Every business relies on a growing customer base to stay successful. Marketing is one important way to achieve this goal, and it comes in many different kinds. One of these is account-based marketing (ABM), and it is now becoming the norm for many companies. In a 2019 survey of 1,500 marketers, 70% reported using ABM.
One avenue that can support your ABM strategy is social media. Find out how you can leverage this platform to meet your ABM goals.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a highly-targeted growth strategy for businesses. In this approach, the company devises a tailored plan to attract stakeholders. The marketing and sales departments then work together to capture the account’s attention and patronage. This is in contrast with marketing to the general public.
Why Use Social Media?
Social media might be famous for casting a wide net, but this doesn’t mean you can’t get up close and personal with it. It has many valuable tools to connect deeply with your target accounts.
Successful ABM is also a multi-platform effort. And, using social media is one popular approach. It’s convenient, useful, and inexpensive. The rewards you’ll reap are definitely worth the effort.
How Social Media Can Support Account-Based Marketing
Social media’s broad reach and extensive array of tools are a great way to reach your target accounts. Here’s how you can leverage its features to improve your ABM strategy.
Understand Your Customers
Business stakeholders are often very busy people. It may not be easy to book meetings with them and hold interviews about their needs. Knowing about the challenges they’re facing will help you develop better solutions. They can also get you that partnership you’ve been aiming for.
You can look up your target account’s stakeholders on LinkedIn or other social media platforms. If you can, follow them. Their posts and interactions will give you some insight into what their days look like.
If they’re active enough, you’ll have insights into the following:
- their workplace principles
- conferences or gatherings they attend
- business updates
- challenges and priorities
Aside from the stakeholders, you can also look at their customer sentiments. This gives you insight into their strengths and weaknesses from a customer perspective.
Publish Targeted Content
Once you understand your target buyers, you can proceed to the next step. This will be publishing targeted content that appeals to your target account.
One effective way to do this is by running targeted ads on the social media platform of your choice. The most popular ones for B2B transactions are LinkedIn and Facebook. Both have ad programs that allow you to target accounts based on location and interests, among others.
You can use these ads to direct buyers to your website or landing page, thus initiating contact.
Another good way to catch your target buyer’s eye is by posting content that speaks to them. It’s good to talk about a need or challenge they face or something that affirms their goals.
You can also speak to them directly. Interact with their posts, or tag them in some of yours. Make sure to do this only when relevant or in moderation. It’s best to avoid coming off as spammy or annoying.
Track Progress
One nifty social media feature for businesses is analytics. The platform collects data on how your business performs as you use your account.
The data collected includes views, interactions, comments, and reach. You’ll also know your page audience’s locations, activity, and demographics.
This information gives valuable insight into how your audience perceives your business. You’d also be able to measure whether you’re reaching your target accounts successfully.
The Bottom Line
Social media is one mighty tool you can leverage for your ABM strategies. It’s an effective way to understand your target buyers and develop better solutions. Just make sure to partner it with a detailed account plan. A solid strategy and the right account based marketing tools can increase efficiency and maximize your opportunities.
