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March 4, 2020
How ABM Can Impact Your Product Lifecycle Beyond Top-Of-Funnel Activity
By: John Fomook
Account-Based Marketing has been at the top of the hype scale in marketing departments for a number of years now. At this point, most organizations have tested or adopted ABM at some level. Still, now marketing and product leaders are starting to see how ABM can improve revenue growth across the entire marketing cycle or product life cycle, not just at the top of the funnel where it’s most apparent.
Followers of the SBI blog know that we’ve discussed the benefits and pitfalls of ABM for the last few years and that we believe it can drive tremendous results for revenue growth when planned, resourced, and executed correctly. For those unfamiliar with ABM, this short podcast with industry expert Sangram Vajre, “How to Implement and Utilize an ABM Program to Maximize Potential,” will provide an excellent background. And if you’re just getting started or want some structure on how you can go farther, we’ve developed this “ABM Approach Tool” to help you.
In its purest form, ABM is most typically used for targeting new accounts, gaining net new logos, and turning them into sales prospects. Ideally, you will have done full account segmentation work to identify and classify your target accounts, but even simpler strategic and target account lists can work for pilot programs. ABM motions come in three levels as the audience gets smaller. Smaller audiences require more effort and focus, but also offer higher returns. At the 1:1 level, ABM is really a sales-driven motion. Still, the marketing team can help with account research, content, strategy, and air cover, making ABM a terrific way for marketing and sales to partner closely in success.
How do you know if you’re ready to expand and leverage your ABM program in the product lifecycle? Consider how you rank against these capabilities for activating your customer base through ABM.
If you have at least some of the capabilities described above, your marketing team may be able to help you apply ABM more broadly across your product lifecycle. If we think about a product lifecycle being characterized by four major stages – Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline – let’s take a look at applying ABM in some new ways. While it may not be evident to the marketing team, as a product leader, you can look to ABM programs to improve revenue growth across all four stages.
ABM can be a very powerful method throughout a product lifecycle, all the way from product introduction to customer migration to a new platform. To get started, we’ve made it easy to work with your marketing team in applying an ABM strategy to your product lifecycle with this “ABM Approach Tool.” If you need some more ideas and support in planning, developing, and driving your ABM strategy, SBI is here to help. Click here to contact us and schedule a commitment-free consultation on account segmentation, developing an ABM strategy, or how to jumpstart your revenue growth.
John has 20 years of experience developing scalable marketing plans that align to business strategies and drive sales results. John’s deep experience in B2B and technology marketing and communications ranges from market strategy and messaging to demand generation and sales enablement. He has created, managed, and executed hundreds of integrated marketing campaigns and programs spanning brand awareness, demand generation, digital, social, and field marketing for new customer acquisition and retention.
Having built and developed high-performance teams, John is skilled at simplifying complex problems, creating actionable plans, and not confusing activity for progress. In addition to creating award-winning brand campaigns, John’s skills include business and marketing strategy, lead generation, sales, and marketing alignment, inside sales team development, and doing marketing that matters.
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