Yesterday was B2B Marketing’s annual ABM conference here in London, UK. An annual gathering of over 500 B2B marketers discussing account based marketing (ABM). I presented on getting started with abm technology platforms. There is always plenty of healthy debate on the topic not least because of how broad account based marketing is.
That leads to plenty of opinions that are built on top of different foundations.
On November 5th, B2B Marketing will be hosting its third annual ABM conference. We’ve been to all three and it has grown into a huge event of over 500 marketers discussing the ins and outs of adopting account based marketing into your company. This year, I am talking about matching technology to your ABM maturity.
It’s not an easy time to be a b2b marketer. The sector is grappling with several challenges right now. Acquisition costs are rising across the industry. And everybody is trying the same tactics, which is ironic if you’re trying to stand out from the crowd.
The way most marketers are attempting to garner leads today is through content. But now the web is saturated with low quality writing on your specialist subject, which makes the buying process harder than ever for your potential clients to navigate. You want that customer experience to be as good as you can get it. And that’s where account based marketing (or ABM) comes in.
As B2B marketers, we’re rapidly waking up to the power of Account Based Marketing (ABM) alongside our Inbound Marketing efforts. Our collective ABM kindling developed in response – in part – to the waning effectiveness of Inbound marketing. The cause of which is content shock, a term coined by Marketing Strategist Mark Shaefer, suggesting there is simply too much content chasing thought leader status in every industry.
With account based advertising increasing its own reach into the UK and European markets, what is it? Why is adoption increasing?
GDPR is the new EU-wide regulation rolling out on 25th May 2018 but so much of the content available online is vague and difficult to understand. You can only collect and use personal information if you have done so according to one of several different options. Some are not available to companies, one, consent is black and white and requires explicit consent whilst another, legitimate interests means deciding yourself whether you have a suitable reason to be able to collect or use personal information.
We have spent the last decade building out inbound marketing programs and are huge advocates of this marketing strategy. We have also spent longer building account based marketing campaigns.
What excites us is the potential to expand those account based marketing campaigns across larger and larger numbers of accounts, whilst still maintaining the stronger connection that happens when an account based marketing campaign targets a single account.
Riaz Kanani, co-founder here at Radiate B2B, was featured on the Internet Marketing Podcast discussing account based marketing.
He spoke about:
If the player does not work, click here to also listen to the podcast.
Recently my friends at La Fosse Associates (a specialist recruitment firm) invited me to their offices to talk a little about marketing automation and how understanding and use of data is driving the future of B2B marketing. They were kind enough to record and publish the interview – which you can view below.
Which channels do you naturally think about when you’re crafting your Account Based Marketing strategy? Do you focus only on channels that can deliver personal messages on a one-to-one basis? Or do you broaden your palette to include the fast-growing opportunities of Account Based Advertising (ABA)?
