ABM is like the coral reef of the marketing industry; a relatively unknown environment that presents a sense of trepidation, yet also a wealth of great things to discover. The scope of what’s there to explore can intimidate some, but having the right resources on hand will ensure you reach the lucrative deals that lurk below.
Of course, targeting prospects in a personalised way means plunging beneath the surface of your usual research, and this can come with a heavy price tag. Lisa Skinner, VP of marketing at Localytics is under no illusions of the cost. “Most of your ABM tactics, if they’re highly personalised and targeted, are going to be more expensive, but the whole idea is that the return is greater,” she says.
It’s during the initial momentum-building stage that budget must be carefully allocated. And with ABM rising in popularity in the B2B sphere, the pressure is on to devote sizable budgets to the strategy. A big budget means it’s easy to go above and beyond your competitor, but for those who don’t have it, smart budgeting can be the answer.
Factors to consider in the budget plan
You wouldn’t buy a rain jacket if you lived in the desert. Yet many waste their budget on resources they don’t need – tech being one of the most commonly misconceived ‘essentials’. It’s vital you pinpoint the exact areas of your ABM programme requiring financing and differentiate them from those that are less important.
Budgeting for tech
When initiating a new strategy it can be easy to pour budget into a mountain of tech that no one in the company has the expertise to use. It’s a huge misconception that you even need tech to start out in ABM. Lisa says: “If you’re dipping your toe in the water with a pilot, you don’t need any technology at all.
“That’s where we started, and we only looked at expanding to other channels when we wanted to scale,” she explains.
Vera Loftis, MD at Bluewolf, notes that tech often comes up during the discussion of essential tools for success, and marketing automation seems to be the common answer. But like Lisa, Vera agrees it really isn’t necessary during the implementation stages.
“I don’t think it’s an investment you have to make on day one, but I do think making sure you have the proper resources to both benchmark the data and get the data back from a return on investment standpoint is critical,” she says.
While technology is in no way the focus of ABM, many find it useful in navigating their decision-making and activities. Claire Nash, group strategy director at Momentum ABM advises to “think about how to apply technology to free up human minds for the more valuable parts of ABM”. Although she’s careful to note that tech should be a secondary consideration in reaching goals.
Taking the time
As the classic saying goes: ‘time is money’ and if you know anything about ABM you’ll recognise that researching a prospect is not a five-minute job. Your team will have to spend time digging deep to uncover the companies’ structure, decision-makers and pain points.
What’s more, they should be creating content uniquely designed to complement their findings. “It’s more labour intensive,” says Lisa. “The media, direct mail and some of the other channels we’re using are all more expensive but if you look at the return and the ROI you’re able to demonstrate why it makes sense to make this investment.”
The time to even complete research, let alone a sales cycle can feel frustratingly long. Vera notes that it’s something businesses don’t always consider when budgeting. “I think people vastly underestimate the amount of time, new resources, and training it can take,” she says.
Allocating your budget to accounts
It’s going to take a lot more treats to train a heavyweight elephant than it is a mouse. And the same theory can be applied to accounts. “Not all accounts are created equal,” explains Claire. “It can be tempting to take your £200,000 annual spend and divide that up across your account list. But before you do, look at your accounts and how best to prioritise and segment them. You might find that just five accounts warrant 50% of your budget as they have a higher likelihood of return. You might also discount some accounts immediately, for example if the sales teams are not engaged. You might then look for economies of scale by grouping accounts of a similar profile – for example a shared challenge, sector or proposition alignment.”
It’s imperative to remember that allocating more of the budget than you can reap will sabotage your successes. “You can’t spend more on an account than it’s going to generate in revenue,” warns Vera. “Make sure the investment you’re putting forward does attribute to real revenue.”
Claire says it’s a case of calculating expenditure at account level and what the likely return would be – this can unnerve some as they begin to see that one account requires a hefty serving of the budget. “If this leads to multi-million deal opportunities then you need to hold your nerve and remember that ABM is about value not volume,” she assures.
With this method, the most valuable one-to-one accounts receive the most funding, but Lisa points out there can be anomalies to the rule. “It’s not always as black and white as that, there may be someone in the one-to-few tier that’s getting good traction but maybe needs a little help, so marketing will jump in,” she says.
Finding the money to start
If you’ve been given a budget to implement account-based marketing you’re one of the lucky few. For many it’s a case of scraping together money from other areas, until there’s solid evidence of success which gives an argument for a bigger budget.
This is a process Lisa knows far too well, having experienced it herself. “There was no extra pot of money. I had to take money from other places that weren’t performing as strongly as I needed them to. I knew what I could put at risk and I knew what I needed to generate from a pipeline perspective, in order to make the ROI from an ABM pilot positive and strong.”
Piloting a plan
It’s better to walk before you can run. And while sometimes it may feel ABM is the answer to all your problems, it isn’t for every company. Piloting allows you to find the wrinkles and iron them out before roll-out, and this is where you can decide if it’s actually the right shade of marketing for you.
Lisa’s pilot ABM programme meant she was able to demonstrate potential impact through business meetings and the pipeline created, as well as being able to show they were supporting other investments in the business, such as sponsorships. This in turn galvanised a number of things that propelled the project forward. “One element was short-term; we were able to shift more money to ABM because the programme was clearly impactful. But it also allowed us to ask for additional budget, because at some point you’re not going to have enough to cover all the bases you want to. You’ve got to try this within your existing budget and then the board will entertain a conversation about additional funds.”
Lisa is adamant this is the best approach, believing that a pilot mitigates the risk. “It allows you to understand what’s working, what’s not working, and to optimise and tweak, then invest more. I think the real benefit is that you’re proving the concept first, and validating the assumptions about the market and the shift for the enterprise.”
ABM on a small budget
Most marketing teams operate on a small make-do budget before gaining investment. Vera says a small amount doesn’t necessarily limit your revenue but can stump how much activity you do, so it’s all about being creative. “I think from the beginning it’s about looking at what you’ve already produced that you could recycle, even if it’s packaging something up and rolling it out differently.”
But Lisa believes a small budget could mean refining your activity until you’re able to scale. “If you only have very limited funds, you could focus on the one-to-one; that’s where you’d spend your money, providing less investment in one-to-few and even less investment in programmatic,” she says.
Pitfalls to watch out for
The road to successful ABM isn’t always smooth, so be mindful of where the common pitfalls lie. This will allow you to monitor them closely and pull out a safety net if you do happen to slip.
- The long sales cycle – demotivation may strike during the wait for revenue. Seek support from your CEO, update them regularly of your milestones and let them assist you in encouraging ABM efforts.
- ABM versus demand generation tactics – be careful in diving in at the deep end of ABM. It’s important to decide how much of the marketing budget will be given to carrying out day-to-day demand generation tactics. Drop them completely in favour of ABM and you could be left without a life jacket.
- Marketing and sales alignment – it may be a benefit but it’s equally a challenge. Whipping your marketing and sales team into a collaborative shape can be hard. The word ‘marketing’ in ABM puts an onus on your team to plan, pay and deliver the strategy but really it shouldn’t be like that. Ensure sales understand their role, and update each other regularly.
Build a business case for the board
You need to get buy-in from the board. No one likes asking for money, but like most things with seniors, it’s best to be armed with a business case.
How to pitch ABM
- ABM drives improvement of sales and marketing alignment – it pushes marketing and sales to operate together, alignment is a common challenge for many businesses, and so should be a major selling point.
- ABM delivers higher ROI – due to its concentrated nature, businesses are keen to spend more in exchange for a better-dedicated service, and the stats support this.
- Achieve quick-wins – it’s important to ensure the board aren’t under any illusions that ABM will see quick returns, but propose a pilot plan to demonstrate the better pipeline and more valuable engagement than can be achieved. This will get the team excited.
- ABM isn’t just a marketing tool – ABM goes against the grain of traditional marketing techniques. This is a change of mindset that could keep the business current and profitable.
- Present clear metrics – don’t go promising the moon when you know a pilot isn’t going to achieve that. At the same time don’t make your results cryptic. You need to be realistic and transparent. This comes back to managing expectations.
- Expanding existing account spend – this isn’t just about gaining new accounts. Loyal customers of your brand may be very receptive to ABM and this will likely increase your wallet share of these companies.
