If you have read our previous blog on Account Based Marketing, you will already have a solid grasp of what it is, and why it can offer unparalleled results for financial markets businesses.
To recap, ABM works by targeting specific stakeholders and decision makers within a target customer’s organisation—learning how best to engage them using data-driven insight, then nurturing them towards conversion with highly personalised content that addresses their challenges and pain points.
As is the case with any data-powered marketing practice, having the right ABM tools to hand is key for a successful strategy.
And in the case of ABM, as buying committees grow more layered, and purchase journeys become more complex, the need for the right software capabilities will only prove more essential in the years to come.
Here are 5 powerful account-based marketing tools that we recommend for financial markets businesses, from well-known platforms to up-and-coming disruptors in the arena of marketing software.
1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers marketers clear visibility of target customers and the individuals that make up their organisational hierarchy.
Being armed with this information can help you untangle the web of a particular business buying committee and identify the main influencers of investment decisions.
Sales Navigator boasts a number of valuable features to support your ABM strategy, including:
- Fast and easy list building for key accounts
- Job change alerts
- Social listening capabilities
- Advanced search functions; enabling you to find specific people in LinkedIn Groups, search for users based on content they’ve engaged with, or view leads with the same job role as a previously targeted account.
2. HubSpot’s ABM software
HubSpot’s ABM tools are designed to help you identify your ideal customer profile (or ICP) and establish a smooth and seamless end-to-end experience for every account you target.
HubSpot’s ABM platform enables you to rank accounts according to how fully they match your ICP, automate all communications from outreach emails to 1-to-1 messages, and refine your strategy using detailed reporting.
It can also help flag new sales opportunities, by monitoring key account behaviours and reporting back with analysis on potential challenges your service can help them overcome, or areas where you could add value.
It also supports thousands of app integrations, so if you already use a number of trusty ABM tools, you can consolidate them all into the HubSpot dashboard for future use.
3. LinkedIn Campaign Manager
LinkedIn is a treasure trove of account-based marketing insights. As such, it offers several tools to enhance your ABM strategy.
While Sales Navigator helps you to keep your ear to the ground and gain a clearer view of key accounts, Campaign Manager lets you effectively target them with personalised content.
Campaign Manager allows you to segment your audience to a really granular level, based on criteria such as job title, seniority, and current or even previous place of work.
You can then target these audience segments with Dynamic Ads, which adapt accordingly to those predetermined characteristics—so you can advertise your services with the same campaign, but the decision maker at Company A and Company B will see different messages tailored to them.
4. Uberflip
Uberflip markets itself as a ‘content experience platform’ that moves accounts through the sales funnel faster.
Essentially, it allows you to make your existing content work harder, building experiences around it that are personalised to your key accounts.
And it tracks performance so you can focus on producing content that works.
While some of these capabilities overlap with other platforms outlined above, its main point of differentiation is that it allows target accounts to be self-nurturing.
In other words, to consume content at the pace they prefer, rather than having it dictated to them by a predetermined campaign workflow.
It’s similar to how Netflix allows you to binge your favourite TV programs, but with targeted marketing content.
5. 6sense
Forrester recently named 6sense as a leader in their New Wave Report on ABM platforms.
The main selling points of 6sense are its AI-driven capabilities, which can shine a light on hidden buyer behaviours and illuminate the “dark funnel”.
In other words, it can use AI to provide its users with a more detailed picture of the exact intentions of their target accounts, thus allowing them to be more competitive.
6sense also makes use of patented AI-driven predictive modelling.
In layman’s terms, this means it can let you know who is ready to buy and when and predict at which point in the buyer journey a given prospect will be most likely to convert.
Overall, this enables you to go in for the sale at the best possible moment.
Final thoughts: what to look for in ABM tools
While the account-based marketing tools above bear The Realization Group seal of approval, the truth is that there is a rich variety of data-driven tools out there that can take your account based marketing to the next level and start delivering serious returns.
Ultimately, what matters is that your ABM technology stack allows you to:
- Effectively align your sales and marketing teams
- Glean rich and detailed data on your key target accounts
- And personalise your campaigns for greater impact.
Get in touch to find out more about the ABM services we specialise in for the Financial Sector.