Account based marketing needs a human touch

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is in the spotlight at the moment, but a lot of companies are forgetting that whilst ABM is a great strategy, it's key to remember that it's all about people, not targets.

As Maya Angelou once said: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

We need to remember that, and provide thoughtful marketing that delights prospects. Below, we discuss why this is the core of any successful ABM strategy.

The attention economy

Attention is a scarce and precious commodity. We may live on our screens, but many of us actually pay very little attention to what's shown on them.

Attention is more valuable to many businesses than gold or oil. However, many companies do not treat it as such. If you're trying to sell a product or service, you only have a very small window in which to grab the consumer's attention and create a relationship. People are bombarded with email blasts, SMS marketing and paid advertising every day, so how is your business going to earn their attention?

Interruption is unlikely to result in positive engagement. You could disrupt someone's day by phoning them or even knocking on their door, but highly interruptive tactics which leave consumers feeling out of control actually perform even worse than the peripheral sell.

The solution? Targeted advertising that has thoughtful and intuitive human interactions at its core.

Where does account based marketing fit with this?

When it comes to any account based marketing strategy - well, the clue's in the name. This approach is based around targeting individual buyers within precision-targeted accounts, with marketing designed to appeal to key decision makers. It focuses on best-fit individuals (and their broader decision-making panel) within target organisations that match specific criteria such as budget, location and size.

When aligned with a broader inbound marketing and sales strategy, ABM activities can give organisations a chance at securing the very best fit opportunities for solid growth, revenue and long-term retention.

How can you create thoughtful engagements at every stage

Here at Six & Flow, we believe that people buy from people. By creating thoughtful interactions, we are better positioned to work with individuals rather than anonymous audience segments.  

For an ABM campaign to be successful, marketing and sales must be aligned, combining business intelligence to form people-driven campaigns. 

In an inbound sales process, the sales methodology can be defined in the following steps:

1.     Identify: Listen for relevant personas, prioritising active buyers over passive buyers.

2.     Connect: Begin personalised conversations that address pains at the appropriate buyer's journey stage

3.     Explore: Focus on good fit leads, explore their interests and leverage to develop further trust

4.     Advise: Continue to nurture and advise buyers, leveraging the information learned in the explore phase

What we use to create more thoughtful interactions

If businesses want "WOW" referrals and meaningful client interactions, first thing's first - they need to stop with the spam and move to an inherently more personal medium. 

We work with Inkpact, a company that champions this approach by offering businesses an innovative, affordable and scalable way to treat customers thoughtfully, create memorable moments and pursue the following goals:

Connecting: A personalised message can introduce our agency to a new client or lead

Exploring: A post-meeting letter can summarise the key challenges identified and propose next steps

Advising: Re-engagement letters can include key pointers to provide value and support our brand image

After all, you don't hear stories of "love emails," "wedding invitation texts" or "condolence voice broadcasts." The biggest moments in people's lives are often marked with letters or cards, which people often keep as mementos because they have a weight to them that a text or email simply can't match.