Hi

Today I'm going to reveal the wisdom of Adam Goyette, HelpScout VP Marketing, who launched multiple ABM campaigns at G2 and helped to bring over millions in revenue with ABM campaigns.

Here is what we’ll cover :

• The DOs and DON’Ts of ABM
• How to get the buy-in of C-suite and sales to shift to ABM?
• How to align marketing and sales around the central Playbook? (G2 example)
• Key metrics to track the campaign efficiency if you have a long sales cycle?
• How to develop an ABM content strategy?

Let's dive in.

What are the DOs and DON’Ts of ABM?

The whole point of ABM is having a limited pool of people you're going after. That means you should be creative in your outreach and ads. So, stop doing generic marketing. 

Just because you've decided that an account is important to you doesn't mean that account thinks you're important to them. Literally, your ads are still one of the 4000 ads they are going to see that day and your email is still one of the 100s of emails they're going to receive that day. 

So be creative and come up with a different approach that cuts through the noise.

How to get the buy-in of execs and sales to shift to ABM?      

The main problem marketers fall into is that they build out an expensive tech stack and full ABM strategy that comes with a huge cost. Unfortunately, the execs looked at the proposal and found it very unproven and unpredictable.

So, my suggestion would be to start small.

Work closely with the sales team. Involve them right from the brainstorming stage, so they can get more excited. Strategize and build the playbook with them. 

Then, select 50 accounts. Figure out the gap between their needs and the services offered. Decide to give them some extra love.

After the first outreach, make sure you have the sales team do the follow-up and check how the results compare to the regular ones.

Subsequently, you’ll probably have some relevant data to go back to the c-suite with and make a convincing case for bigger budgets and more tech and tools.

If you apply these tips, maybe you won't even need to get buy-in from the c-suite because all you’ll have to do is to run a small direct mail campaign.

How to align marketing and sales around the central Playbook? (G2 example)

The thing is, it's not a marketing playbook. It is a combined playbook that you have to build with the sales team. Work hand in hand with them on what you think is the best outreach, the best sequence, the best emails to send, etc.

Here is how Adam explains it.

At G2 we were doing a lot of personalized direct mail. We sent books to people. But beforehand, we make officers read the book and pick out interesting excerpts that we thought would be a great application for the prospect’s business. Then we have the salesperson write a handwritten note and tie it to the prospect’s business. 

The sales team then follows up once we get an alert that the book has been delivered.

We've done that on a small scale. We've sent pinatas to people. We’ve sent pennies to people. We've sent a lot of random things just to cut through the noise and get someone's attention.

The truth is, once you grab their attention they're way more likely to pick up the phone or respond to an email.

If you're unsure how to develop a sales follow-up playbook, check this out.

What are the key metrics to track the campaign efficiency in case you have a long sales cycle?

 There is definitely no universal metric. If you're targeting enterprise companies with a two-year sales cycle, it can be awhile till you see the result.

All you have to do is to make sure you understand your funnel and the key indicators right off the bat.

• Did you book a meeting?
• Did the meeting turn into a sales opportunity?
• Did your prospects engage with your content?
• Are you measuring the engagement score?
• Was there an opportunity created?

How to develop an ABM content strategy?

Key 1: Warm up your target accounts before outreach

Warming up your target accounts before outreach doesn’t just mean going back to their old posts on LinkedIn and leaving some random comments before sending your cold message. No.

In fact, from the end user's perspective, it doesn't feel like a true engagement. If you’re unsure how to warm up your LinkedIn account and prepare for outreach, check this out.

Source: Expandi.io 

Key 2: Add personalization 

Leverage tools like Sonar, Datanize, Metadata to meaningfully engage with your target accounts and personalize your campaign. These tools can help you do personalization in an interesting way, so you won't have to build 100 landing pages. 

Picture this: if you’re going to build out an account dashboard for 100 accounts that you want to give a preview to, you can create one landing page that has different variations that just pull in dynamically personalized images. You wouldn't do this for every single account.

The pillar content can be the same for all the companies, but different sections are going to be personalized, so the whole piece will feel hyper-personalized to that person.

Moreover, one of the best strategies out there is per role personalization, and here’s how you can go about it.

Apply these tips and you'll see a great change in your next ABM campaign.

P.S. The interview with Adam has been edited and condensed for clarity. If you are interested in the full interview, kindly tune in here: https://youtu.be/ih9V5UklFd8

P.S.S. Chances are you have 1 or 2 colleagues (well, maybe 03) who'd enjoy this as much as you do. Share it with them and earn some exclusive perks. 

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