Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Show Episode 71: ABM case study: 76% reply rate and 6 opportunities on a $300 budget with Andrei Zinkevich and Vladimir Blagojević
Nov 13, 2021
01:04:53
Sign up to all live workshops and podcasts here: https://lu.ma/fullfunnel
Tune in to learn:
— The lowest hanging fruit to build an effective account list for a pilot campaign
— How to validate your message before the outreach
— Why do most B2B companies suck with warm-up programs
— How to personalize your pitch
— Overview of campaign materials
RESOURCES:
Video & slides: https://youtu.be/6bliQXAhtxA
On-Demand B2B Marketing Courses: https://fullfunnel.io/b2b-marketing-c
Full-Funnel Insider - A Marketing Newsletter For B2B Marketers: https://fullfunnel.io/marketing-newsl
Join our community for B2B marketers - The Trenches: https://sendfox.com/trenches
Upcoming events: https://lu.ma/fullfunnel/events
Full-Funnel Marketing Content Hub: https://fullfunnel.io/blog
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Here is a breakdown of a simple ABM campaign that generated 6 sales opportunities, 2 deals and helped to validate the idea of launching my company Fullfunnel.io in September 2020.
But before we’ll dive in, here is the context.
Before launching our company, we partnered with Vladimir Blagojević on one project developing an ABM strategy for 30+ B2B tech companies from Belgium.
When we were running office hours, the majority of companies talked a lot about ABM, but their
understanding of ABM was limited to:
1. Create a list of companies that fit firmographic data
2. Identify decision-makers, find their LinkedIn profiles and emails
3. Upload the list to LinkedIn and run some product ads
4. Reach out via email and/or LinkedIn
To my biggest surprise, lots of B2B companies still think about account-based marketing that way.
We decided to launch a pilot campaign for 6 weeks with a $300 budget to validate if there will be demand for developing inhouse ABM operations.
Here is a step-by-step overview.
1. Ideal Customer Profile
Belgium B2B Tech (Hardware / SaaS) with ACV more than $50k, long sales cycle, execs background not in sales or marketing.
2. Warm-up by leveraging Content Networking (credits to James Carbary).
We invited our target buyers to appear as guests on our Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Podcast.
From the 21 accounts, we got a response from 16 (76%), and 9 accounts agreed to an interview (46%).
Our goals:
— Connect and discuss with strategic decision-makers the challenges they face in growing B2B tech companies + what works for them
— Create unique content we can use for LinkedIn and guest posts
— Share a new initiative and validate our idea by asking if a service like this makes sense to them and might be valuable
— Mention the case studies we have to create a demand
3. 1-1 Personalized Outreach.
The interviews allowed us to understand our target accounts’ priorities and challenges, identify the accounts that were a good fit with an existing need.
We decided to activate these accounts using a 1-1 personalized outreach via direct mail.
Our swag included:
— 100% personalized proposal with a clear plan on how to tackle their challenges
— QR code that redirects to a content hub with relevant case studies
— Personalized gift
4. Follow-up.
Most opportunities are created during follow-ups. We had a chance to explain our proposal, align it with their needs, get the team’s buy-in.
As well, we received direct qualitative feedback on our proposal.
I sat down with my co-founder Vladimir Blagojevic to share the behind-the-scenes of this campaign.
Tune in to learn:
— The lowest hanging fruit to build an effective account list for a pilot campaign
— How to validate your message before the outreach
— Why do most B2B companies suck with warm-up programs
— How to personalize your pitch
— Overview of campaign materials
Vladimir on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimirblagojevic/
Andrei on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azinkevich/
Tune in to learn:
— The lowest hanging fruit to build an effective account list for a pilot campaign
— How to validate your message before the outreach
— Why do most B2B companies suck with warm-up programs
— How to personalize your pitch
— Overview of campaign materials
RESOURCES:
Video & slides: https://youtu.be/6bliQXAhtxA
On-Demand B2B Marketing Courses: https://fullfunnel.io/b2b-marketing-c
Full-Funnel Insider - A Marketing Newsletter For B2B Marketers: https://fullfunnel.io/marketing-newsl
Join our community for B2B marketers - The Trenches: https://sendfox.com/trenches
Upcoming events: https://lu.ma/fullfunnel/events
Full-Funnel Marketing Content Hub: https://fullfunnel.io/blog
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a breakdown of a simple ABM campaign that generated 6 sales opportunities, 2 deals and helped to validate the idea of launching my company Fullfunnel.io in September 2020.
But before we’ll dive in, here is the context.
Before launching our company, we partnered with Vladimir Blagojević on one project developing an ABM strategy for 30+ B2B tech companies from Belgium.
When we were running office hours, the majority of companies talked a lot about ABM, but their
understanding of ABM was limited to:
1. Create a list of companies that fit firmographic data
2. Identify decision-makers, find their LinkedIn profiles and emails
3. Upload the list to LinkedIn and run some product ads
4. Reach out via email and/or LinkedIn
To my biggest surprise, lots of B2B companies still think about account-based marketing that way.
We decided to launch a pilot campaign for 6 weeks with a $300 budget to validate if there will be demand for developing inhouse ABM operations.
Here is a step-by-step overview.
1. Ideal Customer Profile
Belgium B2B Tech (Hardware / SaaS) with ACV more than $50k, long sales cycle, execs background not in sales or marketing.
2. Warm-up by leveraging Content Networking (credits to James Carbary).
We invited our target buyers to appear as guests on our Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Podcast.
From the 21 accounts, we got a response from 16 (76%), and 9 accounts agreed to an interview (46%).
Our goals:
— Connect and discuss with strategic decision-makers the challenges they face in growing B2B tech companies + what works for them
— Create unique content we can use for LinkedIn and guest posts
— Share a new initiative and validate our idea by asking if a service like this makes sense to them and might be valuable
— Mention the case studies we have to create a demand
3. 1-1 Personalized Outreach.
The interviews allowed us to understand our target accounts’ priorities and challenges, identify the accounts that were a good fit with an existing need.
We decided to activate these accounts using a 1-1 personalized outreach via direct mail.
Our swag included:
— 100% personalized proposal with a clear plan on how to tackle their challenges
— QR code that redirects to a content hub with relevant case studies
— Personalized gift
4. Follow-up.
Most opportunities are created during follow-ups. We had a chance to explain our proposal, align it with their needs, get the team’s buy-in.
As well, we received direct qualitative feedback on our proposal.
I sat down with my co-founder Vladimir Blagojevic to share the behind-the-scenes of this campaign.
Tune in to learn:
— The lowest hanging fruit to build an effective account list for a pilot campaign
— How to validate your message before the outreach
— Why do most B2B companies suck with warm-up programs
— How to personalize your pitch
— Overview of campaign materials
Vladimir on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimirblagojevic/
Andrei on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azinkevich/