1:1 and 1:few ABM campaigns are a significant undertaking—from both a time and resources perspective. If you want to see a 9x ROI on your ABM efforts, however, you have to be able to feed the beast.
You must have the resources to leverage account insights, unify messaging internally and externally, personalize content and messaging down to singular roles within an account… and you have to be able to do it all while keeping the other parts of your business running.
Is it worth all of the work? Absolutely.
How many marketers does it take to run full funnel ABM campaigns?
It sounds like the start to a joke but for resource strapped marketing operations departments, it’s no laughing matter.
Here are the resources you’ll need to plan, execute, and manage 1:1 and 1:few ABM strategies.
How many people does it take to run a 1:1 or 1:few ABM campaign?
You cannot find, reach, engage, or nurture target accounts via 1:1 or 1:few tactics without exceptional strategy, customized content, informed messaging, and nimble execution. That takes a team of experienced creatives, marketers, and sales professionals.
To run a successful ABM campaign, you must have…
- 1-2 Graphic Designers (Display Ads, Landing Pages, Lead Nurture)
- 2-3 Copywriters (White Papers, Case Studies, Buyer’s Guides)
- 1-2 SEO Experts
- 1-2 PPC Experts
- 2-3 Marketing Operations Analysts (Programmatic and Content Marketing)
- 1-2 Paid Social Analysts
- 1-2 Marketing Automation Analysts
If your current team is already nearing the end of their bandwidth—and the thought of hiring 5-12 new people has you overwhelmed—you may want to consider a B2B digital marketing agency. Remember, 1:few and especially 1:1 ABM targeting has to be dynamic; you want your assets showing to your targets as soon as the account score indicates they are approaching the bottom of your ABM funnel.
If your team isn’t able to create display ads, landing pages, and lead nurture design in 3 to 4 days and begin targeting via those channels, you can’t execute this strategy correctly. Your team should feel prepared and able to handle the ABM workload for that period of time (if not longer).
How many assets will you need in a 1:1 or 1:few ABM campaign?
Short answer: You’ll need an extensive library of content to pull from, update, and get to your targets.
Long answer: It’s a marathon, not a sprint. In order to run a hyper-targeted ABM campaign, you need to understand what content has already been created and can be used, what assets you’ll need, how you will personalize them by account and by target, and what assets will be required as the sales cycle progresses. Awareness-level pieces of content differ from evaluation-stage assets; a white paper for a CMO needs to address different topics than one meant for an IT director.
Most 1:1 and 1:few ABM campaigns will need:
Custom Landing Pages
Email Marketing Templates
Display Ads
Content Marketing (e-books, case studies, white papers, buyer’s guides, blog posts)
Paid Social Assets
Webinars
The Golden Rule of 1:1 and 1:Few ABM Asset Creation: Keep the target at the forefront of everything.
What will they respond to? What are their pain points and how can you address them? How will you catch, and keep, their attention with personalization tactics?
What do you need to have in your tech stack to run a 1:1 or 1:few ABM campaign?
Feeling overwhelmed by the expansiveness of this type of ABM? We have good news. Some aspects of 1:1 and 1:few ABM campaigns can be automated; others can be streamlined.
That’s where an ABM tech stack comes in.
Here’s what you’ll need in a tech stack in order to run a 1:1 or 1:few ABM program:
- CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
- Visitor Intelligence Software
- Intent Data Provider
- Marketing Automation
- Programmatic Ad Platform
- Content Enablement/Personalization
- Analytics Tools
- Data Visualization
Many ABM platforms (Terminus, DemandBase, etc) incorporate several, if not most, of these aspects. We suggest conducting thorough research into what you need, what tools you currently have, and which platforms will add (instead of detract) to your overall ABM ROI.
Now that you have an understanding of the resources it’ll take to run your ABM campaign, what’s next?
