Account-Based Marketing For Dummies

Book description

Grow your account list with an effective account-based marketing strategy

Buyers have changed the B2B marketing game. Account-Based Marketing For Dummies is here to give you the tools to transform your current approach to find, reach, and engage with your potential customers on their terms to meet their ever-changing demands. Packed with expert tips and step-by-step instructions, this book shows you how to analyze current data to identify the accounts with the biggest ROI opportunities and execute effective, account-specific techniques that get results.

This practical guide takes the intimidation out of account-based marketing in today's highly digitized world. You'll be armed with the knowledge you need to increase your reach in real time, giving you greater exposure to other decision-makers and influencers within an account. You'll discover how, through a combination of marketing technology and online advertising, your messages can be displayed where and when your customers already engage online.

  • Align your sales and marketing teams for greater success in your ABM efforts
  • Analyze data to identify key accounts
  • Target your messages for real-time interaction
  • Integrate your campaign with marketing automation software

If you're a member of a sales or marketing team already using a CRM tool who's looking to increase your reach, Account-Based Marketing For Dummies has you covered!

"Account-Based Marketing For Dummies clears away the confusion surrounding this much-hyped topic.  It offers simple, direct explanations of what account-based marketing is, why it’s important, and how to do it.  Any business marketing professional will benefit from a look at this book."- David Raab, Founder at Raab Associates

"If you're reading this book and just getting started with ABM, welcome to the future of what b-to-b marketing can be: insight-led, technology-enabled and, above all, customer focused. Our clients are delighted with the business impact they deliver using account-based marketing, and you will be, too."  - Megan Heuer, Vice President and Group Director, SiriusDecisions

"Like a Hollywood agent, marketing's job is to get sales the 'audition,' not the part. Account-based marketing is the key to maximizing the number of the 'right' auditions for your sales team, and Account-Based Marketing For Dummies explains how." - Joe Chernov, VP of Marketing at InsightSquared

"Ever-advancing marketing technology is enabling a new generation of sales and marketing strategies to thrive, changing the playing field for companies of all sizes. This modern wave of account-based marketing has tremendous potential to improve your business, and Sangram Vajre is an insightful and enthusiastic guide to show you how." - Scott Brinker, Author of Hacking Marketing

"Account-based marketing is shifting how businesses use customer insights to capture more upmarket revenue. This book teaches a new wave of data-driven marketers how to embrace an enlightened quality-vs-quantity approach and execute a scalable ABM strategy that delivers real results." - Sean Zinsmeister, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Infer

"The book may be titled '…for dummies', but ABM is proving to be a smart approach for B2B marketers charged with generating sales pipeline and acquiring and delighting customers.  Use this book to help you get started and advance your account-based marketing strategies and tactics that will thrill your sales colleagues, executive team and customers alike." Scott Vaughan, CMO, Integrate

Table of contents

    1. Cover
    2. Foreword
    3. Introduction
      1. About This Book
      2. Foolish Assumptions
      3. Icons Used in This Book
      4. Beyond the Book
      5. Where to Go from Here
    4. Part 1: Getting Started with Account-Based Marketing
      1. Chapter 1: Introducing the Basics of Account-Based Marketing
        1. Defining Account-Based Marketing
        2. Flipping the Funnel
      2. Chapter 2: Making the Case for Account-Based Marketing
        1. Understanding Why B2B Companies Need Account-Based Marketing
        2. Starting the Conversation about ABM
        3. Driving More Revenue from Account-Based Marketing
      3. Chapter 3: Aligning Sales and Marketing
        1. Setting the Right Marketing Goals
        2. Driving Revenue through Teamwork
        3. Renewing the Vows between Marketing and Sales
      4. Chapter 4: Selecting Tools
        1. Understanding Marketing Technology
        2. Setting Up Your Platforms
        3. Types of Marketing Activities
    5. Part 2: Identifying Accounts for Marketing
      1. Chapter 5: Targeting Your Best-Fit Accounts
        1. Focusing on the Right Market
        2. Creating an Ideal Customer Profile
        3. Making a Value Proposition
        4. Building Your List of Target Accounts
      2. Chapter 6: Fueling the Account-Based Marketing Engine
        1. Managing Your Existing CRM Data
        2. Obtaining New Data on Target Accounts
        3. Creating New Accounts
        4. Protecting Data Quality
      3. Chapter 7: Qualifying Your Target Accounts
        1. Gauging Interest
        2. Converting Accounts to Opportunities
        3. Qualifying a Revenue Opportunity
    6. Part 3: Expanding Contacts Into Accounts
      1. Chapter 8: Reaching the Right People in Target Accounts
        1. Preparing Your Account-Specific Plan
        2. Using Tools for Expansion
        3. Adding Contacts to an Account
      2. Chapter 9: Using Marketing Automation for Your Account Strategy
        1. Strategizing Your Expansion Tactics
        2. Learning the Fundamentals of Scoring and Grading
        3. Flowing Data Back into Your CRM
      3. Chapter 10: Distilling the Key Roles of “Smarketing ”
        1. Making Sales Your Marketing Team’s Number 1 Customer
        2. Benefitting from “Smarketing” Alignment
        3. Banking on Your Strengths
    7. Part 4: Engaging Accounts on Their Terms
      1. Chapter 11: Generating Velocity for Sales
        1. Accelerating Your Pipeline from Click to Close
        2. Advancing Opportunities to Closed-Won Deals
        3. Growing Revenue Using ABM
      2. Chapter 12: Personalizing the Buyer’s Channel
        1. Mobilizing Your Message
        2. Advertising on the Right Platforms
        3. Engaging on Social Media
      3. Chapter 13: Developing Content for Campaigns
        1. Creating a Content Library
        2. Humanizing Content
        3. Reaching Through Technology
      4. Chapter 14: Executing ABM: A Playbook
        1. Centering a Strategy
        2. Coordinating Your Efforts
        3. Ranking Your “smarketing” Success
    8. Part 5: Turning Customers Into Advocates
      1. Chapter 15: Elevating the Buyer to Customer Journey
        1. Prospecting to Contacts
        2. Establishing a Customer Journey
        3. Selling to Existing Customers
      2. Chapter 16: Valuing Customer Advocacy
        1. The Rising Influence of the Customer Voice
        2. Making Your Customers Your Marketers
        3. Engineering Product Development
      3. Chapter 17: Aligning Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success
        1. Nurturing Never Stops
        2. Collaborating with Customer Success
        3. Planning Your User Conference
    9. Part 6: Putting It All Together
      1. Chapter 18: Measuring the Success of Campaigns
        1. Setting Key Performance Indicators
        2. Testing Your Campaigns
        3. Knowing You Aren't Wasting Money
      2. Chapter 19: Tracking Metrics for Every Account
        1. Ongoing Account Maintenance
        2. Gauging Potential Opportunities
        3. Providing Value Add
    10. Part 7: The Part of Tens
      1. Chapter 20: Ten Reasons B2B Companies Need Account-Based Marketing
        1. Doing the Math
        2. Needing a Strategy
        3. Focusing on Sales Productivity
        4. Utilizing Your Technology Stack
        5. Prioritizing Tech Investments
        6. Building New Skills
        7. Leveraging Customer Experience
        8. Treating Clients Differently
        9. Developing ABM Relationships
        10. Measuring More Than Leads
      2. Chapter 21: Ten Obstacles Facing Account-Based Marketing
        1. Measuring Leads as Success
        2. Blasting Emails Too Quickly
        3. Expecting to Engage Every Time
        4. Relying on Marketing to Do It All
        5. Sending All Leads to Sales
        6. Asking for More Leads
        7. Not Paying Attention to Customer Retention
        8. Forgetting About Your Customer Advocates
        9. Selling Instead of Serving
        10. Changing the C-Suite’s Assumptions
      3. Chapter 22: Ten Account-Based Marketing Blogs to Read
        1. MarketingProfs
        2. ClickZ
        3. Funnelholic
        4. Business2Community
        5. CustomerThink
        6. MediaPost
        7. Heinz Marketing
        8. Chief MarTec
        9. MarketingLand
        10. MarTech Advisor
      4. Chapter 23: Ten ABM Thought Leaders to Follow
        1. Jill Rowley
        2. David Raab
        3. Craig Rosenberg
        4. Jon Miller
        5. Chris Engman
        6. Ann Handley
        7. Matt Heinz
        8. Megan Heuer
        9. Scott Brinker
        10. Jim Williams
    11. About the Author
    12. Advertisement Page
    13. Connect with Dummies
    14. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Account-Based Marketing For Dummies
  • Author(s): Sangram Vajre
  • Release date: April 2016
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9781119224853