How to Succeed at B2B Account-Based Marketing

B2B Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is gaining momentum, as prospects and companies increasingly expect personalization when making contact with brands. As a digital marketing strategy, ABM sees sales and marketing working together to create optimal buying experiences for high-value customers and companies.

Healthcare businesses, in particular, have a lot to gain from this “quality over quantity” approach to digital marketing.

What is B2B Account-Based Marketing?

Because it removes low-value companies and prospects from the equation, Account-Based Marketing helps sales reps and marketers focus on high-value healthcare accounts to deliver personalized experiences that engage and convert more quickly. Essentially, ABM aligns your sales and marketing teams and ensures that each promotional effort treats individual prospects and companies as exactly that — individuals.

By tailoring all messaging and campaigns to individual stakeholders within specific accounts, healthcare organizations are more likely to see higher ROI and customer retention.

The key benefits of ABM

B2B Account-Based Marketing helps healthcare organizations nurture key business relationships by removing obstacles along the buyer’s journey, aligning internal operations, and delivering consistent, relevant messaging. HubSpot breaks down the key benefits as follows:

• Marketing and sales alignment: By working towards the same goals, sales and marketing teams can develop campaigns, messaging, and content that create seamless customer experiences that build relationships through relevant personalization. We talk more about how your sales process should be connected to the buyer’s journey in this article.
• Resonate with high-value accounts: From content and campaigns to product and service information, ABM helps you personalize everything. This helps you position your business and offerings in a way that’s most relevant to your high-value target accounts.
• Consistent, personalized customer experiences: By focusing on long-term, relevant customers experiences, healthcare companies can make each high-value prospect or client feel as if they’re your ‘market of one’. 
• Measurable ROI: Account-Based Marketing makes it simple to measure return on investment and pour more effort and resources into the accounts that have proven to be ideal business fits. Moreover, the ABM tactics that have proven successful can be used to improve your bottom line on an ongoing basis.
• Streamline sales cycle: ABM saves on time and resources by focusing your efforts on high-value targets and streamlining each stage of the buying cycle. In the previously referenced source, HubSpot states that ABM turns your sales cycle from this: 1) Prospect → 2) Connect → 3) Research → 4) Present → 5) Close → 6) Delight; to this: 1) Identify Target Accounts → 2) Present to Target Accounts → 3) Close Target Accounts → 4) Delight Accounts.

How to succeed with ABM

For ABM marketing to be successful for your business, you need to observe the following strategic best practices.

Target accounts and key stakeholders should be chosen based on the level of return you expect them to deliver your business. Considerations should include:

• Which geographical locations are you wanting to target?
• Which companies or stakeholders are visiting your website or engaging with your content? On that note: we’ve written an article about how not all leads that visit your website are created equal.
• Do you have any upcoming products or services that may be of use to a particular type of company or industry?

Next up is targeted content delivery and personalization. Here you’ll need to decide which channels will be most effective and how to alter your messaging for particular stakeholders within the companies you’re targeting. Here are some ideas for content generation and targeting:

• Determine which social media channels your prospects frequent, join groups to add to industry conversation, and share valuable content that speaks to their needs.
• Host a podcast or write an article and invite a stakeholder from an important account as a special guest.
• Create campaigns that target specific criteria such as job title or location.

Important KPIs to focus on include deal-to-close time, net-new revenues, and the percent of deals closed. By measuring the performance of the above tactics you can pinpoint areas of your ABM strategy that can be improved. This will help your sales and marketing teams hone their ABM strategies to deliver relevant communications to high-value accounts.

Growth strategies that are no longer shots in the dark

A business can't be everything to everyone. With ABM, your business can attract clients whose needs align with your services, making it easier to foster long-term relationships that generate growth over time.

We understand if Accounts-Based Marketing for healthcare seems complex — which is why we’d like to help you net the clients you deserve with this exciting strategy.

KBK Communications empowers clients by bringing together sales, marketing and technology to deliver relevant communications to high-value prospects for healthcare growth. With over 50 years of combined experience in sales, marketing, administration, and direct patient care, we know the healthcare industry.

Ready to learn more about digital marketing strategies that drive results? Sign up for our Digital Marketing Course to get started.