Introduction
Account Based Marketing is a tactic for specifically targeting and engaging businesses that can generate a lot of sales for your company. Unlike traditional methods aimed at your classic targets, ABM focuses on attracting and retaining specific accounts. In sales prospecting, “key accounts” represent prospective companies.
LinkedIn is the platform par excellence for deploying an effective strategy, as it facilitates access to decision-makers in target companies thanks to its rich professional data and advanced targeting tools. It also enables you to provide tailor-made information, aligned with the specific needs and challenges of your target accounts.
LinkedIn is also an invaluable ally for measuring and fine-tuning your ABM strategy, providing you with performance indicators and insights that will help you optimize your actions.
This article will guide you through the steps to succeed with your ABM on LinkedIn :
- Understanding the importance of ABM and its effectiveness on LinkedIn
- Identifying the right companies
- Engage effectively with personalized content
- Defining the benefits of LinkedIn advertising for ABM
- Measure and continuously improve your ABM strategy on LinkedIn
Are you ready to improve your B2B marketing with ABM on LinkedIn? Follow our tips to make it happen!
Understanding ABM and its importance on LinkedIn
What is Account-Based Marketing (ABM)?
Account-Based Marketing refers to a targeted marketing tactic, aimed specifically at high-value accounts or companies rather than a broad, undifferentiated audience. This method focuses on attracting and retaining specific accounts, transforming the way we approach marketing.
By focusing on the accounts that are most important to your company, ABM enables you to personalize your messages and offers even further. As a result, your chances of conversion improve. This personalized approach strengthens the quality of the customer relationship and demonstrates a detailed understanding of the needs and challenges of your target accounts.
ABM is based on multiplying contact points for a single target company. Contacting decision-makers directly is not enough for these companies, which are often highly organized and of considerable size (over 500 employees). To maximize your chances of getting a meeting with the decision-maker, don’t neglect all the people around him.
Typically, we contact :
- Operational staff
- Les responsables / head of
- Directors
- The decision-maker
Why use LinkedIn for your ABM strategy?
LinkedIn is the ideal platform for deploying an effective ABM strategy. Thanks to advanced search tools like SalesNavigator, you can easily isolate the different Jobtitles that relate to the 4 categories mentioned above.
LinkedIn also encourages the creation of personalized content tailored to the specific needs of your prospects.
What’s more, LinkedIn is a valuable ally for measuring the effectiveness of your ABM, offering performance indicators and useful feedback for optimizing your actions.
Opting for LinkedIn as part of your ABM brings you considerable advantages:
- Access to a network of over 900 million professionals, 93 million of whom are decision-makers.
- Find your exact accounts based on criteria such as company name, size, sector, location, and more.
- Flexibility to create advertising campaigns aligned with your specific objectives, whether awareness, engagement or lead generation.
- Ability to analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns and adjust your techniques for optimal results.
Identify and target the right companies
Analyze your target market
Before starting your ABM campaign on LinkedIn, you need to define your ideal customer profile (ICP) – in other words, the type of business that would benefit most from what you have to offer, that would value your unique selling proposition and help achieve your business goals. When creating your KPI, consider criteria such as :
- The business sector
- Company size
- Sales figures
- Geographical location
- Needs and challenges
- Growth opportunities
Also examine your current customers to identify those who are the most profitable, satisfied and loyal. But don’t forget the all-too-often forgotten but essential factor: accessibility. Instead of wasting time on prospects that are almost impossible to sign. Gain notoriety by signing smaller customers. This will help you identify common features and specific problems that you can exploit to fine-tune your KPI.
Use LinkedIn’s targeting tools
Once you’ve defined your KPI, LinkedIn’s tools will help you identify and reach the right companies. LinkedIn makes it easy to target your accounts based on professional criteria such as :
- Company name
- Company size
- The business sector
- Location
- The position
- The skills
- Groups
- Etc.
You can also import lists of targeted companies from sources such as your CRM, prospects, partners or competitors, and LinkedIn will distribute your content to these companies. This option is only available to users of SalesNavigator Advance. Find out all about Linkedin subscriptions.
Create a list of target companies
Once you’ve exploited LinkedIn’s targeting tools, you’ll have a directory of potential companies to integrate into your ABM tactics. But it’s not just a matter of selecting all the companies that match your KPI. You need to assess the potential of each business, prioritizing it according to its level of interest, maturity and likelihood of conversion.
Here are a few ways to do so:
- Scoring, which evaluates companies according to their compliance with your KPI and their level of interaction.
- Grading, which ranks companies according to their revenue potential, sales cycle and acquisition cost.
- Fit, which measures how closely companies’ needs match your solutions.
Using these criteria, create your business directory and segment it into categories, such as strategic accounts, key accounts, and high-potential accounts. This will help you adjust your degree of personalization and budget for each segment.
Engage in dialogue with personalized content personalized prospecting messages thanks to AI
Creating content tailored to each company
For your ABM strategy on LinkedIn to bear fruit, it’s vital to develop content that responds precisely to the specific needs, challenges and objectives of each target company. The point is not to generalize your message, but to personalize it according to the unique characteristics and expectations of each individual. This requires in-depth knowledge of your audience, including their problems, motivations, obstacles and decision criteria.
You can enrich this knowledge from a variety of sources, including your CRM, sales interactions and market research. Here,A/B testing and, more generally, customer discovery are key.
It’s then crucial to adjust your posts and shares to each phase of the customer journey, taking into account each company’s level of maturity and interest. Your content must captivate, educate, convince and encourage action. In this case, it will be useful to use MirrorCRM to track your prospect’s progress towards becoming a lead.
To achieve this, we offer a range of formats: blog articles, infographics, white papers, webinars to increase awareness and credibility; case studies, testimonials, demonstrations, comparisons to generate commitment and trust; personalized offers, free trials, audits, quotes to stimulate conversion and loyalty.
Create content adapted to each type of person per company
Focusing on the company as a whole is only part of the equation. It is also essential to consider the different profiles involved in the decision-making process within each organization. A search on LinkedIn indicates the average participation of 6.8 decision-makers in a BtoB purchasing process.
This involves identifying the personas that play a key role in the purchase of your solution, and tailoring your shares to their specific requirements, roles and preferences. These personas include: the initiator, who perceives the need; the influencer, who guides choices; the decision-maker, who finalizes the purchase; and the user, who evaluates the solution on a daily basis.
For each of them, relevant, value-providing advertisements that explain the benefits of your solution and anticipate their reluctance are vital. The choice of format and delivery channel must also correspond to the persona’s consumption habits, including videos, podcasts, newsletters to attract attention; guides, checklists, how-to sheets to inform; invitations, forms, surveys to encourage interaction and feedback.
Maximize engagement by multiplying prospecting Linkedin accounts
To optimize your target audience’s involvement on LinkedIn, one effective method is to vary your points of contact and distribution channels. More than just publishing on your company page or via advertising campaigns, it’s about actively involving your employees, Mirrorprofiles accounts and partners to extend your reach and reinforce your credibility.
Techniques such as employee advocacy, encouraging your employees to share your posts on their LinkedIn profiles to reach their networks and build trust in your brand; influencer marketing, calling on experts and leaders to promote your information within their communities; and co-marketing, collaborating with complementary companies to create and share enriching information, are particularly effective.
But also, multiplying prospecting Linkedin accounts. Thanks to MirrorProfiles coupled with MirrorChat, your sales rep will be able to manage up to 5 Linkedin accounts. This will enable him to test 5 different approaches on 1 and the same prospect.
Using LinkedIn advertising for ABM
The different types of LinkedIn ads
LinkedIn offers a variety of advertising formats, ideal for supporting your ABM strategy. Depending on your objectives, budget and target audience, you can choose from these options:
- Text ads: Visible at the top or side of the LinkedIn home page, they direct traffic to your website or company page.
- Sponsored ads: Integrated into LinkedIn’s News Feed, they broadcast your shares (articles, videos, infographics) to your targeted audience.
- Sponsored InMails: Present in the LinkedIn messaging system, they allow you to send personalized messages directly to your prospects.
- Dynamic ads: Displayed on the right-hand side of the LinkedIn home page, they personalize your message according to the prospect’s profile (name, photo, company).
- Video ads: captivate your audience in the News Feed with short, memorable videos.
- Carousel ads: Present several products, services or testimonials in a single News Feed ad.
- Display ads: Visible on third-party LinkedIn partner sites, they extend your reach beyond the platform.
Create targeted advertising campaigns
To deploy effective advertising campaigns on LinkedIn, follow these steps:
- Access LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager, create an advertising account and define your campaign objective (awareness, consideration or conversion).
- Select the advertising format best suited to your objective, budget and audience.
- Identify your audience using LinkedIn criteria (company, sector, position, skills, etc.) or import your list using Account Targeting.
- Design your ad: punchy text, a relevant image or video, and a clear call to action.
- Set your budget and schedule, choosing the billing model (cost per click, per impression, per mailing) and campaign duration.
- Launch your campaign and monitor its performance via LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager.
Measure the success of your ads
To evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns on LinkedIn, refer to the following KPIs, available on Campaign Manager:
- Number of impressions: How many times your ad has been viewed.
- Number of clicks: How many times your ad has been clicked.
- Click-through rate (CTR): The ratio of clicks to impressions.
- Cost per click (CPC): The average cost of each click.
- Number of conversions: The number of desired actions carried out thanks to your ad.
- Conversion rate: The ratio of conversions to clicks.
- Cost per conversion: The average cost for each desired action performed.
- Return on investment (ROI): The profit generated in relation to the cost of the campaign.
These KPIs will enable you to precisely measure the impact of your LinkedIn ads and adjust your ABM strategy to maximize your results.
Measure and optimize your ABM strategy on LinkedIn
Use LinkedIn Analytics to track your performance
Take advantage of the platform’s analysis tools. These tools enable you to track the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your marketing and sales initiatives. LinkedIn Analytics is accessible from your company page, your advertising account or your personal profile, enabling you to gather valuable information such as :
- Your company page’s traffic, followers, engagement and recommendations.
- Impressions, clicks, conversions and leads obtained via your advertising campaigns.
- Views, reactions, comments and shares on your organic or sponsored posts.
- Login requests, messages, recommendations and skills validation on your personal profile.
- The profile and volume of visitors to your company page, campaigns and profile.
By analyzing this data, you can assess the effectiveness of your ABM strategy on LinkedIn and identify areas for improvement.
Techniques for optimizing your ABM strategy
To perfect your strategy, it’s essential to take action based on the results you’ve achieved. Here are a few techniques:
- Adjust your targeting based on interactions with your target accounts, discarding those that show no interest or are irrelevant.
- Tailor your shares to the needs and objectives of your target accounts, experimenting with different formats, messages and incentives to action.
- Strengthen your relationship with your target accounts by adding value, creating loyalty and encouraging them to become ambassadors.
- Work with your marketing and sales teams to ensure a coherent, complementary approach, while sharing successes and learnings.
- The use of Linkedin’s Smart Links can be a considerable asset if used properly.
The importance of A/B testing
A/B testing is crucial to optimizing your strategy. This method involves comparing two versions of a marketing action with a segment of your audience to measure its effectiveness. A/B testing helps you to :
- Detect the elements that most influence the performance of your actions, such as the title, image, content or call-to-action button.
- Choose the most effective option in terms of clicks, conversions, leads, and more.
- Refine your understanding of your audience by identifying their preferences and motivations.
To carry out A/B testing, follow these steps:
- Determine your objective and the performance indicator to be monitored.
- Create two versions of your action by modifying a single element.
- Distribute these versions to a representative sample of your audience, with the same budget and duration.
- Analyze the results and choose the best option.
- Apply the winning version to your entire audience.
Conclusion
Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a targeted method of attracting and engaging high-value companies or accounts, rather than expanding to a broad audience. LinkedIn is the ideal place to deploy your ABM strategy. This platform enables you to reach the decision-makers of your target companies directly, thanks to its wealth of professional data and advanced targeting capabilities.
LinkedIn also equips you to create customized, relevant content, specifically addressed to the needs and challenges of your target accounts. What’s more, LinkedIn is a valuable ally for evaluating and fine-tuning your ABM strategy, providing you with performance indicators and feedback.
To succeed with ABM on LinkedIn, be sure to follow these steps:
- Understand the importance of ABM and how to implement it on LinkedIn
- Identify and target appropriate companies
- Generate interaction with customized content
- Amplify your strategy with MirrorProfiles, a multi-prospector solution
- Support your method with Linkedin advertising
- Analyze and improve your approach on LinkedIn
Adopting these practices will enable you to strengthen your B2B marketing via ABM on LinkedIn, building long-lasting, beneficial relationships with your key accounts. Don’t delay – start your journey to ABM success on LinkedIn today!
