In the realm of account-based marketing (ABM), the expectation of the relationships between agencies and clients has evolved. Today, businesses seek partners capable of shouldering commercial accountability and driving tangible outcomes, not only the functional delivery of an ABM program. Finding the right agency partner can literally make or break your program.
The essence of true partnership
Just like Cagney & Lacey, Hans Solo and Chewbacca, or even Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, true partnership comes from having shared ownership of the outcomes, navigating the curve balls that come your way, constructively challenging, but ultimately having each other’s backs. For us, that is achieved by becoming an extension of our client’s team and understanding the internal and external dynamics impacting them and their business.
It means tearing up that one-size-fits-all blueprint. While the foundations follow best practice ABM methodology, we pride ourselves on co-creating bespoke programs with our clients, no two of which are ever the same.
This collaborative way of working not only benefits the marketing stakeholders but spans across sales, operations, product teams, and digital and technical teams, ensuring a holistic and comprehensive ABM orchestration.
This way of working has led to the description “friendly but fierce” as we pursue the most meaningful outcomes on your behalf.
Navigating challenges with agility
With bespoke strategy defined, one of the key tenets of our approach is agility. In today’s fast-paced market, the ability to adapt and respond quickly to internal and external forces, without compromising the quality of strategic thinking or creative development, is paramount.
This philosophy is supported by an omnichannel integrated activation strategy that sees us engaging, responding and iterating across multiple engagement tactics. Research from McKinsey supports this viewpoint, highlighting 72% of B2B companies interacting through seven or more channels grew their market share faster.
Personalization at scale: The strategic advantage
By identifying commonalities across accounts and building foundational messaging before overlaying a layer of personalization per account and stakeholder group, you can execute across multiple channels while still ensuring each interaction feels both personal and relevant to the target audience. This approach leverages economies of scale while maintaining the essence of personalization, a critical factor in engaging and converting targeted accounts.
The use of AI-powered applications is further fuelling the ability to automate previously manual interactions and scale strategy, creativity and personalization at scale.
The trick is to co-pilot these tools with human insight, active listening and questioning to ensure the human-to-human connection is not lost.
The power of cohesive narrative
Creating a cohesive narrative that resonates across different sectors and personas is another cornerstone of our methodology. This approach is more than sector-based segmentation and seeks to drill deeper into the challenges of functional roles that our clients can solve for.
The insight that guides this cohesive narrative is established through a combination of 1st party qualitative data including performance data, propensity and win:loss analysis.
Additional input from sales teams reflects barriers, objections and winning sales plays. 3rd party insight reflects market dynamics, competitive landscape and functional expectations.
The strategic capability to analyze and formulate a compelling narrative will underpin the effectiveness of this approach. And it further guides the visual and emotive identity of the program.
The silver bullet of ABM: Marginal gains
The path to successful ABM lies in the ability to blend strategic insight, creative innovation, and operational agility. By focusing on personalization at scale, building cohesive narratives, and fostering genuine partnerships, businesses can navigate the complexities of the modern B2B landscape effectively.
Looking ahead, the shift to a buyer-centric model emphasizes the need for brands to be distinctive, relevant, and accessible. Building communities and fostering meaningful personal interactions are becoming increasingly important in establishing trust and credibility with potential buyers. From social selling and events to video, content and communities we enable marketers and sellers to listen and respond to their audience in a knowledgeable and insightful manner. To add value, build trust and earn the right to discuss their products with the target buyer.
Key Takeaways
- True partnership: Beyond tactical delivery, look for agencies that can drive commercial outcomes and become an extension of your team.
- Agility and adaptability: Speed to market coupled with the ability to adapt messaging and tactics based on audience response is crucial for ABM success.
- Personalization at scale: Leveraging commonalities across accounts while maintaining a layer of personalization is key to engaging and converting targeted accounts.
- Cohesive narrative: A unified narrative that addresses a shared customer challenge irrespective of resonates across sectors and personas can significantly enhance the effectiveness of ABM campaigns.
- Future of ABM: Building communities and fostering meaningful interactions are essential for establishing trust and credibility in a buyer-centric marketing landscape.
With these principles at our core Seeblue is redefining the standards of partnership in ABM, driving not just strategic alignment but tangible commercial success for our clients, and by association for us. We’d call that a win:win.
Orla Murphy is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Seeblue. She has over 20 years of B2B marketing expertise, working across the tech sector as a demand generation and ABM specialist both client and agency side. Seeblue are an award-winning ABM agency and Propolis member, B2B Marketing’s global expert community. If you have any questions, or want to delve deeper into
anything discussed here, say hello@see-blue.co.uk.
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