No matter how much careful planning goes into a project, disaster can still strike when you least expect it. And when it does, it's important for project managers to know how to minimize the damage and keep the team moving forward.
Sometimes, the signs are obvious: deadlines are being missed, your communication channels aren't keeping everyone on the same page, and team members are confused about the scope of their individual responsibilities.
Other times, the signs a project is headed for trouble are more difficult to spot. Maybe team morale is a little lower than usual, or the project's output doesn't exactly meet your agency's quality standards.
If your latest project seems like it's spinning out of control, we're here to help. We've outlined a basic project recovery plan to stop the bleeding and steer your team back on track. It won't necessarily fix everything, but it's a good place to start.
How to Save a Project That's Gone Off the Rails
1) Acknowledge that things aren't going so great.
It might seem painfully simple, but admitting there's a problem with the project's current trajectory is the first (and often most difficult) step to getting things back on course.
Whether you're dealing with a big problem or some smaller difficulties, the earlier you acknowledge them, the better. If you leave those seemingly less urgent issues to fester, they could cause major project disruptions down the line. Be vigilant for signs of potential catastrophe.
Avoid playing the blame game. Gather your team for an emergency meeting to discuss exactly what's going wrong and assess the damage. As the project manager, it might mean an ego hit to call out a project's shortcomings, but it's a necessary blow to get things back on the right path.
2) Reevaluate the project's core objectives.
The best way to get things rolling again is to bring your team's attention back to the project's original purpose and primary goals. When things get chaotic, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, and people can get bogged down in the stressful details. The purpose can get lost in the frantic shuffle.
As the project manager, it's your job to keep an eye on the ultimate goal -- especially when the project isn't headed in the right direction. At the kickoff meeting, you likely went over the project's targets and milestones with your team -- but it might be time for a refresher.
When you meet with your team, don't just rehash everything from the initial kickoff meeting -- make sure you take the time to identify where things have fallen off course. Are there any particular areas of your project plan that now seem unattainable? Any areas that require some careful reevaluation? Maybe something you thought would be a small component is actually demanding a lot more attention.
At this point, you can't be afraid to be flexible.
It can seem absolutely terrifying to pull a 180-degree pivot midway through an important project, but sometimes it's the only way to salvage things. Think about it this way: You know more about the project now than you did at the outset. At this point, you know what doesn't work, which makes you better equipped to formulate a better -- more realistic and informed -- approach.
3) Audit your team's communication channels.
If your project isn't going as planned, there's a good chance that poor communication deserves a significant chunk of the blame. It's pretty simple: For your project to succeed, you need to have a communication infrastructure that allows team members to stay on the same page, even when they're working on different areas of the project.
Take the time to examine your current communication process and look for any gaps or weak spots. What channels is your team currently using to communicate? How are you sharing information about individual team members' work? Is there a central place where team members can track the project's overall progress? How often are you checking in as a group?
One of the easiest ways to keep your team connected is investing in a project management tool. There are a ton of tools available at various price points, making it a great option for agencies of all sizes.
If onboarding your entire team onto a new piece of software midway through a project sounds like it might overcomplicate things, make the best of your existing tools and channels. Create a single place (such as a shared document) where team members can report on their progress and keep track of how the project is doing overall. Establish regular times to meet in person and discuss what's working, and what isn't.
4) Schedule one-on-one meetings with team members.
Group meetings are a great way to share information and confirm everyone is focused on working towards the same goals, but individual, one-on-one meetings are still necessary to ensure the project is headed in the right direction.
If you haven't already been doing so since the outset of the project, set up weekly one-on-one meetings with each of your team members. Regular one-on-ones give your team the chance to discuss how they're feeling, how their work is going, and what they need from you to be successful.
These meetings also give you the opportunity to get a feel for where the project currently stands and address any concerns directly and discreetly. If a project isn't going well because a few people seem to be slacking in their contributions, this is your opening to dig into why, and help them start pulling their weight again.
5) Address stakeholder concerns.
When a project starts going south, it's your responsibility to keep your client (and any other relevant stakeholders) in the loop. Transparency and honesty are key here. If you attempt to hide the project's issues, things will only get worse down the road.
Acknowledge any mistakes that might have occurred, and own up to them -- don't try to pass the blame or throw around excuses, because they won't be received well. Instead, explain the issues straightforwardly and share your action plan for getting everything back on track.
The most important thing to emphasize here is that you fully understand the situation and you're in control of it. It's much better to inform your client something will be a little late and explain why, rather than keep them in the dark and have them get frustrated when the deadline is missed.
6) Learn from it.
It's important to fully recognize what exactly went wrong so you can do your best to prevent it from happening again in the future.
After the project is over, you should orchestrate a project post-mortem with your team. Send out a simple questionnaire before the meeting to give team members the opportunity to reflect and share insights they might not feel comfortable sharing in front of the whole group. This is a great chance for people to dig into both the project's weak points and successes (however small).
The post-mortem meeting itself should ultimately be a frank but civil discussion of the project from start to finish. Try to acknowledge even seemingly small points of frustration, and plan on putting processes in place to avoid issues in the future.
Remember: This meeting isn't the time to put anyone on the spot, point fingers, or assign blame. It's ultimately a chance to unpack the project's trajectory and make your team is stronger for next time.
Everyone in an organization is (hopefully) aware that marketing is essential to a company’s success. However, when asked to define what the marketing team does and how it impacts business, answers tend to come up short.
Responses such as “social media, graphic design, advertising, emails and brochures,” are going to be most common – but chances are, if someone isn’t on the marketing team or doesn’t deal directly with the department, there’s probably some mystery to what’s being done there.
What Do Other Departments Think Marketing Does?
In fact, a recent survey revealed that only 13% of non-marketing employees think marketing drives business strategy, with 53% saying marketers are responsible for advertising and promotion and 43% saying its brand management. Marketing was noted as the least important department within the organization. As marketers, we know this simply isn’t true.
While all departments have their individual functions, without marketing, a company would be an anonymous entity operating with a limited customer base. The purpose of marketing is to bring in more customers, encourage and cultivate growth and discover how to better serve customers.
To do that effectively, marketers must make the rest of the organization aware of their jobs, their importance and their function in conjunction with each separate department.
Marketers have undoubtedly mastered their field and are constantly evolving it to be more insightful and efficient. Now it’s time to put the same amount of energy into informing the company about what marketing does well - and how they can collaborate as a team to increase the role the department plays in driving strategic change.
Data Analysis and Insight
One of the most crucial shifts in marketing has been the advent of data analysis to gain customer insight. It is also one of the lesser-known activities of marketers - with only 18% of non-marketers identifying it as a marketing function.
Within a business, 48% of data analytics are used to gain a better understanding of the customer. Much of that usage falls to the marketing department, who then becomes responsible for collecting and mining the data for better insights into how customers are responding to the company’s offering and what they are looking for from the industry.
Non-marketers are aware that customer insight is critical to achieving competitive advantage, but what they don’t realize is that the marketing department is the one that puts it in action.
For 58% of CMOs, analytics are important for SEO and email marketing research. Another vital area that benefits from data is customer segmentation, with 49% of CMOs citing this as a key marketing function. Knowing which customers are relevant to which areas of the business can make a huge difference in reaching them effectively.
If a company wants to know what their customers are feeling, thinking and saying about their products and services, marketing analytics serve as the direct line between an organization and its customers. Marketers need to bring this to the forefront of their responsibilities to prove to the company that the department is invaluable to overarching success.
Marketing the Marketing Department
To say it’s only the fault of the non-marketers for not knowing why marketing is essential is a false sentiment. It is a shared failure between marketers and their colleagues alike.
Just as a company shares customer-facing mistakes, they should also own up to their internal ones. Members of the company are only familiar with website copy, email marketing and social media because these are the most visible aspect of marketing.
Likewise, marketing is probably only familiar with R&D’s end product because it’s what they interact with most. With this logic in mind, marketing must do more to share their ways of working, their successes and their failures with the rest of the company. That takes increased dedication to internal communications.
It’s acceptable to be narrowly focused on customer-facing material, but it shouldn’t be the sole focus of marketing. Outlets like intranets, forums and internal newsletters help spread the word about all on goings of an organization. Even better than those options, marketers should be participating in presentations or discussions.
To improve internal communication, marketing needs to start small, think creatively and lead the organization with innovation and approachable subject matter. Instead of presenting those important analytics in detail, simply give the bullet points and summarize the resulting benefits.
Once you’ve gained the attention of the company, you can tailor the communications to their interests and avoid useless weekly reports by taking a step back and looking at the big picture scale.
Driving Strategic Change
Once you’ve acquired the attention of the other departments and have effectively communicated the results created by the marketing team, you can drive strategic change.
Strategy is very much a collaborative process that takes into account all the diverse aspects of a company’s performance and needs.
Marketing is positioned to have the most influential effect on the strategy. Armed with insight about customers gained from data analysis and a general understanding of the other departments, marketing can inform the strategy to be grounded by analytics, customer demands and operational efficiencies.
Marketing holds the cards for both analytical insight and creative power. Approaching strategy with these two ways of thinking can lead an organization to more innovative and effective solutions for serving customers and increasing the bottom line.
It’s also a strong way to make decisions and help other departments develop their own strategic plans. But to leverage that power, marketing must establish themselves as a go-to entity and a critical piece of organizational change.
Marketers excel at making the unknown not only known, but also popular. They must start thinking of themselves as a product that needs launching across the company.
Using the foundation of data and insight, strengthening internal communications and playing an active role in developing company strategy, marketers can deliver lasting results and become the most well known group within the company.
Customer service, sales, finance and R&D will no longer wonder what’s behind the graphics and catchy copy. They’ll understand that marketing is in the game to help the company achieve its fullest potential.
Every year, as soon as Halloween is behind us, it seems like the floodgates open. Without warning, there are holiday marketing campaigns everywhere, with countless businesses rushing to cash in on a spending frenzy. There are holiday emails, social media posts, and TV ads -- oh, my.
It might seem like holiday marketing is out of control. But some brands do it very, very well.
How? Well, these brands create campaigns that actually delight customers instead of adding to holiday "noise." They evoke emotions and promote sharing, sometimes even connecting people with their loved ones, or partnering with a charitable organization.
Great holiday marketing campaigns come in many different shapes and sizes. Check out 15 of our favorites below, and use these ideas to fuel your own holiday marketing ideas.
15 Brilliant Examples of Holiday Marketing Campaigns
1) Coca-Cola Canada: Peace on Earth ... Or at Least in the Mall
When it comes to shopping malls during the holidays, it seems that people are highly divided. There are some who can't get enough of the buzz and the decor (guilty), and some who want to stay as far away as possible.
Wherever you stand on the topic, Coca-Cola Canada found a clever way to brand the "mall-during-the holidays" experience by showing how our favorite beverages can bring us all together, even during tense times. Here, the company uses a video -- shared across social media -- in which two people fighting over a jacket are able to find peace by enjoying Coca-Cola products together.
A video posted by Coca-Cola Canada (@cocacola_ca) on Nov 23, 2016 at 5:05am PST
This installment is just one of the latest in the Coca-Cola company's legendary holiday marketing campaigns -- I mean, who doesn't love the annual debut of the Coke-drinking polar bears?
2) REI: #OptOutside
Last year, REI made waves with its announcement that it would close the doors to its retail locations, headquarters, and distribution centers on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. Instead, REI invited its community to join employees in taking Black Friday off from work -- and from shopping -- to do what they love most: being outside.
This year, REI is back with the #OptOutside campaign in full force. It's getting attention from some pretty big names, including the National Parks Foundation, which is putting its own spin on the #OptOutside movement.
The campaign is even motivating other brands to add a charitable element to the movement. Outdoor Research, for example, will donate $10 to Paradox Sports for every Instagram post containing both the #OptOutside and #OutdoorResearch hashtags.
It might seem tricky for B2B brands to pull off delightful holiday marketing. But WeWork, a provider of co-working and office spaces around the world, has disproved that perception with its #wwgiftguide campaign.
It kicked off with an article in Creator, WeWork's magazine for entrepreneurs, titled "Holiday Gift Guide: Best Gifts with a Personal Touch." Over the course two weeks, there were four segments of the guide published, each with a different theme -- "gifts with a personal touch," "gifts to get the party started," "gifts for the family," and "gifts for the digital nomad," to name a few.
Our favorite part? Each gift guide features products from WeWork member companies, helping to support the community of creators for which it's known. And to help promote the campaign, the stories have been shared across social media with the hashtag #wwgiftguide, encouraging people to share what they're gifting this holiday season.
During the holidays, time with family is inevitable -- whether you like it or not.
But HotelTonight has a plan to help, by making it easy for holiday travelers to visit family without staying with them. The solution? An easy-to-book hotel room, using the brand's website.
The campaign is widespread across social media. First, there's a Facebook contest, in which followers can share a story of their worst/funniest holiday family memory in the comments.
Then, followers on Twitter are invited to participate in the conversation, using the #HotelTonight hashtag.
One of our favorite parts of this campaign is that it's multi-faceted. It takes a single idea -- that we aren't crazy about some of our relatives, but can't be rude about it -- and executes the message across a variety of formats.
5) Dollar Shave Club: Holiday Shave Set
Sometimes, we enjoy some good, snarky marketing. Maybe that's why we can't stop giggling at this video promoting Dollar Shave Club's Holiday Shave Set: the gift that other gifts can't handle.
It's a great example of a simple, funny video perfect for social media. This snowman on a sweater was too jealous to handle the awesomeness of the Holiday Shave Set -- hence, the hair dryer. It shows how brands can incorporate the familiarity of cheesy holiday traditions like wearing ugly sweaters into their own marketing, while simultaneously demonstrating how their products or services can spice up the standard holiday monotony.
A video posted by Dollar Shave Club (@dollarshaveclub) on Nov 17, 2016 at 5:25pm PST
6) Hinge: See What We're Thankful For
This holiday season, what are you thankful for? Back in November, dating app Hinge sent around an email posing the same question to its members, using the opportunity to talk about its recent rebrand and subsequent growth -- something for which Hinge itself has enormous gratitude, according to the email.
Hinge used this email to harness the holiday spirit and redirect attention to an app that helps people find meaningful relationships, instead of, well, shorter-term alternatives.
This one is an oldie but a goodie. Actor, writer, and humorist Nick Offerman loves his whisky. He's sung about it before, and last holiday season, he joined his favorite whisky brand, Lagavulin, to film a 45-minute video of -- wait for it -- Offerman sitting in a leather chair next to a crackling fire, drinking whisky and looking calmly at the camera. Where do we sign up for that gig?
"This is smart branding on Lagavulin's part," Kristina Monllos wrote for AdWeek. "Creating an extended ad that can serve as a conversation starter -- should consumers swap the traditional Yule Log video for Offerman's at parties -- will also get everyone talking about the brand."
Since the video was initially released, a new 10-hour version of it became available. Consider it our gift to you.
8) BarkPost: Yappy Thanksgiving Eve
Holidays are traditionally a time to be spent with family. For many of us, that includes our dogs.
BarkPost is no stranger to marketing campaigns that help "dog ruvers" include their furry friends into day-to-day life. In November, the pet-friendly brand showed how to do that at Thanksgiving, with a clever email that included holiday-themed cartoons and videos, feeding safety tips, and other holiday survival techniques -- which, of course, involve your dog.
Plus, check out that adorable call to action at the bottom of the email: "Stop getting cute dogs in your email. Unsubscribe." I mean, who would want to unsubscribe from that?
9) Edeka: Wihnachtsclip - #heimkommen
Remember that sentimental value of holiday marketing that we mentioned earlier? Well, here's a tear-jerking example for you from German supermarket Edeka. Its 2015 holiday TV advertisement "Wihnachtsclip - #HeimKommen" -- which translates from German to "Christmas Carol - #Homecoming" -- is all about realizing what really matters around the holidays: spending time with family and the people you love.
In the ad, an elderly man prepares to spend yet another Christmas alone, since his kids usually cancel their planned visits last minute. Then, the ad shows his various grown children receiving letters saying their father has passed away. When they arrive at home, though, they're surprised to be greeted by their very alive and very healthy-looking father. He says, "How else could I have brought you all together?"
Other than the delicious-looking meal they share at the very end, there's no hint that Edeka is a supermarket -- but you can bet the video is emotional and shareworthy. The ad garnered 33.5 million views on YouTube within a week of posting.
This year, Edeka is at it again with its "#Zeitschenken -- EDEKA Weihnachtswerbung" ads (which translates to "#Time -- EDEKA Christmas Advertising"), this time showing how the frenzy around holidays can keep us from remembering the most important thing of all -- spending them with the people we love.
10) HubSpot: #HolidayHub
Microsites are a great way to highlight a specific campaign or target a specific buyer persona. Here's an example of a holiday-themed microsite HubSpot created, highlighting our #HolidayHub campaign and targeting ecommerce customers. (Check out a few more ingenious microsites in this blog post.)
The site is filled with holiday marketing resources, which isn't a far cry from the type of content we publish to our normal website -- except this time, it's themed. Plus, who doesn't love a countdown?
The animated snow effect was created using HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript. You can learn how to implement an animated snow effect on HubSpot's Design blog. Alternatively, you could create an animated GIF to create a feeling of animation -- Here's a beginner's tutorial for creating an animated GIF in Photoshop.
11) Samsung Galaxy: Unwrap The Feels
Samsung has had a bit of a tumultuous year. But now, the brand is seeking to bring some holiday cheer to the masses with the gift of its Gear VR.
We've anticipated that virtual reality would become an increasingly important marketing device, especially when it comes to brands creating an experience for consumers. With technology from products like Gear VR, people can create their own experiences from the comfort of their own homes.
Samsung is building on that for the holidays with this video that shows relatives gifting their loved ones with the freedom to experience anything -- and the feelings that come with it. Watch as the different recipients show a broad range of reactions, from elation, to shock, to wonder.
Samsung also incorporated a social media sweepstakes into the campaign. For a chance to win a Galaxy S7 Edge and a Gear VR, Twitter users were invited to tag a friend with the hashtags #GalaxyS7edge, #GearVR, and #sweepstakes, along with a few words on why that person deserved the gift of virtual reality.
One great way to celebrate the holiday season is with an event. And with events typically come music. Spotify is aware of that tradition, which is why it created #PlaylistPotluck.
It started with a partnership with Sonos. The brands got together to turn playlists into something like a potluck in which everyone contributes something to bring the event together (the tagline of the campaign is "One home. One host. Everyone brings a dish.") Only, instead of contributing food or drink, everyone contributes a tune to a collaborative playlist.
The idea is delightfully interactive. Instead of using traditional invitations, guests RSVP to the potluck by adding songs to the collaborative playlist. And the cherry on top? Both brands also partnered with the PBS series "Mind of a Chef" for a televised holiday special, in which various celebrity chefs will be using the feature for their own meals.
What we love about this campaign is the fact that it incorporates several different elements and media formats to make it cohesive -- a speaker system, a music-streaming app, and a televised special. Plus, if you participate, you're entered for a chance to win your very own dinner party, hosted by a world-renowned chef. Bon appetit -- and rock on.
13) Google: Santa Tracker
While Google's Santa Tracker has been around for a few years now -- and we recommend checking out the back story here -- its features have evolved over time. This year, for example, "Santa's dashboard," a virtual display of the technology that powers his global travels on Christmas Eve, will debut.
It's hard to narrow down what makes the Santa Tracker so delightful, but if we had to summarize it, we'd say this -- it combines the holiday wonder of a belief in Santa with real-life technology. What a wonderful way to teach kids about the web, while also allowing them to be kids. (Although, we adults certainly appreciate it, too.)
This year, Google has even introduced a B2B element of the Santa Tracker by sharing the code with developers and releasing other elements of the tool as open source. Why make all of that information public? To inspire developers to create their "own magical experiences based on all the interesting and exciting components that came together to make Santa Tracker," writesGoogle's Developer Programs Engineer Sam Thorogood.
Up until Christmas Eve, visitors can have a peek at the "North Pole," to see what Santa's elves are up to as the holiday approaches.
14) John Lewis: #BusterTheBoxer
When U.K. department store John Lewis debuted its 2016 holiday ad, Buster the Boxer won the hearts of audiences around the world. (My colleague, Karla Cook, wrote more about the ad here.)
What really delights us about #BusterTheBoxer -- which was turned into a promotional hashtag -- is that John Lewis didn't stop at a TV commercial for its holiday marketing. By dedicating an entire section of its online shop to Buster and his friends, the brand created an interactive experience.
Check out the video below. It provides a 360° user experience to explore Buster's garden, where the very trampoline being promoted in the original ad was installed. We're looking forward to seeing more 360° video used in marketing -- this season, and beyond.
15) H&M: Come Together
One look at H&M's YouTube page, and it's clear that this brand knows how to use video marketing to its advantage. H&M's holiday marketing is no exception. Its latest holiday video, directed by Wes Anderson and starring Adrien Brody, made headlines almost immediately upon its release. Twenty-four hours after its premiere, it was still the #1 trending video on YouTube.
The video takes viewers through the experience of a train conductor and passengers faced with severe weather-related travel delays. Nineteen minutes after the conductor calls in a request for an emergency supply of festive materials, the passengers -- all donning H&M apparel, of course -- make way to the cafeteria car, which has been transformed into a winter wonderland.
We're particularly fond of this ad's subtlety. Rather than screaming, "Here are the new winter items in our catalogue," H&M managed to incorporate its fashions into the storyline of a video that had very little to do with apparel. Remember: Holiday marketing doesn't have to be in-your-face as much as on-brand and memorable.
Go Forth and Be Merry
Out of all the things that we appreciate about these campaigns, there might be one thing we like the most -- the fact that they put the fun back in holidays. This season, don't let the stress get to you. Have a laugh or a cry with these examples, and please, be merry.
From our family to yours, happy holidays.
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in December 2015 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
What are your favorite holiday marketing campaigns? Share with us in the comments.
Looking for effective ways to streamline your social media marketing tasks? Have you heard of IFTTT applets? Applets let you automate social media posting tasks so you can spend more time engaging with your audience. In this article, you’ll discover how to automate a variety of social media tasks with IFTTT applets. How to Create [...]
Do you take a good, hard look at your team’s marketing strategy every year?
You should. An annual marketing plan helps you set your marketing on the right course to make your company’s business goals a reality. Think of it as a high-level plan that guides the direction of your team's campaigns, goals, and growth.
Without one, things can get messy -- and it's nearly impossible to put a number on the budget you'll need to secure for the projects, hiring, and outsourcing you'll encounter over the course of a year if you don't have a plan.
Of course, this type of planning takes a lot of time and effort. So if you’re strapped for time before the holidays, give our new Marketing Plan Generator a try. This tool simplifies yearly planning and lays your strategies, initiatives, and goals out in a template so you can identify what’s most important for the coming year.
Once you’ve filled in your information, you’ll come away with a plan that helps you:
Outline your annual marketing strategy
Identify your most important annual initiatives
Nix the projects that won’t help you hit your 2017 goals
Track the right metrics throughout the year
Align your team through a common mission
Pro Tip: The best way to set up your 2017 marketing plan is to start with quick wins first, that way you can ramp up fast and set yourself (and your team) up to hit more challenging goals and take on more sophisticated projects by Q4. So, what do you say? Are you ready to give it a spin?
And yet, it seems like account-based marketing is a fairly new concept to many people. A big part of that has to do with a lagging alignment between marketing and sales within many organizations -- while this number is almost double what it was last year, only 60% of businesses say they're “somewhat” or “tightly” aligned with sales.
But account-based marketing -- and its success -- is somewhat rooted in that very alignment between marketing and sales. And as you'll see, it's highly useable, if you know where to begin. That's why we're here to help.
But What Is Account-Based Marketing?
ABM is essentially a form of strategic business marketing. An organization takes an individual prospect or customer account -- these are companies, not individual people -- and treats it like its very own market, or a market of one.
So, in that context, it’s really just what it sounds like -- marketing that’s based on a given account, existing or prospective. It’s typically done by enterprise-level sales organizations, and is mostly relevant to B2B efforts.
Why is that? Well, ABM is a particularly useful for organizations with multiple buyers or stakeholders. Part of its goal, says HubSpot's Corporate Marketing Manager Sam Balter, "is to address the needs of organization by connecting with all of the stakeholders within it. That's one reason why it works so well in B2B -- oftentimes you have to work with five or more stakeholders in a given sale."
That might seem a little tricky -- especially, says HubSpot’s Senior Product Marketing Team Manager Jeff Russo, “from an execution standpoint.”
But it really boils down to six essential steps, which we’ll flesh out and tie back to inbound marketing -- because while they’re two different concepts, they can truly complement each other.
Where ABM + Inbound Marketing Meet
Inbound marketing and ABM are, on the surface, a bit different in theory:
Inbound marketing primarily focuses on creating great content to bring prospects to you.
ABM puts the emphasis on individual prospects or existing accounts.
But they absolutely complement each other -- in fact, we use them in tandem here at HubSpot. “Our sales team uses ABM and inbound marketing,” Balter explains. “They have a set list of target accounts, and use inbound marketing leads to supplement those accounts.”
You might notice that many of the above-outlined steps incorporate pieces of inbound marketing principles. And really, says Balter, that’s how ABM can be used “to build better relationships with target accounts.”
These days, customers really don't enjoy feeling like they're being sold to. That’s why it’s crucial that your marketing -- even when account-based -- provides value, and doesn’t push products. Emails, websites, and calls-to-action all have to be personalized for each target, especially when you’re trying to aid their discovery of your brand.
So let’s break it down. With a little help from HubSpot's team of ABM experts -- Sam Balter from above, Product Marketing Manager Ari Plaut, and Head of Corporate Sales Ryan Spillane -- we’ll illustrate the steps you can take to implement and execute ABM.
The Ultimate Guide to Account-Based Marketing: 6 Key Steps
1) Identify your target.
Finding your target audience is a fundamental piece of successful marketing. Remember, we’re dealing with organizations here, not people -- so don’t get this step confused with developing personas.
Rather, identifying your target accounts should be a collaborative effort between marketing and sales, since it’ll require data from both areas -- firmographic data, which consists of things like industry, company size, location, and annual revenue, as well as strategic factors, like market influence, likelihood of repeat purchase, and expected profit margin.
While market research is a very valuable tool in determining this list, some of it is qualitative -- that is the kind of information you’re able to contribute using intuition and experience.
2) Research your accounts.
Once you determine who your targets are, they goal is to treat those companies like big, organization-level personas. Remember -- we’re not trying to develop personas for individual people here. However, it can help to have that detailed information and representation of your ideal business customers.
Being familiar with elements like the company structure and who the critical players are can, in turn, dictate how you convey your product or service to those targets, especially if you know who the decision-makers and influencers are. Sometimes, this information might already exist in-house; perhaps someone on your team previously researched this target, but didn’t complete the ABM process of reaching it the right way.
But if you don’t already have that information on hand, manual research might be required to get it. We find that LinkedIn is an excellent way to uncover that data with a fairly simple advanced search.
Let’s say someone was trying to figure out who the staff writers are on the HubSpot Marketing blog. Start by opening up an advanced people search.
Then, enter the name of your target the “Company” box. If you’re trying to find out who fills a certain role within the organization, put that in the “title box.” Be sure to set both the company and title to current.
3) Create your content.
Now that you’ve got the names of the key players within each account, you’ll want to create new content for them. That content should speak not only to the pain points of those specific employees, but more to those specific businesses.
Remember -- at risk of sounding like a broken record -- the ABM strategy is less focused on individual personas, and more on casting a wide net for new business. For that reason, this content should be focused on the single deals you’d like to make with each specific organization.
With this step, you might start to see how ABM and inbound marketing are able to work together, as it's clear that quality, compelling content plays a role in reaching your account-based targets.
Even with the best content to reach your accounts, it won’t be very effective if you don’t use the right channels to promote it. It’s important to choose the right channels to deliver it, based on what’s most effective for a given organization or role.
Here’s where it might be helpful to know where the specific people within each target “live” online. The Pew Research Center Demographics of Social Media Users does an excellent job of profiling the users of five major social media platforms -- Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. That should shed some light on which channels the people within each account are mostly likely using, and how they consume the content you’re custom-creating for each of them.
5) Run your campaign.
At this point, you’ve selected your targets, built out the specifics of their respective compositions, created content, and selected the channels you’ll use to promote it. Time to execute! Right? Well, kind of.
Running your campaign will require some care. You’ll have to coordinate your messaging across the various channels -- you don’t want to send different signals to the same person within a target account.
That’s a big problem for many B2B marketers, according to Demandbase: “Unlike consumer marketers who have millions of potential customers,” reads its Account-Based Marketing: Fundamentals Every B2B Marketer Must Know report, “B2B marketers have a limited number of potential buyers.”
Perhaps that’s why, according to the same report, 82% of visitors to B2B sites aren’t even actual prospects. So choose and leverage the right channels properly -- to target the right accounts, and to make sure the messaging isn’t repetitive or conflicting.
Ask the right questions when you’re measuring the results of an ABM campaign. According to our aforementioned team of experts, these might include:
Are we growing our list of known individuals within the target account?
Have there been any changes to the way these accounts are engaging with our brand and its content?
How much revenue have we generated from these target accounts?
There are also some tools available to help evaluate your marketing ROI. This guide, for example, explains how to measure your marketing campaigns using the HubSpot Sources Report.
Ready to Get Account-Based?
When it's broken down into a few steps, account-based marketing seems a bit less overwhelming. In fact, as we covered, it's not so different from inbound marketing, and works quite well with some of the inbound principles that we hold so near and dear.
Just like we said above -- find those targets. Then, with inbound marketing, help them find you.
How are you using account-based marketing? Let us know in the comments.
Do you want more exposure for your small business on social media? Wondering if partnering with influencers can help? Partnering with niched micro-influencers helps bring maximum brand awareness, conversions, and ROI to targeted social media campaigns. In this article, you’ll discover five ways influencers can boost your digital marketing efforts. #1: Improve Your Search Ranking [...]
http://bit.ly/2h9uyh8
http://bit.ly/2gTg4DV
http://bit.ly/2hi5UK5
http://bit.ly/2g9ZbRc
http://bit.ly/2ggi0Wp
