Leveraging Account-Based Marketing? Think SEO

Account-Based Marketing or ABM is a strategy focused on business growth and involves the collaboration between marketing and sales teams to create personalized buying experiences for predefined target audiences.

They do so by developing a single message and using set platforms to connect with audiences. Although there are many lead-generation efforts that both teams can make on their own, with ABM, companies can get a better insight into their key prospects.

The thing is, ABM flawlessly accommodates short-term marketing objectives such as generating leads, but it is focused on boosting long-term revenues. No wonder 87% of marketers using ABM say it delivers higher ROI than any other marketing activity.

Why does SEO matter in ABM?

This might come across as news to you, but ABM and SEO are a powerful combination to work with. One involves specific targeting and messaging and the other involves taking your website to rank at the top of the search engine results.

In this day and age, consumers prefer personalized experiences with brands, and ABM and SEO together can work to create a powerful interaction with key accounts.

1. Dependency on web search

Look at it this way — you send the perfect email to your target audience. They read it, love it, and land on your website. After spending a little time navigating through the pages, they bounce off to decide whether or not they want to purchase from you.

A few days later, they discuss your offerings with, say, their business partner and want to show your site to them. But what if they search for you on Google only to see you not ranking on the first page. You might have driven them away to the competition! You cannot have a successful ABM strategy without SEO.

2. Creation of unique SEO experiences

To provide a personalized experience to your target audience, you need to offer them the right information at the right time. With a thorough keyword research strategy in place, you can determine their pain points and also shine a light on other things such as:

• Their basic needs through online search
• The way they search for information
• User intent — do they want to buy or are they “just looking”?
• What information they are seeking at each stage in their customer journey

While keyword research can be a tedious task, it is essential. If you don’t know how to do this yourself, seek help from an SEO professional to take over the task.

3. Measurement of marketing success

To determine the success of an ABM activity, the process is the same as SEO. To be sure of the audience behavior or targeted accounts, there are specific parameters to take note of:

• Channels they are coming from — email, social, search
• Whether or not they are clicking on the content — CTR, bounce rate
• How much time are they spending on a web page?
• The type of content they are viewing and engaging with

Moreover, you can create different landing pages for different buyer personas and use Google Tag Manager to track them. Basically — the more information you provide, the more tailored experiences you can create and offer. This would ultimately lead to higher conversions and loyal customers.

SEO: taking ABM up a notch

SEO is too powerful a tool to be ignored, and irrespective of the size of your business, it can be used to ensure success with the right ABM strategy.

This section explores the step-wise and detailed approach to SEO in ABM and how the integration of the two concepts pushes leads through the funnel:

1. Identify and list all high-value accounts

Focusing on the most lucrative accounts that suit your business criteria is the idea behind ABM. Therefore, start by determining whether or not a specific target audience is apt for your offering — based on budget, demography, pain points, industry niche, and so on.

Check out the competitors they buy from, followed by measuring their chances of converting if you do go ahead with them.

How SEO helps

After the target audience’s initial vetting, prepare a contact list for the targets based on which you must create a buyer persona or profile, specifying their job titles, products they love using, social media channels they use, and average spending.

Once you have worked your magic on creating buyer personas, leverage the power of SEO. to conclude the topics, keywords, and content that resonates with each of them. Develop a targeted keyword list for every persona to form a base for your strategy.

2. Create unique content for every target account

According to a Motista study, stakeholders are 40% more likely to buy personalized content over generic ones. So, your ABM strategy needs to have dedicated resources for creating content aimed at directly engaging the right accounts.

How SEO helps

But before you start producing content, you have to find keywords worth including. Once keywords have been identified for each target account, unique content development becomes simpler.

3. Reach out to key accounts via online search

To ensure that personalized content reaches target accounts, you must also know the channels they prefer using. Publishing the content on those platforms then provides maximum reach and visibility. Believe it or not — 71% of B2B decision-makers kickstart their buying journey by doing a basic web search.

How SEO helps

Content with specific keywords is what helps businesses rank higher on Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, and helps make the product or service visible to the eyes of the customers.

The big takeaway

Modern customers prefer personalized offers and experiences, and the powerful combination of ABM and SEO is a brilliant way to target that critical audience.

While the latter is the way to get their attention, the former helps engage and nurture them to make a buying decision with you swiftly.

With so many options and information available on the internet, your target audience should be able to land on your website and not go to your competition. So, what are you waiting for? Get going today!