Why ABM is the ’new normal’ in B2B Marketing
Account-Based Everything9th November 2017
@robertnorum@mcdonaldbutler
Introduction to McDonald Butler
A Sales & Marketing agency• 100% B2B technology marketing
• Specialising in channel & alliances, industry marketing and ABM
• Obsessed with ROI based on our proprietary Lead to Revenue Model
• Representing over 25 leading B2B tech brands across the world
• Based in London, with global footprint
• Strong ‘giving back’ culture (5 x 5 model)
Giving BackThe founders of McDonald Butler as well as the entire agency team are strong believers in the notion of business as a force for good. Since we opened our doors we have consistently donated percentage of our time and profits to giving back to society (5x5).
In the last two years our team has helped build two schools in Africa for over 2,000 children.
30 industry executives from Oracle, Google, IBM, Aruba and AWS will be joining the MBA team at our volunteer school Building Blitz to build a school in 7 days in South Africa in November 2017.
Our clients include global tech brands and disruptive tech
What is ABM in 2017?
6
ABM Definitions?
“Treating individual accounts as a market in their own right.A structured approach to developing and implementing
highly-customized programmes to accounts, partners, or prospects.”
ITSMA
7
ABM Definitions?
“Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach that aligns resources against a set of defined accounts and goals in a way that is relevant and valuable to those accounts and to sales”
Sirius Decisions
8
ABM Definitions?
ABM is a strategic marketing approach jointly implemented by sales and marketing that focuses on key, targeted accounts
(whether they’re existing customers or not).
It’s about identifying who your most important accounts are, gathering as much insight on them as possible, and then using this insight to align your proposition to the challenge(s) they’re facing and crafting a personalised
marketing campaign to win their business
B2B Marketing
ABM is no longer a budget line item
Bran
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ABM is a strategic approach to sales and marketing
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ABM
ABM has a role to play acoss the entire sales cycle
Awareness Engagement Proposal Win Retain Cross-sell Advocacy
Breaking into new Target Accounts
Bid support marketing
Protecting existing businessCross-selling into LOBsDeveloping advocacy
1:1 ABM
Industry Marketing
Channels & Alliances
Partner-based ABM to to single accounts Sector- based ABM
Partner-based ABM to industry sectors
ABE*
* Account-based Everything
ABM is adding value to other marketing segments
The different approaches to ABM
1:1
1:Few
1:Many
Mission-critical‘Must win’ or ‘must defend’ customers.
High-touchAccounts in key verticals with significant growth potential.
ProgrammaticFocused campaigns across a group of accounts which share common industry contexts.
ABM Segmentation
Taking a tiered approach to ABM
enables our clients to focus budget
and resources appropriately and to
ensure that all key accounts are
included in their ABM activity
1:1
1:Few
1:Many
Typically not more 10-20 Accounts per year .
10-15 accounts per ‘cluster’ typically aligned by vertical or common needs
All Key accounts - typically 100-200 and rarely > 500ABM ‘air cover’ across all your key accounts
ABM Segmentation
A blended approach enables our clients
to scale their ABM programme to
include all key accounts, whilst taking
a more focussed approach to key
verticals and 1:1 accounts.
Programmatic allows you to ‘flip the pyramid’ for always on coverage
10
50
200
Using an intent-based or programmatic
approach you can ensure that you have
‘always on’ coverage across ALL your key
accounts even within a basic ABM
programme
Key accounts will qualify themselves into
1:Few and 1:1 programmes by engaging with
content or showing intent in a relevant area
To
With
Through
ABM to engage most important partners(Partner engagement)
ABM with partners to create a joint proposition for key accounts(Joint go-to-market campaigns)
Enabling ABM through all partners by providing insight, content and messaging (ABM in a box)
Partner-based ABM
Partner-based ABM applies ABM
principles to your alliances and
channels
It enables you to create joint
value propositions and GTM
strategies as well as increasing
the size of your ABM budget
The ABM process
Define programme objectives?
What is the right ABM Model?
Account selection
Define success criteria
Identify key stakeholders with contact details
In-depth account profile
• Understand strategic goals
• What does their technology and supplier landscape look like?
• Account based SWOT
Relationship mapping
Develop an account specific value proposition and supporting messages
Identify key content assets
Develop detailed go to market account plan
Replay the account insight and findings
Map opportunities and focus areas
Prioritise opportunities into an account plan
Agree strategy by account
Curate/develop content assets
Deliver & execute against the plans
Review each activity and its success
Quarterly account review of overall plan
ABM strategy development session
1:1 calls with the sales/account team
Desk research
Group workshop: account strategy
Group workshop: account messaging
ABM Marketing campaign starts
Quarterly review cycles
ABM | 1:1 Account Focus
Scoping your ABM Programme Account Insight Strategy & Planning Account Messaging
& GTM PlanCampaign Development
& Delivery ROI & measurement
Week 1 Week 2-4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7+ Week TBC
MBA’s end-to-end ABM process for 1:1 accounts
Define programme objectives?
What is the right ABM Model?
Vertical segment or cluster identification
Agree success criteria
Industry sector profile
• Major players• Industry drivers• Pain points• Competitive
Landscape• Regulatory
Identify key stakeholders with contact details within cluster of accounts
Relationship mapping
Develop a specific value proposition for vertical/cluster and supporting messages
Identify key content assets
Develop detailed go to market account plan
Replay industry sector insights and findings
Map opportunities and focus areas
Prioritise opportunities into a sector-based plan
Agree strategy by segment/cluster
Curate/develop content assets
Deliver & execute against the plans
Review each activity and its success
Quarterly account review of overall plan
ABM strategy development session
1:1 calls with segment and account specific sales leaders
Desk research
Group workshop: segment/cluster strategy
Group workshop: segment/cluster messaging
ABM Marketing campaign starts
Quarterly review cycles
ABM | 1:FEW Account Focus
Scoping your ABM Programme Account Insight Strategy & Planning Account Messaging
& GTM PlanCampaign Development
& Delivery ROI & measurement
Week 1 Week 2-4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7+ Week TBC
MBA’s end-to-end ABM process for 1:FEW accounts
The Key Role of Insight in ABM
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ACCOUNT INSIGHT BREAKDOWN
1
2
3
4
5
In-depth company profiles – business model, financial overview, strategic priorities, SWOT analysis
Industry Overview – overview and market size, with key trends
Executive profiles – employee structure, educational background and career overview
Opportunity analysis – Where your organisation has an opportunity to engage within the account
Stakeholder identification and relationship mapping – key contacts, hierarchy and full contact details subsequently mapped by any current or past relationships
The key role of insight
Setting KPI’s & measurement criteria
BUSINESS GOALS:
• Achieve £xx revenue from an industry and/or account list
• Grow account(s) revenues by {£xx or %}
• Break into new account(s)
• Reduce time to pipeline/deals by X
• Relative deal size compared to non-ABM accounts
MARKETING OBJECTIVES
• Increasing marketing value to sales
• Improved brand sentiment within accounts (NPS)
• Earlier customer engagement and reduced sales cycles
• Breaking into new parts of the organisation
• Greatly improved ROI on typical B2B marketing
ABM allows you to set precise targets by account or sector
ABM Content & Creative
With billions of content pieces
posted online every day,
producing content with visual
appeal and impact is more
important than ever.
Infographics are a great way to
tell a digestible story combining
typography and iconography.
Infographics are suited use in the
early stages of the sales cycle
and often ungated.
INFOGRAPHICS
Infobites are snack-sized pieces of content optimised social channels and the mobile user
experience.
Written, designed and formatted to concisely support a campaign message, these content
pieces can help increase both reach and impact with a social audience.
Infobites are ideally suited the early stages of the sales cycle.
SOCIAL INFOBITES
eBooks allow brands to tell a more
comprehensive story relating to their
proposition or solutions.
Whilst still benefitting from optimised design,
this form of content is suited engagement in
the attract and nurture stages of the sales
cycle.
EBOOKS
Blogging for businesses is a great
way of driving traffic to your
website, among other calls to
action.
With the option of integrating blogs
into mature platforms such as
LinkedIn, creating and posting blogs
can also help elevate brand
perception and establish thought
leadership.
BUT, there is an art to it! Correct
blogging can add significant value
to a brands inbound efforts.
BLOGS
Longer form content still has it’s rightful
place in the modern marketing remit.
Although the format may have changed to
include more visual elements, the ability to
communicate comprehensive – and often
complex messages – is undisputed.
WHITE PAPERS
1
THE STARTING POINT FOR LEADING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY
THE RISE OF CLOUD BROKING SERVICES: WHAT A CIO NEEDS TO KNOW
Market research reports is a great way for marketers to predict how consumers will respond to
new marketing strategies and proposition developments.
Gain insight on – and value from – industry overviews, key industry and macro-economic trends
and challenges, market share analysis, and general end-user business issues and pain points.
MARKET REPORTS
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arrow.com
Strategy & Insight ResearchEuropean Medical Imaging Equipment Market
Media-rich content formats are a great way to bring your brand personality and
message to life. Brands are able to deliver more immersive viewing experience,
whilst taking advantage of mature video platforms and their SEO capabilities.
ACCOUNT AND CLUSTER SPECIFIC VIDEO CONTENT
Sales enablement encompass a wide range for formats and is an ideal way to align
direct and indirect sales force behind a united message and brand – from battle
cards, to guides, to cheat sheets, to PowerPoint presentations.
SALES ENABLEMENT
ABM in practice
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Vertical Cluster ABM with HPE (DXC)
HPE reorganised their business around a vertical approach to market and worked with HPE to develop the vertical ABM strategy across retail and finance
We identified the top key accounts in collaboration with HPE and the personalised GTM execution plan to drive existing and net new client growth across multiple platforms.
This became the cornerstone for their vertical (‘cluster’) ABM focus
“MostCommerciallySuccessfulCampaign”
ShortlistedB2BMarketingAwards2017
1. Approach based on MBA’s defined ABM methodology
Strategy &
PlanningIndustry Messaging
& GTM Plan Asset Development
Execution
4 5
6 7
Planning & Creative
1 2
3
Research & Insights
Cluster & Account InsightsScoping the ABM
Programme
Campaign ExecutionROI &
measurement
2. Vertical sector and account insights
Define retail and FSI sector map – market size, geography, technology adoption
• Identify industry drivers & pain points (inc. regulatory issues)
• Understand competitive landscape
• Validate sub-segment model for targeting
• Validate top 15 key target accounts (based on revenue opportunity)
Account profiles
• In-depth company profiles – business model, financial overview, strategic priorities, SWOT analysis, technology & supplier background
• Executive profiles – employee structure, educational background & career overview
• Opportunity analysis – where HPE had an opportunity within the account
• Identify key stakeholder contacts with contact details (e-mail & telephone numbers) per account
Stakeholder mapping
• Identify key stakeholder contacts
• Relationship mapping with client contacts
MarketMap
Industrythemes
Keyinfluencers
Associations
Keyevents
Socialnetworks
Media
Competitors
Marketsize
3. Industry Messaging & Go to Market Plan
INSIGHT
CREATIVE
STRATEGY&PLANNING
EMAILNURTURE
SOCIALLISTENING SOCIAL
MICROSITE
PAIDMEDIA
TELEMARKETING
Research & Insight
Brand Awareness & Demand GenerationData &
Content
DATABUILD
CONTENTPRODUCTION
DIGITALECO
QUALIFICATION
LEADNURTURE
SALESACTIVATION
SALESENABLEMENT
Awareness
Activation and lead nurture
COMMS SUPPERCLUBS
4. Creative Messaging, Content & Asset creation
The foundation of the campaign was the development of the interactive ‘innovation model’ which guided retailers and financial services companies through their digital transformation journey.
This was developed into a microsite with supporting content assets including thought-leadership points of view, blogs and a thought leadership ‘supper club’ series.
5. Campaign Execution
Personalised communications
Social Brands and social community (through SMEs)
Thought leadership blog series
VIP events (supper club series & VIP retail tour)
Lead nurture and mapping and tracking through buying cycle
Namedtargetedaccounts
Interactive ‘Innovation Model’ microsite
Measurement & ROI
$150m pipeline value$33m revenue won within 12 months
• Sales and marketing alignment
• In-depth Industry insight
• Compelling messaging and value proposition
• 100% engagement across named accounts
• Net new relationships developed
• Opportunity pipeline created
• Revenue wins
42
McDonald Butler have worked extensively with me on executing on an integrated marketing plan across my FSI and Retail sectors. The team have great industry knowledge and have helped drive real intimacy with our key prospects through digital, social and account based marketing, always with a focus on innovation in our messaging
Jeremy Suddards, VP Industries, HPE
“”
Thank youAny questions
@robertnorum@McDonaldButler