Lisa Borthwick
Go-to-Market specialist, European Custom Solutions
The traditional Marketing Funnel is over 117 years old, so it’s no surprise that marketers are starting to take a look at their marketing strategies and how to improve the way they reach their customers. It’s time to turn the funnel on its head and look at a new way of marketing which takes customer experience head on.
According to IDC, one in five tech marketers will move to a more customer-centric approach by 2020 (IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Chief Marketing Officer Advisory 2016 Predictions.)
This leads us nicely to a new trend in the market, although not such a new concept. Account Based Marketing (ABM) is at the forefront of the modern marketeer’s mind and if done right can deliver much higher returns than a mass market approach. ABM, according to IDC, is defined as follows “organizing marketing efforts around individual customer accounts.” (IDC MaturityScape: Account-Based Marketing.) ABM allows you to focus on your top accounts and target your marketing specifically to these accounts or indeed to specific personas. This, in turn, leads to better customer experience.
But what it comes down to is understanding your customers, their personas, where they are in their buying cycle and delivering the right content to the right person at the right time…not always an easy task!
In order to embark on an ABM program, you first need to establish what your overall goals and objectives are, ensure the sales team is aligned with the marketing strategy and look at existing data to help identify your target accounts (prospects, customers, partners or all three.) Lastly, a key element to effective ABM is content curation which will allow you to organise content and target it in a more effective way.
What are the benefits? Here are a few: ABM will increase the quality of leads, ROI, customer retention, engagement, customer experience, and more importantly referrals.
In summary, ABM is a key trend in the market being driven by customer experience. It’s time to move away from the traditional funnel, and turn it on its head. Use existing data to identify target accounts and key personas, and finally remember content is king. Ensuring the right content is delivered to the right person at the right time is paramount to your success.
For more information or for help with your content development or understanding if ABM is the best approach for you please contact our IDC Go-to-Market specialist, Lisa Borthwick on + 44 (0)776 5230509 or email lborthwick@idc.com