In this ever-evolving marketing world, it is important to know whether you are effectively measuring your Account-Based Marketing (ABM) success. This essentially means evaluating whether you’re properly using your resources, targeting the right accounts, and ensuring your strategies are fruitful. It’s not just about having an ABM strategy; it’s about comprehending its effectiveness and adjusting your approach for continuous improvement.
The keystone to this understanding is having a firm grasp on the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These measurable values demonstrate how efficiently a company is achieving key business objectives. For ABM, these could include metrics such as targeted account engagement, generated revenue from targeted accounts, customer retention rates, or the lifetime value of customers. These are just a few examples, and the KPIs that are relevant for you may depend on your specific goals and strategy.
Effectively tracking these KPIs is as essential as selecting them. By keeping a pulse on these metrics, you can understand where you’re succeeding and where adjustments need to be made. You can determine which accounts are most responsive to your tactics, which marketing channels are proving most effective, and how to better align your sales and marketing efforts for maximum impact.
In this article, we will dive into the subject and take a look at the top five KPIs you should keep track of in Account-Based Marketing.
1. Engagement Rate
Engagement rate is a fundamental Key Performance Indicator that quantifies the level of interaction between your targeted accounts and the content you present to them. In essence, it shows how your audience is not just consuming but actively responding to your marketing content. This metric can be tracked across numerous channels, each providing its own unique insights.
Take social media, for example. Here, the engagement rate could include actions such as likes, shares, comments, and even the number of times a post is saved. If you launch a LinkedIn post about a new product feature targeting a specific account, and that post generates a high number of likes, shares, and comments from employees of the targeted company, you would consider this a high engagement rate. This indicates your content is sparking interest and possibly even conversations among your desired audience.
In email marketing, the engagement rate could be measured in terms of open rates, click-through rates, and responses to the email. For instance, if you send out a newsletter to your targeted accounts and a large percentage of recipients not only open the email but also click on the links embedded within the email or respond to your call-to-action, it signifies a robust engagement rate. This might mean that your email content is informative and appealing enough to compel the readers to engage further.
2. Account Coverage
Account coverage, as a metric, denotes the proportion of targeted accounts that have been reached or influenced by your marketing campaigns. In other words, it is the percentage of your total intended audience you’ve successfully connected with through your marketing initiatives. This metric is key in the realm of ABM as it offers a tangible measure of the capacity in which your marketing efforts are reaching your target market.
For instance, if you’ve identified a total of 100 companies for your ABM strategy, and you’ve managed to reach or engage with 80 of these companies through your marketing campaigns, your account coverage rate would be 80%. A high rate, such as this, is an encouraging sign. It suggests your marketing tactics, whether they involve social media advertising, email marketing, or content marketing, are successful in infiltrating your chosen market and reaching a significant majority of your targeted accounts.
3. Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate
The lead-to-customer conversion rate reflects the efficiency of your marketing and sales efforts in turning potential interest into actual sales. Unlike traditional marketing where the main focus might be on generating a high volume of leads, regardless of their quality or likelihood to convert, ABM prioritizes the generation of high-quality, highly-targeted leads. As such, the conversion rate becomes an even more crucial metric.
To illustrate, imagine that your ABM strategy targets 50 specific companies. From those targeted accounts, you generate leads from 30 companies, either through direct inquiries, content downloads, meeting requests, or other forms of engagement. Over time, ten of these leads eventually become customers, purchasing your product or service. This would give you a lead-to-customer conversion rate of approximately 33% (10 conversions out of 30 leads).
4. Sales Cycle Length
One of the primary advantages of ABM is that it can significantly shorten the sales cycle. By focusing your efforts on high-value targets, you can reach decision-makers more quickly, reducing the time it takes to close a deal. Therefore, tracking the length of your sales cycle can give you an idea of your ABM strategy’s success.
5. Influence on Revenue
Lastly, your ABM efforts should ultimately influence revenue. This metric is typically measured as Revenue Influenced by Marketing and involves calculating the total revenue generated from your targeted accounts compared to the overall company revenue. If the revenue from ABM-targeted accounts is growing, it’s a strong indicator that your ABM strategy is working effectively.
To summarize, effective Account-Based Marketing is all about focusing on the right targets and using data-driven strategies to engage those targets. And the path to successful ABM is paved with clear, measurable KPIs. Engagement rate, account coverage, lead-to-customer conversion rate, sales cycle length, and influence on revenue are key KPIs that every B2B marketer should keep track of. By doing so, they can evaluate and refine their strategies, thus enhancing their ABM efforts and driving substantial growth for their organization. If you need more information, you can always check out our Business Course that gives you all the tools to succeed in marketing and sales.
So, whether you’re just starting with Account-Based Marketing or looking to optimize your current strategy, remember to keep these KPIs in mind. With the right metrics in place, your journey to ABM success is sure to be a smooth one.
