SaaS Account-Based Sales Strategies

Tips for reaching high-value SaaS leads with the most effective account-based SaaS sales tools like website visitor ID and leads around search intent data.

In this guide, we'll discuss what ABM is, how HubSpot can help you nail your account-based marketing campaign, and some of the best strategies and tactics for using ABM.

87% of B2B marketers surveyed by ITSMA reported that their ABM initiatives outperform their other marketing investments in terms of ROI.

Short Summary

• ABM is a B2B strategy combining sales and marketing to target high-value accounts.
• HubSpot offers valuable tools for effective ABM.
• Key tactics include personalized content, retargeting & LinkedIn advertising.
• ABM technology, like HubSpot, streamlines efforts.
• Regular measurement and optimization are vital for ABM success.

What is ABM?

Account-based marketing or ABM is a focused approach to b2b marketing that combines sales and marketing to target accounts that are the best fit for your business, and turn them into customers.

Essentially, an account-based marketing strategy is a strategic approach to selling that focuses on specific, targeted accounts. In traditional marketing, the marketer's job was to cast a wide net and hope to snag a few customers here and there. With account-based marketing, you focus all of your efforts on a smaller number of high-value accounts.

This is particularly helpful and gives a competitive edge. Marketers are constantly fighting to attract potential customers, which is particularly challenging given the age of information in which we live. Companies that want to obtain the highest possible ROI need to place their attention on attracting high-value accounts.

85% of marketers that measured their ROI said their ABM initiatives outperformed some of their other marketing investments.

The best way to do that is to merge marketing and sales to better locate, engage with, and close high-value customers. ABM is a holistic and coordinated approach that takes into account the entire customer journey, from awareness to advocacy.

ABM & Inbound

Many marketers and business owners consider ABM vs. Inbound marketing. However, this is the wrong approach. Inbound marketing and account-based marketing go hand and hand. You probably already know that inbound marketing, which involves content that attracts, converts, and delights customers, is pretty successful in getting qualified leads.

What you may not know is that ABM and inbound marketing go hand and hand to create a seamless customer experience that results in more sales and happier customers.

The best way to maximize the results you see from account-based marketing is to combine it with inbound marketing. Inbound marketing attracts potential customers through valuable content and interactions that are relevant to them, while ABM concentrates on closing those leads that have already been attracted by your inbound efforts.

When you combine these two strategies, you create a comprehensive and effective approach to marketing that targets high-value customers.

Define Your Segments

The next step is to define your target segments. You can't market effectively to all accounts, so you need to carefully choose which ones you will focus on. This begins by understanding your total addressable market (TAM) and then narrowing down that list until you have a manageable number of target accounts.

Segmentation dimensions can include:

• Products purchased
• Current spend
• Projected spend
• Targeted products
• Open opportunities
• Closed opportunities
• Industry
• Geography
• Company size
• User type (i. E. BTOB, BTOC, public sector)

A survey from MailChimp found that segmented campaigns resulted in a 101% increase in clicks over non-segmented campaigns, while also noting lower bounce rates, incidences of spam reporting, and unsubscribes.

In order to be successful with ABM, you need to have a deep understanding of your target market and ideal customer profile (ICP).

Your ideal customer profile (IDP) refers to the type of company that is most likely to want to buy your services or products, remain loyal, and recommend you to others.

Your ideal customer profile often includes:

• The size of the company the business or industry they are in.
• The activities that they carry out.
• Why they are likely to want the service or product that you offer.

The better you understand your IDP, the stronger your ABM strategy will be. Once you know who your target market is, you can create inbound content and campaigns that are tailored to those specific accounts.

Creating your IDP is an essential part of your account-based marketing strategy in HubSpot. With HubSpot's ABM software, you can use the ICP workflow templates to help you see common traits that can help classify companies into your database by how well they match your ICP. After creating your ICP, you can set up your target accounts in your ABM software. You can tag accounts with the ICP tier property. Tier 1 refers to your priority accounts, while lower priority accounts are tier 3.

HubSpot allows you to easily create an ideal customer profile, similar to a buyer achieving 68% higher account win rates.

Not Sure How To Create A Targeted Buyer Persona?

Here's a step-by-step overview:

• Start by collecting data on your current customers. Look at factors like job title, company size, industry, and pain points.
• Use this data to create a fictional representation of your ideal customer. Give them a name, age, job title, etc.
• Make sure to give your persona a face by finding or creating an image that represents them.

Once you've created your ideal customer profile, you can start to think about what kind of content they would be interested in and what channels you can use to reach them.

Come Up with an Account-Based Marketing Strategy

Having an account-based marketing strategy is the first step in deploying campaigns.

Having a sound account-based marketing framework will help you to:

• Focus on the right accounts.
• Address the unique problems and challenges of those accounts.
• Show how your service or product solves these challenges.
• Deliver personalized experiences at every part of the customer journey.

Align Your Team

It's more important than ever for your marketing and sales teams to be in alignment with each other. When these teams aren't aligned, there can be major bottlenecks in the closing process, with sales teams wondering why marketing isn't sending them enough qualified leads, and marketing teams complaining that the leads being sent are not being closed.

The key to successful account-based marketing is aligning your sales and marketing teams around a common goal: generating revenue. Once you've aligned your teams, you can start to generate leads through account-based content campaigns and lead capture forms.

There are a ton of benefits from aligning your marketing and sales team.

These include:

• Having a deeper understanding of sales and marketing strategies across the board
• Shortened sales cycles
• Direct connections to potential customers through various marketing channels
• Fluid and cohesive customer communication
• A better customer experience through every part of the buying journey

Aligning marketing and sales helps generate 209% more revenue.

Here are some ideas for aligning your marketing and sales teams:

Brainstorm and coordinate your ABM campaigns together. Marketing and sales should be involved in creating your account-based marketing framework. Identify team members, delegate the work to gather research, brainstorm, create content, and execute. Involving each team from the beginning helps bring ownership to campaigns.

Set actionable and clear goals. It is imperative that sales and marketing create shared goals. Creating measurable goals is part of account-based marketing best practices.

Determine what your goals are, write them down, commit to them, and revisit them to evaluate and celebrate wins.

Set weekly check-ins. A strong account-based marketing framework and campaign aren't set-it and forget-it. Set up weekly stand-ups with your marketing and sales team so that you can review results, test new strategies, and stay aligned.

Create Content That Resonates

Now that you know who your target customers are, it's time to start creating content that resonates with them. This content should be tailored specifically to your target market and should address the unique challenges and needs of those accounts.

You can create this content in a variety of formats, including blog posts, infographics, eBooks, WhitePapers, videos, and webinars. Content should be personalized for each stage of the buyer's journey, speaking directly to their challenges along the way.

A staggering 95% of buyers chose a solution provider that provides them with relevant content to help them navigate through each stage of the buying process.

To make sure your content is being seen by the right people, you need to promote it through account-based marketing channels. These include paid advertising, social media, email outreach, and direct mail. You can also use account-based marketing tools like LinkedIn, and sales navigator to reach your target accounts directly.

It's also important to track how your content is performing with each target account. This will help you to understand what's working and what isn't so that you can adjust your approach accordingly. The best way to do this is through account-based marketing software that includes built-in analytics and reporting features.

Some things to consider when creating content:

• what type of content will resonate most with my target accounts?
• What are the unique challenges my target accounts are facing?
• What content is currently resonating with my target accounts?
• What stage of the buyer's journey is each account in?
• How can I personalize my content for each account?

Using Account-Based Advertising

Once you have created some great content that resonates with your target market, it's time to start using account-based advertising. This is a form of online advertising that allows you to specifically target potential customers based on their company size, location, or other relevant factors.

One of the advantages of account-based advertising is that you can reach a large number of people with minimal effort. You can also use retargeting to show ads to people who have visited your website or interacted with your brand in some way.

There are a number of account-based advertising platforms to choose from, including Google AdWords, LinkedIn ads, and Twitter ads. Each platform has its own unique set of features, so it's important to choose the one that best suits your needs.

When creating your account-based advertising campaigns, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Who is my target market?
• What are my goals for this campaign?
• What type of ad will resonate most with my target market?
• What is my budget for this campaign?
• When do I want my ads to be seen?

Engage

Once you have your target account list, the next step is to engage the decision-makers at those companies. You need to identify the people who are responsible for making decisions about purchasing products or services like yours.

The best way to do this is through personalized content that speaks directly to the challenges and pain points of your target market. You can also use targeted advertising to reach your target accounts or host webinars and events that are tailored specifically for them.

One of the best ways to keep track of your interactions with each account is through a CRM system. This will allow you to see all of your interactions with a particular account in one place, so you can track their progress and determine if they are ready to buy.

The best way to engage with your target accounts is through:

• Personalized content that speaks to their challenges and pain points.
• Targeted advertising.
• Webinars and events tailored specifically for them.
• Track progress in your CRM system.

Once you have started engaging with your target accounts, it's important to track their progress. The best way to do this is through a CRM system that includes built-in analytics and reporting features like HubSpot. This will allow you to see all of your interactions with a particular account in one place, so you can track their progress and determine if they are ready to buy.

HubSpot can also help you to identify potential leads within each account. This will allow you to focus your efforts on the accounts that are most likely to buy from you, and reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to close a sale.

ABM Features In HubSpot

ABM has quickly become one of the most popular inbound marketing strategies due to its proven success rates. By targeting key accounts and personalizing your content and campaigns specifically for them, you can increase engagement and conversions while reducing costs. HubSpot makes it easy to get started with ABM so you can see results quickly.

HubSpot has a number of features that make it an ideal platform for ABM. Some of the key features include account-level contact information, customizable lead scoring, and dynamic content.

For starters, HubSpot's CRM makes it easy to track and manage your interactions with potential and current customers. You can also use HubSpot's powerful lead nurturing tools to create custom content and campaigns tailored specifically for your target accounts. And finally, HubSpot's sales tools make it easy to track your progress and close more deals.

You can also use account-based marketing HubSpot to personalize your website experience for each visitor. HubSpot's personalization tool allows you to show different content to visitors from different companies, based on their IP addresses. This means that you can deliver a truly personalized experience that is relevant to each individual visitor.

There are a ton of additional features in HubSpot so you can implement account-based marketing best practices throughout your campaign.

HubSpot's aim is to build most of the features with its existing functionality. This means that you'll have access to additional properties and templates in the contract and company properties, workflow tool, reports, ads, lists, and playbooks.

Here's a breakdown of some of the account-based marketing HubSpot functionalities:

Additional Templates

With the reports dashboard through HubSpot, you can now find templates that are tailored to ABM analytics and campaigns with ABM-geared templates within workflows.

Company Records

There are several new properties, including:

Targeted Account - This property identifies companies that you want to focus on for your account-based marketing strategy. You can update company records property value to show that the company is indeed a target account. They'll then automatically go to your target account dashboard.

Ideal Customer Profile Tier - This property breaks down your target accounts into three tiers. You can do this to align with your ideal customer profile or to prioritize your accounts. This can be defined and edited throughout the course of your account-based marketing strategy.

Target Account Lists

HubSpot automatically creates lists in your account once you activated the ABM features. The lists help you tailor and personalize ads, emails, and any other campaign efforts.

These lists include:

• Influencers
• Budget Holders
• Target Accounts
• Buying Role
• Decision-Makers
• ABM Playbooks

A playbook is a guide with all the steps you need to take for account-based marketing. HubSpot's playbooks come equipped with the best practices, email templates, and tips from real-world users. You can also create your own customized playbooks or use one of HubSpot's pre-made ones.

Increased Collaboration

Account-based marketing strategies rely on the integration of sales and marketing. HubSpot allows for collaboration across teams, letting all use shared tools to unite them around the same data in the same place.

With target accounts home, sales and marketing can see progress across all accounts. Slack integration and capabilities also allow for strong account-based collaboration. These tools help teams support high-value accounts, post key performance indicators, and share notes automatically.

ABM Reports

HubSpot provides all the power of analysts without actually being one. It provides reports from an easy-to-read dashboard to give you an overview of how your account-based marketing strategy is performing.

The report includes:

• Accounts by Stage
• Engagement by Account
• How Many Companies Match your Tiers
• Page Views by your Target Accounts
• Sources of Target Accounts Leads
• Click on your Ads by Target Accounts
• The Number of Target Accounts each Rep has
• Activity Types
• Buying Roles at Target Accounts
• Contact Lifecycle Stage by Target Account
• Contact Source by Target Account

HubSpot is an intuitive and collaborative software that creates seamless experiences for your highest-value accounts, allowing you to close more sales and increase your revenue while deepening your customer relationships.

Account-Based Marketing Tactics

When you harness the power of account-based marketing HubSpot, you unlock tons of potential for reaching prospective leads and high-value targets. However, you have to have a plan and make sure that you're using the right tactics to sell your product and/or services to your target accounts.

Following account-based marketing best practices is critical to increasing your efficiency, closing more business, and growing your revenue.

Here are some effective tactics to use with your account-based marketing strategy:

Develop Prospect-Specific Offers

Personalization and relevance are key to account-based marketing. In a typical account-based marketing campaign, there are typically a smaller amount of target accounts. This means that campaigns need to have high conversion rates but also that it is easier to personalize content marketing efforts.

Message personalization is the #1 tactic used by marketers to increase engagement rates.

Creating offers built specifically for a target account is highly relevant and personalized- leading potential buyers to feel more compelled to open that personalized message, report, or offer.

Create Offers That Are Designed To Generate Meetings

One of the best ways to generate leads through ABM is to create offers that are specifically designed to generate meetings. These offers can be in the form of webinars, white papers, or other content downloads. They should be tailored to your target market and include a CTA that encourages potential customers to book a meeting with you.

In order to make your offer as appealing as possible, be sure to include some compelling reasons for potential customers to meet with you. Perhaps you can offer a free consultation or a discount on your services for those who book a meeting. Whatever you do, make sure that the offer is something that potential customers will find irresistible.

ABM is all about building relationships with key accounts, and one of the best ways to do that is by arranging face-to-face meetings (which can even be conducted virtually, as we've seen during the pandemic).

By using offers that are designed to generate meetings, you can make it easy for potential customers to get in touch with you and learn more about your business. Try out this account-based marketing strategy to see how you can close more high-value target accounts.

Use Retargeting To Keep Your Brand In Front Of Accounts

Retargeting is a great way to keep your brand in front of target accounts. You can use retargeting to serve ads to potential customers who have visited your website or engaged with your brand in some way. This is a great way to stay top of mind and increase the chances that they will do business with you when they are ready to buy.

Retargeted customers are 3 times more likely to click on ads than new ones.

There are a number of different retargeting options available, so it's important to choose the one that will work best for your business. You can use retargeting to serve ads to people who have visited your website, engaged with you on social media, or even downloaded one of your e-books or white papers.

Retargeting can be an effective way to increase your brand awareness and drive more leads and sales. If you're not currently using retargeting, now is the time to start.

Segment Your Email List By Account Status

It's important to keep track of which accounts are in the market for your product and which ones are not. You can do this by segmenting your email list by account status. This will help you focus your efforts on the accounts that are most likely to convert, while still keeping you in touch with all of your potential customers.

Marketers who used segmented campaigns noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue from email marketing alone.

Once you have segmented your email list, you can create tailored content and message for each group. If you are targeting large accounts, you might focus on how your product can help them achieve their business goals. If you are targeting mid-sized accounts, you might focus on how your product can help them compete against larger rivals. And if you are targeting small accounts, you might focus on how your product can help them grow their business.

Create Customized Landing Pages For Each Account

Landing pages are a key part of any effective inbound marketing strategy, and they are just as important when you're doing account-based marketing.

You should create customized landing pages for each of your target accounts. This will allow you to track which accounts are interested in your product and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly.

Personalizing content can lead to higher conversion rates and can be a highly effective part of your account-based marketing strategy. When you create content that is specific to an individual account, you are showing that you understand their needs and that you are invested in helping them meet those needs.

You can use HubSpot's landing page builder to create custom landing pages for each account. Just make sure to include a lead capture form so that you can collect contact information from potential customers.

Stand Out With Direct Mail

Think direct mail is dead?

Think again. Direct mail can be a great way to reach out to target accounts. It's a personal and direct way to get your message in front of potential customers, and it can help you stand out from the competition.

70% of consumers say direct mail is more personal than online interactions & direct mail boasts an open rate of up to 90%.

 

Direct mail is memorable, can leverage the law of reciprocity, and forges stronger connections than digital messages alone. The engagement rate with direct mail is very high. Integrating direct mail into your campaign as part of your account-based marketing strategy can be highly effective, allowing you to close more high-value sales and increase revenue.

Purchase Webinar & White Paper Leads For Target Accounts

If you're looking for leads that are already interested in your product, webinars and white papers are a great place to start. You can purchase leads for target accounts that have already engaged with this type of content. This is a great way to get your foot in the door with potential customers who are already interested in what you have to offer.

By purchasing these leads, you are putting yourself in front of potential customers who are already interested in your product so you can jumpstart your account-based marketing strategy.

Use Social Media To Identify & Engage With Accounts

Building relationships with accounts is key to success with account-based marketing. You need to take the time to get to know your target accounts and understand their needs and wants. Only then will you be able to create content and messages that resonate with them and convince them to do business with you. Social media is a great way to identify accounts, build relationships, and engage with your ideal customers.

There are many different ways that you can use social media to improve your account-based marketing strategy. By using social media, you can reach more potential buyers, build relationships with them, and increase the chances that they will do business with you.

Social media can also be used to identify potential prospects. You can use social media to find accounts that are a good match for your products or services. This will help you focus your efforts on the accounts that are most likely to do business with you.

Social media is useful for engaging with your target accounts. You can use social media to share content that is relevant to them, answer their questions, and start conversations with them.

Another great way to track account engagement is to use HubSpot's social media monitoring tool. This tool allows you to see which accounts are talking about your product on social media, and it also gives you insights into what kind of content they're engaging with.

By using HubSpot's social media monitoring tool, you can get a better understanding of which accounts are most interested in your product and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly.

Create A One-To-One C-Level Campaign

A one-to-one c-level campaign is a great way to get your message in front of decision-makers at target accounts. This type of campaign involves reaching out to potential customers directly, usually via email or phone. You can create a custom message for each contact and tailor your approach to their specific needs.

A campaign can be very effective, but it's also important to remember that it takes a lot of time and effort to execute. If you're not sure you have the resources to commit, consider working with an account-based marketing agency.

Target Trade Shows & Events For Account-Based Marketing

Trade shows and events are other great places to target potential customers using account-based marketing. You can create targeted lists of attendees who would be interested in what you have to offer, then market directly to them while they're at the event.

This is a great way to make connections with potential buyers face-to-face. With the pandemic raging on, these events have frequently turned virtual, allowing for increased safety and peace of mind, while still offering plenty of networking opportunities.

Use LinkedIn Advertising To Target Accounts

LinkedIn is a great platform for account-based marketing. You can use LinkedIn advertising to target specific companies or decision-makers within those companies. LinkedIn allows you to target options that other social media platforms don't, so you can be sure you're reaching your target market.

Invest In Account-based Marketing Technology Such As HubSpot

There are a number of account-based marketing platforms on the market that can help you automate and scale your account-based marketing efforts. These platforms provide features like lead scoring, account-based tracking, and CRM integration. HubSpot is an account-based marketing software that makes selling to high-value accounts easier than ever before.

Measure, Test, And Optimize

It's important to track how your ABM campaigns are performing at the account level. This information can help you fine-tune your strategy and make sure that you're getting the most out of your efforts.

You should include account-level metrics in your regular reporting so you can see how each campaign is impacting your bottom line. HubSpot helps empower you and your team by providing powerful analytics with access to all the reporting and dashboards you need.

There are a number of different account-based marketing strategies and tactics that you can use to reach your target market. The key is to find the ones that work best for you and your business. By using the tactics in this guide, you can create a successful account-based marketing strategy that will help you reach more potential customers and increase sales.

These are just a few of the many account-based marketing HubSpot strategies and tactics that you can use to close more sales and increase your revenue. Implementing even a few of these tactics can have a major impact on your business.

If you're looking for an edge in your account-based marketing, consider using HubSpot. With its powerful features and easy-to-use interface, HubSpot makes it easy to personalize your account-based marketing campaigns and get the most out of your investment. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you take your account-based marketing to the next level.

Conclusion

The ultimate guide to account-based marketing would not be complete without mentioning the importance of sales and marketing alignment. When these two teams work together, they are able to create a comprehensive strategy that targets specific accounts and generates leads through account-based content campaigns. By using HubSpot's powerful tools and features, you can take your account-based marketing efforts to the next level.

Improve your ROI with ABM.  Because you're targeting only the most qualified leads, you're more likely to see a higher return on your investment. And since account-based marketing relies on personalized messages and interactions, you're also more likely to create stronger relationships with your customers.

ABM is a holistic and personalized approach to b2b marketing that begins by identifying key accounts that are most likely to convert and then tailoring your marketing efforts to those specific accounts. It's important to remember that ABM is not a one-time effort; it's an ongoing process that should be incorporated into your overall marketing strategy.

If you're ready to start seeing better results from your marketing efforts, it's time to start using account-based marketing. By focusing on a smaller number of high-value accounts, you'll be able to generate more leads and close more deals. And with the help of HubSpot's powerful ABM features, you'll be able to streamline your efforts and see even better results.

Do you have any questions about account-based marketing? Leave a comment below or contact us today to learn more about HubSpot's account-based marketing features.

Frequently Asked Questions