Late last year we published “Account-centric Demand Gen: the Cross Discipline Opportunity” The inspiration for researching and writing that report was the growing number of conversations with prospects and new customers about both Demand Generation and Account Based Marketing and more specifically, how we employ the tactics commonly associated with both disciplines in campaigns.
To understand why ABM and Demand Gen continue to be growth areas for B2B marketing, it’s useful to consider that being successful in modern B2B marketing starts with two simple points: 1. having something interesting to say and 2. identifying and having the permission to speak to an audience that will be interested. Simple, right?
Triggering interest in your target audience, delivering a value exchange and starting a conversation sets you on the path to a commercially successful engagement. True ABM offers the ultimate in audience identification, understanding and need mapping. Data-led identification of target accounts should always result in better ROI, while deep account and audience insights can be used to identify interest and need, and therefore content that will better meet audience expectations. Demand tactics can reach that audience, put the right content in front of it and gain consent to market.
While scaling up can impact the ultimate accuracy of your data, many of the benefits associated with ABM planning and Demand tactics remain. Consider for a moment the downsides of ignoring either of these tools. All too often we find prospects talking to us about the need to generate thousands of leads without a clear understanding of what will engage potential leads or a view of the value of that engagement. Even if you gain marketing opt-ins from a campaign, with poorly targeted content you miss the opportunity to add value to a lead’s journey and risk creating a negative brand impression. Similarly, we see well researched and planned ABM programs that are the executional equivalent of shouting in the street. Without a clearly identified (and ideally opted in) audience, the brand’s ability to engage, influence and, ultimately, convert will always be limited.
While there are very few truly new approaches to B2B marketing, the intelligent combining of ABM and Demand Generation is without doubt a winning one.
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