The Banking Playbook for Account-Based Marketing & Sales

Introduction

Sales and marketing teams at banks are working towards the same goals: Growing share of wallet with the right businesses. But the best path forward isn’t always clear because of a lack of data and tools to help teams focus on the best and most timely opportunities.

With no clear indication of which businesses are seeking solutions, marketing and sales teams are left to follow their best guesses.

Marketing teams run broad-based campaigns targeting businesses based on firmographic data (industry, revenue, etc.). Sales & Distribution often focus on predefined account lists set at the beginning of the year.

Both teams are missing out on a huge opportunity to remove guesswork, narrow their focus, and win more accounts.

The key lies within “The Dark Funnel.” That’s what 6sense calls all the anonymous research activity buyers conduct before they fill out a form to reveal themselves to sellers.

When buyers do anonymous online research, they leave behind breadcrumbs that can reveal which companies they represent and the topics those companies care about. 6sense captures these details so you know who to target and what to say.

In this guide, we’ll show you three use cases for both marketing and sales, and exactly how they’d work for your bank.

Traditional tactics no longer work

6sense can point you toward clients who are ready to engage

If we just knew when clients were in-market (looking for solutions), sales and marketing would be so much easier.

Thankfully, intent data tools like 6sense provide this insight. 6sense pulls together data from 3rd party internet research (such as what keywords or topics people are researching on the internet) with data that you already own (website, CRM). The data is then matched to specific accounts, which lets you see when clients are in-market, and which products they’re interested in. We can also help you identify buying team members and how to contact them.

Use cases for marketing in Banking

1. Measure and improve marketing efficiency by targeting businesses when they’re in-market.

Problem

For your always-on advertising campaigns, you might be targeting all CFOs in a specific industry or geography.

Impact

Previously, marketing campaigns have been broad and generalized with low conversion rates.

Solution

Now, you can limit the audience exclusively to the businesses that are actively researching banking products and target them more aggressively with advertising.

Result

Not only does your ad spend lead to more results, but you can measure those results by tracking how many of those specific businesses turn into opportunities.

6sense Advertising allows users to build custom segments to target in-market accounts across media channels.

2. Educate businesses about the products they actually need.

Problem

Your digital ad campaigns have a more generic focus, likely targeting your key value propositions rather than your customers’ specific pain points.

Impact

You’d like to have more specific campaigns centered around product offerings but you’re not sure which products clients are in-market for.

Solution

Power ad campaigns with customer keyword research from 6sense. Track which accounts are researching product offerings like “B2B payments,” or “corporate cards.” Then you can target clients with the most relevant offering.

Result

Potential clients see ads directly relevant to their interests, and are much more likely to click. This gets people onto your website and interested in your product.

Custom keyword tracking, as depicted above, shows which keywords are surging in research, signifying intent. Users can track unlimited custom keywords and bucket them into keyword groups to scale.

3. Find and create awareness with businesses that haven’t heard of your institution.

Problem

Businesses are researching loan rates on NerdWallet and reading articles comparing banking solutions on CNBC.

Impact

You don’t have a relationship with many of these businesses, and they’re not in your CRM.

Solution

3rd-party intent data reveals that these prospects are in-market, so you can target them with awareness advertising that talks about your competitive advantage compared to your most common competitors.

Result

A large majority of these businesses now engage in conversations with your bankers.

Custom keywords are tracked to determine which accounts are researching your products or competitors. These segments can then be targeted with the respective offerings with native display ads and paid social integrations.

3 use cases for sales in asset management

1. Target accounts more effectively with richer CRM data.

Problem

You’re a relationship manager and a dashboard within your CRM highlights that a crucial account is showing intent.

Impact

Previous talks have been surface-level and haven’t moved the needle.

Solution

You examine what they’re researching and schedule time for a conversation that targets their specific needs.

Result

Now those conversations are more than surface level check-ins and highly likely to convert to opportunities.

Account details page, embedded within your CRM, display relevant account information, like intent keywords researched and which web pages are being visited, where your sellers already work.

2. Prioritize your time with alerts and recommended actions based on client and prospect activity.

Problem

You usually plan your week on Mondays and know exactly which businesses you’re going to reach out to and meet with.

Impact

You get an alert that a small business that’s put off previous check-ins is now researching foreign exchange and going to your website.

Solution

You call them immediately just to check in and schedule a time to talk tomorrow.

Result

The talk proves timely and productive and next steps are finally scheduled.

Setup custom alerts for reps to be notified via email and slack about recent web visits, account details, and online activities like intent, buying stage, and contact engagement.

3. Prepare for meetings with the right message, right products, and right content to drive cross-sell.

Problem

You haven’t met with one of your clients in a year, but have an upcoming meeting scheduled.

Impact

You see they’ve been researching corporate cards for T&E online, but don’t use your corporate card product.

Solution

Before the meeting, you gather information on the product and roughly underwrite their credit limit, so that you’re prepared to capture the opportunity.

Result

Thanks to your preparation and research insights, the conversation around your corporate card product goes smoothly and the client is interested.

6sense Sales Intelligence allows reps to see top pages visited, keyword activity where “corporate cards for T&E” could be tracked in this play, and much more.

Conclusion

These use cases are just a sampling of plays your teams can employ to drive deposits. Join the banks and other financial services firms using 6sense.

Dive deeper into our extensive content libraries featuring customer stories, blogs, and additional guides below.