Account-Based Marketing for SaaS Startups
Why it is not worth the investmentđź’°.
Account-Based Marketing in short ABM is maybe one of the biggest marketing Buzzwords I have heard in the past 4 years. Many startups get excited about ABM and see it as a fast track to landing big accounts.
But here’s the catch!
A lot of them don’t understand ABM correctly. ABM is really challenging to implement. This approach demands more than just an aligned marketing and sales team. To really make it work, you need 4 to 6 different departments all in sync, which is a huge task, especially for a startup, where sometimes agile communication practices haven’t been implemented yet.
⏳ Long story short: ABM basically means that a strategic account is treated as a stand-alone market with only one customer. Your initiatives must be focussed in every way on this customer and this customer alone. This includes a research phase of your target persona, a strategic approach and positioning within the company.
When resources are limited and bandwidth is tight, are you really able to take the risk and gamble most of your resources towards one or two accounts? This brings us to the next section:
Key Challenges of Account-Based Marketing for Startups
- Time, Cost and Risk of hyper targeting: Targeting one large account can take as much time and effort as reaching an entire market segment. ABM’s one-to-one approach is particularly challenging for startups because it requires a long-term investment and research often stretching over months, not to mention the risk factor of relying on one or two specific accounts.
- Resource Intensiveness: ABM campaigns demand extensive research, tailored content, and a high level of engagement across multiple touchpoints. For a startup, this means investing a lot of time and financial resources into targeting just a few accounts. You are gambling everything on one card.
- Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Unlike more traditional lead-generation strategies that primarily involve sales and marketing, ABM needs buy-in and coordination from various teams. Finance must evaluate the investment-benefit and potential ROI. Customer Success has to ensure a deep understanding of the account’s journey and retention needs and deliver the right success stories in coorporation with marketing. Product Development might even tailor features or services based on the account’s specific requirements. This collaboration can be challenging to orchestrate, particularly in a startup environment where roles and processes are less established.
- Limited Technology and Data: ABM is heavily reliant on data-driven insights to craft personalized messages. Startups often lack the robust customer data infrastructure and advanced analytics that larger companies use to succeed with ABM. Limited access to this data restricts startups’ ability to create the highly personalized and targeted content that ABM requires.
But what is the alternative?
An alternative is what I call Industry Targeted Marketing (in short: ITM). Industry targeted marketing (ITM) is a strategic approach in which marketing and sales efforts and resources are targeted at specific industries. This involves identifying highly relevant TA (target accounts), categorising them in their respective industries, analysing buying centres and pain points and creating or mapping suitable content you already own that covers the entire funnel. From first touch to SQL.
Similarities to Account-Based Marketing
- Customized Content for Target Audiences: Like ABM, ITM tailors messaging for a specific audience, albeit an entire industry rather than a single account.
- Extended Customer Journey: Both ITM and ABM go beyond traditional marketing/sales efforts by accompanying the customer journey longer, nurturing leads further through the funnel with semi-tailored content and follow-ups.
Advantages in comparison to Account-Based Marketing
- Less asset generation needed: Surveys, success stories, whitepapers cost a lot of time when you do them inhouse and more money when you try to outsource them. If you create them for one specific account, you will have problems reusing them for other initiatives. A startup strategy can change fast, why restrain yourself with specific content.
- Resource-Friendly: ITM primarily requires collaboration between sales and marketing, which keeps it resource-friendly. The need for intensive cross-departmental collaboration is reduced, and preparation time is shorter, allowing for quicker rollouts of targeted campaigns.
- Time & Cost-Saving: Compared to ABM, ITM has a shorter preparation time and produces faster results. Startups can get campaigns to market sooner and start generating leads without lengthy account-specific research and content development.
- High Engagement Rates: While engagement rates of ABM campaigns I ran were obviously very high, ITM can yield impressive results as well, with engagement rates up to 40% higher compared to more general marketing approaches. Industry-focused messaging resonates well with industry-specific pain points and goals, driving higher engagement without ABM’s intensive resource requirements.
Tips to start you ITM campaign
- Research and highlight common pain points (very important): Nothing increases CTR more than good messaging and a spot on pain point. A lot of industries suffer from the same problems and challenges. Automotive, heavy machinery and motor production face the same government regulations, ESG challenges, production downtime or energy efficiency problems. Pharma industries suffer long waiting periods for creating new drugs, especially in the US markets. Make sure to research and highlight those pain points well.
- Show proof: Don’t just share statements of how awesome your software is, share approximate numbers, communicate successes and testimonials of your clients. I know that this might go without saying, but people underestimate how effective this approach is especially for European markets like DACH and Benelux.
- Specify your messaging: Talk to your audience directly, mention their industry in you ad copies, social media posts and landing pages.
- Start with a few assets: Don’t create all assets at once. Start with one success story and a white paper you can see how they perform and create more accordingly.
- Set a goal and timeline: I think that is the most obvious one and it goes for every marketing initiative you do.
Some of the points I’ve shared may seem obvious to readers with marketing or sales backgrounds. However, for many tech entrepreneurs aiming to elevate their B2B SaaS marketing, these insights can be game-changers. Whatever strategy you choose, ensure you have the right resources to execute it effectively, keep your goals in clear focus, and don’t get sidetracked by buzzwords and growth hacks popular on social media.
If you want to know more about how to get your marketing initiatives to the next level then don’t hesitate to contact me. A quick call is always free of charge.
Hassan Kazziha, Growth Marketing expert and founder
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