In a survey conducted by Demandbase, an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) company, as many as 80% of marketing executives said they believed that AI would revolutionize the marketing industry by 2020¹. AI applications are already transforming various aspects of marketing. Harnessing AI to power your ABM efforts can produce amazing results. The question is, how do you leverage AI in ABM? Here are four ways AI can help.
Identifying the Right Accounts
An AI tool can be invaluable in the account selection process. It can help you identify accounts based on criteria that you set. Beyond basic factors like revenue, headcount, and sector, an AI tool can track intent data to pinpoint accounts that are actively evaluating solutions in your product category—or even researching your competitors.
When setting your selection criteria, remember to include exclusion parameters as well. For example, you can use AI to filter out prospects based on factors that indicate a high likelihood of churn. AI can analyze vast datasets to help you shortlist the most promising accounts.
Harnessing Data and Analytics to Understand the Customer Journey
Once you’ve identified the right accounts, AI can track their online behavior, along with that of their individual stakeholders. You can set up triggers to monitor key activities, such as acquisitions, divestments, restructuring, budget shifts, and executive promotions, hires, or departures.
AI also enables you to gain deeper insights into the customer journey of stakeholders within these accounts by mapping their digital footprints and online activities. This data helps refine your ABM approach, allowing for more informed decision-making.
Personalizing and Hyper-Targeting Your Content, Ads, and Campaigns
Once you’ve profiled individual stakeholders, you can use AI-driven insights to sequence and deliver content that aligns with their interests at the right moment. AI enables you to:
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Create outbound campaigns based on the stakeholder’s stage in the customer journey.
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Personalize their website experience for a tailored interaction.
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Develop account-centric campaigns that nurture and guide prospects through the sales funnel.
AI leverages historical engagement data to hyper-target your prospects with relevant content, ads, and campaigns, maximizing the effectiveness of your outreach.
Scaling Your Target Account List Without Compromising Personalization
The strength of ABM lies in its ability to provide B2B marketers with deep insights into their prospects and customers. If this level of data collection were done manually, scalability would be a major challenge. However, AI eliminates this limitation by analyzing vast amounts of data with speed and accuracy beyond human capabilities.
With AI, you gain meaningful insights that enhance one-on-one conversations with prospects—whether you’re targeting 10 accounts or 100. AI-powered ABM allows for greater efficiency while maintaining the personalized approach that defines ABM success.
AI could be the next big breakthrough in ABM. As more organizations integrate AI into their ABM efforts, we can expect a radical transformation in how accounts are targeted and won.
References:
https://www.demandbase.com/press-release/marketing-executives-predict-artificial-intelligence-will-revolutionize-marketing-2020/
https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2018/33621/ai-powered-marketing-is-here-what-you-need-to-know
