Account-Based Marketing | Here to Stay?
Growth hacking, micro moments, conversation marketing; all content marketing buzz words that have been buzzing around this year. In fact Contently have put together a list of some of the worst! Is account-based marketing (ABM) a concept that will stick and be adopted by SMEs, or is it likely to be forgotten by 2017?
What is Account-based Marketing?
Often used by B2B firms, account-based marketing brings together sales and marketing focus to a clearly defined set of target accounts. Instead of casting the net wide open and trying to appeal to as my companies as possible ABM is about working in detail on a small number of core clients.
So if you image the traditional sales funnel, built very wide at the top to attract as many prospects as possible and then narrowing to filter through the process. This technique is out with account-based marketing, and instead marketers will cherry pick the brands and organisations that make the most sense to them. Building a relationship and a strategy to work with these organisations means those accounts are getting dedicated time and resource, and also that campaigns and strategies are particularly personalised.
Why Now?
This chart from eMarketer shows that the majority of firms are considering incorporating an account-based marketing approach. The fact is that the idea has been around for years, whether labelled with this title or not. It is the advance in technology that has allowed marketers to identify these core accounts more easily and accurately in recent years.
What are the Benefits?
Clear ROI – Marketo point out that compared to other marketing initiatives, the 2014 ITSMA Account-Based Marketing Survey...
Being Sustainable | How Big Brands Are Learning From SMEs
The Charted Institute of Marketing have brought together some really nice examples of how, for big business, learning from SMEs might be very effective advice.
Many creative ideas, viral marketing and innovative campaigns have started life small, and having the ability and flexibility to be truly innovative and creative is often a trait of young and small business. Being nimble, pioneering and sustainable are other characteristics of entrepreneurial small business – and particularly qualities big businesses could do with learning from SMEs.
In the CIM’s special ‘Marketing Sustainability’ report they spoke to three thriving SMEs who have made sustainability one of their key focuses. By being sustainable they have found new marketing opportunities and new business. Here are the three SMEs the report featured.
Wyke Farm
About: Wyke Farm is muti-award winning producer of cheese and butter.
How they’re sustainable: The business is building a renowned reputation for pioneering practices, such as all energy in production coming from solar and biogas. This SME also encourages workers to continually develop sustainable innovations.
What they say: Richard Clothier, managing director said: “A lot of corporates that I speak to, particularly efficient ones that are good at lean manufacturing models, struggle with the concept of sustainability. There is often a myth that it will cost more or complicate the business. But SMEs like ours show that if you develop things incrementally, if you’re authentic and are prepared to invest in a sustainable model, you can grow the business and make it more appealing to customers.”
“The reality is that when you adapt the marketing strategy so that sustainability is at its core, the net positive impact becomes more apparent. It can actually yield savings and efficiencies that you would never achieve using a lean manufacturing strategy alone.”
Falcon Coffees
About: Flacon Coffees...
Keep Going with Amazon Go!
Amazon Go is set to launch in Seattle in early 2017 and could be the next step in revolutionising the way we shop in-store.
E-commerce and online shopping is developing almost daily, but our physical, high-street shopping experiences have been becoming more digitalized over the years too. Self-service checkouts, digital catalogues and more recently the introduction of augmented reality for some retail brands is changing the way we shop.
In what could be the next significant move for shoppers Amazon Go is a new kind of shop, that offers a new kind of experience. Walk into the shop and scan your phone (something like entering the tube) put your phone away and simply shop as normal, picking up what you want. The best bit is though, that you can simply walk out, now queuing, no checkouts!
How Does Amazon Go Work?
Amazon describe their ‘Just Walk Out’ technology to be similar to that of self-driving cars, using “computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning.” More specific information hasn’t been confirmed but it’s likely that cameras, sensors and artificial intelligence will work together to create the shopping experience of the future. But really as a user all you know need to do is have an Amazon account, which will be charged for what you take from the store shortly after you leave.
The first store in the US will be a grocery store where shoppers can quickly pick up ‘on the go’ snacks or do a bigger shop if they wish.
Amazon Go will of course give Amazon even more customer data about how...
Creating a More Sophisticated Retargeting Campaign
Retargeting should now be familiar to most of us as web surfers and consumers. It’s the practice of marketing to people who have already visited your site once. The perceived benefit of this being that you’re marketing to a more targeted audience – people who’ve visited your site before. Well yes, but a very simple campaign like this might not cut it in today’s modern digital world.
It is easy for the wrong people to receive your marketing messages as multiple people may use one device or those who visit a website once may have no interest in ever doing so again, and may never have converted anyway. So this puts into question actually how targeted you can be. These messages can also be annoying for consumers, particularly if they’re not relevant.
So, how can small business owners and marketers make the most of retargeting so as not to pester consumers but also be more relevant and targeted?
Be Cleaver with Data
Consider a more joined-up approach to collecting data and insight about your consumers and their behaviour. Having a central pool of data that comes from multiple sources and all of your channels will allow you to be more specific about who you retarget and why. You’ll no longer be retargeting based on one simple action (such as visiting your site once) but on information and insight that has more depth.
Consider a DMP to help with Retargeting
A Data Managment Platform will allow you combine your customer data and third party data to learn more about your target audience and therefore retarget more effectively and efficiently. A DMP will help minimise the waste retargeting can often cause. For example if an 80 year old lady looks at football boots online it’s likely it’s a mistake or...
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