Are you looking for a powerful way to target high-value accounts and build strong relationships with key stakeholders? Look no further than account-based marketing (ABM) - a strategy that's gaining popularity for its personalized, highly targeted approach to B2B marketing. While most marketers focus on social media and targeted ads, content marketing is often neglected. When it comes to delivering engaging content to your target accounts, webinars are the way to go.
Webinars are virtual events that offer B2B companies a fantastic opportunity to deliver highly personalized content to their target accounts. By using webinars to execute your ABM strategy, you can educate, inform, and engage your audience, all while building trust and strengthening relationships.
In this article, we'll explore the benefits of using webinars for account-based marketing, why webinars are the perfect fit for ABM, and how to use them to achieve success. We'll dive into case studies and use cases that show the power of webinars in ABM programs. Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to ABM, this article will provide valuable insights and practical advice for incorporating webinars into your ABM marketing strategy. Get ready to elevate your B2B marketing game with webinars!
Why use webinars?
Why use webinars in your ABM strategy, you might ask? Well, webinars offer a range of benefits that make them an ideal fit for this approach. Here are some of the key benefits of using webinars for account-based marketing:
- Webinar invites are a lower compliance threshold: In B2B marketing, not all buyers are ready to buy. But a webinar invitation is a low-pressure way to engage them and move them along in the buyer's journey. A demo request, by contrast, might be too pushy too soon. By leveraging data and insights about your audience, you can tailor your messaging and content to meet the specific needs and interests of each account.
- Personalization and targeting: Webinars allow you to deliver highly personalized content to your target accounts. By using data and insights about your audience, you can tailor your messaging and content to meet the specific needs and interests of each account.
- Thought leadership and expertise: By delivering a webinar on a relevant topic, you can position your company as a thought leader and expert in your field. This helps to build trust and credibility with your target accounts.
- Interactivity and engagement: Webinars are an inherently interactive and engaging medium. Attendees can ask questions, participate in polls and surveys, and engage in discussions with other attendees. This helps to create a sense of community and encourages deeper engagement with your content.
- Ability to generate content from webinars in the form of short-form video clips: Webinars can be repurposed into a variety of other content formats, such as blog posts, articles, and social media posts. In fact, at Welcome, we've seen a 50% increase in engagement from video content compared to other forms of content. You can also create short-form video clips from your webinar to share on social media and other channels, helping to extend the reach of your content.
In the next section, we'll explore why webinars are a good fit for account-based marketing.
Webinars & ABM
Now that we've explored the benefits of using webinars for account-based marketing, let's take a closer look at why webinars are such a good fit for this approach. Here are some of the reasons why webinars and ABM go hand-in-hand:
- Use of targeted messaging and tailored content for specific accounts: ABM is all about delivering personalized, targeted messaging to key stakeholders. Webinars allow you to create tailored content that speaks directly to the needs and interests of each account.
- Opportunity to create a more personalized customer journey: By creating a customized webinar experience for each account, you can help to guide them through the customer journey in a more personalized way. This can lead to deeper engagement and stronger relationships.
- Integration with marketing automation to streamline the process: By integrating webinars into your marketing automation platform, you can automate many aspects of the process, such as sending invites, tracking attendance, and following up with attendees. This helps to streamline the process and reduce the workload on your marketing team.
- Sales teams report that webinar leads are highly qualified: Webinars are an effective way to generate highly qualified leads that are more likely to convert into customers. Because attendees have demonstrated a high level of interest in your content by attending the webinar, they are more likely to be engaged and receptive to your follow-up efforts.
In the next section, we'll explore case studies and use cases that demonstrate the power of webinars in ABM programs.
Examples
To understand the power of webinars in account-based marketing, it's important to look at some real-world examples. Here are some examples of using webinars in ABM programs:
- Product demos: Webinars are an excellent way to provide a detailed product demo to key stakeholders. By tailoring your demo to the specific needs and interests of each account, you can help to guide them through the decision-making process and move them closer to a purchase.
- Thought leadership sessions: By delivering a webinar on a relevant topic in your industry, you can position your company as a thought leader and expert in your field. This helps to build trust and credibility with your target accounts.
- Virtual events: Webinars can be used to create a virtual event that brings together key stakeholders from multiple accounts. This provides an opportunity for engagement, relationship-building, and knowledge-sharing.
Best Practices for Using Webinars in ABM:
Now that we've explored some examples of using webinars in account-based marketing, let's take a closer look at some best practices for using webinars to achieve ABM success:
- Leverage social media and partnerships to promote the event: By promoting your webinar on LinkedIn and partnering with relevant industry organizations or other companies that also sell to your ICP (ideal customer profile), you can extend the reach of your event and attract a larger audience.
- Optimize the customer experience: By tracking key metrics like attendance, engagement, and lead generation, you can optimize the customer experience and improve the performance of future webinars. Use feedback from attendees to improve the content and delivery of your webinars.
- Use marketing automation to streamline the process: By integrating your webinar platform with your marketing automation platform, you can automate many aspects of the process, such as sending invites, tracking attendance, and following up with attendees. This helps to streamline the process and reduce the workload on your marketing team.
In the next section, we'll explore how to measure the success of your webinars and how to use metrics to optimize the customer experience.
Metrics and Optimization
Now that we've explored the benefits of using webinars for account-based marketing and best practices for using them, let's take a closer look at how to measure the success of webinars in ABM and how to use metrics to optimize the customer experience.
Here are some metrics to consider when measuring the success of your webinars in ABM:
- Attendance: How many people attended the webinar, and how many of them were target accounts?
- Engagement: How much engagement did you get during the webinar, such as questions asked, polls taken, and chats engaged?
- Lead generation: How many leads did you generate from the webinar, and how many of them were target accounts?
- Content consumption: How much of the webinar content did attendees consume, and how did they engage with the content?
- Customer journey progression: Did the webinar help to move target accounts further along in the customer journey, such as from the awareness stage to the consideration stage?
By tracking these metrics, you can optimize the customer experience and improve the performance of future webinars. Here are some ways to use metrics to optimize the customer experience:
- Use attendee feedback to improve content and delivery: Collect feedback from attendees after the webinar to find out what worked well and what didn't. Use this feedback to improve the content and delivery of future webinars.
- Personalize follow-up based on attendee engagement: Use engagement data to personalize your follow-up efforts with attendees. For example, if an attendee asked a question during the webinar, you can follow up with them to provide more information on that topic.
- Use attendee data to improve targeting and messaging: Use data about attendee engagement and content consumption to improve your targeting and messaging. For example, if you notice that certain accounts are particularly interested in a specific topic, you can tailor your messaging and content to that topic for those accounts.
In the final section, we'll recap the benefits of using webinars for account-based marketing and provide some final thoughts.
Conclusion
In today's fast-paced and constantly changing business landscape, it's more important than ever to find ways to stand out and build strong relationships with key stakeholders. That's where account-based marketing (ABM) comes in - a personalized, highly targeted approach that's gaining popularity in the world of B2B marketing.
In this article, we've explored how webinars can be a powerful tool for B2B companies looking to execute their ABM strategy. With the ability to deliver highly personalized content, build relationships, and generate highly qualified leads, webinars are a great way to engage your target accounts and achieve ABM success.
We've shared examples of how B2B companies have used webinars to achieve their ABM goals, and we've discussed best practices for using webinars to optimize the customer experience and improve the performance of future webinars. By leveraging marketing automation and tracking key metrics, you can ensure that your webinars deliver the best possible results for your business.
At Welcome, we're passionate about helping B2B companies achieve success through personalized, engaging marketing strategies. Whether you're a seasoned ABM pro or just getting started, we hope that you've found this article informative and valuable. If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out - we're here to help!