6 Account Based Marketing tactics you should be using

If used correctly account based marketing can be a great tool for getting those high quality opportunities. We have already covered what it is and some advice on how to successfully run an account based campaign which you can read about here (link to first blog post). Now we want to share some account based marketing tactics to help you succeed.

Once you have decided to use account based marketing and identified your key targets to focus on the next step is to decide how you will approach your target. For this type of campaign to succeed both your sales and marketing teams will need to work together as one team in order to be successful.

Make sure that both areas are on board and both understand the end goal and every step in-between. Then, the first thing you then need to do, is to gather the target market’s contact details and any information you can gather on them, so how do you do it?

One of the best tools you have at your disposal is social media. You can search for the individuals on LinkedIn, Facebook, any platform. You may be able to get their email address and even other contact details especially from LinkedIn.

Make sure you keep track of all their details on a spreadsheet. On here you could include their name, phone number, LinkedIn profile URL… anything you can find on them. This spreadsheet should be shared across marketing and sales to ensure there is no duplication data in order to save time and resources. It will also help you see where you are missing crucial information.

Social media is also the perfect place to find out more information which you can use in your personalised campaign.

Research everything; their interests, their education, any courses they have attended. For example, if you find out that your target attended the same university as one of your sales team, then make sure that individual is the one who contacts them and carries out any follow ups.

This is an effective way to make that connection and build up a bond with your potential client through a common interest.   

If you are struggling to find their contact details on social media you could try looking them up on Microsoft Teams, or have a look on the company website. If they are in a position of authority, they may have their contact details noted.

But, if in doubt, google their name with their business, you’ll be surprised what you can find.

Once you have found out more about your targets, it is time to plan how you will approach them. To make it easier we have provided 6 top account marketing tactics to try.

Email marketing

This is probably the most obvious way, but it is also a highly effective method of reaching out to your targets. If you can, email a specific person rather than a generic inbox as this is more likely to be read and acknowledged.

Email marketing is a great account based marketing tactic to start off your campaign and introduce your company and services to them. This can then be followed up with other tactics mentioned below.

Personalised video

 This is another great tool to use to grab your target market’s attention. Create a video which is personalised from the account manager who will be carrying out the follow ups.

This is a good time to introduce them and start to build that relationship so that when they call up, they can link the voice to the video. It’s also a great starting talking point for any follow ups.

Social media

Social media platforms aren’t just a good place to gather their contact details. These channels are also great to start building relationships with your target audience. Start conversations, like their statuses or comment on an article they have shared.

Social media is useful for keeping up to date with the content they are sharing, seeing what is important to them at that moment and anything that can be used in future communications.

Battle cards for the sales team

This account based marketing tactic is not a direct approach but a good way of helping your sales team interact with the targets. Battle cards are a document summarising information on a campaign and is usually distributed to the sales team.

By creating battlecards for your account based marketing campaign, your sales team can have a small, condensed document with all the information on the company. This means they will have all the information they require at hand for any outbound or even inbound calls to the targets.

Content marketing

When creating a campaign sometimes your best assets have already been written. Look through previous blog posts and articles to see if any can be repurposed for your target market. Content marketing can be a great account based marketing tactic as it is low cost due to the material having already been written.

Make sure it is suitable for your target audience and consider customising the content to make it more personal to them.

Ensure that you are reaching all your target clients at every phase of the buying cycle, and have the content available to resonate with them. As you are aiming your marketing at specific individuals make sure you assess potential pain points and challenges to ensure you are as prepared as possible to help them make the decision easier.

Paid advertising

If you are aiming your account based marketing tactics as several employees in businesses, you may want to consider paid advertising. Many platforms allow you to filter your target audience down to a company name and with other filters applied you can make it more likely your target audience will see this.

However, if you are only targeting one or two employees for each company this may not be the most effective account based marketing tactic for you.

When it comes down to it, the account based marketing tactics you see here are not dissimilar to your traditional marketing methods. They are simply more focussed and more personalised due to your target market being minimized.

If you want to find out more about account based marketing tactics and how they can be applied to create a successful campaign contact Generate UK today.