How to Implement ABM Tactics for Better SaaS Customer Acquisition

Did you know that Account Based Marketing (ABM) strategies are not just for enterprise-level businesses any more? In fact, 94% of marketers use ABM in some capacity. While originally developed for enterprise-level businesses with large deals, the strategy has evolved to provide benefits to businesses of all sizes.

ABM is a targeted approach to promotional campaigns that allows businesses to focus their resources on personalised marketing for high-value accounts, rather than using a broad-based approach for less targeted results. By targeting specific accounts with personalised messaging, businesses of all sizes and budgets can create a more impactful marketing approach and compete with larger enterprises.

The principles and techniques of SaaS ABM are the same as any other marketing campaign; however, the content and messaging is much more bespoke to the individual challenges and opportunities of the target business. This helps you get the right message in front of the right people, allowing you to take on the customers you really want.

Read on to explore how your SaaS business can implement ABM tactics to help target and improve customer acquisition and retention.

What is Account Based Marketing?

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategy that focuses on identifying and targeting high-value accounts or customers, and creating personalised marketing campaigns to engage and convert them. Targeting a specific set of accounts with a tailored marketing approach can yield better results than using a broad-based approach that targets a larger audience.

Key components of ABM include identifying high-value accounts, researching and understanding the needs and pain points of those accounts, creating personalised messaging and content to engage those accounts, and aligning sales and marketing teams to effectively target and engage the accounts.

ABM has become increasingly popular amongst SaaS businesses of all sizes in recent years due to its effectiveness in driving revenue growth and customer retention for B2B businesses. Some SaaS companies design ABM campaigns from the ground up, based around a certain prospect that they have their eye on. Others begin with a broader marketing campaign, before tailoring content and communications further for high engaging prospects.

Benefits of ABM

Increased Acquisition

90% of companies say the top goal of their ABM strategy is new business generation. They’ve chosen the right tool for the job, as ABM allows SaaS businesses to focus their resources and efforts on high-value prospects that have a higher potential for long-term success.

Rather than throwing content out to a wide audience and seeing what sticks, ABM allows you to be far more specific about the promotions, deals and content you send to each customer, appealing to them on a personal level and increasing engagement and the chance of conversion.

Increased Retention

By identifying and targeting specific accounts that are likely to convert and remain loyal, SaaS businesses can improve their chances of acquiring customers that generate significant revenue over time. These may be enterprise level customers, or up-and-coming names in your area of the industry.

Add to this tailored content that demonstrates your understanding of customers’ pain points, and you’re looking at greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. This increases customer lifetime value and reduces churn, as well as making customers more likely to recommend your product within their networks.

Streamlined Operations

ABM requires close collaboration between sales and marketing teams to effectively target and engage high-value accounts. This can be hard to get right at first, but once you’ve got both teams working together like a well oiled machine, you can look forward to better communication, a clearer understanding of target accounts across departments, and more efficient use of resources.

Valuable Insights

ABM also requires SaaS businesses to conduct in-depth research and analysis to understand the needs and pain points of individual customers. This research can provide valuable insights into customer preferences, behaviours, and motivations, which can be used to improve product development, customer support, and the overall customer experience.

How to Implement ABM Tactics

Choose Your Key Accounts

As ABM is all about tailoring campaigns to specific customers, the first step in setting up a campaign is identifying high-value accounts that are most likely to generate significant revenue. This can be done by analysing your existing customer base and leads, as well as researching your target market.

When choosing an account to focus on, you will need to examine who the key buyers are within the company, and target them specifically. It’s important to put careful research in at this stage, to gain a deep understanding not just of who these influencers are, but their daily challenges and priorities.

To achieve this, you will need to gather data from their behaviour on your website, social media activity, and other interactions with your business to better understand their needs, pain points, and behaviours.

Personalise Your Campaigns

Based on the data you have gathered, you can bring together your sales and marketing teams to create personalised messaging and content that will resonate with your target accounts. This can include creating custom landing pages, personalised email campaigns, and targeted social media ads.

Each piece of content should be underpinned by detailed insight, so that it clearly offers real value to the prospects it’s designed for. With a small list of specific targets, it is important to invest in good quality content, demonstrating thought leadership and offering immediate visual impact.

Encourage Collaboration

Ensure close collaboration between sales and marketing teams to effectively target and engage high-value accounts. These teams should be aligned around a shared understanding of the target accounts, messaging, and goals.

64% of brands that use ABM have a dedicated ABM strategy leader to help with this alignment. If you don’t have the budget for a specific staff member, consider choosing representatives from both teams to work together and head up the collaborative process.

Track and Analyse

In order for ABM to work at its best, you will need to monitor the effectiveness of your ABM campaigns and refine your approach over time. This is carefully constructed, high stakes marketing, and therefore businesses need to track which activities are generating the most engagement to ensure ROI.

Start out by setting goals and benchmarks and choosing key metrics to measure them by such as engagement metrics, conversion rates and lifetime value. Compare these month on month to identify what’s working and what needs adjusting.

Target Your Campaigns with Xander Marketing

Whether you’re targeting enterprise customers or simply looking to lock down loyal customers, Account-Based Marketing can be a highly effective strategy for acquiring and retaining SaaS customers. After all, 60% of companies report at least 10% increased revenue within the first year of a new ABM campaign.

However, implementing an effective ABM strategy requires careful planning, research, and execution. At Xander Marketing, help is at hand. We specialise in helping SaaS businesses implement effective marketing strategies. Our experts can help you develop and implement personalised messaging and content that drives engagement and conversion. With our guidance and support, you can acquire and retain customers more effectively than ever before.

Sign up for a free 30 minute consultation to learn more about how we can help you implement an effective ABM strategy for your SaaS business.