How to identify and reach your target audience
Once upon a time, identifying qualified leads was one of a marketers biggest challenges. A significant amount of time was spent both tracking down contact information for prospects, and blindly selling services to companies that might not be the right fit. Thankfully now with the power of data, analytics and technology, it is much easier for marketers to determine and connect with their ideal target customers. This makes for a more efficient sales process because time is spent efficiently, and not wasted on marketing to unqualified leads.Introducing account-based marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategic sales and marketing approach that strategically focuses on key targeted accounts. By honing in on high value accounts (which may even include existing customers), your sales and marketing teams can dive right into engaging and connecting with strong prospects.
Key components of an account-based marketing approach include:
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- Identifying your top prospects: These accounts are companies you want to do business with, meaning those that are aligned with the product/service your business is selling.
- You can never know enough about these key accounts, gather as much possible information as possible. What are their goals, challenges, behaviors, and more.
- Use this insight to create highly tailored campaigns and marketing strategies, including personalized communication and content that appeals to their situation and needs.
Advancements in technology have enabled companies of all sizes to utilize account-based marketing, allowing them to focus their resources on the most valuable prospective customers. ABM allows for:
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- An elevated customer experience because of the high level of personalization
- Campaign efficiency with only the most promising prospects in your pipeline
- More aligned sales and marketing teams working collaboratively to target and engage specific accounts
The importance of data
Data is a critical component to the success of ABM.
Here’s why:
Data helps create a targeting strategy.
Determining target accounts to focus on is contingent upon a thorough contact and customer data analysis. One key part of the process is developing an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), which is a compilation of valuable customer characteristics, behavioral data and more.
Data helps identify, source, and prioritize prospects to determine commonalities between your ideal customers.
Examples of these elements might include:
- Industry
- Company size
- Revenue
- Location
- Budget
- Technology usage
Put simply, data helps identify your best customers and is the cornerstone of your business’s ICP. Without it, your entire account-based marketing strategy will be compromised.
Data for existing clients can be used to find new ones.
Your business can also look at the data compiled on your existing clients to model and then target high value prospects.
Take a look at their current clients’ competition, marketing strategies, challenges, industry positioning and more. Data can give you a deeper understanding of your clients, and as a result, potential others.
Data cleans things up.
Marketing campaigns and sales outreach are useless if your business is unable to reach any contacts within a prospective company.
By scrubbing contact and account data for accuracy (i.e. updated email addresses, phone numbers and contact names), your business will be able to reach a large number of potential customers.
Optimize your marketing efforts by ensuring that you can reach all your contacts. Industry experts suggest that having direct dial contact information is especially important when trying to reach upper-level decision makers. Data can help you get key information to reach the right people.
Data enables personalization.
Account-based marketing is all about customization, which happens when you know as much as possible about who you’re targeting.
Data allows for meaningful communication.
It provides key insights into the unique challenges and goals for each important account and contact, and allows the opportunity to personalize campaigns, tailor messaging and deliver content to the right people at the right time. Beyond basic demographic info, data can provide insight into so many aspects of your audience such as buying habits, online activities and other behaviors.
We’re data, digital and so much more!
Yes, an account-based marketing approach can drive business growth and deliver the results you seek, but it is data that unlocks its true potential.
As a full-service data and digital marketing company, LSC Marketing Group has helped brands use data to successfully target, engage and connect with their best customers.
Leverage our expertise in all areas of data to create a robust customer engagement strategy for your business. Brands from all industries have worked with our dedicated and highly experienced team to meet their goals, streamline their sales process and help create deeper ways to find and target their ideal audience.
And once you’ve identified your key targets, LSC Marketing Group can provide you with a comprehensive suite of digital tools and strategies to elevate your business to new heights.
Your customers are waiting for your services – we’ll help you find and connect with them.
Connect with us, and let’s schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss your needs.