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07.8.2024 Osian Barnes
Technology has proven instrumental in moving marketing and sales efforts forward, including Account-Based Marketing. With technology providing insights into targeted accounts and their purchasing habits that were previously mere speculation for sales and marketing teams, leveraging technology is now not only possible but necessary to achieve a 360-degree view of high-value accounts.
However, despite these tools' intelligence and ease, building the optimal Account-Based Marketing tech stack isn't always straightforward. There are so many factors to consider and so many options available on the market for you to cherry-pick from when building your tech stack that you may be overwhelmed with choice, possibly even crippled with indecision. So, how do you know what tools and technologies should be in your ABM tech stack?
ABM in contract manufacturing–it just makes sense!
In the traditionally sales-led manufacturing industry, Account-Based Marketing presents an opportunity to align sales and marketing efforts and thus combine the best of both worlds for maximum ROI on marketing spend. Because ABM typically results in higher conversion rates and larger average deal sizes, focusing efforts on specific, high-value target accounts can maximise resources where they would drive the most impact.
Additionally, ABM enables contract manufacturing companies to build stronger, long-term customer relationships by creating personalised, relevant marketing experiences. This personalisation helps address target customers' specific needs and interests, foster loyalty, and enhance customer satisfaction, creating fertile ground for cross-selling and upselling further down the line.
With the granularity of data insights available with technology, contract manufacturers can further extend the potential of their ABM campaigns. By thoroughly understanding the needs and challenges of their target accounts and identifying intent signals more accurately and timeously, teams can create more effective and relevant marketing campaigns that drive sales cycles forward.
See the impact of ABM for contract manufacturers
Identifying the right tools for the job
Apart from our recommendations below, there are a few key considerations to keep in mind when exploring technologies and assessing whether they’re worth including when building out your ABM stack. Here are the questions you should be asking:
1. Can this tool integrated with my existing tech stack?
You likely already have a set of tools in your existing tech stack that you want to retain as you build on and refine your ABM tech stack. You must choose new tools with great integration capabilities to accommodate these existing tools and their valuable data.
Tools that can integrate effectively with your existing technologies not only help you avoid frustrating and detrimental data silos, gaps and duplication but give you new means to view and use your data, leading to refreshed insights and new possibilities.
2. Does this tool provide measurable, actionable metrics?
Metrics are vital to a solid ABM strategy; they let you assess the impact of your efforts, identify new opportunities, and maximise resources. As such, the tools you choose for your tech stack must provide measurable marketing performance metrics that directly relate to business impact.
This means more sophisticated and actionable data metrics beyond secondary metrics like firmographic or intent data. The tools you choose should be able to help you connect ABM campaign results directly with revenue, providing a clear picture of whether you’re reaching revenue goals.
3. Is this tool B2B-centric?
B2B marketing is considerably different from B2C marketing, and not every technology out there can support the unique nuances and challenges of B2B marketing. When navigating the ocean of tools available to you, identify those that have built solutions specifically for the needs of B2B marketing teams. Even if a tool seems too good to pass up, ensuring it’s made with B2B in mind will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.
4. What are this tool's data-sharing and connectivity capabilities?
As you integrate your new tools with your existing technology, build on your ABM tech stack, and explore new ways to get the most out of your data to drive sales goals, you need to be able to measure results and optimise what's working across the funnel, at every stage of your ABM campaign, and across your tech stack.
To do this effectively and with minimal additional effort, you need technology that can connect and share data effortlessly, make sense of it both within and across the different tools and make it more actionable as your ABM efforts progress.
Now that you know what criteria to use when assessing potential technologies, let's explore the essential tools to include in your Account-Based Marketing tech stack.
Customer Relationship Management systems
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems are sophisticated software platforms designed to manage and analyse customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. The primary goal of a CRM is to improve cross-team relationships, streamline the lead management process by tracking leads' progress through the sales funnel, provide enhanced customer insights, and increase profitability.
CRMs are crucial for ABM as they help companies keep detailed records of their interactions with key accounts for targeted marketing efforts. They offer a central repository for all account data, facilitating collaboration between marketing and sales teams that ensures that every interaction is informed by a target account's history, preferences, and current status, leading to more meaningful and impactful engagements.
Top CRM tools
| Salesforce | Widely regarded as one of the most powerful and versatile CRM platforms, Salesforce offers extensive customisation options and a vast ecosystem of integrations. |
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Dynamics 365 combines CRM and ERP capabilities and offers deep integration with other Microsoft products and advanced data analytics, making it useful to any existing Microsoft ecosystem. |
| HubSpot CRM | Known for its user-friendly interface and robust features, HubSpot is an excellent choice for seamlessly integrating your CRM with marketing automation and sales efforts. |
Marketing automation platforms
Marketing Automation is the use of technology to automate repetitive marketing tasks and workflows, thus streamlining processes and freeing up teams to focus on high-impact activities.
It is particularly valuable for ABM as it allows for the efficient and precise execution of personalised marketing strategies aimed at high-value accounts.
Marketing automation enables businesses to deliver targeted content, manage multi-channel campaigns, and track user engagement at scale. It supports personalised, timely interactions with target accounts and allows for consistent, scalable, and data-informed marketing strategies. With marketing automation, businesses can shift focus to strategic tasks that nurture leads and enhance conversions.
Top marketing automation platforms
| Marketo | A member of the Adobe family, Marketo offers a comprehensive suite of tools for lead management, email marketing, and analytics. Its robust capabilities are well-suited for executing complex ABM strategies. |
| Pardot | A Salesforce product, Pardot is designed for B2B marketing automation and provides powerful tools for lead nurturing, ROI reporting, and campaign management, seamlessly integrating with the Salesforce CRM. |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | HubSpot’s Marketing Hub offers a wide range of automation features, including email marketing, social media management, and analytics, making it a popular choice for ABM marketers already using HubSpot CRM. |
Data analytics tools
Data analytics tools collect, process and analyse data to provide insights and support decision-making. In the context of ABM, these tools are essential for understanding the behaviours and preferences of target accounts, measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, and making informed strategic decisions.
The best data analytics tools enable marketers to track engagement, identify trends, and optimise their strategies based on real-time data. By leveraging these insights, companies can personalise their marketing efforts, get the most out of their marketing budgets, improve targeting, and enhance their ABM initiatives.
Top data analytics tools
| Google Analytics | Widely used for comprehensive insights into website traffic and user behaviour, Google Analytics helps marketers track conversions, understand how target accounts interact with their online content, and measure the performance of their campaigns. |
| Tableau | A powerful data visualisation tool that allows marketers to create interactive and shareable dashboards, Tableau analyses large datasets and uncovers actionable insights, making it easier to communicate findings and inform decision-making. |
Account intelligence tools
Account intelligence tools collect data from various sources to create comprehensive profiles of companies, including their organisational structure, key stakeholders, recent activities, and market positioning. These tools are indispensable for ABM, providing deep insights into target accounts, allowing marketers to tailor their strategies and communications accordingly.
By understanding each target account's needs, challenges, and opportunities, marketers can personalise their outreach, build stronger relationships, and increase the chances of converting high-value accounts into loyal customers.
Top account intelligence tools
| ZoomInfo | ZoomInfo is a leading account intelligence platform that provides extensive data on companies and professionals. It offers detailed company profiles, contact information, organisational charts, and intent data, making it a powerful ABM tool. |
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Leveraging LinkedIn’s expansive data, Sales Navigator helps sales teams build relationships at scale by alerting them to important milestones, opportunities for timely outreach, and noteworthy developments with their target accounts. It also integrates with various CRMs and other intelligence tools like ZoomInfo. |
| Clearbit | Recently acquired by HubSpot, Clearbit enriches customer data by providing real-time intelligence on companies and individuals. It integrates with various marketing and sales platforms to deliver actionable insights that enhance personalisation and targeting. |
Personalisation and engagement tools
Personalised interactions with target accounts are essential to a successful ABM campaign. Personalisation and engagement tools tailor marketing communications and interactions based on individual account data and behaviour. These tools enable businesses to create customised ABM experiences for each target account, ensuring their messages are relevant, timely, and engaging.
Personalisation and engagement tools allow marketers to deliver content and communications that resonate with each target account's specific needs and preferences, increasing the likelihood of conversion and enhancing the overall customer experience for long-term loyalty.
Top personalisation and engagement tools
| Drift | Drift is a conversational marketing platform that uses chatbots and live chat to engage website visitors in real-time. It enables businesses to personalise interactions based on visitor behaviour and context, providing immediate and relevant responses to inquiries. |
| Vidyard | Vidyard is a video marketing platform that allows businesses to create, share, and track personalised video content. Videos can be customised for individual accounts, delivering engaging and tailored messages that stand out and capture attention. |
| HubSpot | Personalisation is available in almost every feature of HubSpot's Marketing Hub. Personalisation is a foundational aspect of HubSpot's platform, from triggering behavioural pop-ups to sending time-optimised emails and optimising your website content based on visitor characteristics and behaviour. |
Content Management Systems (CMS)
Content Management Systems (CMS) are software platforms that enable businesses to create, manage, and publish digital content i.e. a website. With a CMS you can create website content, modify it, and remove it without needing extensive technical knowledge.
A CMS is vital for ABM because it centralises content operations and ensures that all content is accessible, up-to-date, and easily customisable. It supports the creation of targeted content that resonates with specific accounts, helping to engage them more effectively and drive conversions. By managing content centrally, a CMS also enables better coordination between marketing and sales teams, ensuring that all communications are aligned and consistent.
Top CMS tools
| WordPress | Free and open source, WordPress is one of the most popular CMS platforms known for its flexibility and extensive ecosystem of plugins and themes. It is user-friendly and highly customisable, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes looking to manage their ABM content effectively. |
| Drupal | Another free and open-source tool that’s similar to WordPress in features and functionality, Drupal’s flexible taxonomy system sets it apart. It excels at managing sites with large amounts of content. |
| HubSpot Content Hub | One of the most fully featured CMS solutions, HubSpot is a robust and flexible option for content-reliant marketing and sales teams. If you currently use the HubSpot platform, the CMS Hub is a great plug-and-play solution for eBooks, webinars, blogs, long-form content, and optimisation. |
Collaboration and project management tools
Cross-team collaboration and alignment are vital for conducive work efforts, especially for ABM. Collaboration and project management tools help teams plan, execute, and monitor projects collaboratively by facilitating communication, task management, timeline tracking, and resource allocation. These tools ensure that all team members are aligned and working towards common goals.
Effective collaboration and project management are essential in ABM because they enable seamless coordination and alignment between different teams. Because ABM campaigns often involve multiple stakeholders, intricate workflows, and detailed planning, collaboration and project management tools help streamline things, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and that projects are completed accurately and on time.
Top project management tools
| Asana | A versatile project management tool that allows teams to create tasks, set deadlines, assign responsibilities, and track progress, Asana offers features like project timelines, task dependencies, and team collaboration spaces. |
| Trello | Using a visual, card-based system to help teams organise tasks and projects, Trello’s intuitive interface and flexible board structure make tracking progress, managing workflows, and collaborating with team members on ABM initiatives easy. |
| Monday.com | Monday.com is a work operating system that provides a wide range of project management and collaboration features. It supports task tracking, automation, reporting, and integration with other tools, making it a powerful solution for ABM project management. |
ABM platforms
Dedicated, purpose-built ABM platforms enable B2B marketing and sales teams to scale their ABM programmes through account selection, planning, engagement, and reporting capabilities. The most effective ABM platforms make it easy to identify the right target accounts and serve them the right information and message at each stage of their buyer's journey.
When exploring ABM platforms to adopt, ensure they have the features to support an omnichannel strategy, including targeting, digital channel integration (including programmatic), site personalisation, 1:few and 1:1 capabilities, and comprehensive reporting and analytics.
Top ABM platforms
| Terminus | Terminus is a full-featured ABM platform offering cross-funnel analytics, email ads, chat and account intelligence. Its focus is enabling various teams to work in tandem managing LinkedIn, retargeting, and automation from within the platform. |
| RollWorks | Rollworks is a growing platform that seeks to bring the power of ABM to companies of every size. Its three delineated solutions—identification, engagement, and measurement—simplify ABM conceptually, effectively democratising Account-Based Marketing for any and all teams. |
| 6Sense | A major industry player, 6Sense is a top-rated data-focused platform with proprietary predictive intelligence, AI, and machine learning capabilities. It strives to provide account insights not readily available elsewhere and enable seamless orchestration for a more successful engagement stack. |
Summary
Building an account-based marketing tech stack is a non-negotiable prerequisite for an optimised ABM strategy. However, not all tools and technologies are the same, and combining existing tools with new ones requires careful consideration to ensure valuable data insights aren't lost in the ether as your teams scramble, unaligned, to meet revenue goals.
By identifying the technologies your team needs, reviewing their integration, metrics and data-sharing capabilities, and choosing a few fundamentals you can't do without, you'll set your ABM efforts up for meaningful success, leveraging data-driven technology features and insights.
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