Growing revenue is hard, especially for B2B startups that don’t have the brand awareness of industry giants. And it’s only getting harder as buyer committees get larger and budgets are condensed. Reaching your goals means marketing smarter — and part of being smarter is targeting the companies that align best with your ideal customer profile (ICP).
In other words, you need Account Based Marketing (ABM).
Starting now, Firebrand is thrilled to partner with the biggest name in ABM — Demandbase.
First things first, what is ABM?
ABM stands for account-based marketing. Instead of targeting an entire market, ABM targets stakeholders at specific accounts with a continuous stream of marketing and sales communication throughout the entire buyer journey. Forget about waiting until someone fills out a form and becomes a lead. ABM targets decision-makers at the companies that matter most, even if you don’t know their name or email address yet.
If it sounds like a more direct route to closed-won deals, you’re right. A whopping 97% of marketers say ABM delivers a higher return on investment (ROI) than other marketing strategies — making it especially strong when marketers are trying to accomplish more with less.
How does ABM fit in with your other marketing efforts?
ABM is a go-to-market motion focused on your target accounts. You need to agree on who those targets are in collaboration with your sales team. From there all your marketing efforts are developed with those accounts in mind, not every potential customer. So you can still continue with your inbound programs, just narrow them towards those target accounts.
With ABM, you can take your content one step further and tailor it. For example, you may create a short research report that focuses on one company’s exact needs, or design sales collateral that shows how your product fits into their exact use case.
On the paid side, you can go quite far with this strategy. In fact, there’s a name for it: Account-Based Advertising (ABA). Both Google Ads and LinkedIn have strong account-based capabilities. Most sophisticated startup ad programs already upload lists for matching and audience building. But they lack two other vital elements — intent data and website customization. Yes, you can buy in intent data and start personalization with a marketing automation platform. But there comes a point where you want to take that to the next level — and that’s where Demandbase comes in. Keep using Hubspot, keep the Google Ads and the LinkedIn campaigns, and level everything up with intent data and better customization.
What are the advantages of using an ABM platform?
We’ve talked about one already: stronger advertising campaigns. But the advantages of an ABM platform like Demandbase go far beyond that. Demandbase uses AI and machine learning to identify companies that match your ICP. From there, they can spot surges in intent and other trends so you can take advantage of new paid and organic opportunities.
Demandbase also has the power to give your website visitors a more personalized experience, one that can change based on who’s visiting. From copy to CTA buttons, images, and form fields, your website can meet specific high-value prospects exactly where they are in the buying journey.
And of course, the data tells the story in any marketing campaign, ABM or otherwise. With Demandbase, you can see engagement analytics for every target account all in one place, so you can make optimizations anytime you want.
Why did Firebrand partner with Demandbase?
Firebrand is passionate about creating marketing strategies from every angle and multiplying the impact of everything we do. Guiding our clients into ABM is a perfect way to do that. Many startups struggle with ABM because they don’t have detailed ICPs or the resources to create multi-touch content marketing strategies. Our partnership with Demandbase empowers us to get our clients ahead of that curve.
Demandbase is the dominant ABM platform, so they were the natural choice for our partnership. In fact, Demandbase is the only ABM platform with a separate ABA platform, so right from the start, we’re in a position to multiply our clients’ account-based efforts. Clients can start their ABM journey by using Demandbase’s intent-based ad platform, then progress to the full platform as they scale.
Plus, partnering with Demandbase puts Firebrand on the cutting edge of ABM. They are a treasure trove of knowledge, research, best practices, and more, and as one of their partners, we’ll be the first to know about it all.
We couldn’t be happier with the welcome we’ve received from Demandbase, and we look forward to working with them and our clients to achieve even greater things.
About the Author
Morgan McLintic is the founder of Firebrand. With over 25 years’ experience in the tech sector, he advises clients about their marketing and PR strategy. Prior to Firebrand, he was the founder of digital communications agency, LEWIS in the US, growing it to 250 staff and $35m revenue.
