An account-based marketing approach continues to deliver successful results: and it seems that more companies are beginning to jump on the ABM bandwagon! In 2020, firms increased their ABM investment, allocating 39% of their total marketing budget to the approach.
But, with every approach, comes a set of challenges. Even for us here at AmbitionABM, using an ABM strategy is complex. It requires patience, quality and a careful skillset: at times, it can often be very challenging.
Reflecting on our own business, it made us think: what are some of the biggest ABM challenges that companies are facing? So, we took to our CEO’s LinkedIn and conducted a week-long poll, in which we asked our followers: What is your biggest ABM challenge?
From conducting this poll, we received the following results:
- 33% said contact and account data quality
- 8% responded measuring ABM account metrics
- 17% voted aligning sales and marketing; and
- 42% revealed ABM content and personalisation was their biggest ABM challenge
The results from our poll provoked some interesting analysis. With ABM content and personalisation being voted the most common challenge for our followers, it implied that creating that strong value proposition messaging and in turn, highly targeted asset creation, can be a challenge for many.
Following from that, the second most-voted option of ‘contact and account data quality’ also suggests that perhaps account plans need to be of a higher quality, or that maybe we should be looking to external third-party intent data platforms to find those insights? This challenge has been seen as a particularly recurring theme in the marketing world, as a survey by Demandbase in 2020 revealed data quality issues as the biggest challenge for executing ABM that year.
Interestingly, their survey also revealed that companies using ABM see the measurement of ABM as one of the biggest weaknesses, which is a surprise given that that was the least voted challenge in our own poll.
Furthermore, with sales and alignment voted as the second-smallest challenge in our poll, this implies that this crucial factor of ABM is well executed and communicated among many companies, in that the sales team are well-equipped by the marketing team with strategic messaging, but they are also relaying back to marketing teams what the main sales triggers are. This analysis has been backed up further by the same Demandbase survey, which also revealed marketing and sales alignment as the largest strength for companies.
But what this poll has revealed to us more, is just how we at AmbitionABM can help address these challenges of our followers. If ABM content and personalisation is a challenge for your business, then we have the expertise and knowledge to deliver workshops and produce ABM plans with relevant, targeted messaging. In addition to this, we have a host of globally based copywriters and creatives who can deliver those hyper-personalised and engaging pieces of content.
If the quality of your account data is lacking, then our intent-data tools can help you track buyer behaviour and find those sales triggers and data that will help you to deliver a higher-quality and more targeted campaign.
So, whatever your ABM challenge may be, we’re here to help. To find out more about what we do and start your ABM journey today, get in contact with us here.
