3 Levels of ABM to Multiply Your Effectiveness

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.540 --> 00:00:08.610 Welcome back to Baby Growth. I'm Dan Sanchez with Sweet Fish Media, and 2 00:00:08.610 --> 00:00:12.180 today it's just me again. And I'm gonna be talking about some of the lessons 3 00:00:12.190 --> 00:00:17.220 I've learned after this last week of talking to multiple practitioners, 4 00:00:17.230 --> 00:00:21.050 thought leaders, even some clubhouse meetings I was in recently with James 5 00:00:21.050 --> 00:00:25.980 Carberry. I've learned so much about account based marketing in another week. 6 00:00:25.990 --> 00:00:29.190 It's like when you start risk reading and pounding the material and talking 7 00:00:29.190 --> 00:00:34.350 to all these people, you tend to learn on rapid fire. So I keep unlocking new 8 00:00:34.360 --> 00:00:38.540 lessons. In fact, this week I wanted to circle back around to engagement, 9 00:00:38.550 --> 00:00:42.250 actually found a couple of different levels you could do engagement on. 10 00:00:42.250 --> 00:00:47.320 That's different from the one too many one too few oneto one, because that's a 11 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:50.140 way of looking at it. But there's actually a whole another way of looking 12 00:00:50.140 --> 00:00:53.760 at it, and I've talked about pieces of this with a bunch of different episodes 13 00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:58.580 over this last week, but I wantedto circle back around it and give some 14 00:00:58.580 --> 00:01:02.300 highlights of some of the things I've learned and kind of package it up in a 15 00:01:02.300 --> 00:01:06.480 way that I think would make the most sense for you. So again, if you're 16 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.460 joining me, if this is the first episode you've listened to the month of 17 00:01:09.460 --> 00:01:14.850 February, I've been on a month long search for figuring out a B M account 18 00:01:14.850 --> 00:01:20.310 based marketing as a methodology for B two B marketers. I'm still new to the B 19 00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:24.380 two B marketing game. I am a B two c market. Er. I've done a lot of higher 20 00:01:24.380 --> 00:01:28.830 ed B two C companies, even local companies. Coffee shops, dentist, 21 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:32.790 nonprofit. I've done some B two B work in the past, but not as much as I'm 22 00:01:32.790 --> 00:01:36.060 doing now, especially with all the interviews I'm doing with B two B 23 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:40.300 marketers and marketing sweet fish media myself, there's a lot to learn, 24 00:01:40.300 --> 00:01:45.600 and with a B M, there's certainly Mawr goodness to go around. So let's jump 25 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:49.960 into the three different levels of engagement. You can look at the count 26 00:01:49.960 --> 00:01:52.960 based market, and again, this isn't one too many. One too few oneto one 27 00:01:52.960 --> 00:01:55.970 campaigns. This is looking at it differently, and it's looking at it 28 00:01:55.970 --> 00:01:59.900 with at the stakeholders in the accounts that you're targeting. I just 29 00:01:59.900 --> 00:02:05.280 talked to Dimitri over at in, flew to about how tow target different people 30 00:02:05.290 --> 00:02:08.139 differently into account. And that's what I wanted to break down in this 31 00:02:08.139 --> 00:02:12.650 episode. So I've had a couple of different insights since then. So just 32 00:02:12.650 --> 00:02:17.310 so you know, like the first level would just be targeting the one stakeholder 33 00:02:17.310 --> 00:02:21.360 that you know is the ideal buyer for an account that one person you know is the 34 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:25.360 main person doing all the work toe secure. Whatever it is you're selling, 35 00:02:25.370 --> 00:02:28.620 there's that person. But we know there's more than one person that 36 00:02:28.630 --> 00:02:31.210 usually when you're selling B two b, there's a whole team of people that you 37 00:02:31.210 --> 00:02:35.870 need to convince to buy your solution. And that's what what we're gonna do a 38 00:02:35.870 --> 00:02:38.610 little bit deeper into is, I think you could break it down into a few 39 00:02:38.610 --> 00:02:42.370 different levels and scale into it rather than making it too complex to 40 00:02:42.370 --> 00:02:46.400 start. So I'd say the first level is just finding that ideal buyer and 41 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:50.550 targeting them and still laying out a whole funnel for them. So what are you 42 00:02:50.550 --> 00:02:54.040 going to do with your messaging at the beginning of the funnel while you're 43 00:02:54.040 --> 00:02:58.270 gonna build messaging around awareness, just getting them aware of the main 44 00:02:58.270 --> 00:03:03.850 problem you address and who you are right and around your content. You're 45 00:03:03.850 --> 00:03:08.430 going to deliver content, the beginning of the stage of the funnel that just 46 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:11.900 peaks their interest. It's categories and topics that they're interested in. 47 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:16.330 It may or may not have to do with what you sell directly, but it's in the 48 00:03:16.330 --> 00:03:21.030 realm of what your target audience. What that target buyer is interested in 49 00:03:21.040 --> 00:03:27.220 if you sell legal services to marketing agency CIOs and you're publishing about 50 00:03:27.220 --> 00:03:31.540 marketing agency stuff, but it's not necessarily about legal services yet, 51 00:03:31.550 --> 00:03:35.840 right? So and then testimonials like you wanna probably publish some 52 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:40.390 testimonials at even at the beginning of the funnel that covers some really 53 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:44.480 interesting insights from people that are like them, right. But then all that 54 00:03:44.480 --> 00:03:49.500 changes when you come a step down the funnel into this engagement stage, Um, 55 00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:53.010 where they know about you. They're aware of you now, so your messaging is 56 00:03:53.010 --> 00:03:56.040 going to switch to be more benefit related. The things that you selling 57 00:03:56.040 --> 00:03:59.220 the benefits that can happen. Of course, this is somewhat of an over 58 00:03:59.220 --> 00:04:02.360 generalization. You can mix and match these in different places. There's kind 59 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:06.130 of an overview to kind of give you an idea what I mean by changing your 60 00:04:06.130 --> 00:04:09.800 marketing per different parts of the funnel, right, So your messaging is 61 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:14.080 that it might be more benefit driven. Your content is probably going to be 62 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:17.950 answering more specific questions related to what you sell, though not 63 00:04:17.950 --> 00:04:20.750 necessarily talking about the product, but it's definitely in the category of 64 00:04:20.750 --> 00:04:25.120 what you sell. Now your content marketing is, and your testimonials are 65 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:30.090 going to be from your customers that air now, exploring and telling your 66 00:04:30.090 --> 00:04:33.970 your ideal buyer how much they've loved in the results. They've seen working 67 00:04:33.980 --> 00:04:39.140 with you, right? And that all changes again. When they're in the very bottom 68 00:04:39.140 --> 00:04:42.830 stage of your funnel into the awareness. When they're talking to sales, you're 69 00:04:42.830 --> 00:04:46.850 going to be doing messaging. That's more feature comparison, right? You're 70 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:51.070 going to have content. That is more education on how your product works and 71 00:04:51.070 --> 00:04:54.860 you're going to have testimonials. They go a little bit deeper about why people 72 00:04:54.860 --> 00:04:57.820 like working with your company, not just the results they've seen, but what 73 00:04:57.820 --> 00:05:00.450 they've enjoyed about working with your custom might be about your customer 74 00:05:00.450 --> 00:05:03.910 service. It might be about different things they didn't expect that were 75 00:05:03.910 --> 00:05:08.120 amazing. It might be handling some, like bottom of the photo, all types of 76 00:05:08.130 --> 00:05:13.410 objections that come out. But you can see how you can customize the different 77 00:05:13.420 --> 00:05:17.120 types of marketing and the content, the messaging and the testimonials you are 78 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:22.270 putting in front of people based on what stage of the funnel there in. Now, 79 00:05:22.270 --> 00:05:25.460 take that in mind that this is the first stage right. Building this all 80 00:05:25.460 --> 00:05:30.020 out takes a long time to even for your ideal buyer. You have this one person 81 00:05:30.030 --> 00:05:33.240 in mind for this one major product category that you're trying to sell to 82 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:36.370 in your A B M campaign, and it is a lot of work just building it out for the 83 00:05:36.370 --> 00:05:41.730 one buyer for every major stage, from awareness to engagement to the last 84 00:05:41.740 --> 00:05:45.660 bottom of the funnel consideration stage as they're talking to sales. It 85 00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:48.880 is a lot, just a lot of work to just to get that done, which is kind of where 86 00:05:48.880 --> 00:05:51.950 we're focused on its sweet fish media. I'm still putting together this main A 87 00:05:51.950 --> 00:05:55.750 B M funnel, but I'm also keeping my eyes on the prize. I think there's 88 00:05:55.760 --> 00:05:59.890 other levels we could be doing internally, and so I'm creating this 89 00:05:59.890 --> 00:06:03.260 content now for you because I'm learning it. And I'm also kind of like 90 00:06:03.340 --> 00:06:07.450 earmarking it for myself as I get into developing this for sweet fish media. 91 00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:11.150 So here's the second level. So we have that we have the full funnel developed 92 00:06:11.150 --> 00:06:14.830 for our ideal buyer. But we can also build a second round where we start to 93 00:06:14.830 --> 00:06:18.260 customize the funnel for different industries. Yes, it's still for the 94 00:06:18.260 --> 00:06:22.100 ideal buyers, but we're often selling to more than one industry. And if we 95 00:06:22.100 --> 00:06:25.620 have a couple of key industries we have, we might have a generic funnel we start 96 00:06:25.620 --> 00:06:29.740 off with. But we can actually segment into a couple of different industries 97 00:06:29.740 --> 00:06:33.580 to customize it further. Maybe we sell the three different industries and no 98 00:06:33.580 --> 00:06:36.800 sweet fish media. We cover, like a number of difference industries that we 99 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:41.670 tend to focus more on B two B tech companies, specifically B two b SAS 100 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:46.600 Tech companies. They're still even industries within that small little 101 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:50.050 category that I could splinter it off to. I could have a whole fintech 102 00:06:50.060 --> 00:06:54.990 version. I could have a whole manufacturing arm. I could have a whole 103 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:59.100 marketing services are more mark tech vendors right and still customize it 104 00:06:59.110 --> 00:07:05.090 further yet for the ideal buyer, and that is a way to get Mawr personalized 105 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:09.460 across the board. So now I'm coming up, not with just general at the top of the 106 00:07:09.460 --> 00:07:13.590 funnel, right awareness piece awareness messaging, coming up with content. 107 00:07:13.590 --> 00:07:17.150 That's Peking curiosity or is about them more than it is about us and 108 00:07:17.150 --> 00:07:20.670 coming up with testimonials that air just like really intriguing case 109 00:07:20.670 --> 00:07:25.750 studies from their peers. They're all customized, so the awareness is around 110 00:07:26.140 --> 00:07:30.330 being aware that you even serve their industry content. That's interesting to 111 00:07:30.330 --> 00:07:34.670 their particular nuanced industry right and testimonials that air from 112 00:07:34.670 --> 00:07:39.240 customers you already have in their industry. So that is the second level 113 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:42.470 of engagement. So it's taking the first funnel you developed and multiplying at 114 00:07:42.470 --> 00:07:47.080 times, however many industries you really want to focus on, and then the 115 00:07:47.080 --> 00:07:51.760 third level takes it a step further by not just identifying the ideal buyer, 116 00:07:51.770 --> 00:07:56.010 but all the different buyers within the account because you have your ideal 117 00:07:56.010 --> 00:07:59.340 buyer, but there's probably they probably have a boss that's going to be 118 00:07:59.340 --> 00:08:02.110 looking over their shoulder and checking up to see what they're they're 119 00:08:02.110 --> 00:08:05.490 buying and maybe has to approve some budget at a higher level. There's 120 00:08:05.490 --> 00:08:10.150 probably a direct report or many direct reports that have to use the thing that 121 00:08:10.150 --> 00:08:13.690 your buyer is buying right, that you have to convince. And there's probably 122 00:08:13.690 --> 00:08:18.190 some potentially some other departments within the organization that get to 123 00:08:18.190 --> 00:08:21.160 weigh in on this decision, because it might be a big enough purchase that 124 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:24.480 other departments are involves more than just one single department. There 125 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:28.980 is some peers that your ideal buyer has. That might be naysayers that might be 126 00:08:28.990 --> 00:08:32.590 People that ask very different questions have a very different view of 127 00:08:32.590 --> 00:08:37.190 the world of what's good. And so you take all the funnels you developed for 128 00:08:37.190 --> 00:08:40.630 all those industries, and then you create more funnel still that are 129 00:08:40.630 --> 00:08:44.940 customized for the different buyers within the account, because we know 130 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:47.760 when we're dealing with accounts. That's why we even use the word just 131 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:51.610 account and not buyer, because there's multiple people within the accounts 132 00:08:51.610 --> 00:08:55.310 that you have to market to and to sell, and the more content you could come up 133 00:08:55.310 --> 00:08:58.940 with and the more sophistication and customization you could bring to every 134 00:08:58.940 --> 00:09:02.750 single piece, the more it's going to resonate them or it's going to get them 135 00:09:02.750 --> 00:09:07.350 to take the baby. Step down the funnel towards buying your solution. So let's 136 00:09:07.350 --> 00:09:11.810 take an example if we're looking at instead of just your buyer but maybe 137 00:09:11.810 --> 00:09:15.540 the CEO of your buyer If you're selling to the sweet C suite, you wanna be able 138 00:09:15.540 --> 00:09:18.200 to make something for their boss, right? Because the CEO is gonna look 139 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:23.330 differently at the awareness stage than the CTO is. Maybe that you're trying to 140 00:09:23.330 --> 00:09:26.050 sell to the boss of the CTO has a different world view. They have a 141 00:09:26.050 --> 00:09:29.250 different paradigm of what success and what they care about, what keeps them 142 00:09:29.250 --> 00:09:33.100 awake at night. And the CTO does, right? So you wanna have a different awareness 143 00:09:33.100 --> 00:09:37.720 kind of campaign in your messaging? You wanna have different content that 144 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:42.310 piques their curiosity. That's just geared for the CEO. You wanna have case 145 00:09:42.310 --> 00:09:47.120 studies from CEOs now CEOs in that industry right that you are 146 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:50.620 specifically targeting You could see how this becomes a lot of different 147 00:09:50.630 --> 00:09:55.420 content to make messaging to set up and testimonials to go find. But what did 148 00:09:55.420 --> 00:10:01.460 it make sense that a if you're a CEO of a company and maybe in the health 149 00:10:01.470 --> 00:10:07.020 industry like a hospital right that if you see if they build awareness for 150 00:10:07.020 --> 00:10:10.380 that particular that narrow of a niche of a profile and they're selling the 151 00:10:10.380 --> 00:10:13.570 CTO is. But they're still creating awareness for the CEO who's going to be 152 00:10:13.570 --> 00:10:17.930 looking over that CTO shoulder to see what that might have. Some be 153 00:10:17.930 --> 00:10:22.610 evaluating what the CTO is buying. If it's a big purchase, that customizing 154 00:10:22.650 --> 00:10:27.380 the messaging and creating content that's specifically created for that 155 00:10:27.380 --> 00:10:31.640 CEO in mind and then coming up with testimonials from other CEOs in the 156 00:10:31.640 --> 00:10:36.790 similar industry that's going to draw them in. And so while it's very 157 00:10:36.790 --> 00:10:41.000 difficult to come up with that much content, all of those testimonials, all 158 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:44.340 that messaging and all the different pieces of content that you need in 159 00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:50.510 order to walk every single buyer down the funnel within the account, it still 160 00:10:50.510 --> 00:10:53.590 works and we're going. We're already creating content, were already 161 00:10:53.590 --> 00:10:57.240 collecting testimonials, so really, we just need to create a system of 162 00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:00.980 creating it and then cataloging it so that our sales reps in our marketing 163 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:05.010 teams have access to all the different pieces. You know, you can label them 164 00:11:05.010 --> 00:11:09.390 all a such so that you can kind of create this like grid of sorts of 165 00:11:09.390 --> 00:11:13.030 different content and so you can plug it into the right places, so that goes 166 00:11:13.030 --> 00:11:16.640 to the right people at the right time. So that's what I've been thinking about. 167 00:11:16.640 --> 00:11:19.550 It's kind of like Stretch to my mind is I thought about all the different 168 00:11:19.550 --> 00:11:23.640 possibilities of all these different messaging and content testimonials and 169 00:11:23.640 --> 00:11:26.000 where it could be fitting across all these different pieces of the puzzle. 170 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.200 It's definitely pushing me to think differently about how I'm even 171 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:33.020 structuring my own content, marketing and how different pieces of it can fit 172 00:11:33.020 --> 00:11:36.860 into different parts of the funnel for different people at different times. So 173 00:11:36.860 --> 00:11:40.350 it's very exciting to think about. It certainly creates a long road map for 174 00:11:40.350 --> 00:11:43.810 me of stuff that we still need to dio, which it's a never ending list, which 175 00:11:43.810 --> 00:11:46.890 that's really a good things. That's that's job security, right? Marketers. 176 00:11:46.890 --> 00:11:50.270 That's that means we get to stay around for a long time because we have a lot 177 00:11:50.270 --> 00:11:54.020 of work to dio. In the short term, though, just start with the one funnel 178 00:11:54.030 --> 00:11:57.100 for your ideal buyer and account based marketing system, and it's already 179 00:11:57.100 --> 00:12:01.410 going to be so much more efficient and effective than just targeting the 180 00:12:01.410 --> 00:12:06.190 masses or even a large segment of what our potential buyers. If you could just 181 00:12:06.190 --> 00:12:09.480 target your key accounts and those ideal buyer's first, it's going to make 182 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:12.920 a difference because you're getting in with the right person and walking him 183 00:12:12.920 --> 00:12:15.940 through in a systematic manner. If you just start with that, you're going to 184 00:12:15.940 --> 00:12:18.660 win. But you'll win more and more, the more you can customize it for the 185 00:12:18.660 --> 00:12:22.850 industry and then for the the buyers, the different buyers and stakeholders 186 00:12:22.850 --> 00:12:26.900 within the account. Hopefully, this has been kind of a help as helpful of a 187 00:12:26.900 --> 00:12:30.380 revelation to you as it is for me again. I'm still new to account based 188 00:12:30.380 --> 00:12:34.240 marketing, but this seemed like a big piece that I hadn't considered before, 189 00:12:34.250 --> 00:12:37.070 and that's the main lesson that I'm taking away from this week. I have one 190 00:12:37.070 --> 00:12:41.430 more week of content. I have actually have two books more to read that I'm 191 00:12:41.430 --> 00:12:44.820 looking at my desk right now, very excited to review those. I have a 192 00:12:44.820 --> 00:12:48.280 couple, one more thought leader to talk to you in a couple more practitioners 193 00:12:48.290 --> 00:12:53.010 before I wrap up this Siris on account based marketing in just a little over a 194 00:12:53.010 --> 00:12:57.370 week from now. Thank you so much for listening. If this has been helpful to 195 00:12:57.370 --> 00:13:01.610 you, please give us a five star rating on whatever podcast after you're 196 00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:05.120 listening to. You don't even have to write a review just going tap that five 197 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:08.130 stars. It makes a huge difference for our show. It makes it easy for other 198 00:13:08.130 --> 00:13:11.930 people like yourself to find us. So thank you so much for listening and go 199 00:13:11.930 --> 00:13:13.160 tap. That five star 200 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:21.100 Gary V says it all the time. And we agree. Every company should think of 201 00:13:21.100 --> 00:13:26.160 themselves as a media company first. Then whatever it is they actually dio 202 00:13:26.640 --> 00:13:30.390 if you know this is true. But your team has already maxed out and you can't 203 00:13:30.390 --> 00:13:34.790 produce any more content in house. We can help. We produce podcast for some 204 00:13:34.790 --> 00:13:38.720 of the most innovative BB brands in the world, and we also help them turn the 205 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:43.400 content from the podcast into block posts, micro videos and slide decks 206 00:13:43.400 --> 00:13:46.840 that work really well on LinkedIn. If you wanna learn more, go to sweet Fish 207 00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:52.850 media dot com slash launch or email Logan at sweet fish media dot com.