How to Measure the Success of an Account-Based Marketing Program
Account based marketing (ABM) dedicates marketing and sales energy toward your best customers and prospects. Pretty simple concept really. But how do you know if ABM is working for your business? Is increased revenue all you really need to know? It’s sure the best marker but not the only one.
ABM runs on the power behind nurturing leads with the most sales potential for your business. Savvy B2B marketers know that even in the best of circumstances, the sales cycle can be pretty lengthy. It’s the old marathon, not a sprint concept. So even if you are positioned favourably for generating more revenue from ABM accounts, there are markers to note along the way that can indicate success.
Analytics are perfect sales success touchpoints
This may be kind of obvious, but one of the best ways to measure ABM success is to implement Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) throughout a sales cycle. What are your analytics telling you? What are your email open rates? How about click throughs, form fills and page views? You’ll want to be vigilant with monitoring your engagement rates to see how well your marketing resonates across personas, devices, sales stages throughout all your campaigns.
When you review these numbers throughout your campaign, you’ll better understand your campaign strengths as well as weak spots. And the great thing about digital campaigns is that you can pivot quickly when any element of your campaign is falling short. These insights are invaluable when you need to adjust to get primary leads back in line and on the path to purchase.
You don’t want to forget your website either. One of the hardest working elements you can have is a savvy website. You’ll want to monitor clicks, time on page and conversion to get a good idea of how strong your site is pulling for you. If you have a website baseline, compare new numbers to that. If not, start where you are and get a good view of conversions and sales. You may have to do some discovery to determine why the site isn’t pulling like it should but it’s good to understand what content accelerates customer engagement and what content brings things to a halt.
A lead scoring system for at-a-glance measurement
Building a lead scoring system as an extension of KPIs will get your ABM initiatives to another level. Lead scoring will give you a better view of how your campaign recipients are plugging into your communications with them. Are they responsive to your campaign messaging? Are they asking questions? Do they request more information? Do they want a personal contact? You can make adjustments in your if the campaign measurements seem to lag around different touchpoints.
A shorter sales cycle speaks volumes
An important piece of ABM success is a shorter sales cycle brought about by exposing your accounts to personalised, relevant messages. Depending on how well accounts are aware of you, you can tailor personalisation and move the sales cycle forward faster. Those accounts in your target audiences will have a lead on newer prospects that will take more time in their awareness journey with you. Vigilant monitoring of sales cycles will provide you the information you’ll need to link sales cycle length with sales.
ABM gives customer retention real staying power
Most ABM success measures are instant or at least timely. Pivots and changes can be the lifeblood of marketing campaigns. However, there’s one success measure that will take a little longer to discover: customer retention. Obviously, it will take time to discover whether customer accounts are loyal and long term partners. But satisfied customers who appreciate your products and solutions are just as likely to remain due to the customer engagement strategies you employ through ABM tactics as the relationship extends.
If your ABM initiatives aren’t delivering the kind of results you need, don’t give up. The beauty of ABM is its ability to target accurately with relevant information. You probably don’t need a re-tooling effort either; many times content tweaks are all that is necessary to turn things around. Be vigilant about campaign analytics too. They’re the truth in your campaigns and you’ll do great if you manage to them. Another key indicator is average deal size. Compare ABM stats with average deal size for more traditional marketing campaigns. That will be illuminating and guide you to even greater sales and revenue. If you implement these tactics, your ABM programs will soon show significant lifts in engagement, retention and revenue.
ABM: See More ROI Than With Any Other Marketing Strategies
Why spend marketing budget to blanket the market when you know which type of companies are potential customers? Account-based tactics put you in front of key decision-makers so that you can nurture and increase sales and revenue. Why not become more focused on your marketing efforts by using account-based marketing?