Account-Based Marketing (ABM) relies on two key resources – people and data for its success or failure. After people, what comes secondary is data and easy access to it. It is critical to have a structured data program in place to support your targeted marketing initiatives with data and insight. It is well said that it is all about understanding your customers in the ABM realm. Without understanding of customers, there is no ABM. Put it this way: if you are launching any kind of ABM campaigns, you need to know the qualities of your target customers. Without understanding your customers, there cannot be any level of personalisation.
This is why it is inherently crucial to implement an insight program – be it deep-dive or an elementary insight program to support your ABM campaigns with insight-led support. There are various methodologies you can go about installing an insight program: you can turn to third-party data providers or commission a research agency to do the hard work behind the insight program.
Implementing an Insight Program for ABM Campaigns
As mentioned earlier, to implement an insight program you need to cover the following:
- First-Party Data – analytics, CRM etc.
- Third-Party Data – third-party data providers or research agency
In this article, we will be covering the second part – Third-Party Data as this is what Business Brainz specialises in as research agency for ABM implementing organisations. You can go about implementing a third-party insight program through either hiring a research agency or signing up to a third-party data provider solution.
Third-Party Data Providers vs. Research Agencies
Research agencies possess years of experience in delivering insight, even in the particular industries that you may be looking at for your ABM campaign. They do not just offer generic insights, but tailored insights for your Account-Based Marketing campaigns, which could be gold dust for you as a manager of the campaign. All these points trump out third party data providers. Understand your requirements beforehand: for 1:1 ABM Campaigns, a research agency is highly recommended but for ‘lesser’ campaigns such as 1-to-Many ABM Campaigns, a third-party data provider may fit the bill.
Hence, the nature of the ABM campaign, the number of accounts you are targeting determines whether you should pick a third-party data provider or a research agency.
Why Research Agencies?
It might seem difficult at first hand to pick a research agency when you can just sign up to a third party data solution subscription. However, what you need to understand is customisation vs. generic insights for your ABM program. You need to understand that your ABM campaign needs to be supported not with generic insights, but with customised insights that go a long way in supporting your team with crafting compelling industry-specific messaging towards target audience.
How do Research Agencies go about implementing insight program?
Research agencies typically have a process that they go through to first understand your insight needs. You might say I want insights on this particular segment of the XYZ market – which you simply cannot do at a third party data provider solution. Here is a sample process that Business Brainz goes through to implement an insight program.
Concluding thoughts
An insight program is crucial and second only to people resources in the ABM realm of things. It is highly recommended that you go about first understanding the nature of your insight needs and then go from there. Simply signing up to a third party data subscription may not provide with you with the cutting edge advantage you need to truly make your campaign successful. Therefore, preparation is key and we have helped numerous ABM agencies/teams with insight needs in the past with their ABM strategy directly or indirectly.
If you seek insight support for your ABM campaigns – be it 1-to-Few, 1-to-Many or 1-to-One campaigns; reach out to us for your custom requirements.