Traditional B2B marketing typically involves communicating with a large number of prospective customers with the expectation that a small percentage of them will interact with your website and initiate a conversation about your product or service.
Conversely, Conversational Account-based Marketing (ABM) is a proactive and systematic approach to Marketing that leaves nothing to chance. Using a conversational marketing platform, targeted bots, or account-specific advertisements, marketers must initiate a dialogue with prospective customers as soon as they are identified.
Conversational ABM allows for the creation of a seamless experience for prospects, the expansion of opportunities, and the reinforcement of the alignment between Sales and Marketing units. When potential customers interact with a company’s website, teams:
- Are made aware of the identity and browsing history of accounts via alerts and notifications.
- Greet them when they interact with a particular product or webpage and demonstrate interest in it.
- Respond to their inquiries and secure their loyalty by delivering an exceptional Customer Experience and pertinent content.
To execute Conversational ABM, marketers must master the following 5-step process:
- Single out target accounts through third-party data and website analytics.
- Segregate target accounts into appropriate segments.
- Craft tailored advertisements for individual segments.
- Emulate the context of tailored ads on your website.
- Initiate conversation with target accounts by employing custom greeting messages.
Let’s dive deeper into the details of the first 2 phases of Conversational ABM.
Phase 1 – Single Out Target Accounts through 3rd-party Data and Website Analytics
During the initial phase of Conversational ABM, Marketing and Sales collaborate closely to determine which accounts to target and their relative importance to the organization. The selection of accounts (companies or individuals who are likely to purchase your products) should be based on first-party data (obtained internally by the team or by monitoring website traffic) and third-party data (obtained externally from other sources).
The two types of data enable the creation of a detailed description of your target accounts or the Ideal Customer Profile for your products. The first instance of relevant internet research conducted by an account should indicate a buyer's intent, allowing the marketer to contact the prospective customer (or company) ahead of the competition.
Phase 2 – Segregate Target Accounts into Appropriate Segments
Following this, the potential accounts are segmented based on their shared characteristics. This enables the creation of a customized campaign for each segment, which is significantly easier than creating a campaign for each individual customer. The three most important ways to segment target accounts are:
- By industry – This type of segmentation facilitates the initiation of contact with new accounts. New accounts are influenced and attracted by marketing campaigns that emphasize addressing the account's industry-specific issues.
- By sales approach – Segmentation by sales approach enables the creation of customized campaigns for accounts and the maintenance of contact with accounts that have already received a quote.
- By customer life-cycle – This segmentation permits Marketing to continue exploring upselling opportunities with accounts after the deal has been closed in order to increase their lifetime value (LTV).
Customer Segmentation facilitates marketing budget allocation, resource allocation, and a focus on high-return accounts.
Interested in learning more about the specific phases of Conversational ABM ? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Conversational Account-based Marketing here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
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