ABM is great, but not for everything
ABM is often promised as the most effective way to generate ROI, so it’s easy to see why you would want to apply ABM to as many accounts as possible. But that’s the wrong approach. ABM is about investing your budget where it will generate the biggest return – and that means, counterintuitively, you can’t apply it to every account or your ROI will suffer.
Running ABM at O2, being tough on account selection is critically important. We started in 2015 with one account. That pilot delivered ROI of 1000:1. As you can imagine, we had a lot of salespeople who wanted their accounts opted into the ABM programme. The reason we were so successful was because we made sure everything about the approach was right: the stakeholder buy-in, the tailored value proposition, the research, even the timings of the communications (for us and the customer). If we wanted to replicate the same results at scale, we needed to stick to our guns.
Four years later, we’re still applying the same rigorous selection criteria. We go through an in-depth workshop process with salespeople to ensure we don’t compromise on accounts that simply aren’t ready for it. ‘Unripe’ accounts are benched to revisit in the future. This approach has created our most successful ROI for a B2B marketing programme. I spoke about this and other realistic, actionable advice on how to run a large ABM programme at B2B Ignite in July.
The only way to build sustained commercial results from ABM is to do it practically, and not get carried away with the hype.
Dry and bland? I don’t think so
Earlier this year I attended a marketing network event and signed up to a roundtable on data analytics in B2B marketing. It opened with the main speaker (who I won’t name) saying: “We don’t normally run a session on B2B marketing as it’s not that interesting to the majority of marketers, it’s seen as dry and bland”. I couldn’t disagree more.
It’s true to say that getting your B2B product to stand out can be challenging in a sea of tech-driven, corporate-looking creative where everyone’s doing the same thing. But the best B2B marketers know that wherever they work, people are engaged by vibrant, human brands, and that’s what inspired our campaign, ‘Power your decisions with ICIS.com’, for the launch of a new, enhanced platform and brand-new mobile app. The campaign, which we worked on with Perq Studio, helped us reposition our brand in what is a traditional and rational industry, giving us cut-through in a very closed circuit industry.
Our first challenge was how to balance an emotive connection with the gravitas carried by the global brand. The priority was to put the customer at the heart of the campaign, reflecting the key role ICIS plays in enabling people to do their job with confidence.
Yes, I believe analytics in B2B marketing is vital, so ended up enjoying that roundtable, but when we can harness the power of emotive engagement alongside our detailed understanding of audiences we marketers can drive growth and brand engagement – nothing bland about that!
Don’t take no for an answer
Implementing a master brand strategy following multiple acquisitions is no easy feat – especially not in a crowded and highly competitive market space where no one knows who you are and new fintechs dominate the headlines.
That’s what I had the challenge of doing as CMO of Valitor: Transforming a 36-year-old issuer and acquirer who was the undisputed market leader in Iceland into an international payment solutions company, operating across 22 European countries. Fast forward and Valitor is now recognised as a leading provider of complete payment solutions for issuing, acquiring, omni-channel, POS – online, offline and everything in between.
Achieving this successful rebrand involved conducting a strategic insights study and various brand perceptions studies to inform our new mission statement and value proposition. On 1 January we launched new websites in Icelandic and English and finally consolidated under one brand.
At Ignite, I explained how we devised and implemented a master brand strategy, how we drove brand awareness through digital, social, conference speaking, media coverage, sponsorships, thought leadership and CSR activities, which ultimately resulted in more sales leads. I’ll also touch upon how you can tell your brand story and “punch above your weight” when no one knows you and how to overcome common challenges you might face when rebranding.
Never underestimate how emotionally attached people are to an existing brand and the stories they will tell about why a master brand strategy won’t work. The best way to overcome this is to conduct primary research/brand perception studies to fight emotion with facts.
