our social media strategy?
5 Fresh Social Media Tactics for ABM
Integrating inbound marketing and social media into your account-based marketing strategy can yield tremendous results.
Here are 5 tactics you should consider to boost your ABM strategy.
Tactic 1: Tailored Content for Precision Engagement
Personalized content is the key to boosting engagement in account-based marketing. By narrowing in on the specific needs and interests of target accounts, you can drive results more effectively.
Here’s how:
- Dive deep into each account: Unpack their company size, industry, operational regions, tech preferences, and unique challenges.
- Construct buyer profiles: Identify roles, top priorities, key goals, and challenges they’re grappling with.
- Intelligent content marketing: For instance, an IT firm could develop an ebook for CIOs in the banking sector, honing in on critical security issues. Similarly, a marketing firm might design a guide for retailers, focusing on maximizing holiday sales.
- Ensure relevancy: Your content should directly address the challenges and needs of each account, feeling as if it’s custom-made for them.
- Consistency: Stay consistent with your content creation and posting. This is fundamental to building brand awareness. Social media content planners can really help with this, especially if you are across more than one social media platform.
- Promotion is key: Once you have relevant content ready, amplify its reach using targeted ads using tools like Terminus Ad Experiences to promote directly to target accounts..
According to McKinsey, companies that grow faster drive 40% more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts.
So with tailored and personalized content on social media platforms, you’re presenting exactly what your ideal prospects need whilst positioning yourself as a solutions provider for their unique challenges.
Tactic 2: Leveraging Influencer Collaborations
In the modern marketing landscape, the power of influencer marketing has emerged as a potent tool, particularly within account-based marketing.
By forging alliances with industry mavens, your brand stands to gain amplified awareness and deeper engagements with your top-tier accounts, as well as other target companies.
Here are some tips on how to begin leveraging influencers in your ABM strategy.
- Begin by pinpointing influencers: Search for those directly tied to your target accounts. This group might encompass industry analysts, external experts, and standout employees within the target firms. Prioritize those with significant social media clout and credibility in their domain.
- Harness research tools: Platforms like BuzzSumo and Followerwonk reveal high-impact profiles resonating with your sector and desired accounts. LinkedIn is a goldmine for unearthing influencers linked to specific corporations. Gauge not just their follower count but also how their personal brand meshes with your objectives.
- Cultivate partnerships: Having shortlisted influencers, approach them for potential collaborative projects. Weigh the merits of influencer-driven content promos, where they spotlight your products to their audience. Explore co-hosted webinars focusing on trending subjects. Perhaps even brainstorm a social media day-in-the-life, where influencers immerse their audience in your brand experience.
- The trust influencers carry: An endorsement or shared content from an influencer can significantly boost your profile among target accounts. Consider an HR tech startup seeking inroads with top-tier corporations. By syncing with HR influencers recognized within these entities and showcasing the software’s strengths, they can influence the pivotal stakeholders.
This strategy leans into the credibility of influencers, offering your brand a unique blend of authenticity and expansive reach. Having these experts share insights on the value you provide helps sway key decision-makers they already know and trust.
A tactic not to be underestimated!
Tactic 3: Harnessing the Power of Social Listening
Actively listening in on social media conversations presents a treasure trove of real-time insights you can leverage to understand target accounts and inform your outreach.
Your marketing and sales team should be monitoring discussions on networks like Twitter and LinkedIn. This keeps them plugged into the challenges, interests, trends, and opportunities directly impacting your industry and ideal prospects.
Rather than making guesses about what accounts might need, social listening allows you to hear straight from the source what your prospects care about and the issues keeping them up at night.
This account intelligence then enables you to craft messaging, offers, and campaigns calibrated for relevance. You can share content addressing the specific pain points or provide solutions to common objections raised by targets in their own words.
For example, a branding expert might learn that a target account wants to improve project collaboration. This would then guide messaging about collaboration features in a tailored social ad.
Social listening can take some time when done manually. Here are some tips to speed it up!
Social Listening Tools
Software like Brand24 and Sprout Social can automate the process for you. They facilitate tracking of brand mentions, industry dialogues, and target account interactions.
Analysis
Dedicate some weekly time on your calendar to analyze emerging patterns and evaluate metrics such as sentiment analysis, share of voice, and reach. You can’t do this well when you have a spare 5 minutes here and there.
Set Alerts
Instead of constantly checking, set up real-time or daily alerts for specific keywords or account mentions. This way, you’re instantly notified about crucial discussions or mentions, helping you react promptly and ensuring you never miss a beat.
Incorporate all these findings and learnings into your strategy for timely, spot-on engagement.
By regularly analyzing and adapting, you ensure your messages are in sync with the market pulse.
Tactic 4: Sponsored Posts and Ads
In the bustling world of social media, organic posts often struggle for visibility. Enter sponsored posts and social ads, your allies in ensuring your content lands directly before the eyes of those high-priority accounts.
Rather than casting your net wide, this tactic allows you to pinpoint and deliver messages straight to your desired audience. But how do you get started? Simple.
Craft Valuable Content
Base this on insights from thorough research. An IT security firm, for instance, might develop posts focused on pressing vulnerabilities concerning CISOs at major banks.
Promote Real Utility
Steer clear of aggressive sales pitches. Instead:
- Share helpful tips
- Offer actionable advice
- Present engaging, educational videos
- Highlight compelling lead magnets: trials, demos, or webinars
Targeted Promotion
Using ABM platforms or LinkedIn or Facebook Ads Manager, you can ensure your content is viewed by the right people. You’ll have the ability to target based on:
- Specific job titles
- Company affiliations
- Group memberships
- Individual interests
- Prior engagements
Constant Monitoring
Keep a close watch on metrics tied to your paid campaigns. Look out for engagement levels, website visits from target firms, and the influence on the deal pipeline. Celebrate the uptick in leads and opportunities from your top-tier accounts.
As an example, Noodle.ai utilized LinkedIn’s Content Ads to promote an ebook, effectively targeting C-level executives, especially in supply chain management. Their strategy resulted in three times the ROI compared to other methods, with 40% of their qualified leads coming from this approach.
Tactic 5: The Power of Visual Storytelling
According to Social Media Today, infographics will get you 12% more traffic and 200% more shares than text-based posts, so visuals are a must.
They not only draw the gaze but keep it there, paving the way for higher engagement.
Hence, it’s clear: when strategizing for social media ABM, visual content should take center stage.
It’s about more than just aesthetic appeal though. Visual formats like images, videos, and infographics convey core messages in a snap, sidestepping the need for audiences to wade through dense text.
The upshot? Your content stands tall in cluttered feeds, beckoning shares and clicks.
Here’s how to harness the power of visual content:
- Innovative Assets: Delve into product demo videos, ROI calculators, or vibrant infographics. Curate success story galleries for the human touch. Don’t forget your brand identity and to include it on all digital assets. If you haven’t already, you can create a logo and a new brand kit that is visually optimized for Social Media and targetted toward your ideal audience to boost your engagement.
- Alignment: Anchor your visuals to the concerns and curiosities of your target personas. If you’re a finance company, maybe it’s an insightful infographic shared on LinkedIn, catered to appeal to an insurance firm executive.
- Platform Optimization: Adjust and adapt. Ensure each visual fits its platform—be it the right sizing or using captions. Remember, Instagram loves verticals and squares.
Once crafted, distribute this content generously—both organically and through paid channels. Lure viewers back to your website for an in-depth experience, perhaps nurturing their initial interest further.
Always keep tabs on how your visual content performs. Metrics like engagement rate or web traffic influxes from target accounts will guide your future strategies.
Measuring Your Social Media ABM Success
To continuously improve your social media ABM approach, it’s crucial to monitor performance through key metrics. Your marketing team should track engagement, leads, and pipeline activity from target accounts.
Useful KPIs to track:
- Account engagement on social posts
- New leads generated from target accounts
- Converted sales attributed to social campaigns
- Lower customer acquisition costs
ABM tools like Terminus Measurement Studio can help with this, it especially gets tough to analyze when you are active on multiple social media platforms. Google Analytics can also help monitor and demonstrate social media ABM impact.
But it’s critical to have a process in place. I recommend defining your benchmarks and analyzing results weekly or monthly to optimize efforts.
Final Thoughts
In today’s digital landscape, an ABM strategy without social media misses huge opportunities to connect with ideal prospects. As shown through these 5 tactics, social platforms allow for unprecedented account research, engagement, and relationship-building.
Savvy brands are already unlocking social media’s potential to supercharge account-based marketing.
Don’t leave this high-impact channel untapped and start to build more pipeline today!
Guest Post by Sean Mackay
With over a decade in business, SaaS, and sales, Sean saw a gap in the content marketing world and now runs a digital marketing agency. He guides SaaS teams in crafting customer-centric content strategies and delivers turnkey solutions that increase conversions, not just page views.
