How Multi-Touch Attribution Analysis bridges the divide
With all of the fuss around account-based marketing (ABM), you might feel a little out of the loop if you haven’t given it a try yet. For most marketing organizations, account-based marketing will not replace inbound marketing efforts. With its high price tag and intensive content requirements, teams who try to make a hard switch from inbound to ABM are in for an unwelcome shock.
At AttributeApp, we have found that our customers are most successful when they continue their inbound marketing efforts and pepper in account-based efforts. Our argument is that these two disciplines need to work together, with insights from the marketing data stack acting as the bridge between two programs.
Capitalize on previous inbound marketing investments
With countless hours and money spent on your content marketing program and building your inbound engine, you’ve got the brand equity needed to create demand online. While account-based marketing doesn’t directly rely on that kind of search engine “pull”, you should still leverage your content marketing learnings to create the right “push” for ABM prospects.
- Use inbound efforts to test content
Since account-based marketing requires highly targeted content, use your inbound leads to evaluate how well your content is resonating with key personas. Write your content with a persona in mind, then look at the types of leads that are downloading the content to verify that you’re writing for the intended buyer. If you’re writing for VP’s but only get inbound leads from managers, consider that your content might need to “manage up” a little better.
- Uncover website behaviors that tip the scale toward conversion
Once you catch the attention of an ABM prospect with personalized, targeted advertising and content, your two goals are to get them on the phone with your sales team, and get them to browse your website to see the value that you provide. By using Multi-Touch Attribution Analysis, marketers can uncover the key website behaviors that drive buying behavior. Using Pardot, assign important web pages to different Pardot campaigns; this will tell you which page the prospect first landed on to start their session. Also, by using page actions you can add prospects to Salesforce campaigns when they hit important website pages.
All of these steps will allow tools such as AttributeApp to pick up on key website behaviors — showing you which pages are “tipping points” prior to purchase or conversion. The unique ability to customize your attribution model will enable you to focus on the campaigns that are added at the end of the lifecycle. Once you have identified the pages most indicative of buyer behavior, you’ll know exactly where to drive your ABM targets on the website.
- Figure out what content is part of the decision making process
Once an inbound lead has been created on your website and they begin talking to sales, pay close attention to what content they either request, or come back for. Maybe a lead was roped in by a high-level thought leadership piece, and later comes back to read case studies. Or, maybe there’s a video your sales team has been asking for because it helps answer all of the right questions for your buyer. All of this research performed on your inbound leads should help you find the right lifecycle to take your ABM buyers through. By using Multi-Touch Attribution Analysis, let’s say you notice that toward the middle of the sales cycle, you consistently get the CIO (a key stakeholder, but not the buyer) downloading some technical specs. Take this information and begin to proactively send him the information as part of your outbound cycle.
See the “Whole Account”
There are two very important factors in ABM that specifically relate to your database/CRM. First, you must have the ability to quickly and easily source the correct key contacts at the organizations you’re targeting. Consider investing in a software tool that helps you source the right prospects for your outbound ABM efforts. Tools such as data.com take the guesswork out of this part of the proess. Second, and more importantly, make sure you are using attribution reporting that allows you to see all activity on the entire account and how that relates to revenue growth. Many standard CRM reports and/or marketing automation tools fall short and only show you activities that pertain to contacts who are correctly added to opportunities. AttributeApp, instead, automatically allows you to look past this divide and include all account contacts. Ultimately, your ABM program will only get the funding it deserves relative to the success you prove. Make sure there are no reporting barriers in your way.
Don’t Forget the Human Touch
There are many ABM tools and platforms emerging to help solve the challenge of targeting key accounts — or better yet — the right people at these accounts. Don’t forget that you are still marketing to individuals that are part of a larger organization. Just like your inbound marketing and content programs, there’s a wealth of data about the sales touches your team is using. A well-timed phone call can go a long way beyond automated emails and targeted advertisements.
Use MTA analysis to evaluate not just the campaigns your targets are participating in, but also to see what types of sales interactions are moving the needle. Recently, AttributeApp began including sales tasks and activities in reports for just this purpose. Study your successful deals and make note of when sales and manual interaction played a key role in progressing a deal. Ensure your sales team are logging their activities for this to work well. MTA analysis is all about highlighting the key actions that led to success, and looking at them through various lenses to make sense of your process.
Whether you are trying to bridge the gap between inbound and outbound, sales and marketing, or automated touches with a human touch, MTA Analysis can show you how and where to invest time and dollars to maximize your results. If you have questions about how AttributeApp has helped others do this, contact our team today.