MarketStar Blog

In a survey conducted by Demandbase, an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) company, as many as 80% of marketing executives said they believed that AI would revolutionize the marketing industry by 2020¹. AI applications are already transforming various aspects of marketing. Harnessing AI to power your ABM efforts can produce amazing results. The question is, how do you leverage AI in ABM? Here are four ways AI can help. 

If a customer is unhappy with your brand, it is very likely that they have not had a seamless experience during their interactions with the brand across multiple touch points and devices. A ‘unified customer journey’ approach holds immense potential for brands. Having a well-orchestrated omni-channel strategy will ensure that customer convenience is always treated as topmost priority.

The opening scene of Mission Impossible 2 featured Tom Cruise climbing a sheer mountain face, only to receive a mission embedded in a pair of sunglasses that activated after a retinal scan confirmed his identity. 

A well-structured and efficient onboarding program is the key to getting new recruits up to speed on their jobs. Such a program will determine the sales rep’s journey toward full productivity and is crucial for the organization’s revenue development and growth. On the other hand, poor or inefficient onboarding can result in high attrition costs and lead to the revolving door syndrome that plagues many organizations. 

When you think of social media marketing, the first name that comes to mind is Facebook, followed by Twitter and then the rest. But you also know that Facebook is relevant as a social tool to generate business when you are reaching out to your potential B2C customer base. 

So, what should you do when you have to reach out to your B2B audience and generate business leads, some of which may turn into revenue for you?  

According to new research by Forrester on Mastering Omni-Channel B2B Customer Engagement, 63% of B2B buyers are spending more time online in digital channels to search for services and solutions. The same report also shows that 65 percent of them are spending more on services that they’ve found through digital channels. The Forrester report further illustrates that for B2B sellers, 70 percent of their B2B revenues are being generated from digital and social media channels. 

That’s where LinkedIn comes in. In a recent Research Report, State of B2B Social Media Marketing 2016, we found that 89% of B2B marketers have rated LinkedIn to be the most effective social media channel for reaching out to prospective clients. LinkedIn is not just a place where you set up your professional profile for networking; you can use your LinkedIn page for greater good: lead generation for business. 

In a recent study of over 5,000 B2B businesses done by HubSpot, it was seen that LinkedIn is 277% more effective than Facebook and Twitter in converting business visitors to your site or page into effective business leads. Today we find that LinkedIn is a place where you can easily set up shop to reach out to potential clients and do business. 

Most B2B SaaS organizations experience two periods of intense activity in a customer lifecycle – when onboarding the customer, and just before the account’s annual renewal date. That approach is proving to be unsuccessful now with several businesses finding their churn rates increasing year over year.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are often ignored because of the small contract size and the difficulty of shifting an organization’s sales strategy to meet SMB needs. Unfortunately, if your organization is one of those that are ignoring the SMB market, you might be losing out on a serious amount of money.

Introduction

With thousands of new SMBs entering the market every day, they are pinning their success on technology like yours. However, technology brands tend to focus on what they know (enterprise sales), bypassing SMB prospects because they simply don’t know how to sell to them.

You don’t have to leave SMB revenue on the table. With the right approach and expertise, any company can boost its SMB sales and generate a substantial increase in revenue. 

Sales and marketing teams always struggle to penetrate and sell to enterprise decision-makers. Since the traditional methods of cold calling and carpet bombing rarely work in B2B marketing, reliance on account-based marketing (ABM) is increasing every day. Different companies use different tactics and channels to execute and measure ABM. Further, a standard ABM strategy may not work for all since the requirements are not the same. 

ROI is a cold, hard number that business executives can use to determine the profitability of an investment. As such, it’s one of the most important parameters that they take into account when considering the adoption of new solutions or services.