ABM is an acronym for account-based marketing. Traditionally, entrepreneurs try to comprehensively cover the marketplace with their product with the help of advertising and other tools to achieve business goals. Account-based marketing (ABM) employs a business strategy which directs marketing resources and sales goals towards selected accounts within a specific market. Instead of trying to reach the entire market, the purpose of the business becomes to convert existing users to customers.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
To put it in simpler terms, this method involves creating free user login accounts for all the potential customers of a product. User accounts are created on the basis of the interest of potential customers in the product being marketed. Since the customer has not made a purchase in the conventional sense and still holds an account affiliated with the company, this method is considered an expensive approach. Even so, this is the business approach which has given rise to the terms account-based advertising (ABA) and account-based experience (ABX). Let’s look at some of the advantages of deploying ABM techniques and its superiority over traditional marketing approaches.
Personalized Customer Acquisition and Retention Process
ABM is the only marketing process where even the customer acquisition process is individualized. “We understand that modern corporate clients want to personalize their product to comply with their clientele’s demands to achieve fiscal success in their line of business,” says Maryanne Boulis, who works as a Business Marketing Consultant at Object Me. Not only are businesses trying to tailor their product to meet customer’s demands, but even contemporary customers now expect much more customized product service and after-sales support.
Businesses want to highlight the distinctive features of their unique product in comparison to other products in the same line of business. Customers are also speculative of spending their hard-earned income to purchase a product which cannot administer a personalized experience. In instances where customers do not get a customized product the chances of a second purchase go down drastically. Customer satisfaction hinges on the business’s ability to deliver a personalized experience for the customer. As customer satisfaction increases due to a personalized purchase, customer retention automatically becomes easier for the business.
Fringe Benefits of Personalized Marketing
Account-based marketing allows businesses to advertise their product to a targeted audience. All industries advertise their product to the general masses. The primary goal of this advertising is to identify customers who have a potential interest in purchasing the product. Traditional advertising has the added objective of trying to find customers who can actually pay for the product. To put it in other words, conventional advertising methods even when the price is advertised with the product, becomes futile, if the customer cannot afford it.
With ABM advertising, businesses can easily identify customers specifically interested in purchasing the product. User accounts can be created on the basis of interest alone, regardless of price. Companies have the option of being able to wait on their potential customer until the customer becomes financially stable enough actually to make the purchase. The best part is that, during the time the customer takes to reach financial maturity, they can become the audience of some highly targeted advertising. “We had to pay other businesses to help us reach an academic audience which was the main target of our own product,” says Frank Kirkpatrick from MHRWriter.
Clearer Track to ROI With Extreme Cost Efficiency
ABM allows the company to determine the status of each account with the company accurately. Traditional marketing techniques make no difference between prospective buyers and existing customers. With ABM, businesses can identify exactly which customers are existing customers and which customers will be first-time customers. The company can even employ marketing techniques which allow existing customers to become a part of the marketing plan. Existing customers can help introduce new customers into the business with the least amount of investment.
The potential clients introduced by existing customers will automatically be the ones who are interested in making a purchase of your product. They will have the key element which is required to finalize a purchase, demand of your product. With ABM, even existing customers can become returning customers with the appropriate incentives in place. For the business implementing ABM techniques, this translates in massive savings in marketing with exponentially increased rewards in the form of profits. Annual profits can be replicated easily with scalability in much shorter periods. Since ABM is already personalized, everything is clearly documented in the entire process.
The Evolution of Trust-Based Relationships and Customer Satisfaction
The marketplace is a setting where customers can interact with merchants. The goal of the customer is to find a product which meets their specific requirements and cost the favorably priced. If the characteristics of the product are not relevant according to the customer’s demands, the price automatically becomes inconsequential. Vice versa if the price is not a viable option for the customer, its intrinsic features and characteristics automatically become irrelevant. Traditional marketing techniques do not differentiate between which factor is more critical for the customer.
ABM can contradistinguish exactly which factor is essential for the customer to make a purchase. Once the commercial entity identifies the critical element, it can make a decision which is in favor of the customer and ultimately in favor of finalizing the transaction. Once a business corporation decides to favor the customer, customer satisfaction levels reach a new high. Now the customer will be both a satisfied customer and a brand-loyal customer for life.
Reduced Wastage of Resources & Cost-Effective
ABM is an extremely useful tool to get ahead of the competition while incurring the least amount of cost in the shortest time. ABM wastes the least amount of investment by making the most of each account possible. Once the type of customer is identified, it makes it easier for the corporation to make the most of the situation. What’s more is that each customer can be a recurring customer. This makes it easier and more economical for the company to reach financial goals. The same company without ABM would potentially be spending double on advertising without any guarantee of making a deal with the customer.
Since each customer and potential customer is linked directly to the commercial organization in one way or another, it becomes easier for the organization to document everything. Every instance where the company interacted with the customer or the customer communicated with the company is freely recorded. This makes it easier for the organization to give structure to the communication between all its clients.
Putting It All Together
These are just some of the general benefits of ABM. In the real world, each business scenario is completely unique. Each business scenario presents with its unique challenges and congruous fiscal benefits to meet each challenge. In some cases, ABM will be more profitable than others. The advantages of ABM far outweigh the advantages of traditional marketing techniques in almost all scenarios. ABM gives the commercial entity convenient opportunities to introduce new services into the market with minimal costs.
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