As COVID-19 became increasingly widespread in the U.S. last month, Senior Account-Based Marketing Manager Kristin Kolb had to quickly shift her department’s planned Q1 pilot. Originally, it had involved direct mail that the Matillion team was going to send to target audiences in their office. Kolb said they decided on an alternative digital approach, upping the ante with personalization efforts.
“You don’t need the latest and greatest technology or idea to create a hypothesis and run a small test to see if it works,” Kolb said.
Billtrust’s Director of Revenue Marketing Deirdre Mills also champions personalization. She believes that ABM is both an art and a science, tying relevant prospect information into program data while keeping company initiatives in mind.
Mills recommends structuring content strategies around hierarchy, geography and keywords of personas created. For example, she identifies certain roles within a company’s org chart and then connects those employee’s responsibilities to overarching business objectives she can mention in email copy.
Matillion’s ABM initiatives leverage data provided through digitally-identified intent topics and input from their sales employees. Kolb said that her team compares the content that decision-makers are actively researching online with company demographics, buying team makeup and sales pipeline stage. The strategy aligns well with the data integration business’s mission to drive consumer insights from the cloud.
How do you go about identifying the key decision-makers or influencers on a strategic account?
At Matillion, we first focus on knowing and understanding the buying group at a potential customer organization. Our target buyer personas are a technical user — usually a developer or engineer — and a business decision-maker, typically a VP of data analytics or a similar role. Once we match key demographic information, such as job title, seniority and current technology use, we highlight those folks for sales outreach.
There can be multiple buying groups within one organization, depending on company size and revenue. We must get in front of the particular groups showing true intent through their digital activity. In other words, our marketing team aims to highlight people who are actively researching vendors, digesting content around relevant topics and visiting our website.
We use intent data through a data partner to receive this type of visibility across our target account list. That information enables us to connect with active influencers and decision-makers within our target accounts who previously were not on our radar or did not fit our identified titles.
Once you’ve identified those decision-makers, how do you tailor your ABM efforts to ensure your message actually connects with them?
With the digitally-identified intent signals and input from our sales team, we first conduct a target account list analysis. We analyze multiple data points and commonalities to extract major trends and pain points across certain accounts. These trends and pain points form the pillar messaging and content we use throughout our sales engagements and marketing touchpoints with our account list.
Using dynamic content, we are able to serve up personalized messaging to each account within our target list based on what we know they need. We paired factors like intent topics and company demographics with pain points we knew our solution could help them solve to create a holistic messaging approach.
Begin with an actionable MVP.’’
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far from your ABM efforts?
Start small. Begin with an actionable MVP. You don’t need the latest and greatest technology or idea to create a hypothesis and run a small test to see if it works. The real win is getting something off the ground and analyzing results, which allows you to scale in the future.
Before Mills reaches out to prospective clients mentioning job anniversaries or recent promotions, she makes sure she has a clear understanding of how their organization is structured. The one-on-one approach with strategic accounts is foundational to Billtrust’s ABM strategy. After all, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
How do you go about identifying the key decision makers or influencers on a strategic account?
First, it’s important to understand how an organization is legally structured. Figure out how decisions are most likely made and identify key personas. Then, search for all personas that comprise a typical buying committee using the company’s website, LinkedIn and other data tools. While more of an art than a science, ABM relies on hierarchy, geography and keywords.
Scan all employees within a particular department or division and try to decipher the various levels present in the organization. Keep in mind that while the modern workforce is evolving to a more distributed model, it’s still common for direct reports to work in the same location or region as their leader. Leverage LinkedIn and data vendors to search for particular keywords that align with the responsibilities of your personas.
ABM is easy in theory but quite challenging in practice.’’
Once you’ve identified those decision makers, how do you tailor your ABM efforts to ensure your message actually connects with them?
At Billtrust, we take a one-on-one approach with our strategic accounts. We connect with people at those accounts through relevance and personalization, both of which require research and a bit of creativity.
It’s important to understand your prospect’s key company initiatives and identify ways your business can support and incorporate those into your messaging and positioning.
Find relevant information on each individual and tie that personalized data into your program approach.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far from your ABM efforts?
ABM is easy in theory but quite challenging in practice. I’ve learned that if you want to do ABM effectively, you have to be deliberate and detailed at every step of the way. There are so many potential points of failure. Something as simple as mailing a gift to the wrong office location can damage your efforts.
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