How Do I Find the Right Account-Based Marketing Tool?

Are you in the market looking for an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) platform that will increase your top of the funnel with the right accounts?

With so many choices, businesses today struggle to make large investments using the right tools without shifting their technology several times a year. ABM flips the traditional marketing approach by encouraging you to focus on a defined set of targeted accounts and contacts. Within those accounts, they try to generate higher value MQLs at the top of the funnel and, in some cases, accelerate existing accounts. A CRM sometimes doesn’t integrate. Sometimes the predictive analytics are missing, or there may be a lack of intent data.

Account-Based Marketing in a B2B Environment

The potential of Account-Based Marketing in a B2B environment cannot be ignored or dismissed. A study done by Alterra found that 97% of users achieve a higher return on marketing investment with ABM.

There must be alignment between your marketing and sales teams to identify accounts that are potentially the right fit. Instead of using traditional marketing tactics, ABM drives marketing sales by focusing on a defined set of targeted accounts and contacts to generate higher value at the top of the funnel’s MQLs.

7 Key Considerations When Finding an ABM Tool

You are probably asking, “What comes first? The tool or the strategy? And what should my company focus on?” We found that companies are looking to execute their ABM strategy by identifying the technology that meets their needs. Although, ABM does require a well-defined strategy with the tech stack. We found that the decision-making framework for the right ABM tool heavily depends on 7 key considerations.

• Account Identification & Targeting:- Are you looking for the platform to identify anonymous accounts, or are you looking for anonymous accounts with higher match rates and accuracy? What are your expectations from the tool? The answer to that is identifying right-fit accounts. When building your business, the best-fit accounts should be your top priority.

• Segmentation:- It can easily help your sales team prioritize their time and overall resources. As you start to build your target account list (TAL), the right ABM platform should be able to help you identify and segment accounts that match your ideal profile.Your TAL offers detailed segmentation capabilities on various factors; these include industry, revenue, pipeline, current lifecycle value,and account scoring, all within a centralized location. Real-time engagement data can alert your sales team on which accounts to target and how they are engaging.

• Centralization of RevOps:- An ABM program bridges the gap between the sales and marketing teams. A good ABM platform should eliminate such silos and bring various departments’visibility into an account’s engagement over its lifecycle. RevOps will empower cross-functional teams to prioritize engagement and strengthen the relationships at the right time.

• Account-Based Advertising:- A good ABM platform must support multichannel account-based advertising. It typically takes 5-6 decision-makers (sometimes called a buying committee) to engage in a mental buying process. It is essential to determine if the AdTech built into the platform is designed for B2B or more consumer-centric models. Reaching the right target accounts becomes critical, especially using intent data.

• Data Science and Predictive Analytics:- NAV is an ABM tool that can prove the value of the overall strategy and its impact on revenue operations.

• Accuracy of Intent Data:- The purpose of using intent data is to focus on quality. It becomes imperative that a good ABM platform deploys targeted ads to the buying committee that are more valuable.
• Integration with Existing MarTech Tools:- Does your ABM platform have the ability to integrate seamlessly with pre-existing revenue tools?

In summary, the main goal of using an ABM platform is to:

• Reach high-potential accounts and buyers.
• Tap into real-time buyer intent signals, not off-the-shelf consumer data.
• Customize and personalize messages to each member of the buying committee at every stage.

We have had customers underutilize their HubSpot tool. With HubSpot’s built-in ABM functionality, alongside utilizing ZoomInfo B2B data and Bombora’s intent data, you are able to connect with and close your most valuable buyers. Given this, we always recommend customers see what you already have in your tool kit and make sure you are getting maximum value out of those. The goal is to offer customized support and guidance.

Furthermore, asking these questions is an excellent way for your business to take an ABM approach and give your customers a great experience with your business. If you want to find out more about our S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Account-BasedMarketing framework, book a discovery session with our expert ABM specialists.