How to Use Account Mapping to Build an Effective ABM Campaign

Account-based marketing (ABM) is changing the B2B marketing and sales world because of its effectiveness in reaching high quality target accounts – but it’s a difficult strategy to manage.

ABM has many moving parts that need to move as a synchronized whole to make your business successful.

Fortunately, like every aspect of marketing, strategic planning makes ABM easier.

Starting with your goals and working out a targeted plan is key to building an effective plan ABM campaign.

Here the steps for the practical implementation of the ABM mapping in your company are described and the correct process implemented to achieve this.

What is account mapping?

When assigning accounts, the accounts that are targeted in an ABM program are selected and organized.

After setting the goals, the next and probably most important step to ensure a successful ABM campaign is to select and assign the accounts.

Once accounts are selected and assigned, the sales and marketing team can develop their engagement strategy and ensure that both sides maximize their targeting.

Get started with account mapping

Account mapping is an account research and documentation exercise that is useful when targeting an account on your way to successful completion.

Here are the four main steps you need to take in account mapping:

1. Identify key decision-makers and influencing factors

After you’ve determined which accounts you want to target Account planningThe next step is to search the account to understand the organizational structure and how decisions are made. Starting with the top person in a functional area is an excellent place to start assigning functions.

The larger the account, the more difficult this task is because many large organizations work in a matrix environment in which the influence comes from many directions.

However, by obtaining these contacts and documenting their buyer role using HubSpot or an alternative recording system, you can track and manage information about each contact. This also improves your ability to create unique experiences as part of your ABM program.

It is important to consider buyer roles in the buying process, not a functional title.

Buyer roles to consider include:

• Decision makers
• Blocker
• Influencer
• Budget holder
• champion
• Law & compliance

Depending on the goods / services sold and the operational impact on the account, the roles may need to be expanded to meet the specific requirements of the account so that you can edit them or add new roles as needed.

Using tools such as LinkedIn or ZoomInfo can be helpful when searching for an account and the most important contacts within the account. Use of Purchase a role property in HubSpot is a great way to align your account information with the contacts within the account.

During your research, you may find that a contact has multiple roles, so you can assign them accordingly and assign multiple contacts to the same role.

2. Gather Intel and align content

Understanding the needs and vulnerabilities of an account is an important part of your ABM engagement strategy. Target relevant communications at every stage of the buyer’s journey, whether it’s content targeting or sales promotion.

While getting direct information through discovery calls is a great way to investigate account needs, you should use a variety of sources to gather as much information as you can to fill in any gaps.

Social listening, search intentions, press releases, and Google Alerts are great resources for leveraging information that can help you understand future account needs. Once these insights are well documented, they can be used to map marketing content and sales programs and to ensure that every interaction with the account makes sense.

3. Engage and learn

Develop a plan for how and when to activate the target account. Using a Playbook For both sales and marketing engagement plans, you can standardize your approach and identify points in the process that work well or areas that need improvement.

Depending on where the account is with the implementation of the ABM strategy within the sales cycle, the engagement approach can vary. Targeting with account-based advertising can be a great first step to warming up accounts when you start with cold accounts.

Many platforms can enable ABM advertising. However, use HubSpots Company list and be Integration of LinkedIn ads provides a seamless introduction to account-based advertising without leaving HubSpot.

4. Document how decisions are made

Throughout the research and documentation process, you have gathered data that is useful for both marketing and sales teams. If you want to advance the inclusion process, you will need to contact contacts within the account directly. Make sure you add value and use best practices to improve the quality of this interaction so that it is a seamless and valuable experience for the potential customer.

You collected account information during the planning process. Now is the time to implement these activities. Use LinkedIn or LinkedIn Sales Navigator to research the contact before contacting it. Using outreach activities to fill data and information gaps will help improve future interactions and engagements.

Of the things you need to learn, understanding who influences the buying decision is at the top of the list. It is also helpful to know how the company makes a purchase decision and how an order is placed. Make sure you capture these details effectively by recording information in your CRM under the business, company, and contact records.

Account mapping software

There is a long list of software applications that can help with account assignment. The good news is that a lot can be done with free tools, many of which are commonly used in both small and large sales and marketing organizations.

Below is a short list of free and premium tools, as well as a brief description to start with ABM mapping.

1. HubSpot

HubSpot is the centralized marketing platform that sales and marketing managers can use to run marketing campaigns. HubSpot offers a number of tools that can be used to maintain an ABM-centric campaign. This enables greater transparency between sales and marketing teams compared to different systems.

Costs: Freemium paid

2nd LinkedIn

The king of professional networking in a digital environment has become a dream tool for sales and marketing professionals. LinkedIn is a great free resource if you’re targeting specific accounts. In addition to general customer research, LinkedIn is also an excellent integration partner for three of them paid services, which can be invaluable to ABM.

• LinkedIn Ads
• Sales Navigator
• LinkedIn InMail

costs: Varies depending on the tool / service used.

3rd ZoomInfo

From prospecting to buyer intent, ZoomInfo is an excellent resource for finding and tracking companies that match your ideal customer profile (ICP). In addition to identifying the account, they offer a comprehensive line of products that provide deeper insight into the account, including organization charts. ZoomInfo is also a HubSpot integration partner that makes it easy to work seamlessly with the tool.

Costs: Free trial for premium

4th 6 sense

If you want to take action on the buyer’s intent, 6sense offers solutions that improve the transparency of the buyer’s intent using AI. It captures signals across a variety of channels and connects them to potential accounts.

When you enter the engagement phase of an ABM campaign, these tools offer the ultimate reach and scalability.

Costs: Paid (contact 6sense for pricing information)

ABM mapping can be an effective process to help sales and marketing teams navigate complex account structures. Although there are great tools that provide helpful insights, the mapping process is robust and mostly manual.

An important part of the planning process is to get your internal team to participate and properly assign team members who are part of the research and documentation process so that your organization has access to centralized information about your target accounts and contacts in them.

Paying off can be worth the work if you take the right steps while developing a focused one account-based marketing strategy.