BUILDING TRUST WITH ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING

By Kevin Bobowski

CMO, Act-On Software

Marketing has always been a more dynamic discipline

than most — its gaze often trained on techniques and

technologies at the cutting edge — and certainly this is

true of financial services marketing.

The banking industry as a whole has shifted shape quite a

bit in the years since the 2008 financial crisis, as pressure

and scrutiny from various watchdog groups and regulatory

agencies have forced banks to break with old habits and

forge new paths forward.

Between stiffer requirements for capital and the current

squeeze on net interest margins, today's financial

services marketers face an increasing number of

obstacles in courting corporate clients, and their best

hope for clearing these hurdles, it seems, is to look

forward at the trends shaping the broader marketing

discipline.

Specifically, it's time they rethink their respective

approaches to the purchasing process and put in place

strategies that are tailored to the unique journeys their

B2B buyers travel. More to the point: It's time they take

account-based marketing (ABM) seriously.

WHY B2B FINANCIAL SERVICES MARKETERS

BENEFIT FROM ABM

ABM gives financial services marketers a framework for

prioritizing larger accounts ahead of individual contacts

(and consolidating opportunities in the process).

It allows banks to zero in on the customers and prospects

that are likely to bring them the most consistent business,

and gives them a way to enrich and expand these

relationships.

It's a methodology that ensures the financial services a

bank may offer (loans, lines of credit, 401k matching, debt

relief) cater to the particular needs of its most valuable

(and often its most loyal) corporate clientele.

And it's plenty lucrative as a stream for revenue:

According to ITSMA, a research and advisory

organization serving B2B service marketers, 80% of

marketers report that ABM outperforms their other

marketing investments in ROI.

But better still, it's one of the rare banking strategies that

considers the long-term projections on a customer's

health and growth, which, as this Bain & Co brief notes, is

crucial as a mode of outreach:

"Any strategy should take into account the starting point

and the customer, competitive, technological and

regulatory trends affecting a bank and its markets.

It should also ... be explicit about the risk exposures

decided and how to adjust those exposures throughout

the cycle."

Some of the immediate benefits of the approach in broad

strokes:

ABM DELIVERS EFFICIENT AND COST-EFFECTIVE MARKETING.

When you have the means to structure your outreach

around predetermined profiles of your customers —

personas you've built over time based on the pain points,

habits and behaviors you've observed in your average

client — you're bound to be more productive in your

outreach.

You'll know, after all, who your buyers are and where to

find them, and this, in turn, can save you time and money

that might have otherwise been wasted on seeking out

potential customers individually and responding to their

queries manually.

You'll be able to anticipate, for instance, when a business

with a corporate account at your institution might require

an additional line of credit, or perhaps a commercial loan.

ABM DRIVES HIGHER RETENTION RATES ON AVERAGE.

By focusing on accounts rather than contacts, you're sure

to attract a particular and consistent type of customer —

someone for whom your services are essentially tailor-

made.

This is because ABM eliminates much of the guesswork

that can come with identifying your ideal customer, while

also standardizing many of your usual communications

and processes for engagement.

It yields a customer base made up of businesses and

individuals with needs, attributes and pain points in common

— businesses you've pre-screened based on, say, rounds of

funding they've raised previously, their financial valuations

and their interactions with other financial institutions (if, for

instance, they've open accounts with or loans from competing

banks). These are businesses likely to thank you with their

renewals in the long term.

ABM GUARANTEES MORE REVENUES PER INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMER.

Using an ABM strategy, you'll be quicker to spot and

capitalize on opportunities for cross-sell and upsell within

your customer base — situations where a particular action

(a financial investment of some kind) warrants follow-up

and possibly access to a different service in your arsenal,

if not a higher tier of service.

It's behavior-based upsell, loyalty programs built around

customers' specific needs and constraints.

What this might look like, in practice: You might be alerted

to a customer in good standing (a business with a history

of regular payments and activity) that has suddenly made

a sizable deposit in their account — a lump sum indicating

recent financing, or perhaps an acquisition.

This might indicate to you that the customer is a strong

contender for another of your services (access to your

trading networks, perhaps, or localized cash management

to support the business's growth) and might encourage

you to send along compliments to the customer for their

continued business, with the tailored offer attached.

ORGANIZING FOR SUCCESS

Like any mode of outreach, however, ABM requires tight

alignment across the organization to be successful.

There must be consensus within your organization on the

accounts and assets worth prioritizing, a collective effort

on a bank's part (from management down) to track and

continue communications long after an account is won.

This is where a technology like marketing automation is

crucial, serving as an ABM command center of sorts that

can orchestrate customer touch points across the

customer lifecycle

With marketing automation driving their ABM efforts,

marketers can strengthen and streamline their messaging

for more tailored, timely and relevant content, and can

track engagement over time for a clearer picture of buyer

preferences — something of a necessity today, given

buyers' tendency to evaluate offerings on their own time,

via social media and elsewhere.

But most importantly, a marketing automation-driven ABM

strategy ensures that marketers still market to individuals,

albeit within a given account.

The technology gives marketers the ability to score

accounts and leads on predetermined actions and

attributes, and this, in turn, can help to indicate an

account's overall health and readiness to purchase.

If ABM constitutes the oars that convey your business'

ship across uncertain waters, marketing automation is the

sail buffeting challenging headwinds and gathering the

ship's momentum.

Together, they make your company's journey successful.

About the Author: Kevin Bobowski is the Chief Marketing Officer of Act-On Software, a

marketing automation company. Kevin is responsible for shaping the company's go-to-

market strategy and leading its global marketing effort: building the brand, driving demand,

and expanding customer relationships.

About FPS: FPS develops, and distributes custom business content on behalf of banks

and other financial services marketers. We specialize in marketing consulting, e-

newsletters, conference presentations, client meeting editorial support, white papers, case

studies, multimedia demos and tutorials, and bylined article writing and placement

services.

For more information, contact: FPS President Vince DiPaolo at 847-858-9566 or

vince@fpsc.com or FPS Operations Director Ventsi Petrova at 847-501-4120 x2 or

ventsi@fpsc.com