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Over the years, marketing has shifted from a blanket approach to a targeted strategy, with the help of technological developments such as automation tools and CRMs.
Traditional marketing involves using generalised communications to attract as many leads as possible and then identifying target companies.
In contrast, zero waste marketing or Account Based Marketing (ABM), flips the funnel by identifying target accounts and personalising communications to more effectively nurture your prospects through the awareness, consideration and decision phases.
A deeper dive…
The distinction between outbound marketing and ABM is often explained using a fishing analogy.
Fishing with a net (outbound) is attractive because you catch a lot of fish (prospects), but they’re not necessarily the fish (leads) you’re after and so you’ve wasted time and effort.
ABM is likened to fishing with a spear because you identify the exact fish you want (target account), focus your time and effort on those fish (personalising communications), then spear the biggest fish (convert prospects into leads).
Advantages of chasing the big fish
The term ‘zero waste marketing’ outlines the most significant advantage of implementing an ABM strategy; less time and effort will be wasted by sales and marketing teams.
And, marketing efforts will yield better opportunities. According to Gartner, ABM programs show a 70% increase in opportunities created.
Other advantages include:
- Clearer ROI – the 2014 ITSMA Account-Based Marketing Survey found ABM delivers the highest ROI of any B2B marketing strategy or tactic
- Personalised communications that drive conversion – Aberdeen Group found 75% of customers prefer personalised offers
- Better analytics - 86% of marketers surveyed believe that predictive analytics is central to account-based marketing success (Forrester)
- Marketing and sales alignment - B2B organisations with tightly aligned sales and marketing operations achieved 24% faster three-year revenue growth and 27% faster three-year profit growth (SiriusDecisions)
If you haven’t already, it’s time to put down the net and sharpen your spear.
Sud Kumar
Marketing Director
