As a small and medium business enterprise, ABM is essential to your success. The concept allows you to narrow your focus and dedicate your resources to specific accounts with tremendous growth potential. Through ABM, you can supercharge your relationship with the high-value customers who make the most impact on your ability to generate leads, attract investors, and earn the trust of new customers.
How SMEs are different from Big Corporates
Sales Cycle
The sales cycle for SMEs is comparatively faster than for big corporates. The sales team of SMEs has to be proactive and needs to be on their toes all the time. While that is the case for SMEs it’s easier to get ABM done effectively
Marketing Budget
The marketing budget for SMEs is comparatively smaller than that of large enterprises. It is more difficult for them to run long-term campaigns, therefore they need something which can help them get results faster. While Big corporates have the resources to use try and error techniques to find the right marketing strategies that align with their business objectives, SMEs can not do that. Therefore it is easier to rely on a proven marketing technique that has a sure result
Target Accounts
The number of target accounts is less in the case of SMEs than in big corporates. A certain set of companies have been identified as their target accounts. Hence, their focus is limited only to those companies and their decision-makers, who’d like to buy their products/services. Which is the perfect model to run ABM campaigns.
What is ABM?
Account-based marketing (ABM) is an approach to marketing in which sales and marketing resources are dedicated to specific key accounts.
In the B2B world, account-based marketing involves determining which customer accounts are best for your business and then targeting those accounts with personalized content that meets their needs, with the hope of generating leads and closing sales.
One of the main differences between ABM and other types of B2B marketing is that instead of casting a wide net with the same message in hopes of attracting all types of customers, you focus on a smaller group of prospects who are more likely to purchase your product or service.
Why do SMEs need ABM?
In today’s competitive market, every company needs an account-based marketing strategy. ABM, as it is commonly known, is a marketing strategy that treats individual accounts as markets in themselves, rather than targeting the general public. With ABM, a business can deliver customized messages and offers to specific clients and targets to encourage them to purchase more of your products or services.
Account-based marketing is particularly useful for SMEs because it allows them to leverage a small marketing budget to target their best customers and increase sales from existing accounts.
How SMEs can leverage ABM to grow their business?
1. Identify your target accounts
Identify the specific organizations or companies that you want to target. This should be done in partnership with your sales team, who will be able to share their experience with which organizations have the highest ROI.
2. Come up with a custom message for each account
Instead of speaking in generalities, come up with a message specifically tailored to each account. This will make your contacts feel like they’re getting personalized attention and increase their likelihood of converting.
3. Determine where your customers will be online
Try to map out all of the websites where your ideal customer is spending time online, including social media and industry blogs. Create an engagement plan for each site, so you know exactly what content you’ll post and who will be responsible for posting it.
