The idea of account-based marketing is that you target specific lists of either companies or individuals (depending on your target audience) and let them know exactly what help your professional service firm can offer them.   

By being more precise with your targeting you will give yourself the best chance of converting those contacts that you believe are going to be interested in what you can do. You do this by looking at key factors that you think will be best for you, this could include factors such as the size of the company, the industry that they fit into and their revenue.  

Account-based marketing can be hugely impactful, however, it does require time and resources to ensure that it works just as you want it to. So, if you are looking to try and make ABM (as I am going to call it) work for you, then here are some of the things that you can do to try and make it as easy as possible.   

Think about who your team will be  

To maximise ABM and get the results that you want to achieve, you are going to need to think carefully about who you want your team to be. Who is going to be at the forefront of your ABM efforts?   

Hopefully, you will have the right people, person or team for the job in your professional services firm, ready to jump in and get to work. They will then be able to put together a framework, allowing you to identify who it is that you are trying to reach and also consider the best ways that you can do this.  

Choose your professional service firm tech  

Technology plays a huge part in ABM. So much so that the technology that you choose can either make or break your efforts. You are going to want to ensure that the tech you select and utilise is going to be strong.  

You want it to streamline the process, you want it to present you with analytics that you can use to your advantage in the future, and you want it to help you understand the process of ABM and how you can communicate with your clients.   

Make sure that there is support and cooperation internally  

Whilst the marketing team (new or existing) is going to be a big driving force behind the success of your ABM, it has to be said that they will not be acting alone. To make sure that the message that you are trying to communicate is heard, you need to have buy-in from all the other departments too.   

The more support that you have, the better. After all, full engagement is what is going to bring you the best results.   

Set clear goals for the future of your professional service firm 

One of the best things for you to do when it comes to creating a strategy is to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve with your efforts. This means that you need to sit down and have a good think about what you may want for the future, and what might be the best way to go about achieving this.   

Not only should you think about how you are going to achieve those end goals, but you should also have a way to measure your progress. That way, you can look back and see just how far you have come over time.   

Think about the right channels  

As well as thinking about who you are going to reach, you also need to think about where it is going to be best to reach those personalised clients using ABM. This means identifying the right portal. You want to try and select a channel that is going to increase your chance of success, but one that is also best suited to you too.  

It can be hard to balance these two things, but, if you do, then you will be able to speak to and engage with as many clients as you can.    

Select your targets  

The next step is to create a list of clients that you are hoping are going to be a positive outcome from your ABM efforts. You need to carefully think about whether or not they are going to provide you with a return on your investment and if they will, over time, become a loyal client of yours.  

Your team needs to think about what is the criteria that they will be judging the appropriateness of the contacts, these will be the things that relate most to your professional services firm and the particular clients that you are looking for.   

Once you have your targeted accounts, you need to think about whether or not you have the contact information that you are going to need to make a complete database.  

Create an audience profile for your professional service firm  

Whilst you should always do your best to understand your audience and know what they are looking for, when you are trying to make ABM work, you need to have a sound understanding of your audience profile.

It is this profile that is going to help to identify who it is that you target and how you can make sure that the content that you use to attract those clients, is targeted the best that it can be. The more personalised you can make your audience profile, the better it will work for you in the long run.   

Think about how else ABM will be useful  

The main focus of ABM will always be to bring in new clients to your professional services firm, however, over time, it can prove to be even more useful than you would have thought. There are lots of ways that you utilise the information that you gain from ABM and this means that you can make sure that the time that you spend on it, will be worth it in the long run.  

In fact, in the future, you may even end up having a use for ABM that you didn’t even realise. Which means that it will be even more worthwhile to do and take the time out.   

Update your content  

As well as focusing on bringing the new clients in thanks to ABM, you also need to think about how to make sure that they are as interested as they can be in what you have to offer them. This means that you need to present content that is not only relevant to them and their needs but is also engaging and informative.   

This part of the process will take some work to get right, but once you have put together the brand-new content, you will be able to enjoy the brand-new clients that it has helped to generate for your professional services firm.   

Measure, measure, measure  

Once you have made the effort to try out ABM and see if it can work for you, you are going to want to make sure that it keeps working for you. This means that you have to consider how you can measure the performance of your campaign.   

There are lots of great tools out there that you can use to measure performance, you just need to figure out which one is going to be right for you.   

As you can see, there is a lot to think about when it comes to ABM, but one thing is for sure, ABM can be a great way to help your professional services firm succeed. You just need to take the steps to understand what it means and how you can make sure that it delivers you exactly what you are looking for. The success of your firm.    

Some of my services: 

Fractional Marketing Director and Interim Marketing

Outsourced Marketing Management

Need help?

If you would like help with your marketing then bringing on a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. I work with B2B businesses and professional service firms in London, Kent, UK and Europe as well as specialising as a Legal Marketing Consultant. Please get in touch or book a free 30-minute consultation.