When the stakes are high, think about this highly targeted marketing approach

What is account-based marketing and how does it work? Robin Tooms asks Shavonnah Schreiber, director of global campaigns and events at IHS, Inc.

Robin: Hello and welcome to this edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies. I’m Robin Tooms, VP of Strategy at Savage Brands and I’m here today again with Shavonnah Schreiber, Director of Global Campaign and Events at IHS. So Shavonnah, welcome back to Brandonomics.

Shavonnah: Thank you, happy to be here.

Robin: I’m so excited you’re here because I really want you to talk to all of us today about Account Based Marketing and I think just for the benefit of everyone kind of describe how you see this as being defined, what it is and how it might differ from maybe a traditional Marketing approach.

Shavonnah: Absolutely; Account Based Marketing just happens to be one of my favorite topics. Favorite topic because many Marketers hear Account Based Marketing and they think “a lot of effort to few” which is not naturally what Marketers want to do. Many Marketers are very much in to let’s do the broad brush; we want the most hits, we want the most visitors, we want the most attendees to our event. So the idea of Account Based Marketing and going very focused is something that many Marketers are turned off by. So I love it. So with Account Based Marketing it’s just that; it’s saying okay, here are a specific number of accounts who have a specific need and we believe as a business that we can meet that need.

And it’s learning on the front end as much as you can about the particular client and mapping the solutions that you provide to those business needs, so whenever you are engaging with that client, whether electronically, whether is person or in support of a salesperson or a business development person that’s engaging with them, it’s almost as if you’ve read all of their documents and you know ahead of time the issues that they have and then you are able to apply solutions that are fit for purpose; which makes what could be a more difficult sale a very easy one actually, in fact. And typically I’ve seen Account Based Marketing work best in higher profile, higher value opportunities because you are giving that account the attention that they need and they don’t feel like they’re getting a broad-brush marketing approach. They feel like they’re getting something very specific from someone who definitely understands the business need, so they see it as a partnership.

Robin: It feels to me like this could fill a real void that happens between Sales and Marketing departments right now. The marketing team has a chance to provide so much great insight and value to the table other than just saying “great, we’ve reached this volume of people for you.” How are you doing this for your sales team?

Shavonnnah: So one of the things that we do – and we have an opportunity and example right now where we have a particular report that we have done research on and we’re ready to sell and while it could be applicable to many, we’ve decided that we’re going to focus on 20 accounts. And we believe that in focusing on these 20 accounts that we’ve done a lot of upfront research on, definitely mapped problem to solution, we believe that we’ll have a much higher conversion rate. Because historically that’s what happens; you go to fewer accounts but you have a much higher conversion rate than the broad brush, traditional approach to Marketing; so that’s just one of the ways that we’re looking at doing it now currently at IHS.

Robin: Okay, well I can’t wait to talk to you more about this, thank you for sharing.

Shavonnah: Absolutely, sure.

Robin: This has been another edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies.