ABM campaigns: examples that turned targets

Webinars

Webinars are a nifty little tool for your ABM strategy.

Encourage engagement by using a purpose-built webinar platform, and build interactivity with their tools. You’ll find out more about your leads and make post-event conversations much easier.  The best interactive features allow you to:

• Set up polls
• Run a Q&A
• Add CTA buttons such as ‘book a call’ or ‘request a demo’ to help people discover your product and prepare your sales teams.

Events

An ever-dependable ABM campaign example, in-person events are great at winning leads. Whether it’s conferences, training, or showcases, there are plenty of ways to engage with targets to start up conversations and create follow-up opportunities. Take your sales team along to get a head start on building those relationships.

Depending on the size of your budget, you could even go big on the VIP treatment. Invitation-only events, personalized merch, or one-to-one sessions give you an exclusive edge.

Direct mail

There’s nothing quite like getting free useful/informative swag through the post. Direct mail might be more expensive, but it’s being talked up by ABM experts as more effective than email – so reserve this for your top targets. Go hard on personalization. Make sure what’s in your gift packages works all together. Leads will soon be in touch.

Email

Tailored email messages for the individuals you’re targeting work best here. Do away with your bulk sends and automation. For ABM to work over email, you need carefully crafted messaging specifically for your targets. Also, think about how to get your email to stand out from the crowd – could it work in ways other than written copy?

Paid advertising and social

PPC and social ads can work just as well when you have a specific audience to target. LinkedIn works particularly well for ABM campaigns. You can create sponsored content that, with the right targeting, appears right under the nose of your chosen audience and draws them into your funnel. Targeting and retargeting will make sure your ads show for the right people, too.

Personalized journeys

Content personalization is a firm feature of all the best ABM campaigns. You can personalize any of the examples above, but keep it up through your audience’s journeys and you’ll see better results. Other places you can personalize the journey include:

• Landing pages
• Web content experiences, for example, calculators or simulations
• Content streams that curate content for each person

1. The ABM content that increased reads 119%

Strategicabm are ABM agency pros. However, they realized that while their strategy was sound, their own ABM content could do with a refresh.

Click to read strategicabm + Turtl | Case study

Approach

They created:

• A new piece of core content – the ABM playbook. An all-in-one resource for any aspiring ABM marketer. Educational content and helpful advice presented in an interactive digital format is far more interesting than your standard downloadable PDF.

• A digital newsletter created in the Turtl format, covering all things ABM

• ABM lunch and learns

• Personalized strategy roadmaps, with highlighted issues and potential solutions

Why it worked

Using Turtl’s digital format for their content gave strategicabm analytics data never accessed before. They could see which of this specific content and what topics had the best interactions. This intel could then be used to plan ABM campaigns, nurture programs, lead capture, and lead generation content.

They could also be more consistent and faster creating personalized experiences too. They personalized lunch and designed strategy roadmaps for each lunch and learn attendee. All content that made follow-ups with the sales team more successful.

Their newsletter saw a 10% lower bounce rate in only a couple of months and their read rate increased 119%.

And best of all, they used everything they learned to improve the strategies of their own customers.

2. The B2B agency that closed 2 out of 3 ABM targets

One successful B2B agency used ABM tactics and Turtl’s personalization tools to secure new business in their traditional downtime period.

Approach

With three new potential clients from the same industry, the agency created one piece of content based on the companies’ interests and interaction trends.
They then generated automated personalized versions to speak directly to each company. They incorporated their names and logos and other identifying markers.
Analytics could track what content each company interacted with most. And the sales team could take that info to have better conversations to close the deals.

Why it worked

The key thing here is that the agency didn’t overstretch themselves. They directed attention and care to the three companies in the running.
Turtl made personalization at different scales much easier, too. They only had to create content once in a Master Doc.
Turtl Analytics showed which target clients shared content with colleagues. What the agency created had influenced and resonated with its targets.

3. 4x more meetings booked with reader-led personalization 

A huge telecom provider improved their content to generate more leads and close more sales conversations.

Approach

In a twist on ABM, this company went for a broader reach than normal, but with content that still catered to each individual.
They started to personalize at scale by creating one digital doc that readers could then customize themselves. It let them choose the content they wanted to read, like their very own content stream. This approach effectively self-segmented their audiences for them.

Why it worked

They generated 1400 leads in two months.

The interactivity of their digital docs gave them reams of data. They got a deeper level of customer engagement by seeing what content readers chose, increasing their understanding of their audience. Follow-up content could then be more tailored and the sales teams could close deals. They had a whole bank of background info they could refer to thanks to the knowledge they’d gained from the analytics.

So far we have looked at some wonderful ABM campaigns that involve pretty typical approaches, but what if you want outside-the-box ABM ideas? Let’s take a look at some fantastic, hyper-personalized approaches to specific accounts.

GumGum – The Data Knight Comic Book

GumGum is a contextual intelligence platform using AI to analyze text, video, and audio, then uses this data to help advertisers place their promotions in the best possible locations. GumGum knew they wanted T-Mobile as a client, a big fish by all accounts.

Approach

T-Mobile CEO, John Legere, is very active on social media, and GumGum quickly found that he has a personal interest in comic books and superheroes, specifically Batman. From here they positioned Legere as a Batman-esque superhero with themselves as his sidekick to promote their potential partnership.

Enter center stage T-Man and Gums the Girl Wonder in The Data Knight.

Why it worked

This hyper-personalized touch by appealing directly to the CEO landed GumGum the account with ease. By positioning T-Mobile as the hero of the story, rather than themselves, it served not only to butter up the client but allowed them to come across as an essential companion.

This is a very creative and personalized example and while it may not apply to every scenario – it’s a great instance of where appealing directly to the person behind the final decision can work in your favor.

GumGum – Build your own Big Mac

GumGum again with beautiful personalization shows how a creative approach can make all the difference when it comes to personalized ABM campaigns.

Approach

Looking to gain McDonald’s as a client, in 2017 GumGum sent out over 100 deconstructed Big Macs to McDonald’s executive board. Each ingredient was paired with a reason why GumGum was the top dog to work with and how they could help the burger giant.

Each kit also included a receipt that listed the executives by name as an extra personal touch.

Why it Worked

The ABM experts were met with success when the campaign landed them a meeting with the executives at McDonald’s. While it may not be quite as direct as going straight to the CEO, GumGum appealed to many high-level decision-makers at one of the largest companies in the world, by speaking their language.

GumGum understands that while you’re trying to sell yourself, it’s not necessarily about you. Appealing to the business you’re trying to aid is much more likely to make them feel that you understand them and their industry, than just saying “Hey look at us!”.

Intridea – Direct Billboard

Web and mobile app developer Intridea took a public and yet direct approach to ABM when targeting advertising group Ogilvy.

Approach

Billboards are usually a way to engage with as many people as possible, most typically in a B2C setting. Intridea took a different approach by taking out a billboard ad to specifically target Ogilvy opposite their Manhattan offices.

Why it worked

If you were to stare out your window and see a billboard message directly pointed at you it would stick in your mind for a long time.  That’s exactly what happened with Intridea. The comedic play on words with “Ogle this, Ogilvy” followed by the personalized URL to “oglethis.co” led to personalized messages promoting a partnership. What a way to grab the attention of the giant advertising group.

There is a fine line to consider here between fun-lighthearted targeting and what would border harassment. While this worked for Intridea, do consider whether it’s the right approach for you (and whether things like this work more than once!)

Visual evidence with Robin

Just saying what you can do is fine, but it doesn’t grab attention or prove to a potential client that you’re worth the time of day. This is where Robin’s one-to-many approach with visual evidence of their efforts worked so well.

Approach

Robin is a workspace and conference space scheduling company that operates in a highly competitive environment. To stand out they took to social media with photo evidence of their spaces to showcase just how gorgeous your next office space could look. Using this visualization of their work, they used targeted advertising and personalized messaging to approach their target accounts.

Why it worked

Nothing is more effective in selling a product than evidence of how it works. By showing off examples of their spaces, Robin proved to potential clients how they could be of service without resorting to just statistics. It led to them seeing a 50% increase in web traffic and a 20% increase in leads.

Creative ideas and research can help execute the best ABM campaigns. ABM needs a multichannel strategy, that includes various mediums and channels.

To bolster supporting content marketing, you’ll need interactive content you can personalize at an innovative level. Interactivity drives better engagement and this in turn reveals behavior in analytics. You’ll learn much more about your target accounts. It’s even possible to scale ABM to thousands of accounts at once if you’re ready to rock your output. We show you how in our guide.

Click to read How to start an ABM program that scales | Turtl

Our Advanced ABM guide teaches you how to automate personalization for more intelligent ABM campaigns. Please have a read.

Click to read Advanced ABM with Content Automation for your company | Turtl Guide