What Is ABM (Account-Based Marketing)?
Unlike traditional marketing methods that promote products or services to a broad audience, ABM is a strategy that identifies specific target companies (accounts) and implements an optimal approach tailored to their unique needs.
By allocating resources at the company level, you can achieve more efficient marketing activities.
Reference Article: What Is ABM? A Thorough Explanation of Its Benefits and Strategies for Success! ▶︎
Corporate Data Required for ABM
ABM is also a data-driven marketing initiative.
To ensure success, you must acquire the following types of data.
- 1. Corporate Information
- 2. Technical Information
- 3. Financial Information
- 4. Intent Data (Behavioral Data)
Let us examine the details of each below.
1: Corporate Information
Since ABM involves approaching companies on an individual basis, it is first necessary to collect basic corporate information.
Specifically, this includes company size (capital, revenue, number of employees, etc.), industry and business sector, location, and business activities.
In addition, identifying decision-makers and the departments or personnel involved in purchasing is crucial for advancing business negotiations.
This data should be collected from publicly available corporate information on the web or from paid databases.
2: Technical Data
To secure contracts, information regarding the technical fields related to the products or services being proposed is essential. Therefore, identify the technologies currently utilized by target companies, as well as new technologies they are expected to consider in the future.
Technical information can be obtained from corporate press releases, exhibition participation records, and patent applications. It is also important to conduct research on technology trends to assess the level of alignment with your own products.
3: Financial Information
It is necessary to grasp a company's financial indicators and performance trends to determine their investment capacity.
For publicly traded companies, this information can be collected from securities reports. For private companies, financial information can be obtained from reports provided by credit research agencies.
To also understand cash flow and financing status, refer to information such as press releases.
4: Intent Data (Behavioral Data)
Intent data (behavioral) refers to behavioral data that indicates a company's purchasing intent.
In addition to access data from your own company website, purchasing corporate web behavioral data from third parties enables a more detailed analysis of behavior to better understand customer needs.
In ABM, it is effective to utilize MA (Marketing Automation) tools to collect data such as website browsing history and white paper download status.
Furthermore, social media post content and participation in industry seminars or events can also serve as clues to grasp corporate needs, so these should be referenced as well.
Benefits of Accurate Data Acquisition in ABM
As described above, the difficulty of acquiring accurate data for ABM is by no means low.
Nevertheless, there are many benefits for corporate organizations to acquire data regarding target companies when implementing ABM.
Specific examples are as follows:
- Increased Targeting Precision
- Ability to Make Proposals That Match Needs
- Ability to Properly Execute Improvement Cycles for Initiatives
We will explain each of these in detail.
Improve Targeting Accuracy
In ABM, narrowing down target companies is critical to success. Based on accurate corporate data, you should select companies with high potential demand and a greater openness to your proposals.
Conversely, using inaccurate data leads to incorrect targeting, resulting in the wasteful consumption of sales resources.
By acquiring accurate data, you can analyze business scale, industry, performance, and management policies from multiple perspectives, allowing for appropriate scoring and segmentation.
As a result, you can develop effective approach strategies, significantly improving targeting accuracy.
Deliver Proposals That Match Needs
Accurately grasping a target company's technological trends, new technologies under consideration, and need-related information leads to optimal proposals that match their requirements.
By acquiring accurate data, you can precisely capture the challenges companies face and their expectations for products and services.
Execute an Effective Improvement Cycle for Initiatives
To correctly measure the results of ABM initiatives, accurate intent data—such as "website visit history" and "document download information"—is essential.
Without behavioral data that indicates intent and needs, you will be unable to properly evaluate your initiatives.
By analyzing accurate data, you can correctly calculate the ROI of your ABM. You can quantitatively identify areas for improvement and smoothly engage in the PDCA cycle.
How to Acquire Corporate Data for ABM
In ABM, it is necessary to collect and integrate various data on target companies. Utilizing an ABM tool is effective for this purpose.
An ABM tool refers to a solution that stores, integrates, and analyzes data on customers and prospective companies necessary for ABM, thereby supporting the execution of your ABM operations.
By integrating the built-in database with your own internal data, you can select high-quality accounts that are more likely to lead to purchases, and plan and execute approach strategies tailored to specific corporate characteristics.
Using an ABM tool allows you to prioritize companies based on their likelihood of conversion and enables customized approaches.
By leveraging the corporate data accumulated in an ABM tool, you can develop more personalized strategies for each account, which will help streamline your sales activities.
Reference Article: What Is an ABM Tool? Explaining Its Importance and the Three Benefits It Brings to Companies ▶︎
Overview of Data Management Essential for ABM
To execute ABM effectively, it is essential to define data management that ensures the accurate and centralized accumulation of data regarding target companies, as well as an appropriate management structure.
However, in reality, many cases face challenges due to unorganized data management, such as corporate data being scattered across sales, marketing, and other departments, or failing to reflect the most up-to-date information.
By implementing proper data management, you can increase the accuracy of your targeting and enable more personalized approaches.
Consequently, the efficiency of your strategy execution will be significantly improved.
The data management procedure is as follows:
- Step 1. Clarification of Data Requirements
- Step 2. Identification of Internal and External Data Sources
- Step 3. Data Integration and Normalization
- Step 4. Data Cleansing
- Step 5. Construction of a Data Integration Platform
- Step 6. Establishment of Access Rights and Governance Framework
- Step 7. Setting KPIs and Implementing the PDCA Cycle
Data management is not merely about collecting data; it requires processing and integrating data so that sales and marketing teams can utilize it in a "pristine state."
By following this series of processes, you can build the data utilization framework essential for ABM.
Reference Article: What Are the Three Challenges to Solve for ABM Success? Introducing Data Utilization as the Key to Solutions ▶︎
Summary
To achieve success in ABM, the appropriate collection and management of corporate data are essential.
By gaining a multifaceted understanding of a company's accurate basic information, financial data, technological trends, and specific needs, you can enhance targeting precision and deliver accurate proposals that align with those needs.
Since the effectiveness of ABM varies significantly depending on data quality, ensure you consistently collect accurate and comprehensive data while simultaneously implementing robust data management.
uSonar provides a comprehensive guide titled "ABM Implementation: The Complete Guide," which systematically outlines the knowledge required to execute ABM.
If you are struggling with the specific methods for implementing ABM, please download it from the link below.
