Linkedin account-based marketing (Part 1):

What is account-based marketing?

“LinkedIn Account-Based Marketing” is a Win At LinkedIn series for B2B marketers, entrepreneurs and freelancers that want to use Linkedin to sell high-value products or services to large enterprises.

I teach individuals how to use Linkedin to generate leads, nurture prospects and close deals – if you want to be coached and build on the learnings below, book a 1-2-1 coaching session over Skype with me HERE.

What is account-based marketing?

Account-based marketing is an increasingly popular strategy used by B2B organisations and individuals that want to focus their efforts on selling to a predetermined list of companies.

This is a direct contrast to conventional marketing lead generation whereby businesses promote and advertise to a general target ‘market’ or ‘audience’ and then work on whichever leads respond and come in.

With account-based marketing, you choose the individual companies (accounts) you want to focus on first and then you target those individual companies – and key individuals at the companies – with your marketing efforts.

Here is a helpful diagram which explains the difference:

Why is account-based marketing so popular?

Account-based marketing is so popular for organisations and individuals because it:

• Improves the customer acquisition process: ABM eliminates the poor leads that go nowhere and frustrates your business.
• Speeds up the sales process: ABM gives you the opportunity to specifically nurture your primary decision maker, along with all relevant prospects, in order to facilitate and expedite the sales process.
• Is cost effective: If you know precisely who your most attractive target companies are, ABM makes sense from a budget perspective.
• Shortens sales cycles: Through the use of account-based marketing, you can enjoy a shorter sales cycle. By eliminating unqualified prospects early in the game, your resources are preserved.
  
• Makes sense: Why spend half of your energy on low-level, low-profit clients, when even one deal with the right account can account for half your revenue? ABM targets only the accounts most likely to close, therefore the right leads generate more revenue that hundreds of the wrong leads combined.

There are scores of reasons why account-based marketing is such a smart strategy for people who sell to other companies, but fundamentally it is all about targeting.

Account-based marketing allows marketers to focus their efforts directly on marketing offers and messages that are specially-designed for their target customers – and this laser-focused marketing delivers big rewards.

[ACTION POINT] Watch I how used LinkedIn to do account-based marketing and grow a technology business to over £1m ARR:

How to do account-based marketing:

It doesn’t matter what you sell or to whom, the steps of any account-based marketing strategy are the same:

1. Create a list of the companies (accounts) you want to target: Before starting ABM, you need to create a list of 10-500 companies that fit your ideal company client profile. Criteria you might use include: industry type, company size, geography, revenue, etc. This is now your ‘target account list’ which you focus all of your sales and marketing efforts.
2. Identify the individuals at the accounts you want to target: Once you have your ‘target account list’, you will need to identify the “key decision makers” at each account – the people that will purchase your product or service, or who are involved in the decision-making progress.
3. Research the accounts and individuals: Before engaging any target account or individual at the account, you need to gather as much information as possible about them: company news, personal interests, mutual connections, etc.
4. Engage the accounts and individuals: Engage your target accounts and individuals at the account with relevant messaging and offers, via your preferred channels (e.g. LinkedIn messaging, LinkedIn advertising, phone, email)
5. Nurture the accounts until sales-ready: If accounts or individuals are not ready to buy from you, your ABM strategy needs to use content marketing and other tactics to stay ‘front of mind’ until the account is ready to buy from you

Of course, much more can (and will!) be said about each of these steps. But, at its heart, this is what an account-based marketing strategy looks like. As the diagram above explained: Account Selection > Target [individuals at the account] Identification > Nurturing account until sales ready > Converting account to a sale (Deal won!).

Why is Linkedin for Account-Based Marketing so critical?

As the world’s largest professional network, Linkedin is the best platform to identify, engage and sell successfully to target companies and the buyers at those companies.

There are over 500 million business professionals on LinkedIn, of which 45% are senior decision makers (y’know, the people that actually have buying power) which means that LinkedIn is a goldmine if you are someone trying to sell high-value products or services to other businesses (B2B).

In short, Linkedin is one big captive marketplace which you can use to execute a complete account-based marketing strategy:

• Create a list of the companies (accounts) you want to target
• Identify the individuals at the accounts you want to target
• Research the accounts and individuals
• Engage the accounts and individuals
• Nurture the accounts until sales-ready

As you can see, Linkedin is perfect for account-based marketing – something that I will show as I continue this “Linkedin for Account-Based Marketing” series!

Want private coaching to achieve Account-Based Marketing success?

My name is Jonny Rose and I’m the founder of Win At LinkedIn, a LinkedIn coaching service that trains professionals, entrepreneurs & freelancers to find leads, nurture prospects and close deals in a GDPR compliant way.

Let’s turn you into a Sales MACHINE, go here.