A Balancing Act: Demand Gen and ABM

In the marketing world, we know demand generation has its place. After all, demand generation helps brands successfully drive long-term engagement, acquisition, and engagement. However, the days of using demand gen by itself may have passed for some. It's time to elevate your strategy by converging your demand gen efforts with account-based marketing (ABM). 

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Across the marketing industry, organizations are implementing ABM and demand marketing efforts side by side. Currently, 30% of marketers have these initiatives broadly separate, 41% have them broadly aligned sharing a lot of people and processes, and tools, and 21% have them fully aligned. But all agree that the desired future state is to either have them broadly or fully aligned (Source: Forrester Research). Rethinking demand gen’s relationship with ABM will do wonders for your future marketing campaigns. 

Demand generation centers on casting a wide net over any and all leads - you never know what you’ll catch. We prefer a more targeted approach, one that’s coordinated and grabs exactly what you’re searching for. Incorporating ABM keeps your demand generation efforts in check, improving your strategy by creating a modern approach that centers on building connections with your top target accounts. Today, we want to help you move from demand generation centricity to a strategy blended with ABM. Let’s dive in. 

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Get Connected With Intent Data (No More Waste!)

At its core, intent data drives engagement, aggregating data from across the web and thoroughly documenting interactions your target accounts take. Intent data consists of first and third-party data, containing crucial information such as what topics your targets are researching and websites they visit, giving you clear insight into variables your target accounts are interested in using to solve their problems. With intent data, your strategy can swiftly progress to ensure you’re getting connected with exactly who is looking for you at the right time. 

Functional intent data relies on integrating various technologies directly into your process.

Use a comprehensive ABM toolkit to automate your marketing efforts to in-market accounts. There are also prioritization tools that categorize your target account list so you know exactly who to reach out to. These tools can be implemented within systems such as Bombora to source and enrich your data and be fully integrated into HubSpot and Salesforce to ensure your data is working for you. 

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ABM is Guided By Warmed Up Accounts

Demand generation holds a critical role in marketing. Teams use it in paid ads and organic searches. These key motions help warm up and target accounts that hold the most value to you and allow you to adjust messaging accordingly. Guided by ABM principles, marketing teams can then warm-up specific accounts, generating customized content that uniquely approaches each target account. It breaks from tradition to make sure buyers feel welcome in your process. 

The Marketing Warmup is guided by tools and tech to get content in front of your target in-market accounts, so they can know your brand. Ad reporting tools can help lead warm-ups by granting visibility into accounts that have 3 or more ad impressions. Once the data is integrated into your CRM, sales teams can prioritize outreach with desired accounts to continue building connections.

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Approach the Right Accounts

Warm touches with marketing are fine-tuned with each engagement, so when sales teams approach your targeted accounts, they’re already acquainted with your brand and products. Then, you can accelerate the sales cycle and customers will no longer feel like they’re wasting time before engaging with a potential solution. 

ABM also allows sales teams to focus on pipeline health, align goals, and closely monitor progress across the buyer journey. With targeted focus, sales teams can move faster than ever, to zero in on your 5% of attainable in-market accounts. When you focus on nurturing the accounts that are most likely to convert, you can realize that value firsthand quickly and easily.

Sales teams can leverage tools that automate direct mail sequences or maximize sales prospecting efficiency to automate the prospecting process and automatically add Salesforce contacts into sequences in Outreach.io.

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A Transformation

Converging demand gen with ABM is a transformation. It flips your marketing funnel on its head to shorten sales cycles and lead with a personal touch. When you converge your demand gen strategy with ABM, you’ll see up to 7X more opportunities and 5X more engagement. It’s time to accelerate and turn ABM into the primary driver of your growth engine. Remember, demand generation will act as an amplifier, enhancing ABM’s capabilities to make a lasting impact and connect you with your desired accounts.

If you’re ready to transform your approach and discover your attainable in-market accounts, book a demo with us today. 

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