When you begin an account-based marketing (ABM) program, one of your first choices is to determine which level or levels are right for your organization. From low-intensity programmatic ABM to a full-fledged strategic effort, each level involves a varying level of sales involvement and site customization—not to mention additional programs like nurture or ad campaigns. Here, the experts at CompassABM suggest some best practices for customizing web pages for ABM campaigns at each level.
(This resource assumes that you have an ABM tool or technology like CompassABM in place to resolve IP addresses, redirect traffic, and report on account activity to your sales team.)
Programmatic ABM: Keep Things Simple
A programmatic effort can be used to create a simple ABM pilot. Or you can add programmatic ABM to round out a more robust effort: Hook newer accounts with programmatic targeting, then graduate them to a deeper level as your sales team deems appropriate. In either case, programmatic ABM requires the least input from sales and the lightest touch when it comes to customized design.
At this level, you’re simply looking to direct accounts to an existing website page that is most likely to engage their interest. The addition of lightly customized banners can help guide accounts to relevant pages or content. A six-week, GDPR-compliant nurture series can also help drive traffic.
DO…
- Look for a common category around which to group accounts. The category should match up with your existing site content. For example, categorize accounts according to product interest or industry, if you have pages on your site that speak to different group within those segments.
- Ask sales for target account names, countries, and whatever information you need to assign accounts to a category.
- Consider developing a set of lightly customized banners around your chosen categories, to help guide accounts to target content.
- Develop (or modify) a general email nurture campaign around your target segments.
- Develop a few simple ads around your segments: a short title, brief text, and a call to action (CTA).
DON’T…
- Get into the weeds with customization. At this level, there’s no need to write custom text or design special page templates.
- Demand too much time or input from sales.
- Expect to see the type of results that you might get from strategic ABM.
Lite ABM: Getting Personal
Moving up the ABM ladder, a lite campaign delivers somewhat personalized content. You can design page templates to provide messaging around these segments, then further customize these pages for each account. The addition of a customized banners—such as one that includes the account name, logo, and maybe an image that’s highly relevant to this buyer type—and targeted ads can help redirect accounts to the customized portions of your site. As with programmatic ABM, you’ll want to develop a nurture campaign to help boost engagement.
DO…
- Group accounts around more granular categories than with programmatic ABM. Consider using pain points, challenges, benefits, product features, or similar topical subject matter.
- Create a set of pages that speak to these categories.
- Align with your sales team for basic account information as well as more in-depth insight into the concerns of each account, based on the category you want to use. If you plan to leverage an accounts name or logo in your personalization efforts, be sure that there isn’t any sensitivity in taking that approach.
- Develop custom page elements based on this information. Consider personalizing components like banners, intro text, images, sales contact, and CTA to engage each account.
- Develop a GDPR-compliant email nurture campaign around your target segments.
- Review content assets to deliver as part of the customized page and nurture campaigns.
- Develop a few simple ads around your segments: a short title, brief text, and a call to action (CTA).
- To further boost engagement, consider developing a LinkedIn ad campaign targeting companies on your list or to the email addresses of contacts associated with those companies.
DON’T…
- Forget to set realistic expectations. You’ll need at least 12 weeks to get good performance measurements.
- Ignore account countries—you’ll need that information for GDPR compliance.
- Neglect sales alignment. Your sales team is your best source for the details you’ll need to customize content and they play an important role in building awareness of customized pages with contacts they are in a direct conversation with.
- Try to customize a full page for each account.
Strategic ABM: Individual Attention
The most time- and resource-intensive level, strategic ABM is best saved for your highest-value accounts. These can be single pages or small microsites but should be well-thought-out experiences that leave visitors with the impression that you understand their needs and aspirations and know how your offerings can best help them. To this end, you’ll need to work closely with sales to devise a fully customized page and content set.
With strategic pages, consider how you can best tell the highly specific story that you want to communicate. For an account that your sales team is trying to grow, for example, consider featuring case studies and testimonials that highlight the impact your organization has had on the company. The page can also be used to help the account envision future opportunities and how your brand can help them achieve new levels of success. For prospective accounts, consider the key points you would want to relay during a face-to-face pitch and how to best communicate those messages. In all cases, you want site visitors to feel that they’ve experienced something you created just for them.
DO…
- Save your strategic efforts for your “big fish” accounts: Landing even one of these will be a game changer for sales. Alternatively, these might be current customers that you want to give special attention.
- Align with your sales team for detailed info about each account. Which content assets will interest them? Do you have case studies, client testimonials, or resources that you can provide? Be sure to ask about logo or name sensitivity as well as any other sticking points; you don’t want to do anything that could rub these accounts the wrong way.
- Develop custom pages for each account. You might even have subpages at this level. Any element that can be personalized on your web platform is up for grabs here: banner images, text blocks, pull quotes and sidebars, subpages, resources, CTAs—the works.
- Develop a GDPR-compliant email nurture campaign for each persona within each target account. Develop ads and social media assets for maximum engagement.
DON’T…
- Let sales off the hook when it comes to getting info about each account and reviewing the custom pages and emails.
- Neglect research into personas, past history, and other details that could hook these customers.
The Best Tool for Best Practices
CompassABM is the ideal tool for implementing these best practices, whatever level of ABM you want to develop. We’re available to help with implementation, strategy, and additional services—or just to answer any questions you might have.