The Ultimate B2B Marketing Glossary Cheat-Sheet: All the Must-Know Terminology

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If you're trying to get into the world of B2B marketing, you may be feeling overwhelmed by all the industry terminology. Don't worry - we've got you covered! In this blog post, we'll provide you with a cheat sheet of all the must-know terminology so you can become a B2B marketing pro in no time. Read on to learn more!

 

Introduction to B2B Marketing Terminology

B2B marketing terminology is an important part of understanding and navigating the world of business-to-business marketing. It's important to understand the various terms and acronyms used in the industry so you can effectively communicate with your customers and partners. Mobile optimisation is one of the most important terms in the B2b glossary, as mobile devices are becoming more and more popular for business transactions. Being mobile-friendly is essential for any business, so understanding mobile optimisation is key to achieving success in B2b marketing. By having an optimised mobile experience, businesses can reach more customers and better engage with them. Ultimately, mobile optimisation is essential for any business that wants to stay competitive in today's market.

To help you get up to speed, here are some of the most common B2B marketing terms and their definitions:

Lead Generation - The process of acquiring new leads for a business through various methods such as direct contact, online campaigns, content creation, or other forms of advertising; Prospecting – The process of identifying potential customers who may be interested in your product or service; Lead Nurturing – The process of nurturing leads throughout the sales cycle by providing relevant information and offers that will help move them closer to making a purchase Moreover, with the introduction of Chatbot technology, lead nurturing has become even easier. Chatbots can be programmed to provide personalized offers to leads that have been identified and qualified as prospects, allowing businesses to engage with potential customers in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. By taking advantage of Chatbot technology, businesses are able to build relationships with prospects and increase their chances of closing a sale.

A-C: Essential Marketing Terms

A/B Testing: A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage, email, or other digital asset to measure the performance of one against the other. This helps marketers understand which version performs better, helping them make data-driven decisions about their marketing efforts. Predictive Content and Qualified Leads are also important to understand in the context of B2B marketing. Predictive Content is a method of using trends and insights to serve relevant content to the right customers at the right time. Qualified Leads are defined as prospects who have provided contact information and indicated interest in a product or service, making them a higher value lead compared to an unqualified lead. With the help of A/B testing, Predictive Content, and Qualified Leads, effective B2B marketing strategies can be developed and improved upon.

[button link="https://funnelfuel.io/b2b-web-analytics/" type="big" color="black" newwindow="yes"] Journey by FunnelFuel is a 'central nervous system' for B2B marketing, providing enterprise-class analytics, 24/7 media optimisation and conversion rate optimisation tools, including A/B testing, heat-maps and session recordings. Click here to learn more (opens in a new tab/window to not interrupt your reading of this glossary article)[/button]

Account Based Marketing is a B2B marketing approach which addresses pre-defined accounts and tailors the marketing message to the stage of the funnel that the client is in, including post purchase. Learn more here in our 'in a nutshell' series - what is ABM?

Go deeper: 5 pro tips to win at Account Based Marketing in 2023

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO): Conversion rate optimisation is the process of improving the performance of webpages or emails so that more visitors take desired actions such as making a purchase or subscribing to an email list. By understanding user behavior and improving conversion rates, marketers can grow their business. Predictive Content, the presentation of content to users based on their interests, can dramatically increase the effectiveness of CRO. Similarly, Qualified Lead generation strategies allow marketers to create meaningful leads which can be converted into customers more quickly. In this way, CRO helps to improve overall ROI and make marketing activities more efficient.

Go deeper: The most advanced conversion rate optimisation tactics for B2B marketers, to help make your website work harder and drive more results 

Call-To-Action (CTA): A call-to-action (CTA) is any element on a website or in an email that encourages users to take an action, such as filling out a form, subscribing to an email list, downloading an asset, or making a purchase. CTAs are essential for driving conversions and achieving marketing goals Thereafter, dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) is a term used to describe the process of personalising a website or email with dynamic content based on user data. By identifying relevant CTAs for each user segment, DCO can help to drive better performance and better conversion rates. Understanding the fundamentals of call-to-action (CTA) is essential for marketing teams who want to take advantage of DCO and all its advantages.

[learn_more caption="FunnelFuel Co-Founders Insight On The Importance Of CTA Optimisation "] Insight from FunnelFuel's co-founder, Mike Harty: Talking CTA texts sounds like an almost stupidly small point in the grand scheme of B2B marketing, but we operate in a highly competitive space where winning ITDM attention is ever-harder. Marginal gains from exploring different CTA messages and text/button colour combinations DOES make a big difference. Interaction movements of 0.5% at scale add-up, meaning if you can optimise the page so 0.5% more people who read it end up clicking your button, then we're talking about 0.5% more prospects turning into MCL's and flowing through your funnel, or 0.5% more sales calls or 0.5% more free trials. Our Journey analytics products anonymously [ie without looking at specific sites, instead pulling all the data to a top level view for analysis] tracks a lot of web based actions on B2B websites, across both pure-play publishing and client sites. Anonymous exploration of this data shows that the clients who use our Journey tools to explore the impact of testing different CTA texts are the ones who are generating the most ROI from their marketing efforts, across both paid media and organic. [/learn_more]

Go deeper: How to use A/B testing, heatmaps and session recordings to drive better results from your website within a week 

D-F: Must-Know Concepts

“D” stands for Demand-Side Platform (DSP), which is a type of software used by advertisers to buy ads programmatically. Users of this platform can manage and track ROI, view analytics, and compare different data sources, as well as segment their audience and tailor messaging for particular segments. Audience segmentation is an important tool in the demand-side platform, allowing advertisers to reach their target audiences more effectively. With audience segmentation, they can adjust their ad placement so that their message reaches the right consumers at the right time. The demand-side platform is a powerful resource for any business trying to maximise the impact of their advertising campaigns.

[button link="https://funnelfuel.io/next-generation-b2b-programmatic-marketing/" type="big" color="purple" newwindow="yes"] Learn more about the FunnelFuel ABM DSP - a programmatic media buying platform designed only for B2B. Bringing LinkedIn level targeting to programmatic media, opening up greater scale at considerably cheaper rates for B2B marketers, our DSP enables named-account targeting, dynamic content optimisation for B2B and deep contextual targeting against our 161 level B2B taxonomy. Click here to learn more! (opens in a new tab/window to not interrupt the rest of this glossary article)[/button]

“E” stands for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). This system helps businesses manage and integrate their many different processes into one central system with the goal of increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. An ERP system provides the structure that business needs to better track and manage data, streamline operations, and improve customer relationships. This powerful tool can be used to track inventory, manage supply chain, and optimise accounting functions, and the best ones integrate back into your marketing stack to ensure that marketing matches the current capabilities of the business. With an ERP system in place, businesses can make quicker decisions based on up-to-date data in order to maximise efficiency and profitability. As such, this tool is invaluable for any business looking to increase their operational efficiency.

“F” stands for forecasting, which is the process of predicting future market trends based on past performance and other factors. To accurately forecast future market trends, businesses must have a solid understanding of their industry landscape as well as customer needs and preferences Thereafter, TOFU and MOFU are important acronyms to keep in mind when applying your forecast future market trends to your current new business led marketing tactics. TOFU stands for "top of funnel", which is the beginning stage of the customer journey when they are just exploring options and getting familiar with their needs. MOFU stands for "middle of funnel" and refers to the customer's attempt to elucidate what they need and determine their buying criteria. TOFU helps with identifying potential customers or prospects, while MOFU focuses on providing targeted information that helps customers make decisions. Forecasting future market trends requires a thorough understanding of TOFU and MOFU, so businesses must have a solid understanding of their industry landscape as well as customer needs and preferences.

G-I: Critical Strategies

G-I critical strategies involve making decisions that are designed to result in long-term success and sustainability by evaluating the risks and rewards of each potential move. Blocklisted IPs are a prime example of such a risk assessment. Blocklisted IPs refer to IP addresses that have been identified as either malicious or suspicious by ISPs or other authorities, or if you're doing named account targeting / ABM using IP targeting, this can indicate that IP data isn't available in a particular environment. As businesses operate in a globally connected environment, it is important for organisations to understand the risks of Blocklisted IPs and put into place strategies to mitigate them. These strategies may include regularly monitoring Blocklisted IPs and enforcing security protocols, such as two-factor authentication, to ensure the safety of data and information.

For example, organisations can use G-I strategies to determine what changes should be made to their business operations, marketing tactics, and technology implementations in order to stay competitive over time Next, TOFU (Top of the Funnel) and MOFU (Middle of the Funnel) are two important acronyms that organisations should keep in mind when creating their G-I strategies. As we stated above, TOFU is the initial step in the buying process, while MOFU is where companies can get more specific with their offers and start to build relationships with potential customers. By understanding TOFU/MOFU and how it fits into their G-I strategies, organisations can set themselves up for success in staying competitive over time.

J-L: Crucial Mechanics and Processes

J Curve: A graph that illustrates the relationship between the total cost of a project and its timeline. The ‘J’ shape of the graph is due to the fact that many projects begin with a large investment upfront followed by lower costs as the project develops, before increasing again in its final stages. Not always associated with marketing, but it does have a strong crossover, especially in B2B. It is invaluable to businesses when approaching their marketing efforts, as it can be used to pursue dynamic creative optimisation (requires a full top of funnel to begin segmentation) and for businesses who are launching a new product or service, whereby fast and significant early exposure is key, followed by a strong push to bring nurtured accounts to a close. By plotting out the project timeline and cost, businesses can make informed decisions about their budget and adjust accordingly. The J Curve is a major part of any B2b glossary and essential for successful marketing management.

Kanban: A scheduling system developed by Toyota whereby work is organised and tracked through visual cues such as cards or boards. Kanban helps teams manage their workflow efficiently by providing them with an easy way to track progress, organise tasks, and identify potential bottlenecks in production processes. smart B2B marketers are taking Kanban approaches and applying them to their marketing funnels, using them to apply lead scoring and to drive creative decisioning to make their messages clearer. 

M-Z: The Nitty Gritty of B2B Marketing

Using Marketing Automation to Streamline Messaging: By using marketing automation, you can easily create targeted messages for specific groups and individuals, which increases the effectiveness of your B2B marketing efforts. Marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot, Marketo and Oracle Marketing Cloud enable you to streamline your B2B communication process, allowing you to plan and execute campaigns more efficiently. Marketing automation can also be used to send automated email messages, track website activity and activity on social networks - all of which helps to create a comprehensive view of customer interactions. By automating your marketing outreach, you can quickly segment leads, craft targeted messages and track the success of each message in real-time. This type of targeted messaging helps you build relationships with prospects and better understand the impact of your B2B marketing strategies.

Nurturing Relationships with Prospects: Through the use of well-crafted emails, webinars, and content campaigns, you can nurture relationships with prospects and build trust between your business and potential customers Besides building relationships and trust, utilising a b2B glossary in your email, webinars, and content campaigns can help to ensure that you communicate the correct terminology and accurately portray your message. A b2b glossary of terms allows companies to provide prospects with further details that convey the intent behind their messages. Having a defined vocabulary that is regularly used helps create an understanding between both parties fostering stronger relationships. Employing a b2b glossary is a great tool for nurturing and maintaining relationships with prospects in order to grow your business.

Wrapping up

In conclusion, this B2B marketing glossary cheat-sheet is here to help anyone who’s new to the world of B2B marketing. It’s important to understand the terminology, definitions, and meanings in order to keep up with the industry’s trends and changes. With this cheat-sheet, you’re sure to be a pro in the field of B2B marketing and stay up-to-date with the latest industry terms.

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Beat Google by 2 years and embrace a cookieless B2B future, today

A new ‘deadline’ for deprecating third-party tracking cookies has been set at two and a half years later than it was originally planned – H2 of 2024 – since Google announced their latest delay. Further timelines regarding Privacy Sandbox were also shared by Google, as the company feels that more time is needed to test and launch its features fully. This is all very understandable considering the very real challenges that face our industry in 'getting off' the cookie, but here at FunnelFuel, we believe the future - at least when it comes to cookies - can begin today. We're approaching this challenge by;

As we move towards a privacy-conscious future, cookieless measurement is one of the most challenging aspects for marketers as we move towards it. That is not a surprise to those in the online advertising industry. The programmatic industry is highly fragmented due to all of its media channels, formats, ad exchanges, ad servers, and demand versus demand platforms. Among the many differences between supply-side platforms and the open web, there are several different types of data, measurement, and analytics that are available to companies in walled gardens versus those outside the walled gardens.

In the present day, teams of savvy data scientists use a common identifier - namely a tracking cookie - in order to rank these combinations based on the expected return on investment. Connecting these solutions, even with third-party tracking cookies, is extremely challenging.

The cookie issue doesn’t look like it’s going to fade away anytime soon, so advertisers might stay the course with existing cookie-based campaign strategies for some time to come. However, there is more to cookieless than just Google. It’s estimated that only 30 – 45% of internet traffic relies on cookies.

Those are the two major browsers that have blocked third-party cookies for the past three years. If you find that truth shocking, let me explain it. Chrome has been the only major player to not block third-party cookies, as it holds a roughly 50% share of browsing activity globally. Cookie availability continues to be squeezed as stricter consumer privacy regulations are increasingly being enacted across the globe, which makes it even more difficult to access cookies.

The percentage of people who use ad blocking tools or go incognito is estimated to be between 7% and 40% on mobile devices – and everyone else in between. It is important to understand that cookie-based strategies over-index to only 30% of the open web, so if you are following along with your calculator, that means cookies only over-index 30% of the open web.

Funnelfuel is transitioning to a privacy-first programmatic approach, regardless of cookie availability and any further changes made by Google. For us, the future starts today

A cookie-based approach to programmatic advertising is just scratching the surface when it comes to its scale. You can easily plan, target, and optimise your programmatic campaigns without having to resort to cookies. The focus of FunnelFuel continues to be on rapidly transitioning to a privacy-first programmatic approach, regardless of cookie availability and any further changes made by Google to the deadline – not only will it be better for consumers, but it will also be more efficient as a result.

By the end of 2023, we are on target to deliver 85% of our campaigns without cookies globally. To achieve connected and accurate measurement across channels, we combine data from a multitude of our partners to create FunnelFuel Journey, a unique profile that combines multiple signals into a single profile. By focussing on running programmatic media against privacy aware solutions which don't need cookie IDs, like our unique approach to ABM, contextual targeting and the usage of first party data to inform live creative and targeting decisioning, our reliance on out-dated tactics like 'retargeting' is next to non-existent.

In spite of the fact that the cookie deprecation timeline has yet again been extended, we believe that it is even more important that we take the time to rewrite the rules of digital advertising and to develop adequate alternatives that are right for your brand, while also prioritising consumer privacy and choice.

If you want to learn more about how we approach programmatic advertising for Business to Business clients, get in touch today to book your free of charge exploratory session 

B2B Conversion Rate Optimisation Techniques - How To Get Your Site Working Harder For Your Brand

If you're involved in marketing for a business-to-business (B2B) organisation or you work in an agency with B2B clients, then you need to be doing or encouraging the organisation to practice conversion rate optimisation (CRO). CRO is all about increasing the percentage of visitors to your website who take the desired action, whether that's making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, booking a demo or downloading a white paper.

In other words, CRO is the process of turning website visitors into paying customers. And in today's competitive marketplace, it's more important than ever to make sure that your B2B organisation is doing everything it can to optimise its conversion rate.

So what exactly is involved in CRO? Before we do, lets ensure we really know what it is and what it entails

What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?

Conversion rate optimisation is the process of increasing the percentage of visitors to your website who take the desired action. This could be anything from making a purchase to signing up for a newsletter or downloading a white paper. In other words, CRO is all about turning website visitors into paying customers. In business, the goal is always to increase revenue while reducing costs. One of the most effective ways to do this is through conversion rate optimisation (CRO)

Since even a small increase in conversion rate can have a significant impact on revenue, CRO is an essential tool for any business that wants to stay competitive.

How Does B2B Conversion Rate Optimisation Work?

There are two main components to CRO: data collection and analysis, and experimentation.

1. Data Collection and Analysis: The first step in any CRO initiative is to collect data on website traffic and user behaviour. This data can be collected using Google Analytics or other similar tools. Once the data has been collected, it needs to be analysed to identify areas where conversion rates can be improved.

2. Experimentation: The second step in CRO is experimentation. This involves testing different changes on the website—such as changes to copy, design, or layout—to see which ones have the biggest impact on conversion rates. Experimentation is important because it allows businesses to make informed decisions about what changes to make to their website.

Why B2B clients Should Care About Conversion Rate Optimisation?

CRO is something often talked about in B2C and Direct to Consumer circles, where marketers have long strived to make every dollar work harder, especially in super competitive landscapes like social media ads. B2B marketers seem as a general rule to get to CRO later in their journeys, yet the role it can and should play in B2B is arguably greater than it plays in B2C. There are therefore several reasons why B2B marketers should care about conversion rate optimisation:

1. Shorter sales cycles: The most obvious reason to care about CRO is that it can lead to increased revenue. Even a small increase in conversion rate can have a significant impact on revenue, so CRO is an essential tool for any business that wants to stay competitive. However CRO implemented right is breaking down the funnel steps that lead to revenue - so actually we're starting by trying to get users to spend longer on your site, then we're working to get more upper-funnel actions like lead generation form fills, then more demos, then more meetings an finally, more direct sales. CRO is therefore iterative and turbo charges the whole digital funnel.

2. Reduced Costs: Another reason to care about CRO is that it can lead to reduced marketing costs and customer acquisition costs. By increasing conversion rates, businesses can get more leads and customers without having to spend more money on marketing. Or the same money invested drives more leads and upper funnel volume, which translates through to a healthier pipe.

3. Improved User Experience and all important prospect first impressions: A third reason to care about CRO is that it can improve the user experience on your website. By testing different changes and seeing which ones have the biggest impact on conversion rates, you can make sure that your website is optimised for users' needs. There is nothing worse then a long sales cycle which breaks down when a prospect can't find what they need on your web properties

4. Increased Customer Lifetime Value: Finally, caring about CRO can also lead to increased customer lifetime value (CLV). CLV is the total amount of money that a customer will spend with your business over the course of their lifetime. By increasing conversion rates and getting more customers, you can also increase CLV.

So we can see the immense value of CRO, but how do we go about doing it?

B2B Conversion Rate Optimisation Techniques - How To Demonstrably Improve Your Websites Performance

There are a number of different techniques that can be used in order to optimise your conversion rate. These include A/B testing, landing page optimisation, and personalisation.

A/B Testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a method of comparing two versions of a web page in order to see which one performs better. Version A is the control; version B is the variation. Visitors are randomly shown either version A or version B, and whichever version results in more conversions is declared the winner. A/B testing should follow a process of testing big changes through to smaller ones. You'll be amazed at how much of a difference a button colour can make.

Landing Page Optimisation
Landing pages are stand-alone web pages that are designed for a specific purpose, such as promoting a product or service or capturing leads. An effective landing page will be clear and concise, with a strong call-to-action (CTA). Landing page optimisation is the process of improving your landing pages in order to increase conversions.

Personalisation
Personalisation involves tailoring your website content and offers to the individual user or if you're running Account Based Marketing - named accounts. This could be anything from showing relevant products based on previous purchases to using the user's name in communications. Personalisation has been shown to increase conversion rates by up to 18%.

Session Recordings 

Sometimes even the most detailed analytics - like ahem FunneFuel's! - don't reveal exactly what is wrong in the bare stats. Sometimes you need to watch screen recordings and see exactly what your user saw. Did a form not load? Did the page take longer to load than expected? Does the site look terrible if someone views it on Chrome on an iPad? Session recordings can teach the CRO umpteen valuable lessons around the companies product and offering, and what is and is not working.

Page Load testing 

Sometimes the poorer front end performance has nothing to do with the website content, layout, messaging and offer - and instead the challenge is more technological. Slow page loading kills conversions, especially in an age where the majority of people will load your site on mobile devices, perhaps whilst commuting and perhaps with weak signal. Nothing kills performance like a page that takes >2 seconds to load.

Traffic sources 

Additionally, the CRO expert needs to understand that web traffic isn't all created equal. There are a lot of very low value clicks available in the digital ecosystem - from cheap app based placements on colouring in apps to fraudulent traffic. CRO needs to take this into account, and its also why we need to be working off of a solid sample page (where the performance is proven) and then work to improve it by scientifically splitting the traffic

Putting It All Together; The Four Steps To Optimisation A B2B Page Or Website

  1. Examine - Develop insights based on business goals and market research.
  2. Implement - Design, develop, iterate.
  3. Test - Collect data so you understand if improvement occurred.
  4. Verify - Make your your results are statistically significant.

CRO done right needs to follow the above process. The examination phase should include spending a lot of time with your voice of customer aggregators - the people in the business who spend the most time with customers; hearing their pain points, satisfaction, roadmap ideas and general sentiment.

From using tools like session recordings and heat maps, we can form some hypothesis around what can improve the website. We then move onto implementing, where we create new landing page designs, develop them and iterate them.

We then test these ideas using a robust A/B testing toolkit. This lets us examine the performance of the new page and the ideas it contains against the original page, letting us verify that the new ideas work against statistically relevant data sets

Conclusion:
Conversion rate optimisation is an essential part of any successful B2B organisation's digital marketing strategy. By utilising techniques such as A/B testing, landing page optimisation, and personalisation, you can increase the percentage of visitors to your website who take the desired action—whether that's making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a white paper. So what are you waiting for? Start optimising your conversion rate today!

FunnelFuel is here to help!

As we have learned, in order to execute a conversion rate optimisation strategy, we need to collect robust data (analytics) and have access to CRO tools like heat maps, A/B testing and session recordings.

We recognised this when we build the FunnelFuel Analytics product. We wrapped full enterprise web analytics (with a strong B2B flavour) with CRO tools like the ones mentioned above, to give B2B marketers a one-stop-shop for improving the marketing ROI.

Click below to book your free demo and discovery call, and we'll personally show you how our tools can help

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Need a B2B DSP & Why Generalist Platforms Don't Work For B2B Marketers

[et_pb_section fb_built="1" _builder_version="4.16" global_colors_info="{}"][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.16" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" global_colors_info="{}"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.16" custom_padding="|||" global_colors_info="{}" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.16" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" global_colors_info="{}"]If you're like most people, you're probably wondering what a DSP is and why you need one. A DSP, or demand-side platform, is a software platform that helps you buy ad space on the open market. In other words, it allows you to bid on ad inventory in real-time. Unlike buying ads in social media environments, like LinkedIn and Twitter, a B2B DSP focusses on buying premium placements on the worlds leading B2B news sites. Capturing the research intent of users and aligning your messaging to their stated needs is a cornerstone tactic that we use at FunnelFuel, but today we're looking at the pitfalls of generalisation and upsides of specificity.

Sounds great so far, right? But you might be thinking, "I already have a DSP. I use Google Ads." And while that's true, Google Ads or more precisely their DV360 media buying platform, as well as the other leading DSPs like TradeDesk and MediaMath are actually examples of a B2C DSP. That means it's designed for businesses that sell directly to consumers. But what if you're in the business-to-business (B2B) space?

As a Co-Founder of FunnelFuel, and somebody who has ben making technology for this space for the last five years, prospects and clients often ask me about the differences between FunnelFuel's advertising solutions and that of our competitors, a question which essentially boils down to the differences between a B2B DSP and a B2C DSP. The short answer is that FunnelFuel has heavily invested in building a specialised B2B demand-side platform (DSP). And it’s integrated end-to-end with the FunnelFuel analytics and ABM monitoring platform, providing a 360 degree view which supports an organisation’s overarching marketing strategy. Whereas mainstream DSPs typically used by other ABM providers are point solutions built primarily for less focused B2C outcomes.

What does a B2B DSP Like FunnelFuel do which a mainstream B2C DSP can not?

1. Generate insights based on ABM data points and enable you to reach decision-makers who are actively researching your products or services online.

A recent study found that 79% of B2B buyers conduct extensive online research before making a purchase decision. So, if you're not using a B2B DSP, there's a good chance you're not reaching your target audience—the decision-makers who are actively researching your products or services online.

When it comes to programmatic advertising, its data and the insights this data reveals, which turns an ad impression from being worthless to incredibly valuable. B2C DSPs don't have the 360 degree data views that FunnelFuel has, meaning they can't identify the super-valuable and ever so hard to locate ITDM, C-suite and other such segments that FunnelFuel can.

This means that any client who wants to execute ABM optimally needs technological separation from what the generalist DSPs can do - which is brand marketing.

2. You need to reach your target audience with targeted ads and measure the long sales cycles that come thereafter

A B2B DSP allows you to target your ads to specific companies and job titles within those companies. For example, let's say you sell marketing software. With a B2B DSP, you can target ads to marketing directors at tech startups in Silicon Valley. This is great however ultimately most participants in this space know that the sales cycle, especially for enterprise solutions, can be painfully long.

Standard DSPs measure performance with web cookies, which have an average shelf life of <30 days. They simply lack the data insights and performance metrics that really matter to B2B marketers.

B2B therefore calls for a much more integrated analytics solution. It needs analytics that can build more persistent IDs with longer shelf lives which do not rely on cookie data. They require analytics that can really segment named accounts by their true funnel stage, which in turn requires really detailed funnelling, goal building, action tracker and full cross-platform media attribution. Without this, any DSP or the person operating it, are blindly buying impressions and this is highly unlikely to move the needle for any B2B client.

3. Reporting toolkits need modifying - you need to track data like named account lift alongside the more regular conversions and ROI measurements

A B2B DSP gives you the ability to track conversions and measure ROI so that you can see which campaigns are performing well and which ones need improvement. This is vital for any business that wants to grow and scale its marketing efforts efficiently. However this is also data which you get in the top class generalist media buying platforms like TheTradeDesk and MediaMath.

However because B2B amounts to a very small part of their overall revenue, they have not undertaken the work needed to modify their reporting to capture data like named account interaction, clicks, views and then everything that goes on thereafter.

And where they can't report on it they also can't target by it, meaning that they are unable to deliver the super-precise media buying that B2B needs.

B2C typically calls for huge scale, linked historically to cookie pools. B2C marketers typically have huge addressable markets based on factors like geography and basic demographics - such as U.K based men over the age of 30. As their target audiences also falls into people who receive gifts, because like us all they have birthdays and other holidays to celebrate, meaning that some wider targeting is absolutely fine. In so many ways, B2B is the polar opposite. We're seeking über precision, looking to identify key decision makers in specific named accounts. As these individuals are SO hard to find, we need to measure the impact of our ads to the nth degree.

B2B media buying and reporting solutions like FunnelFuel can afford to report in great detail [vs generalist platforms] because we are not measuring in anything like the volumes that they are. We trade depth and precision vs raw volume. It wouldn't be cost effective or viable to do both. 

4. You need access to exclusive data and inventory sources.

In many ways, it is now likely that the era of 'open programmatic' is drawing to a close. Whilst digital pipework and connectivity works for all, the specifics of open RTB have created few winners. Like most new technology, programmatic has and continues to roll through a number of iterations before it really works.

B2B media was one area that the 'open era' left behind. Early days RTB was linked to concepts like 'remnant' and higher fill at lower prices, which played a roll in stuffing large news sites with lots of ads, but did precious little to fit the needs of B2B publishers who command super-high value audiences in limited quantities.

B2B publishers did not and do not want to fill their pages with $0.50 CPM programmatic backfill ads for irrelevant B2C offers. They have always valued alignment for their content, audience and ad products, and the value of these audiences command a much higher rate.

At FunnelFuel we know the programatic pipes can be a huge benefit for B2B buyers and sellers. Its why we have built solutions for both sides of the market; a DSP and analytics platform for buyers, and sell side pipework built around the same analytics for the sell side. The ability to build sell side 1st party audiences around the incredible detail that our segmentation enables, is a 'programmatic' game changer for B2B publishers. Leveraging this data to extend into wider high value areas is an obvious step, benefitting both sides of the marketplace.

Therefore our B2B DSP gives you access to exclusive data and inventory sources that are not available on other platforms, such as Google Ads. This means that you can reach your target audience with highly targeted ads on the channels and in the highly premium and richly aligned publishers that they're using for their research —the ones where they're actually making purchasing decisions.

5. In a world of privacy awareness you need a joined-up single platform of record which brings sellers and buyers into the marketplace - not a generalist solution that bolts on declining third party data and providers

The third party data era is over. Well not quite, but its journey of travel is clear to see. Middleware data is getting attacked from all sides; government level legislation, technology advancements, cookies dying, users opting out. 1st party data from the sell side has never been more valuable.

As our competitors try and keep their solutions relevant, relying on third party providers, we're busying expanding our B2B ecosystem of premium publishers, and bringing technology that genuinely empowers them to build their data and mobilise it for activation.

What's so special about the FunnelFuel solutions?

B2B is our exclusive focus. We pride ourselves on truly being end to end; both in terms of working with publishers through to advertisers, but also in terms of offering solutions that wrap around media buying - powering targeting, ad measurement and on-site behaviour with our enterprise B2B analytics. We pride ourselves on building technology exclusively for this space which is made explicitly for it, and we have countless examples of how that drives growth for B2B publishers and advertisers alike.

As a business-to-business (B2B) company, it's essential that you use a B2B DSP to buy ad space on the open market and increasingly in scarcely available B2B private market places (PMP's). A B2B DSP will allow you to reach decision-makers who are actively researching your products or services online in premium content sites dedicated to their niche with targeted ads—something that's not possible with a B2C DSP like Google Ads. Additionally, a B2B DSP will give you the ability to track named accounts as well as 'the usual stuff' like conversions and measure ROI so that you can see which campaigns are performing well and which ones need improvement—something else that's not possible with generalist platforms. Finally, a B2B DSP gives you access to exclusive data and inventory sources that are not available elsewhere—giving you the ability to reach your target audience on the channels where they're actually making purchasing decisions. In short, if you're not using a B2B DSP, you're missing out on some serious advantages over your competition—advantages that could mean the difference between success and failure in today's competitive marketplace.

Ready to learn more about FunnelFuel's solutions?
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Ready to learn more about FunnelFuel's solutions? Book your FREE 30 minute discovery call below 

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Ideal Customer Profile; What Is It, 4 Easy Steps To Make Your Buyer Persona & How Do You Use It?

Do you know who your ideal customer is? If not, don't worry - you're not alone. Many businesses don't take the time to create an ideal customer profile, which can lead to a lot of wasted time, money and energy when it comes to growing the business through marketing and sales efforts. Today we're diving into what an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is, how you make it and what you can do with it.

What is an Ideal Customer Profile?

Creating an ideal customer profile (also known as a buyer persona) is essential if you want to make sure that you're targeting the right people with your products and services. In this blog, we'll show you how to create an ideal customer profile step-by-step, so that you can take your business to the next level.

The ideal customer profile, also known as a buyer persona, is a fictionalised representation of your company’s ideal customer. It goes into detail about your customers’ likes, dislikes, personality traits, behaviours, purchasing habits and more.

Creating a buyer persona helps you to focus your marketing and sales efforts. In this blog post, we'll talk about what a customer profile is and how to write one that is tailored specifically to your business. Creating an ideal customer profile gives you great insight into the wants and needs of any potential future audiences you might want to target. You can then use this information to inform your future marketing and sales strategies.

What questions does your ICP need to answer about your customers? These generally form different types of ICP, some common types of ICP include;

Your ideal customer profile should answer the following questions:

What are the characteristics of my target audience? Once you know who your ideal customer is, you need to start thinking about the characteristics of your target audience. These can be divided into two categories: - Demographic characteristics: these are the facts and figures about your target audience. This includes factors such as age, gender, income, education, location, etc. Secondly we have Psychographic characteristics: these are the psychological factors that influence your target audience's decisions. This includes things like interests, values, lifestyle, etc.

What motivates my audience?

When you know what motivates your target audience, you can use this information to create marketing and sales strategies that will appeal to them. Some common motivators include:

- Need for approval

- Fear of missing out

- Desire for status or recognition

- Sense of belonging

- Curiosity

What locations are my target organisations in? Once you know where your target audience is based, you can start to think about the best way to reach them. For example, if they are located in less populous areas, you might need to focus your marketing efforts more exclusively on online channels such as programmatic, social media and email. Whereas, if they are centralised around a smaller number of say bigger city locations, you might want to consider adding more traditional marketing channels such as print and television, especially now that more modern media buying technologies are catching up with traditional media, such as programmatic connected TV buying.

What is the best way to reach my target audience?

Now that you know where your target audience lives, you need to think about the best way to reach them. There are a number of different marketing channels that you can use, and the best way to reach your target audience will depend on a number of factors, including:

- Their location

- Their age

- Their interests

- The type of product or service you're selling

Some common marketing channels that you might want to consider include:

What type of messaging does my ideal customer engage with?

Your ideal customers might engage with a variety of messaging types, depending on their needs, wants and interests. Some common messaging types include:

- Educational

- Inspirational

- Aspirational

- Product focused

- Solution focused

How does my target audience interact with a business like mine?

Your target audience's interaction with a business like yours will depend on a number of factors, including:

- The type of product or service you offer and its associated sales cycle

- Their needs and wants

- Their buying habits

Some common ways that people interact with businesses like yours may include:

- Researching online; which could be on your owned media or wider research based behaviour in contextually relevant environments

- Speaking to industry peers, potentially now on the 'dark social' networks

- Reading reviews (yes this is still relevant to lots of B2B marketers)

- Going to trade shows or conferences

- Speaking to a salesperson

What type of language does my ideal customer use?

Your target audience might use a variety of language depending on their needs, wants and interests. Different industries have differing levels of jargon and slang, understanding yours specifically can help you dial into the audiences expected forms of content. Some common language types include:

- Technical

- Jargon-filled

- Simple

- Emotive

What type of content does my ideal customer engage with?

Your ideal customers might engage with a variety of content types, depending on their needs, wants and interests. Different job roles can lend themselves to different types of content too. A CTO may prefer educational and technical types of content, whereas an analyst may prefer more detailed long form content like eBooks and white papers. Some common content types include:

- Educational blog posts or articles

- How-to guides

- Lists

- Product reviews

- Case studies

- White papers

- eBooks

Now that you know all of this information about your ideal customer, you can start to create content that appeals directly to them. By understanding what they want and need, you can create content that speaks to them directly, making it more likely that they'll engage with your brand.

Building your ICP; a 4 step process

Step 1: Define why you’re doing consumer profiling

Ask yourself: what outcomes am I looking for from this buyer persona? The answers to this question will determine what factors you focus on when creating your persona. For example, if you’re looking to improve customer acquisition rates, you might want to focus on factors like age, income, and location.

Step 2: Focus on one or two variables at a time

These are two variables you should expect to polarise your sector. For example, in the B2B industry, you might focus on brand vs. feature buyers.

Step 3: Mutual exclusivity

The two variables need to be categorically different. You can't change CRM solution every year and also be in market every month for example.

 

Step 4: Dial in the personas and personify them with demographic and psychographic elements

Coupled with your own behavioural and psychographic questions, demographics like age, gender or location can help to build a more rounded view of your persona.

Now you have outlined your Ideal Customer Profile/s, what do you do with them?

Having customer profiles helps you plan your business’s future strategy and product roadmap, driving business direction and unlocking new sources of growth.

Your ideal customer profile can help you:

- Develop targeted marketing plans and strategies

- Optimise your product or service offerings

- Create sales enablement tools and processes

- Improve customer success rates.

Ideal Customer Profiles are also a great tool for new business development, as they provide a framework for you to assess new market opportunities against. By understanding your ideal customer’s needs, you can more easily identify other markets and industries where your product or service would be a good fit.

Finally, ideal customer profiles help you build better relationships with your customers. By understanding their needs, wants and interests, you can develop a closer bond with them, leading to improved customer retention rates.

If you want to learn more about ideal customer profiles and how to create them, get in touch with us today and book your free evaluation session with one of our B2B marketing experts.

In A Nutshell: What is Account Based Marketing

Account based marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach to business marketing in which an organisation focuses its efforts on a clearly defined set of target accounts. It is a methodology that has been gaining popularity in recent years, especially among B2B companies.

With account based marketing, the goal is to develop targeted campaigns that are specifically tailored to each individual account. This approach differs from traditional marketing strategies, which tend to be more generalised and less focused on specific accounts.

ABM requires a high level of coordination between sales and marketing teams, as both departments must work together closely to identify and target key accounts. Once target accounts have been identified, the sales and marketing teams need to develop custom strategies for engaging with these accounts.

The 5 main benefits of ABM

There are several benefits that can be gained from using an account based marketing strategy.

First, ABM can help improve the efficiency of your marketing efforts. By targeting specific accounts, you can ensure that your campaigns are more likely to reach their intended audience and have a greater impact. This can save your company time and money by reducing the need for mass advertising campaigns that have little chance of success.

Second, ABM can improve your company’s relationships with its customers. By taking a personalised approach to each account, you can build stronger relationships with your customers and improve customer satisfaction. This level of personalisation is key to performance in 2022, driving higher ad engagement rates and general customer response.

Third, ABM can help you generate more qualified leads. By targeting specific accounts that are more likely to be interested in your products or services, you can generate leads that are more likely to convert into customers. By building a target audience list (TAL) that matches the buyer persona of your product or service, we can ensure that we’re only investing in marketing to prospects who match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Fourth, and maybe most importantly, ABM can help you close more deals. By tailoring your sales pitch to each individual account, you can increase the likelihood of closing a deal.

Finally, ABM can help you better understand your customers’ needs and wants. By engaging with customers on a personal level, you can gain insights into their pain points and needs. This information can be used to improve your products or services and make them more appealing to potential customers.

Conclusion:

Account based marketing is a strategic approach to business marketing in which an organisation focuses its efforts on a clearly defined set of target accounts. This methodology has been gaining popularity in recent years due to the numerous benefits it offers businesses, especially those in the B2B space. If you’re looking for a way to improve the efficiency of your marketing efforts and generate more qualified leads, then account based marketing may be the right solution for you.

'Dark Social' Is Changing Your B2B Ad Engagement - How To Immediately Reverse Declining Performance & How To Optimise For The 99%

B2B advertising can be a challenge. You're trying to reach a business decision maker with a message that is both informative and persuasive, all while standing out from the competition. So, how can you improve your B2B advertising creative to make sure you're getting the results you want?

In a world where advertising, seemingly alongside everything else, is getting more expensive, it is more important then ever to ensure the creative that we're putting in front of our target audiences is going to engage them. CPM's on LinkedIn are now averaging $33.80 in western countries, a rate which has grown by c. 20x in the last decade as their platform reaches saturation.  The problem compounds once you realise that ad click through rates continue to decline. We're paying more money to reach an ever harder to identify segment, and we now need creative to work harder than it ever has just to stand still on our key metrics.

The sad reality of running digital ads is that 98-99.7% of people who see your ad will never see the landing page that the ad points to. So what you show your audience before the click is critical to gaining enduring value from the marketing you're running.

How has B2B ad interaction been changing?

At FunnelFuel we have made the following observations over the last 24-36 months

People are more reluctant to share personal information - they know that doing so makes them a "known prospect"

Looking at LinkedIn specifically, mainly because of the quality of job role data that they have available, we can see that ad engagement differs quite significantly by job function and industry;

This CTR metric then impacts the cost per click, giving us these ballpark averages;

source; https://www.theb2bhouse.com/linkedin-ad-benchmarks/

People have migrated from open social to dark social 

Dark social is setting the narrative for your brand

Here are three tips: How to front-load your value messaging into the ads themselves to ensure you acquire customers as cost effectively as possible

1. Keep it simple and optimise for people who are scrolling but not clicking

When it comes to B2B advertising, less is more. You want to make sure your ad is easy to understand and digest so that busy decision makers can quickly grasp your message. Use clear language and avoid industry jargon. And don't forget to include a call-to-action that is straightforward and easy to follow.

Our expectation is that the prospect is going to see your ad and scroll on past, so how can we deliver a payload of brand awareness to a scroller who will then carry on right past it?

The emergence of carousel ads (first in social, now in programmatic), mobile first formats, videos and GIFs all provide comparatively more real estate to deliver value against then a standard banner. Content is just a product brochure in disguise

So if 99% of viewers won't click, lets not put messages like 'click here to download our eBook'. Lets instead look at what brands like Gong are doing here - they're running a social carousel ad which delivers a few hard-hitting takeaways from their ebook. Using language like 'secret 1', 'secret 2' and combining with some impactful stats, they're building much more desire to actually go and grab the ebook.

This is a great example of how to frontend value into the ad creative

2. Focus on the offer and making it punch out of the feed

What can your product or service do for your customer? That's what they want to know. So, focus on the benefits of your offering in your ad copy. Tell them how you can save them time, money, or effort. And be specific! Include numbers, percentages, or other concrete data to back up your claims.

All of this constitutes your offer. Your offer absolutely has to be differentiated, engaging and unique in todays market, and your creative needs to let the prospects know that immediately.

Testing is also critical. Testing new and different offers, testing new ways to stand out in the feed, testing new creative agency partners who can move the needle and engage the 99% non-clickers.

Raw component based creative is another FunnelFuel go-to here. Why? its more flexible and can fit all and any ad placement, its more dynamic because titles, subtitles, videos and images can be combined in infinite manners, which combines with measurement to find winners. Its also fast and comparatively cheap to update across all media buying platforms, giving more agility to test new set-ups. 

3. Segment your messages to different Ideal Customer Profiles, personalising the message to compel them to engage!

Ad buying platforms like FunnelFuels combine precision ad targeting with incredibly granular data collection enabled by our analytics toolkit. When you boil this all the way back down, what does it give you? The ability to segment audiences very precisely and then to re-target those users with personalised and tailored creative.

As a rule of thumb; targeting is far too broad. Creative as such is largely irrelevant, trying to be the one thing to all people. Effective B2B marketing in 2023 will be defined by those who can segment the segments and create sub-personas within their ICPs. Answering questions, focusing on the offer as its relevant to say a CFO verses a CTO will make a huge difference in ad engagement. Can your tool be used differently by marketing teams versus sales teams? if so, they should be two totally different segments. Considering data like employment role and seniority can further segment between the ultimate decision maker and his/her wider decision making universe because users aren't buyers, but they do impact the buyers.

Conclusion:

The world is always changing, and what works changes with it. As your ICP's are moving from a more open social to a new dark social, driven by privacy and direct connections, they are becoming harder to identify, target and ultimately reach. Prices are getting higher yet fewer people will click; and this means we have to optimise differently, optimising for the 99% who don't click. The dark social web will lead the narrative, driven by emboldened vocal industry leaders under the cloak of secrecy, but world class modern creative can let innovative brands re-claim their narrative and drive the next wave of prospects

ABM In 2022; 5 Pro Tips To Identify, Target, Engage & Convert Key Accounts Using ABM

Over the last half a decade, ABM has emerged as B2B marketers 'Go-To' tactic to drive measurable ROI, but even now in Q4 2022, there remains much confusion around the entire topic of Account Based marketing. Having directly helped dozens of companies to implement, action and succeed with ABM activity, here at FunnelFuel, we think we're fairly well placed to share some direct feedback.

What is clear is that ABM done right works. Almost 85% of B2B marketers who measure ROI state that account-based marketing is demonstrably out-yielding all other forms of marketing, with half of those marketers citing significantly higher returns. There also seems to be a synergy between organisations who are implementing ABM, and those who have generally succeeding in the oft-illusive task of synergising their marketing channels. A Bizible, study found that "marketers doing ABM are about 40% more likely to report alignment with their sales team compared to marketers not doing ABM.” So not only does the fact that an organisation is leveraging ABM typically mean they are out competing their peers, it also indicates more generally that these organisations have generally got highly functioning B2B marketing functions, making these companies the ones to benchmark yourself against.

So how are the top achievers leveraging ABM in their marketing functions? ABM should be used throughout the funnel, to brand, demand and expand. This is not a silo'd tactic; its an all-encompassing marketing approach which scientifically identifies targets, from the earliest prospects to the longest standing customer segments, and then uses the best in class marketing automation technology to understand how B2B decisions are made, what pain points are researched and how best to engage each named account.

ABM also recognises one of the keenest distinctions between B2C marketing and B2B marketing. Corporate decisions are signed off on by a consensus of stakeholders, who collectively represent a 'decision making universe'. According to the Harvard Business Journal story, CEB found that the usual number in this decision making universe is close to 5.4 decision-makers. This is 5.4 stakeholders on each account, each representing their organisations whims and wants from diametrically different perspectives; what engages a CMO can be markedly different to a CTO. So corporate decisions are defined by a decision making universe which represent specialist stakeholders with individual responsibilities, with timelines which align at different moments in the year. Compare this to your average B2C decision maker, signing off a whimsical purchase based on an Instagram advert, driven by emotion and able to transact with one tap of the screen, and without having to win over 4.4 colleagues with different priorities. In this light, the long sales cycle makes more sense. ABM campaigns, with laser targeted messaging that addresses different functions and pain points in the target organisation, leveraging advanced analytics to understand sales cycle stage, has demonstrably been shown to shorten sales cycles, and ABM's ability to keep re-engaging these accounts as they mature as a customer, is a key reason why ABM is succeeding for our clients.

So having run hundreds of ABM campaigns across dozens of advertisers, what are FunnelFuel's key takeaways for turning this buzzword into a cornerstone of your B2B marketing?

Your ABM Strategy Needs Buy-In From Your Whole Organisation 

We already know that companies who 'do ABM' typically have more synergised marketing functions. But is this a byproduct of ABM or more of a reflection that the best marketers have ABM in that toolbox? Irrespective of the answer, its MBA 101 to state that Sales and marketing functions need to be closely aligned—a fact backed by research by MarketingProfs. They found that companies with aligned marketing and sales departments on average generate 208% more revenue for their marketing efforts. But alignment is essential in more than just those two groups. Buy-in from the C-suite is also necessary for setting the expectations and advantages of ABM across functional groups. CS teams need input to help ensure existing clients are nurtured through digital activity. Advertising and biddable media teams need to be optimising to the right metrics, sales teams need to be using the realtime data availability to engage prospects in the moment, content teams need to be delivering messaging that supports the funnel stages. The list goes on.

Build Your Tactics Scientifically 

Data and insights are buzzwords thrown around the marketing world with abandon yet it is objectively true to state that data is at the centre of a productive and maximised ABM strategy. But what do we mean by data? Successful ABM activity relies heavily on a data feedback loop of accurate, high-value data about target accounts. However, many companies find that is an area that’s ripe for improvement. In fact, 64% of B2B organizations cite improving data quality is their most challenging obstacle. But there are ways to bridge that data gap with the right technology, which is why here at FunnelFuel, we built an enterprise class of B2B analytics specifically to collect this data.

Target & Personalize, But Don't Obsess Over Job Role & Remember The Decision Making Universe Of 5.4

ABM strategies are by definition highly targeted, and as a result of advances in digital technology, they encourage B2B marketers to focus on strategic accounts and the decision makers within them, rather than a broader and more holistic approach. Marketers can customize their ABM programs to find specific account attributes tailored to their company’s differentiation points and value proposition. Once the account is targeted, B2B marketers can set out to develop the right content for the right decision maker at the right time. That presents a great opportunity to create the most impact; however, as pointed out earlier, each account often has more than one or two decision makers. The pain points that each represents, and their criteria for making a decision are typically highly varied. However just because they have a very siloed viewpoint doesn't mean they can't think laterally. A CFO doesn't only care for the cheapest solution, CFO's are capably of thinking widely about the solution and their companies needs. A mix of precision but also broader messaging can often work better in our experience, not least because we don't always know each targets internal decision making universe, so leveraging tactics which target the wider organisation almost always works better then just targeting named individuals/roles. With the right platform, marketers can easily target and segment audiences based on customer profile or industry.

Have The Right Technology - A True B2B Specialist

The Mar-tech industry is dominated by platforms and technologies which were invented for B2C use cases. These technologies are built for scale (think about Coca Cola or Ford's addressable market) and not for precision. The act of buying an advert may work the same (technicallY) but in almost every other way, these technologies are not fit for the B2B purpose. B2C needs scale, we need precision.

Ensuring the accuracy of organisation data sets requires the selection of a top-tier B2B contact database provider that can give comprehensive, live and fully up to date information. A lasting legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-22, was a new found hybrid working culture meaning that data needs to include knowledge of organisations private VPNs as well as office based data.

The ability to take the genesis of a targeting account list, and to model it against rafts of firmographic data across all territories of interest for the client is also key. This form of lookalike modelling helps cure the ills of incomplete client data, whilst ensuring the full addressable market is understood and met.

This needs to be combined with the right on site analytics which can actually understand which target accounts have been online, what they have been doing, and give all stakeholders the chance to actually observe what these accounts were doing. Once again, B2B is precision where B2C is scale.

Finally the right media buying technology is needed, with the ability to leverage this unique data to target named accounts, bringing LinkedIn like targeting to the rest of the internet. Clients who only do ABM on LinkedIn have to work with limited data sets and sky high prices; ITDM's exist outside of LinkedIn, often reading the content produced by the Worlds best subject-specific publishers as part of their research. The best marketing automation platforms like FunnelFuel can recognise the context of what they are reading, aligning the right message with the right moment of research to turbocharge performance.

It Starts By Measuring. It Ends With More Measuring!

ABM is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. It’s crucial to establish metrics for each account, measure the content and tactics for effectiveness against those metrics, and then reshape and adjust them as needed. B2B specific web analytics are few and far between (we didn't build a B2B enterprise set of analytics for the fun of it!). Measuring has to be account specific, and it needs to be combined with realtime feedback loops (so sales can get on to that prospect when they're actively researching you) and automated, synergising channels like email, retargeting and direct outreach to deliver moment marketing.

Marketing teams can measure engagement and other critical success factors through methods such as account scoring, which give them keen insight into account health. Changing direction quickly and refining future campaigns based on these types of data will allow for the highest level of ABM success.

ABM encourages B2B marketers to focus on quality over quantity—that is, better leads and overall account health over number of leads and accounts. The industry has been filled with low quality generic lead generation for eons, but these leads do not typically move the needle for the organisation buying them. Having full company buy-in, robust and largely unavailable [to rivals] data signals, the right technology, a scientifically constructed targeted account list, and effective metrics will set the path towards success. Enacting an impactful ABM strategy will take time, thought, and targeted efforts, but the revenue and overall efficiency improvements make it well worth the work.

Ready to implement an account-based marketing strategy into your current marketing plans? Book your sales call with FunnelFuel today to get started