5 Ways Field Marketing Can Own ABM
ABM is quickly becoming a staple initiative for connecting with modern buyers. As it continues to outperform other marketing investments, the popularity of ABM continues to rise. When every function of the revenue team has a part to play in implementing and executing an ABM strategy, field marketing has to get in on the action, writes, Courtney Smith, Head of Field Marketing at 6sense.
Field marketing is much more than an “events†function. Far beyond the world of trendy venues and tasty cocktails, field marketing can, and should, be the heartbeat of any go-to-market strategy.
In the last few years, Account-based Marketing has taken over as a better way to engage with modern B2B buyers. When sixty-nine percent of marketers say converting leads is their top priority, a winning ABM strategy requires sound alignment between the sales and marketing functions—and, as the partner in crime to sales, field marketing deserves a seat at the planning table.
From analyzing performance in the field to testing new ideas for pipeline growth, field marketing must have an active voice in implementing and executing an ABM strategy. Here are five things field marketers must do in order to own ABM.
1. Drive productive conversations with sales
Sales reps take one of two forms: the rogue lone wolf trying to execute their own initiatives or the visionary bringing an overwhelming number of ideas to the table. But, while we all hope to work with the latter, the task of identifying pipeline gaps and making proactive recommendations rests on field marketing’s shoulders in either case. Yet, in order to offer advice on the right message and the right channel for eliciting engagement, field marketers must first know who is in-market for a solution.
Unfortunately, understanding and prioritizing your target audience is one of the biggest challenges in creating and executing campaigns, which makes it hard to identify where the team should place its focus. To fuel your recommendations on who, when and how to go after accounts, you must be able to pull valuable intent data. Having recommendations backed by reliable buyer insights will help you drive more productive conversations with sales and close pipeline gaps.
2. Support a variety of GTM motions
Although events are their bread and butter, field marketing has a hand in several other GTM motions, and delivering the right message is critical to every motion they touch. To increase alignment across all motions, field marketers must have the ability to run dynamic campaigns and drive proactive programs.
With the power of AI, you can uncover a buyer’s anonymous signals, or the digital footprint they’ve left online, and automatically select the messages a buyer should see based on their behavior. Having all of the collateral directed at the account synced with the same messaging allows you to create a dynamic, personalized experience just for them.
3. Boost the pre-event strategy
Sometimes, prior to an event, field marketers will get a list of attendees—and other times, they’ll get diddly squat. Then, to make the pain of nailing down the best accounts even worse, events typically don’t provide the information in time for field marketers to do any research, meaning there’s no chance to create tailored messaging.
Field marketing has to take the guessing game out of creating messages, no matter how much data they have available. Even without a list of attendees, an ABM platform should tell you the accounts researching the event, so you can focus on the most relevant ones. On the flip side, if you’re lucky enough to have a list of attendees leading up to an event, your platform should provide additional insights about the account to enrich the data you already have.
4. Increase onsite engagement during events
So, now that you know utilizing specific insights is the key to creating a meaningful experience, how do you execute and scale those efforts during the event? The starting line for carrying out efforts is understanding where accounts are in the buying journey and conducting the outreach most likely to drive engagement in that stage.
Whatever buying stage an account falls into, intent data will help you formulate the right outreach, increasing your ability to secure meetings during the event. When you know what messages will be the most relevant, you can personalize it based on the account’s intent and buying stage—and, the more relevant your message is, the better the chances your sales team has of winning those meetings.
5. Maximize post-event investments
All field marketers know the job isn’t over when the event wraps up. Any idea why the most important step in every event plan is the post-event follow-up? While field marketing has busted their tail to prepare for and execute a successful event, prospects probably won’t think about them after leaving the venue.
But, as field marketers, it’s your job to stay top of mind even after the doors close. The power of valuable insights and data allows you to scale your follow-up and continue to nurture the relationships you’ve made to move conversations forward. As accounts fall in and out of buying stages, having intent data will help you provide the resources they need while driving them closer to your solution.
Field marketing must uncover critical data, use those insights to create personalized programs and collaborate with all other GTM motions to drive results. ABM is not a one-motion strategy. When all sales and marketing functions work in tandem, we become a powerhouse—increasing deal velocity and pipeline, and having fun doing it. With field marketing owning its place at the ABM planning table, you can be confident your strategy is helping buyers reach the end of their journey (while they sport t-shirts and coffee mugs touting your brand.)
This article was originally posted on – https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/account-based-marketing-abm/5-ways-field-marketing-can-own-abm/
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