Scale Your Account-Based Marketing Through Tiering

Account-based marketing (ABM) is one of the most effective ways to grow your B2B client base. It involves merging your sales and marketing teams so that they can create tailor-made content for specific target accounts.

At the start of your ABM campaign, you should focus exclusively on Tier 1 accounts. These are usually the top 1-3% of existing clients that generate the majority of your revenue. The goal is to build brand loyalty and sell them additional services.

Once you have met your goals with the Tier 1 accounts, it is time to expand your ABM strategy. In this phase, you’ll target Tiers 2 and 3. Doing so allows you to acquire more accounts and increase total revenue.

What is a Tier 2 ABM Audience?

The landscape of every B2B business is unique. As such, you will need to designate your Tier 2 audience based on criteria that is most applicable to your industry. With that being said, there are some general metrics that you can use to identify Tier 2 accounts. These include:

• Your top 10% of current clients (minus Tier 1 accounts)
• Clients who are responsible for 20% or less of total revenue
• Former top 20% clients that cut back on purchases

As in phase one, your Tier 2 ABM strategy should focus primarily on current clients. Your content should be geared towards encouraging them to purchase additional products or services. Upselling existing clients is far more cost-effective than acquiring new B2B accounts.

How to Connect with Tier 2 Clients

The beauty of ABM is that it allows you to tailor marketing content to suit specific types of clients. Since 80% of B2B purchasing decisions are based on the client experience, it is essential that you avoid generic messaging.

However, you should not create personalized content for individual targets unless they are extremely high value. This is because individualized content dramatically raises marketing costs.

Most of the time, you should create messages to address vertical industries. For instance, if you have three Tier 2 accounts in the food and beverage industry, produce content that addresses their pain points. This saves significant time and resources.

Your Tier 2 content should not be overly aggressive or pushy. This can damage your relationship with the target accounts. Instead, discuss the issues that these clients are facing. Highlight the ways that your products or services can help them solve these problems.  

After these clients begin to engage with your first wave of marketing content, it is time to draw them deeper into the sales funnel. We recommend presenting them with studies and competitor comparisons. Show them how other businesses in their industry are performing. This will further demonstrate why they need your products and help you to close the deal.

When to Move on to Tier 3

After you have maximized the revenue from your Tier 2 accounts, it is time to target B2B clients from Tier 3. Tier 3 does not include any existing accounts. Instead, you’ll be pursuing prospective clients that have similar characteristics to your Tier 1 accounts.

Since Tier 3 targets have no existing relationship with your business, acquiring these accounts will be more challenging. Don’t be afraid to make changes to your ABM strategy. Continue to refine your approach until you have created a winning ABM marketing campaign.

Expedite the Process with an Account-Based Marketing Agency

Creating an account-based marketing strategy from the ground up is labor-intensive and challenging. If you want to expedite the process, consider partnering with a proven account-based marketing agency. These firms specialize in creating content for B2B clients and can help you scale your business.