While the idea of nailing your audience might be basic, we promise this webinar will be anything but that. Devon Watts, Senior Director of Corporate Marketing at RollWorks, will cover the following:

Join us for this foundational ABM webinar.

Sponsored by:

The post Back to Basics: How to Nail Your ABM Audiences appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Crafting a more holistic marketing approach based on better sales and marketing integration is helping Hewlett Packard Enterprise improve account based marketing (ABM) and better engage key target accounts.

In 2014, Hewlett Packard split into two divisions, HP inc., the consumer business, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), the B2B arm of HP. Adam Benaroya, senior manager of global media at HPE, notes that at the start, the new organization felt like a “$50 billion start-up,” because at launch it was building its marketing structure from scratch alongside some legacy systems inherited from the shared infrastructure.

“We needed to rethink the B2B adtech and martech stack and [consider] what we needed, particularly around ABM,” says Benaroya.

Many of the sales and marketing teams in the new organization had account lists they wanted to activate with digital marketing techniques, but because of the size of the company there were decentralized strategies in place which were somewhat limiting.

‘We had too many lists from too many parts of the organization,” says Benaroya. “Sales alignment wasn’t always realized at the start of programs, list quality was questionable and any one account might sit in multiple programs at the same time.”

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Having access to customer data is critical for ABM success, no matter how large an enterprise your marketing team is managing.

“You can’t expect to find customers with a promising lifetime value and [create] an ideal customer profile without accurate data,” wrote Kristina James, director of marketing at MRD, in a recent article for Chief Marketer. “Putting in the time to research and evaluate data with a fine-tooth comb will also improve your demand gen campaigns. Suddenly, all of your outbound marketing will have the potential to be more personalized.”

The issue of siloed data, coupled with questionable list quality, added up to the true promise of ABM being near impossible for HPE to realize, notes Benaroya. “We needed to decide the best mix of campaigns and messaging to accounts but there was no holistic company strategy related to ABM.”

ABM success relies heavily not only on integration between various marketing channels, but on integration between all involved departments within an organization, marketing, operations and analytics teams, says Rene Asis, head of B2B measurement at LiveRamp, which works with HPE.

“The ABM journey has become more advanced,” he says. “The struggle is attaching channels to ROI signals, to see if your efforts are making a difference.”

A recent report from Ascend2 notes that while 65 percent of marketers see their ABM efforts as “somewhat successful,” only 29 percent describe their ABM initiatives as best-in-class. Not surprisingly, the highest percentage of respondents said that their primary objective with ABM was to increase existing account revenue (56 percent). But, not everyone is apparently succeeding in this goal: over a third (39 percent) also cited this as a top challenge for ABM success, topped only by increasing accounts and contacts and improving sales and marketing alignment (43 percent each).

HPE’s marketing team started to work closely with the sales teams, to help prioritize which accounts would be targeted with ABM strategies, in the process trimming down the number of individuals who would be involved in that decision making process.

The company has the luxury of a large data scientist team, notes Benaroya, which gives HPE access to propensity modeling to determine which accounts are currently in market. The goal was to manage the ABM process in a holistic way and create a clear strategy across both the entire portfolio of HP products and the target accounts.

“[Then], account centralization can be applied to the rest of our marketing work [in digital and beyond], whether it is events or any other type of analog marketing program going into market,” he says.

The more holistic marketing approach is helping HPE optimize media investments for new products, and prevent multiple siloed marketing efforts targeting a particular account at any time. The marketing team now had a list of account segments that matched back to the U.S. sales team roster which, when coupled with sales propensity models, would help target the messaging mix across different markets.

It can take time for companies to determine what success looks like for ABM, says James. “Traditional metrics, like the number of leads generated, for example, aren’t as important. KPIs change, and it’s hard to know upfront how many opportunities will be generated or how much pipeline is needed to fill the funnel.”

“In the past we had platforms that allowed us to activate” but these were siloed, says HP’s Benaroya, who spoke at Connect to Convert recently. “We wanted to measure full digital activity and  [increase our] measurement capability across all digital channels to see what activity was turning into leads.”

The Ascend2 survey of 293 marketing professionals found that in ABM more isn’t necessarily better. Forty-five percent of respondents said that managing fewer than 50 contacts was the most effective with ABM; 40 percent said they were working with 50 to 500 contacts, and only 15 percent said they worked effectively with over 500 contacts in their ABM program. Sales revenue, cited by 67 percent, was far and away the most effective metric used to measure ABM success, followed by qualified accounts (41 percent) and account engagement (38 percent). 

The post HP Improves ABM with Sales and Marketing Integration appeared first on Chief Marketer.

More companies are considering an account based marketing (ABM) approach, and for good reason. A 

When ABM is driven by strong data, and it absolutely should be, the rewards can be huge. According to the “2018 ABM Benchmark Study” by ITSMA and the ABM Leadership Alliance, 45 percent of business leaders are seeing double the return on ABM compared to other efforts. However, it requires testing, learning and pivoting your approach. That steady stream of leads coming from demand gen efforts can keep business moving along while you hone your ABM approach.

To be successful with ABM, you have to practice patience. It’s about quality, not quantity. Your success will depend on a strong strategy. Here are six things to think about:

1. Become a data clean freak.

Targeting a smaller audience — putting more eggs in one basket, so to speak — means selecting accounts based on accurate data. According to an online survey by Forrester, 92 percent of respondents say better data and research are the secret to big wins in ABM.

You can’t expect to find customers with a promising lifetime value and an ideal customer profile without accurate data. Plus, putting in the time to research and evaluate data with a fine-tooth comb will also improve your demand gen campaigns. Suddenly, all of your outbound marketing will have the potential to be more personalized.

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2. Find the common threads.

Review your largest accounts and existing relationships to determine common characteristics. Then, use this information to outline your key account list. Consider using profiling and modeling tools to track down other prospects that are similar to your best customers. This could include a common set of characteristics like size, location and funding availability.

Once you examine account history for hints on hot button issues, information needs and winning customer service strategies, you can better segment your audience for account-based and demand-generation efforts. You can align your messages and offers so they speak loudly and clearly as you try to reach new customers.

3. Get marketing and sales on the same page.

Traditional demand gen marketing is more like a relay race. The marketing team initiates campaigns to generate leads that are then handed off to sales for conversion. But with ABM, the relationship between marketing and sales is more like a choreographed dance.

For the plan to be successful, both teams must be in sync. The strategy is agreed upon beforehand, messaging is ongoing and focused, content and offers are account-specific, and follow-up is immediate. The information that’s gathered from interactions with clients is given back to marketing to inform the next campaign, and the results from each campaign are given back to sales to help determine the best contacts.

If it all pans out, your sales and marketing teams will learn how to bob and weave together effectively. It should improve your campaign performance overall.

4. Don’t forget to set expectations.

Because marketing and sales work in tandem when using an account-based approach, it’s even more important that all departments participate in lead definition, goal-setting, and process flow. Think about your key performance indicators as a team. It seems fundamental, but this is a critical piece of the strategy that’s often overlooked.

Know how many accounts you’re targeting, what dollar spend you need to convert, and what you think your conversion rate might be so you can back into a plan. It will be tough at first. It can take time for companies to determine what success looks like for ABM. Traditional metrics, like the number of leads generated, for example, aren’t as important. KPIs change, and it’s hard to know upfront how many opportunities will be generated or how much pipeline is needed to fill the funnel.

Still, revenue goals are revenue goals. Put something on paper to set expectations. It’s okay if you have to change as you go; just keep benchmarking and goal-setting as you start to learn what works and what doesn’t.

5. Use your intel to create personalized experiences.

Because ABM pares your audience significantly, your content and message must be customized to the account you’re targeting. The highly personalized user experience is what makes account-based marketing effective, but it can benefit your demand gen efforts as well.

This is all about understanding your accounts. Firmographic and demographic data can provide insights. You need to know what clients are selling, who is buying, and what their sales cycles are. You should also know what their business goals are and how your offer supports them personally. The cold, hard intel can help you create an offer that’s so tailored to the prospect that it’s hard to pass up.

6. Don’t wait until the end to evaluate results.

Most studies show that within a year, you’ll realize an incremental increase in your return on investment in ABM, but don’t wait until the year is up to measure successes and failures. Constantly evaluate which accounts are engaging and which aren’t. If you’re not getting a response from one account, move on and choose a new focus. Just like your demand-generation campaigns, optimize, iterate, learn, change and say goodbye to non-responders.

Account-based marketing isn’t a complicated concept, but it does represent a shift in thinking. The synchronization of sales and marketing, the planning, and the dedicated resources needed to create a highly customized user experience require thought and investment. But the rewards are worth the effort, and you can always tap into demand gen efforts when you need them. Combining strategies gives you more tools to work with.

Kristina James is director of marketing at MDR, a division of Dun & Bradstreet.

The post Six Tips for Using ABM to Complement Your Demand Gen Strategy appeared first on Chief Marketer.

An account-based marketing (ABM) strategy is helping TimeTrade connect with B2B decision makers, and improve conversion of top tier accounts by 20 percent.

TimeTrade, an appointment scheduling SaaS solution, works with over 30,000 businesses; over 690 million appointments have been scheduled via the software since the company was founded 20 years ago, says Tim Corkery, svp of sales.

The Tewksbury, MA-based company faces the same challenges as many B2B organizations, says Corkery, who spoke at the recent B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange event in Boston. It has a long sales cycle, and multiple target personas. There are often multiple decision makers it needs to connect with at target accounts, ranging from the president or CEO to other department heads. And, the company faces increasing competition, often from firms offering similar services at a lower price point.

The target audience is in a number of verticals, including financial services, high tech and retail. Decision makers can reside in a number of departments, including sales, marketing, IT and security.

The company saw a lot of opportunity for alignment between not only sales and marketing, but territories and accounts; and marketing and outbound prospecting, says Lauren Mead, CMO.

The company considered which accounts had the most value, and the most opportunity. The account segmentation approach was broken down into the total addressable market (anyone with a scheduling need), target “one to many” accounts (10,000 accounts), and 400 priority accounts, that required one-to-one attention.

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The priority accounts received the most attention, with outbound email, inbound marketing, communication with business development reps (BDRs), targeted display ads, paid search, direct mail, account specific campaigns, industry specific advertising, and engagement at trade shows and events.

Target accounts were engaged via email, inbound marketing, targeted display, paid search, industry specific campaigns and events, while outreach to the total addressable market was limited to inbound efforts and paid search.

Sales goals were looked at by quarter and then pipeline goals were set, says Corkery. TimeTrade considered the average sales price, as well as the number of sales accepted opportunities, set meetings, marketing qualified leads (MQL) and marketing qualified inquiries when gauging the success of the ABM efforts.

Inquiries were scored until they reached a certain level and converted into an MQL, and then a sales accepted opportunity. Numbers were reviewed monthly and shared with the sales team.

“If we hadn’t measured every single handoff point, we wouldn’t have known why things were decreasing or increasing,” he says. ‘We had great data and knew exactly when we were pushing through at the right velocity.”

“BANT” was considered when qualifying leads, says Mead:

Budget: Can they afford the product/service?
Authority: Is this contact the decision maker?
Need: What is their pain point? Is the product/service necessary?
Timing: In what timeframe will the solution be implemented?

Results of the ABM initiative included improves sales and marketing alignment; increased sales and BDR persona knowledge; improved overall funnel conversion rate; a 70 percent decrease in cost per opportunity; a 20 percent conversion rate on priority rate accounts; and pipeline growth.

The post ABM Helps TimeTrade Improve Marketing ROI appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Video an incredibly powerful tool for B2B businesses. YouTube has approximately 2 billion monthly active users. Aberdeen Group reports that video marketers generate 66% more qualified leads than marketers who don’t use video. And according to Wyzowl, 83% of marketers say that video gives them a significant ROI.

But it isn’t enough to simply create videos. You need to create videos that will make your brand stand out from the crowd. Here’s five ways to make that happen.

Using Video to Personalize ABM

Creating customized or personalized videos as part of an account based marketing campaign can be incredibly effective to help generate leads and land new customers. This is especially the case when you create a one-off video for a target company or individual.

For example, let’s say that you sell IP detection software for businesses. You could create a personalized video for a prospect, walking them through an initial analysis you’ve done on the company’s actual website traffic, with tips for how to respond to different types of site visitors based on the behavior displayed.

Shooting videos that are specifically directed at a company or person is a powerful way to grab their attention and get them to engage with you. It’s also an effective way to differentiate yourself and your brand from competitors.

To hear more B2B marketing tips from Tom Shapiro, join us at LeadsCon’s Connect to Convert 2019 in Boston, Sept. 25-27

Increasing LinkedIn Engagement

Like most social media platforms, LinkedIn has been giving more exposure to videos of late. Additionally, 84% of marketers who have created videos for LinkedIn have found the channel to be a highly effective strategy for generating results. This presents a unique opportunity for marketers.

Sharing videos is one of the most effective ways to cut through all the noise on LinkedIn. Dave Gerhardt, VP of marketing at Drift, is a great example. Typically, he will generate hundreds or thousands of engagement events for a single LinkedIn video. For our clients here at Stratabeat, we notice 3X – 5X engagement on social posts featuring video.

Highlighting Customer Stories

We all know that social proof is critical when it comes to building your brand and landing new clients. Getting clients to tell their stories is one of the most powerful forms of social proof your brand can deliver, especially when it’s on film.

But get creative when getting your clients to tell their story. Don’t simply have a talking head giving a simple testimonial.

HubSpot created an outstanding customer success story around their work for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They crafted a highly engaging success story, featuring a rock soundtrack in the background, MTV-style quick-changing shots, brief interviews, lots of zooming in and out, etc. The result is powerful and compelling.

Another example is a Slack and Sandwich Video collaboration that highlights the power of Slack. The video is presented as a story, with many funny cuts to employees providing their commentary. Not only is the video enjoyable to watch, but it also shows why Slack is such an effective tool for businesses. And with more than 1.1 million views, the video has generated a good amount of visibility and social proof for Slack.

Leveraging Influencers

B2B businesses are increasingly seeing the value of working with influencers, but it’s still new enough in the B2B space that it may enable you to jump ahead of your competitors. A good example of a B2B business using video and influencers is the robotics company Kuka. In an effort to promote a new product launch, Kuka lent the popular robotics influencer Simone Giertz the company’s new industrial robot arm. With it, Giertz created a hilarious video in which she programs the robotic arm to help her write 2,000 holiday cards.

Was it worth it? The creative video garnered over 1.4 million views, more than 11X higher than any videos published by Kuka itself.

Showcasing Your Personality

Video is also a highly effective way to turn something mundane, such as an out of office message, into something truly magical. Andy Freed of Virtual, Inc. created an epic, 27-minute video to tell people that he was out of the office and would return soon.

Not only does this highlight Virtual’s creativity, but it shows off the brand in a way that is entertaining and fun. It shows that the company can take even the most mundane things and turn them into something magical.

On top of this, videos like the one created by Virtual also have the potential to go viral, which will give even more exposure to the brand.

Tom Shapiro is CEO of Stratabeat.

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The post 5 Ideas for Innovative B2B Video Marketing appeared first on Chief Marketer.

According to the 2018 ABM Benchmark Study by ITSMA and the ABM Leadership Alliance, 99 percent of marketers that are doing ABM achieve a greater ROI from their account based marketing programs than all other types of marketing.

FlipMyFunnel reports that companies using ABM generate 208 percent more revenue from their marketing efforts compared to those that don’t. SiriusDecisions writes that 91 percent of marketers that use ABM are seeing a larger average deal size, with the increase in deal size over 50% for a quarter of respondents.

Account based marketing has proven to be so reliable a marketing vehicle that the majority of B2B marketers are planning on increasing their investments over prior levels. According to DemandGen Report’s 2018 State of Account-Based Marketing, 60 percent of respondents were committed to investing more or “significantly more” in following the survey.

Here’s four ABM trends to watch in the second half of 2019.

Deeper Personalization

Expect far more granular personalization in ABM moving forward. Although targeting and customization is at the heart of ABM programs, many companies are still targeting at the industry or account level. The majority of ABM marketers (65 percent) believe that their personalization efforts are merely average or below average, according to Evergage, revealing a major area of ABM that is underutilized.

Personalization does not necessarily need to be at the individual stakeholder level, either. Beyond account-based customization, you can conduct “One-to-Few” ABM, where you keep the bulk of the approach (say, 80 percent) the same, while customizing 20 percent per target.

Hear more from Tom Shapiro at LeadsCon’s Connect to Convert 2019 in Boston, September 25-27.

ABM marketers will be deepening their sophistication in both one-to-few and one-to-one ABM strategies in the coming year. In fact, an eye-opening 97 percent of the 300 B2B marketers surveyed in the Evergage report plan to maintain or increase their personalization budgets in 2019. Expect marketers to be personalizing just about everything in the future, from their websites to content, email, direct mail, ads, etc.

ABM Goes Beyond Sales and Marketing

Traditionally, ABM has been the domain of sales and marketing, and to that end, alignment between the two departments is one of the most critical factors in driving ABM success. That makes sense, given that these are the main entities responsible for securing the right prospects, engaging effectively, nurturing and generating revenue.

However, limiting ABM to sales and marketing is a narrow view of the opportunities that ABM potentially delivers. By being more inclusive and collaborative across the company, you’ll be in a position to generate even greater returns from your ABM efforts. Instead of seeing ABM as just a targeting strategy, a company should see it as a way of life.

How can the CEO, CTO and other c-suite executives help you make inroads at VIP accounts?

How can those in product development weigh in and add value? What type of custom demos could be made available?

What prior experience has professional services and customer support had at any accounts where you’re looking to grow horizontally, or at past accounts that you are targeting anew?

Outside of your own company, are there any critical partners that should be involved in a more collaborative approach for any of your target accounts?

Look more holistically within, and you’re bound to identify new opportunities for customization for your target ABM accounts and deepen your differentiation.

More Automation at Scale

There’s been a great deal of hype with ABM over the past few years, but the best is yet to come. Expect a great deal of innovation in scaling automation moving forward. Think the Internet circa 2000. We’re in a similar spot at this time with ABM—we haven’t even scratched the surface of business possibilities with the new marketing discipline.

Software packages have been introduced in the past year for the first time focusing on the automation of ABM activities. For example, tools that enable B2B marketers to automate multi-channel actions in response to engagement, or alternatively in response to a lack of activity. The new automation capabilities enable B2B marketers to take action across multiple channels based on real-time triggers.

Greater Adoption Among Smaller B2B Companies

Now companies of all sizes are dipping their toes in the account based marketing waters.

According to the 2017 Marketo ABM Benchmark Survey, merely 33% of B2B SMBs are conducting ABM. Having seen the success of larger organizations with account basedmarketing, it’s only natural that adoption will rise among SMBs in the coming years.

The tactic is actually well suited to SMBs, in that it’s a more efficient form of marketing than advertising or inbound marketing. Plus, you can engage directly with your most highly-valued prospective accounts, and you can hear directly from your audience and learn exactly what’s on their minds. In addition, marketing and sales are directly aligned, and the ROI is easy to measure.

Tom Shapiro is CEO of the B2B branding and marketing firm Stratabeat.

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The post ABM: Four Trends to Watch appeared first on Chief Marketer.

One marketer recently implemented an ABM strategy, and was excited to present the results to his board. While preparing the report, he notice something alarming: Not only had the company’s website traffic decreased, it had plummeted.

This was when he noticed something alarming. Not only had the company’s website traffic decreased; it had all but plummeted. He started to feel panic, until he realized what was actually happening.

No offense to anyone who loves showing site stats to execs to showcase who is visiting their web presence, but website traffic can sometimes be a false positive metric. It makes you feel good, but doesn’t really give any valuable insight.

Let’s say your company just put out several press releases about leadership hirings and a bunch of partnership announcements. This is all great, positive news—but it doesn’t really have anything to do with your customers. These announcements might generate a bit of buzz and get more eyeballs to your website, but are these really the people you want to attract?

Back to our panicking marketer. After getting past their initial alarm, he and his team dug into the issue deeper and found some enlightening discoveries. For starters, they found that 70 percent of the traffic they had been getting prior to starting the ABM program was coming from non-target accounts. This means they never would’ve wanted, or had much success with, 70 percent of the people visiting their website.

Then after engaging in their ABM strategy for six months, their traffic was steadily decreasing. But, at this point, 70 percent of the traffic they were getting was actually from their target accounts. This unleashed a whole new world of depth, proper fit and customer possibilities.

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When you start evaluating traditional metrics, like site traffic, and questioning their worth, it’s going to feel weird. It’s going to feel counterintuitive and you might run into a few situations where you’re seeing numbers that seem really scary. But this is a natural part of the progression that’s taking place in marketing today—and it’s a very necessary step.

As an industry, we’re finally moving on from placing a premium on vanity metrics, like site traffic and lead volume, to measuring whether we’re targeting (and reaching) the right people at the right companies with the right messaging. That’s huge. It’s causing us to fundamentally challenge the status quo, and improve as marketers, and that is exciting.

So the next time you see your site traffic decrease, or your lead volume go down, ask yourself why this is happening. It could be for a negative reason, or it could be because you’re finally targeting and attracting the people who are most likely—and best suited—to become your customers.

As fiction writer Ray Davis once said, “Status quos are made to be broken.” This  is never more true than in the fast-moving, ever-evolving world of marketing.

Sangram Vajre is co-founder of Terminus.

The post Why A Decrease in Website Traffic Might Be a Good Thing appeared first on Chief Marketer.

A key part of Zerto’s ABM strategy is working to better coordinate marketing activities with sales goals, says Fara Hain, vice president, corporate marketing for the disaster data recovery software provider. “For example, if we know sales has an account with a cloud migration project underway and they are concerned about data loss, we can align to that.”

“When we do quarterly planning, I don’t plan campaigns independent of-other teams—we incorporate ABM into overall marketing process,” says Simone Van Cleve, senior demand gen manager at Puppet. “We want to make sure we’re aligned and delivering the same message.”

The decision makers Zerto needs to reach typically fall into two categories, says Hain. There are the vice president or IT director types, who are concerned with the overall viability of the organization, and then there are the storage or back-up administrators, who are “in the weeds,” making sure data is secure.

In conjunction with the sales team, Zerto started an ABM pilot program in June 2017. It began by getting account development reps (ADRs) assigned to the project, and then working with nine sales reps (eight in the US and one in the UK). Each provided five accounts, and the ADRs worked to map those accounts and uncover their customer interests. Marketing campaigns were built out of that information.

Starting with a pilot program is an excellent way to introduce ABM into your organization, adds Marc Stewart, B2B supervisor at digital marketing agency PMG. “If you want to execute an ABM strategy, start with a small budget or list. Crawl to walk is a better approach [than rushing].”

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Today, all reps at Zerto in the US and the UK have 25 targeted accounts, for a total of 1,800. In 2019, the company plans to kick off ABM in other regions.

“Our goal is to get into big accounts with smaller purchases,” says Hain, who spoke at LeadsCon’s Connect to Convert. “Typically, people try to protect critical applications first and then expand. We want to try and do that at scale, to increase sale sizes.”

The results so far are promising: ABM isn’t yet attributed directly to a big number of closed sales, but there are good signals. At least one meeting has been booked in 30 percent of all targeted accounts.

Driving Success with ABM

Seventy-seven percent of B2B marketers believe ABM has driven greater success for their target accounts, according to a new benchmark report from ITSMA and Demandbase. Respondents reported that their ABM programs now account for 28 percent of their overall marketing budget. Forty-five percent of respondents with less than three years of ABM experience in their organizations are seeing at least double the ROI from ABM, as compared to other tactics. Those with three or more years of ABM under their belts report ABM’s performance is 80 percent higher.

Challenges to getting started in ABM included getting the data and reports needed to track results (35 percent), tailoring content for key contacts in accounts (34 percent), developing assets that can be customized at scale (30 percent), budget (30 percent), and educating sales on the value and process of ABM (26 percent).

Design software automation tool provider Puppet’s target audience is similar to Zerto’s, in that they market to both IT decision makers like CIOs, CTOs and IT directors, as well as end users on dev teams who are directly responsible for maintaining infrastructure, notes Simone Van Cleve, senior demand gen manager at Puppet.

Working with PMG, the company launched its ABM program about 2 years ago. The company wanted to work with sales to deliver more leads and adapt to changing B2B buying patterns to increase account penetration.

So far, Puppet has seen a 20 percent increase in leads from target accounts, with an 11 percent increase in average deal size across the board. This can be attributed to ABM because the targeted accounts represent larger opportunities, and the strategy is leading to more efficiency in the sales pipeline.

The post ABM Success Hinges on Sales and Marketing Alignment appeared first on Chief Marketer.

An ABM approach fueled by targeted content is helping software firm CentralSquare Technologies reach customers and new prospects.

CentralSquare is a tech company focused on the public sector, with two major lines of business. One offers solutions related to public safety, targeting buyers such as police and fire chiefs, and the administrators of 911 centers. The other solution helps cities and towns manage administrative needs such as tax collection, with a focus on those who manage day-to-day functions, such as city managers and CIOs.

The company was formed in September through the merger of four businesses—Superion, TriTech Software Systems, Aptean and Zuercher Technologies— and serves over 7,500 public sector agencies.

In business-to-business—and business-to-government—marketing, marketers often have a long buyer awareness journey, says Jatin Atre, CMO at CentralSquare. For the public sector, purchases such as CentralSquare’s software can be literally life or death.

“It’s not an impulse buy,” Atre says. “It’s a much more cognitively deeper buy. If the systems don’t work, there is an impact on [the customer’s] ability to provide mission critical services.”

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The backbone of CentralSquare’s marketing strategy is a combination of digital marketing and telenurturing to help educate prospects about the company’s solutions. Video is also a powerful tool for the company to help tell its story.

Particularly at the end of the year, account based marketing helps the company move target accounts through the pipeline, Atre notes, adding that creating the right content for the right prospect at the right time is often a major concern.

“With ABM, the challenge is how to generate content at scale that is tailor-made for that account,” he says. “If you have 400 accounts that are important to you, how do you generate a regular cadence of content for those accounts? [Distributing] content is no longer an issue, but we need to customize content for [targets] at scale.”

Content creation needs to be a joint effort between sales and marketing to create content that can be personalized for a variety of accounts. In the case of CentralSquare, this means cities and towns of various sizes and demographic profiles. This sort of differentiated content is vital to help brands stand out in one of the most important channels for many B2B marketers, email.

“You can’t loose sight of the fact that there are [a lot of other] emails in the inbox,” Atre says, noting marketers can’t risk making their email volume too infrequent. “If you can’t generate relevant content quickly, you’re going to lose their interest.”

The post Targeted Content Helps CentralSquare Reach Public Sector appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Only 38 percent of marketers surveyed said account based marketing (ABM) is part of their go-to-market strategies, according to a new report from Dun & Bradstreet. This could be because of the lack of confidence in their data: 88 percent of respondents said quality data is crucial for ABM success. A meager 6 percent of marketers not currently executing ABM strategies said they planned to begin within the next six months.

For those who were implementing ABM, email was the top tactic in their toolbox, used by 85 percent, followed by one-to-one meetings (76 percent), social engagement (66 percent), personalized content (60 percent) and workshops or private events (57 percent).

Alignment with sales was the top factor cited for ABM success (49 percent). Also ranking high were the ability to identify top accounts (46 percent), ability to measure success (46 percent), budget and people/resources (38 percent each).

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“B2B companies are currently at a crossroads,” says Josh Mueller, global head of marketing for Dun & Bradstreet. “They overwhelmingly understand the value of data to their organizations, but have not yet figured out how to collect, integrate and apply that data in insightful ways to help make business decisions.”

Eighty-nine percent of respondents said data quality is increasingly important to their sales and marketing organizations, up from 80 percent in 2017 and 75 percent in 2016.

The annual B2B Marketing Data Report surveyed 250 B2B sales and marketing professionals at the director level or above. Only a third of respondents said they felt confident in their attribution capabilities, from initial outreach to a closed sale.

While many B2B marketers have made significant investments in CRM, nearly 40 percent of respondents said they still feel like beginners when it comes to successfully integrating data with those systems.

Over 90 percent of respondents cited difficulties in aligning sales and marketing data about prospect companies and contacts in multichannel campaigns.

The post B2B Marketers Lack Confidence in Data: D&B appeared first on Chief Marketer.