Marketers are still adjusting to the post-pandemic/hybrid work culture while re-learning how to optimize their ABM strategies. By identifying the right accounts and prioritizing personalization, marketers are aligning with customer needs and crafting a successful ABM campaign that caters to new pain points. Madison Logic, a global digital account-based marketing (ABM) platform, released its new “State of the Buyer Report: Future of Work Edition,” which explores data on five different subjects that are fueling conversations about the future of work and profiles the buyers that are having them.
According to the report, marketers are significantly targeting the C-suite with content related to the future of work, and the findings reveal that director roles are engaging with content 25% to 40% more. With data showing that the typical buying committee consists of six to 10 decision makers, marketers need to be more comfortable engaging accounts across multiple channels with the best message for each decision-maker.
“While marketers need to shift their messaging to focus on new future of work pain-points, such as potential economic disruption, supply chain woes and ‘The Great Resignation,’ we don’t see a drop in research for technologies that ease remote and hybrid work communication,” said Tom O’Regan, CEO of Madison Logic, in an exclusive interview with Demand Gen Report. “The marketers driving the highest impact are able to use these signals to deliver superior results.”
The report breaks down evolving post-pandemic B2B buyer behavior and gives readers a holistic view of the future of ABM. It leverages proprietary data from ML Insights, revealing key insights for building a better ABM strategy that will engage accounts through every stage of the buyer’s journey. This information can help marketers better understand how data can fuel a full-funnel ABM strategy that cuts through all the noise.
“Marketers today are more comfortable and better equipped to handle economic uncertainty after going through the disruption of the pandemic,” said O’Regan. “They have KPIs and success metrics that show marketing’s influence on revenue clearly and can make a better case to increase their marketing spend on performance solutions that drive their business.”
What’s Next For B2B Marketers?
Marketers don’t have time to sift through endless amounts of data and information. There needs to be a way to get the answers they need without having to guess and make inaccurate assumptions. Marketers need the right tools and data to identify the right accounts, prioritize the right individuals and deliver personalized messaging and content.
“As more companies now adjust to a ‘new normal,’ our findings showed that the most successful marketers are leveraging data to execute a multichannel ABM strategy that targets the companies most likely to purchase,” continued O’Regan. “These organizations are aligning their strategies to deliver personalized experiences as buying teams move through the sales process and are leveraging insights from pipeline and revenue activity to better validate the impact of their strategy and make informed decisions on where to optimize.”
The new report provides actionable takeaways for marketers to reach the buying centers that are researching and actively engaging with relevant content and advertising. These are the five key areas uncovered in the report that are currently impacting hybrid workforce purchasing decisions:
- Cloud infrastructure;
- Hybrid work;
- Enterprise networking;
- Artificial intelligence; and
- Cybersecurity.
“Cloud-as-a-service” is a topic of interest for buyers and, according to Gartner, “it will reach 311% growth in 2022 for end-user spending. Declining topics like ‘cloud infrastructure’ and ‘cloud-based analytics’ most likely reflect the maturity of the cloud space and what organizations need to know about it.”
The 4 Pillars Of Data-Driven ABM
Currently, there are four pillars to consider when executing a data-driven ABM strategy across the entire buying journey, including:
- Sales and marketing alignment: “When marketing and sales are tightly aligned, marketing-generated revenue increases by 208% and customer retention rates increase,” O’Regan said. When marketing and sales share an understanding of how buyers move through the customer journey, marketers can adapt their ABM campaign to target accounts and push customers toward ideal sales interactions;
- Knowing the buyer: Marketers need to be comfortable engaging accounts across multiple channels with the best message for each decision-maker;
- Matching content to thebuyer’s journey: An effective marketing strategy includes engaging with prospects throughout the entire funnel; and
- Measuring pipeline and revenue impact: Measuring the success of your ABM campaign must align with company goals and understanding alignment across sales and marketing is critical for the revenue organization.
“B2B sales funnels typically involve more decision makers, making the sales cycle longer and more complex,” said O’Regan. “That’s why one of the cornerstones of ABM is delivering highly relevant content tailored to multiple decision makers within the target account. By educating each member of the buying group with the necessary information to not only drive consideration of your solution, but to align around how your solution can drive the necessary business outcomes, your team has a greater chance of driving pipeline and revenue impact.”
The goal is for sales and marketing teams to utilize data at every stage of the funnel to their audience through an aligned strategy.
Are Marketers Targeting The Right Buyers?
O’Regan revealed to DGR that, “Data is the backbone of any successful ABM program. All software organizations are executing on account-based strategies and the market has never been more competitive to drive sales. Having more insight into in-market accounts, and knowing who to target within those accounts, gives you the biggest opportunity to differentiate and gain an advantage to shorten sales cycles.”
Madison Logic seeks to enable companies to leverage a combined data set of three independent signals to prioritize companies demonstrating the highest propensity to purchase, activate data-driven programs globally across channels and measure the impact on pipeline.
Marketers prioritizing accounts using ML Insights aim to improve their ROI and drive higher conversion rates. “On average, sales and marketing teams see a 17% increase in pipeline volume, 33% lift in pipeline value and 25% faster pipeline velocity with Madison Logic over other accounts,” concluded O’Regan.
