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How To: Do ABM Personalization the Right Way

Utilize our step-by-step how-to to build your scalable account-based personalization strategy to convert your visitors into revenue.

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3

Chapters

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2

ABM Personalization is Rarely 1:1

Chapter 3

Personalize Only What Matters

Chapter 4

Test It, Prove It & Grow It​

Chapter 5

Seek Teamwide Alignment

Chapter 6

Analyze, Iterate & Win

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Introduction

When thinking of ABM, personalization, at the 1:1 level, is often thought of Account-specific messaging is ABM’s jam, and it’s a big departure from the generic mass-marketing of traditional lead-based approaches.

The beauty of ABM is its ability to convey the right message to the right business audience at the right time through the right channel.

Some ABM programs include 1:1 personalization, and others function with a 1:few or 1:many approach. Regardless, personalization can be done in a scalable way that works for your business.

You may have experienced an “ABM moment” yourself. If you’ve ever read a B2B email subject line or ad headline and thought I was just thinking that!, then you know what we’re talking about.

But it takes thoughtfulness (and as you’ll see, some restraint) to achieve that level of resonance with buyers. And to get there, ABM practitioners must embrace certain personalization fundamentals that just plain work — and then level-up from there.

Here’s some spin-free advice on how to kickstart, and then effectively evolve, your ABM approach.

Chapter 2

ABM Personalization is Rarely 1:1

True, meticulously tuned, 1:1 ABM personalization and engagement should be reserved for extra-special use cases. (VIP accounts that can single-handedly vault your business to new levels are a good example.)

Certainly, bespoke marketing is possible given today’s technology offerings. But personalization initiatives are often more effective when they’re realigned from a one-to-many mass marketing program to a one-to-few approach.

Slow Your Roll with Personalization

Why not take a deeply personalized 1:1 approach? For starters, too much personalization can be a turnoff.

You want your sellers to help and educate buyers, and not creep them out with stalkerish references to their job roles (or even personal lives).

It also boils down to bandwidth. The sheer effort it’d take to craft uniquely personalized messaging for all your accounts isn’t economically viable or sustainable, and also may not be a good return on your investment.

The Secret is Scalability

The best ABM approaches blend personalization (interacting with audiences in ways that feel human and special) with orchestration (coordinating and mobilizing groups of data). This helps you create honed-in experiences for buyers, but at-scale for an expansive marketplace.

All those emails your sales team individually writes with varying accuracy and effectiveness? They can still feel natural but be more controlled, turn-key, and rooted in data, while still providing value to the recipient. Trying to do things on a onesey-twosey basis just isn’t feasible, so personalize at scale.

Chapter 3

Personalize Only What Matters

Any good cook knows that adding too many ingredients ruins a flavor profile. Similarly, personalization that’s not kept in check can quickly erode a brand’s credibility.

Resist the temptation to customize just because you can. Instead, ground your personalization in the stuff that matters most to your revenue team and your buyers.

Start with Segmentation

Before you tailor messages to your business buyer audience, it’s helpful to strategically segment them into groupings. (Often, it’s wise to segment your customers and rally your efforts based on Annual Contract Value.)

Prioritizing where you see the most bang for the buck might sound too simplistic. But starting simple is what it’s about.

What Happens After Segmentation?

From there, your main levers of personalization will likely include keywords, competitor keywords, buying stages, and value propositions.

It occasionally makes sense to curate your messages by other business factors. For example, you might want to accommodate an extra-strength buyer readiness signal — perhaps the way extreme weather, an executive order, or a change in the tax code uniquely affects a prospect’s business.

But making these personalization the norm rather than the exception can easily unnerve customers. (Remember, too much personalization is creepy.) It wastes time, too. Instead, pour your energy into aligning your channels so buyers have consistent, personalized-at-scale experiences wherever they may roam.

Chapter 4

Test It, Prove It & Grow It

We hope we’ve made the case for being prudent with your personalization efforts. Personalization is a shiny object in the RevOps toolkit, but resist the temptation to take it too far, too soon.

Again, start small. ABM personalization means you’re in the template business. You want to build high-level messaging models — meaning, value propositions cross-tabulated by keywords or buying stages.

Extend Personalization Across Channels

Once that’s in place, infuse those messages across channels and platforms, including:

  • Online advertising
  • Nurturing campaigns
  • Your website – yes, you can customize this, too!
  • Field marketing assets
  • Sales team talk tracks

Begin with a few keywords and a couple of buying stages … let’s say six different permutations.

Then methodically test, learn, and bring to scale. Figure out what works, what doesn’t, and pivot accordingly. Not everything is going to work right away, and that’s okay.

As your approach becomes more proven, you can judiciously add other bells and whistles to your content. But remember: a little goes a long way.

Here is an example of an experience running on the 6sense website targeted to visitors within our ICP manufacturing segment.

Chapter 5

Seek Teamwide Alignment

Creating personalized experiences requires alignment within your revenue team, but with top-down involvement and the right tech, you can properly accelerate the process of authoring templates at scale.

This kind of choreography is transformative for organizations … but it also warrants extra communication.

Again, toe-dips into this pool are better than cannonball dives. Take time to consider what your key personas truly care about and what you can give them along their journeys, often independent of sales intervention.

It’s also imperative to be methodical, and always consider the customer’s point of view. Make sure you’re delivering consistent messages across all channels.

Produce content that addresses the needs of as many divisions of your revenue team as possible: the marketers responsible for the brand, the BDRs who need to close, the customer success reps nearest to accounts, and more.

Chapter 6

Analyze, Iterate & Win

Annually, or during times of significant organizational change like a big merger or reorganization, be sure to reexamine long-range business needs and keywords.

Templates are great for long-term programs, but you might also want to launch one-off personalized campaigns to niche audiences based on your revenue goals or shortcomings.

Quarterly, reassess and consider refreshing specific messages and tactics based on recent revenue performance — and upcoming needs.

Just because everything seems to be working doesn’t mean you can’t tweak. You may in fact want to double-down on specific tactics and value props.

Ultimately, you want to help and educate buyers, not spook them. It’s best to anchor your customization in high-value data.  And while personalization creates any number of new and neat tricks, be sure to take a measured team approach so you don’t drain resources on your way to dramatically improved buyer engagement and predictable revenue growth.

Ready to see 6sense in action?

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The 6sense Team