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Human beings are social animals. Over thousands of years, we’ve developed gestures, languages, and tools to express ourselves to those around us. Our exceptional ability for communication has empowered us to exchange ideas like no other species on the planet. Given that this dialogue is at the heart of the human experience, it’s of little surprise that Conversational ABM is becoming an increasingly effective engagement technique for the modern-day marketer.
Conversational ABM is a marketing strategy that uses chatbots or live chat to engage actively with target accounts.
With real-time conversations, businesses can build strong relationships with their target audience and address specific needs. In addition, it creates a more human connection with prospects, leading to a higher likelihood of closing a deal.
And because 90% of prospects identify live messaging as their most favored channel of business communication, conversational ABM is a strategy worth considering.
As is the case with any ABM strategy, your first step should be to align marketing and sales through a collaborative identification of accounts.
The target list is usually determined by a few specific firmographic characteristics such as industry, revenue, and geography. Once generated, this list will dictate the tone and language of your messaging, content, and campaigns. So getting it right is pretty important.
Once you’ve created a fresh list of target accounts, the next step is to identify individual users at these target accounts to reach out to within this list. Maybe you want to target CXOs, or maybe managers, or maybe engineers, or maybe a combination of a variety of such roles.
Regardless, the optimal approach for each demographic will undoubtedly vary. Hence, it would make sense to segment this list of prospects further by customer life cycle, sales stage, pain points, and, most importantly, intent. Then the person in charge allocates this segmented list among Sales Development Representatives, who can work out distinct marketing strategies for their targets.
In an ABM approach, it is important to assign individual Sales Development Representatives to build a strong relationship with each prospect.
When assigning SDRs, always keep in mind to set strict ownership boundaries. It helps route the visitors to appropriate SDRs and eliminate any engagement overlaps.
Okay, now you know whom you’re contacting and why. Now it’s time to think about the approach for each prospect. This stage involves an intricate balancing act between personalization and scale.
Of course, every individual in every role across every company you’re targeting has their own unique preferences — but personalizing ads at that level isn’t feasible. Instead, customizing ads on a higher level — say, by role or industry, is the way to go. This entails running campaigns based on prospect-specific pain points, and value adds.
A CMO may care about marketing’s influence on revenue, while a marketing manager may be interested in improving workflow and automation. Your campaigns should resonate appropriately with all such use cases.
Your target list is ready, and your personalized ads are running. Now, the second a prospect from your list is on your website, your marketing + sales teams need to be conversation-ready.
The first step here is to make sure everyone has access to all the information they’ll need. It means all your CRM data, marketing automation data, and intent data should be consolidated, organized, and easily accessible. Once equipped with all relevant information about the visitor and their company, your SDR team is all set to engage with the prospect.
Personalization is the most important aspect of conversational ABM when a prospect is currently on your website.
Assuming your prospects love your ads and visit your website, they should be landing on a homepage that’s relevant to them. Any decent content management system (CMS) will be able to identify a contact when they land on your homepage and cater to the web flow in a manner that ensures a personalized experience.
A relevant landing page will definitely help direct prospects toward your product. But a lot of the time, this won’t be sufficient.
A target will stay on your website only for a few precious minutes, and it’s important to make the most of it. Sure, you could wait until they make their way to the demo form and submit their details — but Conversational ABM encourages marketers and SDRs to proactively reach out through a relevant live-chat message.
References to the contact’s role, the company’s signals, or a prominent pain point are all great ways to get the conversation going. This is the meat and potatoes of the Conversational ABM process. SDRs utilize target data to provide a genuine, relevant, and personal dialogue with their prospects to confirm a demo and push accounts through the funnel
Conversational ABM involves interacting and connecting with prospects around the clock. While thorough research and proactive interactions are valuable tactics, you may want to employ AI-powered bots to render the process air-tight. So when you do happen to get that one inbound demo at 4 in the morning, you can trust that your chatbots will be up to schedule that demo for you.
Oh, and another thing — conversational ABM doesn’t top conversations on your website. Linkedin is your friend when it comes to interacting with your target’s content posts. Feel free to leave likes, comments, and, if appropriate, connection requests with prospects.
And there we have it. When executed well, conversational ABM can be a valuable strategy to bolster your marketing efforts and improve conversions. Though it’s definitely a lot more effort than traditional marketing techniques, conversational ABM pays its dividends in the long run. Prospects form stronger associations with the product and are almost certainly more likely to convert from a distant target to a tight-knit customer.
Factors.ai enables easy integration with CRM platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce. This can help you generate a more effective ABM campaign. Signup for free or book a demo to start your Conversational ABM campaign today.
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