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Account Based Marketing is a very innovative strategy employed by growth professionals to garner new B2B leads and drive more turnover. This approach focuses is designed for B2B. It really is a game changer for your company. But it might be tricky!
Indeed, driving a successful ABM strategy requires specific skills from sales, marketing, data, and tech. You’ll need to design a well-thought and perfectly-designed process to achieve your goals. Not only that, ABM software will be required, especially if you want to scale it.
What are ABM software? What are the main benefits of software for your B2B business? What are the main software that exist? How to choose the best one? Most of all, how to build the perfect ABM process using LaGrowthMachine?
That’s what we’re going to explain in this post. In the end, you’ll know everything about ABM platforms. We’ll provide you with a top 10 list of tools that you should focus on if you want to run ABM strategies. As a bonus, we’ll explain our exclusive ABM process with our own lead generation tool!
What are Account-Based Marketing Software?
An Account Based Marketing platform is a solution that allows you to create and run ABM strategies.
Remember that Account Based Marketing is a technique between marketing and sales departments that starts with the account (=companies), rather than an individual lead (=people that work in these companies).
By prospecting from this viewpoint, you can focus on much more detailed segmentation data and incentives to ensure your strategy works in the most accurate – hence, effective – way possible.
Example
Let’s take an example here: you want to sell your product to all Heads of Marketing from the wine industry in France.
From a Lead Based Marketing strategy, you’ll focus on filters such as:
- job: “Head of Marketing”, “marketing director”;
- industry: “wine”;
- location: “France”.
From an Account Based Marketing strategy, you’ll focus on companies:
- registered in the wine industry;
- location: “France”;
- From this list of companies, you’ll target “Head of Marketing” or “Marketing director” job titles.
There’s a big difference here: the second method is much more accurate than the first one. Therefore, you can expect a much higher conversion rate from the second than the first one.
With ABM software, you can benefit from well-crafted workflows, processes, and automation to help you generate more B2B leads, thanks to ABM strategies.
But keep this in mind: most of the time, rather than relying solely on one single tool, an effective ABM strategy requires a delicate combination of multiple tools, each offering its own set of benefits.
What benefits can you get from ABM software?
ABM software provides you with many benefits:
- Reducing your lead acquisition costs: large amounts of leads contacted mean expensive outreach campaigns. Thanks to ABM, you’ll focus on smaller but more accurate segments of leads which will allow you to reduce costs for the same – or a better – conversion rate.
- Save more time for your sales team: ABM software will structure your outreach processes in an efficient way, so you won’t waste time anymore with non-effective actions.
- Increase your conversion rate: smaller segments + more leads generated = better conversion rate.
- Increase the number of leads generated: in the end, it’s the big idea of ABM solutions.
- Gain scalability: by structuring your sales and marketing team and processes, automating manual tasks, and offering integrations with other tools meant for growth, ABM software will be the cornerstone of your growth.
What are ABM software’s main features?
Account Based Marketing is a very complex B2B process that requires an accurate methodology to work fine. If you have a look at the market offer in 2023, you’ll see that there are many different tools that claim to do ABM, proposing a very large panel of features, though.
At LaGrowthMachine, we think it’s important to take a step back here and remember the basics: as ABM is the process of generating more leads focusing on the account, what features do I need to achieve this goal?
In our opinion, to lead a successful ABM strategy, you need to follow these steps:
- Improve your targeting methodology;
- Improve your segmentation at the company level;
- Get the individual leads from the companies;
- Extract the leads data;
- Contact your leads.
According to this, ABM tools should at least propose the following features:
- Access to a very large B2B Accounts database;
- Accurate segmentation & targeting filters;
- Import / Export feature;
- Data enrichment feature;
- Outreach feature.
We’re going to take a look at each one of these features explaining how ABM software can – and should – help you with these specific processes.
Feature 1: B2B Accounts Database
Good ABM software should rely on a sufficient amount of lead data(company side). Leads data should include information about companies:
- their size;
- the industry they are active in;
- location;
- the technology they use;
- turnover growth;
- sales team recruitment growth;
- etc…
While relatively few ABM software solutions contain their own database, most provide seamless integration with the largest B2B databases available, including LinkedIn and other widely-recognized business directories.
For example, you could create a list of accounts from LinkedIn Sales Navigator and import it directly from LinkedIn to LaGrowthMachine. More on this later in this post…
Feature 2: Segmentation & Targeting
Segmentation and targeting represent 80% of your ABM campaign success.
These processes are different but complementary:
- Segmentation: dividing a list of leads (in the case of ABM, companies) into segments, according to one or several criteria.
- Targeting: choosing to focus on one or several segments that best match your ABM campaign objectives.
To do the best segmentation and targeting, ABM tools must provide good and numerous filters that will help you to segment your database into small but very accurate pieces.
Usually, at LaGrowthMachine, we recommend our customers not to exceed segments of 150 – 200 accounts when doing ABM.
The larger is your segment, the less accurate it’s going to be. Segments containing 1500 to 10000 accounts indicate that your segmentation lacks precision and your conversion rate might be pretty low.
Better have fewer stuffed segments and run different outreach campaigns for each segment with much better conversion rates.
Feature 3: Leads Import / Export
As we said in the first part of this post, there’s no such thing as “an all-in-one” ABM software at the moment. At least for the company’s database, you’ll have to get the data from another platform.
Therefore, this means that you’ll probably have to import and export lead data from one technology to another.
For example, exporting a CSV file from a saas directory, and importing it into LaGrowthMachine.
Regardless of its simplicity, you must guarantee that your ABM tool offers this feature.
Feature 4: Data Enrichment
The goal of this advanced ABM feature is to collect additional data from other data sources. We’re preparing the outreach part of the job, here.
For example, you’ve imported a segmented list of leads from LinkedIn to LaGrowthMachine, but you noticed that you lack information, such as their pro email address or their phone number.
A good ABM tool like LaGrowthMachine will automatically look for additional data from other sources to fill in your list of accounts, allowing you to contact them in many different ways!
Feature 5: Sales Outreach
ABM would not be complete without one final, yet absolutely crucial element: outreach.
ABM software must provide you with a way to outreach the accounts you’ve clustered earlier – and the leads from these accounts.
There are many different outreach channels such as email, LinkedIn messages, cold calling, etc…
A lot of tools are gathering you with the possibility to reach out to your leads using one of these channels.
But the best ABM and outreach platforms, like LaGrowthMachine, allow you to do the same thing using multichannel: instead of contacting your B2B lead through LinkedIn, with LaGrowthMachine you can send him an email, send him a follow-up email, then switch with a LinkedIn message, and finally – if he didn’t reply yet – call him. All of that in a couple of clicks, for an unlimited amount of leads.
Our technology allows you to do this thanks to the third feature, which is data enrichment: with a few data, we’ll collect automatically additional data and increase the number of outreach channels you can use for your ABM strategy.
How to choose the best ABM software?
We writing this post today not only to highlight the numerous benefits and use cases of ABM software but also to help you choose the right solution.
Therefore, we’ve built a list of 6 important questions you should ask yourself before getting interested in the solutions that exist. That’s what we’re going to see right now.
Question 1: Does it match your objectives?
The first thing you need to ensure when choosing ABM software is that it matches your objectives. This brings another question, which is: what are your objectives?
For example, if your objective is to generate more leads, ABM software might be a part of the solution, but you can also think about other strategies and other tools, such as inbound marketing. Perhaps, there is a tool that meets both these requirements.
Question 2: Does it match your organization?
There are as many organizations as there are companies. There are so many parameters (human resources, company’s cultural background, communication, …) that come in when we’re talking about organizations that it is almost impossible to meet the perfect fit.
However, there are also many solutions available. You can answer this question by listing all the characteristics that compose your organization:
- Is my team flexible?
- How many people would I have to onboard?
- Are they open to change?
- What are the existing processes?
- How does the lead flow work in my company?
- etc…
This will help to better understand your setup and be more restrictive when looking for your ABM tool.
Question 3: What features do you need from your ABM software?
This comes right after the two previous questions: after you’ve identified your background, needs, and objectives, you can then determine the features that are absolutely necessary for the tool of your choice.
Example
If you think that one of your priorities is to do multi-channel selling, you’ll need to target a tool that provides a multi-channel outreach feature – like LaGrowthMachine.
A wise decision would be to arrange your desired features from most critical to least important. For example:
- Prior A: This feature is a core element of my ABM strategy.
- Prior B: This feature is important, but not essential.
- Prior C: I don’t need this feature.
Question 4: What is your budget?
Depending on your organization – whether you’re working as a first sales in a start-up or as a sales manager in a business unit – you won’t have the same budget to spend on ABM software.
The pricing we can observe on the market is pretty large. We suggest you study the different solutions and prices with your prior list from the previous question. This would help you to target tools that answer your main need, and not waste your budget on several features you don’t need.
Question 5: Is the support good?
Support is often overlooked when marketers and sales professionals are investing in a tool; however, it can be one of the most valuable parts of your choice.
If you decide to opt for a tool due to its global recognition, and then experience issues with it – you will regret not picking something less famous that could have offered individualized attention.
Selecting a smaller technology or team would have meant fewer customers and greater personalized service.
Question 6: Is the tool scalable?
Finally, when you’re choosing a tool, it’s best you go with it for the long run, as you’ll onboard and train many people on it, build processes around it, etc…
Better have an “open” tool – technically speaking – that you’ll be able to plug with other tools or that is going to be developed and updated frequently in time.
To ensure this, we recommend you contact the tool owners that stick on your final list and ask about their roadmap and new features to come.
Comparing 10 ABM Software in 2023
| Name of the software | Description | Target User | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| LaGrowthMachine | Advanced sales automation software to do multi-channel prospecting for B2B purposes. | Talent recruiter, growth, salespeople | Starting from 60$ |
| Hubspot | Hubspot enables your marketing and sales teams to join forces with straightforward, user-friendly ABM tools that craft a coherent purchasing experience for those accounts of the highest value. | Small to medium-sized businesses & business units | $50/mo. and up |
| 6sense | By leveraging the capabilities of AI, big data, and machine learning technology, 6sense’s Account Engagement Platform empowers B2B organizations to drive predictable revenue growth. Not only does it uncover anonymous buying behavior but also prioritizes accounts for both marketing and sales initiatives – all in one place! | B2B organizations, Saas, Data Companies | Contact for pricing |
| CaptainData | For ambitious operations teams, Captain Data is the perfect no-code solution to extract, combine and integrate data. With us by your side, you can accelerate your sales & operations processes while drastically reducing time spent on automation tasks. | Growth, revenue ops, sales ops | 399$ |
| Demandbase | Demandbase is a comprehensive, one-stop solution that bridges the gap between sales and marketing through reliable Account Intelligence. With Demandbase’s expertise in advertising, ABX (Account Based Experience), and system integration, you can ensure customer interactions are truly engaging and authentic. | B2B organizations, Saas, Data Companies | Contact for pricing |
| IntentData | Through intent data, marketers and salespeople can drastically improve their business operations: from generating more qualified leads to shortening sell cycles and increasing close rates; targeting active buyers with marketing resources to reducing churn & boosting cross-selling. | Marketing people, Sales Team, Growth | Contact for pricing |
| Act-On | Act-On is an advanced marketing platform specifically crafted to fuel tailored, meaningful multi-channel campaigns. An optimal balance of inbound and outbound approaches enables you to more closely align with sales and tap into valuable data for actionable insights. | Marketing people, Sales Team, Growth | 900$ |
| Terminus | Terminus offers top-notch advertising with numerous targeting choices and higher ROAS, coupled with lower CPMs and less ad fraud. Its aim is to transform buyer experiences into powerful multi-channel journeys powered by first-party data. | Marketing & Sales Teams | Contact for pricing |
| Rollworks | RollWorks, a branch of NextRoll, provides B2B businesses with an account-based platform to enhance their marketing and sales efforts in order to generate larger revenues. This is accomplished with the help of machine learning algorithms as well as proprietary data. | Marketing & Sales Teams | 975$ |
| LeanData | LeanData is an innovative application that operates within Salesforce (SFDC) to route, process, and allocate lead, contact, and account records. Its dynamic abilities make it the perfect tool for executing even the most intricate marketing strategies for salespeople. | Sales Ops | 50$ |
As you’ll see, these are very different tools with a very wide range of features, benefits, drawbacks, and pricing. We strongly suggest you look for further information to best choose.
Best ABM Process: LinkedIn Sales Navigator + LaGrowthMachine
As promised, we’d like to end this post by proposing to you one of the cheapest and most effective combos of the entire ABM software market.
To do this, you’ll need two tools which are:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator: which is the premium LinkedIn version for B2B salespeople, growth marketers, and recruiters.
- LaGrowthMachine: which is one of the most flexible sales automation tools available on the market at the moment we’re writing this post.
In this three-step-by-step guide, we are going to explain how you can proceed with those two tools to get a real ABM machine and generate more B2B leads easily.
Step 1: Segmentation & Targeting through LinkedIn Sales Navigator
To use Sales Navigator, you’ll need to purchase a license which is about 99$.
First, connect to LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Then, go in the account tab.
From here, you can filter from the entire LinkedIn B2B database (which is huge). Play with the filters to get a very accurate list of accounts.
Then, click on “View current employees”.
This will switch to the lead tab and show all the people (=leads) working in the company you’ve filtered.
Then, add filters from the lead tab to get the profile you want.
Save your list, and it’s done, you got a very accurate list of leads from an ABM process.
Step 2: Import your list of leads into LaGrowthMachine
If you didn’t sign up yet, you’ll first need to purchase a full 220$ license which will allow you to benefit from our entire features – and do literally whatever you want.
Then, just import your list of leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator to LaGrowthMachine and click on the “Import From LinkedIn” button in LaGrowthMachine.
Create your audience.
Match all of the columns with a good field to ensure the data remains clean and well-organized.
Step 3: Create your multi-channel outreach sequence
In this last step, go to the campaign editor, and start a new campaign from scratch. We’re the only tool that allows you to create a campaign from scratch, which makes us the most flexible one. You can literally do anything you want, so be creative.
From here, set up your flow from different actions and channels.
For each step of your sequence, tend to the email copywriting, the LinkedIn message copy, and any one of your messages.
For example, you can:
- start with an introduction sales email;
- follow-up with another email;
- if your lead didn’t answer, send a first LinkedIn message;
- send a follow-up through LinkedIn;
- program a cold call session;
- follow up back both on LinkedIn and by email.
Chances are your lead will have responded by the conclusion of this sequence.
Then, launch your campaign.
Observe the results.
Conclusion
As we mentioned in the introduction, ABM software is no longer a choice but an obligation when you want to increase your B2B sales.
In this post, we’ve listed 10 of the best ABM Software that can help you launch and boost your business growth.
Moreover, we shared our secret combo which is LinkedIn Sales Navigator + LaGrowthMachine for those who want to get started with a very efficient process with low costs and great results.
Finally, do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or need more information about any of these tools. We hope this article was helpful for you! Good luck!
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