How to use SEO in an ABM strategy

Online marketing has changed the priorities of business marketing. It is no longer a good idea to throw enough mud at a wall and hope that some of it sticks. The consumer is smart and seeks out products and services that will meet their needs.

This means that a successful marketing campaign will not fish in the deep seas but rather catch fish in shallow waters. If you want to attract a loyal and captive audience, you should consider account-based marketing (ABM). SEO is a great tool to help you do this.

What’s account-based marketing?

It can be difficult to keep up with all the terminology and different types of marketing packages that are available to businesses in 2022. Account-based marketing (ABM) is one of the most effective and important modern methods.

ABM is about identifying a specific marketing target such as a business or department within a large company and then tailoring a promotional campaign to them. This may mean breaking down your campaign step by step.

Imagine that your business is focused on manufacturing protective cellphone covers. Although you may be selling generic covers to high-street stores, you feel your business could grow if it partnered with a manufacturer of cellphones. Perhaps your cover could be promoted as an accessory for the new Galaxy handsets if you were able to get a Samsung contract.

You would need to create a customized approach that reflects the needs of Samsung. It is not enough to send Target the same pitch as you would Target asking for the sale of the item. A supermarket only cares about whether it can sell the product at a lower price and make a profit.

Samsung will be looking for long-term, successful relationships. You must show them why your phone cover is better than others, better than other products they currently use, and how your company will meet their expectations. This must all be done through a campaign that is hard to ignore for the targeted account.

What is ABM and how can it benefit your business?

Account-based marketing is a great way to market your business. These are:

• Through extensive research, you can build a solid profile of your target audience. This will provide an invaluable platform
• You can quickly earn the trust of your client base and improve your chances of loyalty.
• Reduce wasted time on inefficient or inappropriate marketing leads
• An easy analysis of the ROI and performance of any campaign will yield remarkably clear results.
• Keep sales funnels closed – consumers will not be compelled to convert unless they are already in the bag.
• You’ll have a better reputation in your industry. This will allow you to be known as someone who understands what your customers want.

ABM can be very effective for global businesses with multiple locations. These companies often deal with complex supply chain issues and need a supplier that understands them and can be trusted to provide the best service. You’ll reap significant financial rewards proving your worth to these clients.

Is ABM equivalent to inbound marketing?

Although account-based marketing may not be the same thing as inbound marketing it can be used as a complement. ABM can be a powerful tool, but it is important to keep an eye on your inbound strategy if you want to maximize its potential.

Inbound marketing is a way to set up a bait for potential customers and wait for them to find you. Inbound marketing is a key component of ABM. We will soon discuss how SEO can aid in this. Searches on the internet will often reveal your online presence, including blogs and social media accounts.

The core difference between ABM and inbound marketing is that ABM can be active, while inbound marketing can be passive. Both methods appeal to core interests, but ABM will allow you to approach the target audience directly. Let’s go back to the example of creating smartphone protectors for Samsung products.

You can create content to attract their attention, blogs with titles such as ‘This is a perfect protective barrier for the Galaxy S22’ or infographics explaining how and why users will benefit from your product. It will take time for these to show results. Even then, it is important to make sure that the right person from the right department contacts you. ABM is about reaching out to that employee.

There is a place for both account-based and inbound marketing. They often work side-by-side. Both will demonstrate to potential customers that you care about their needs and understand them. ABM strategies are more likely to provide an immediate return on investment. ABM is a marketing strategy that has been proven to deliver greater results than other methods for businesses.

SEO in ABM strategies

We’ve been too busy burying the leade. We need to talk about how SEO and ABM can work together to create campaigns that deliver business results. ABM and SEO share five key links that must be understood if you want to achieve success. These lessons can be applied to any ABM campaign no matter how big or small it may be.

Search Engine Optimization performance reveals core interests of your target audience

Keywords and SEO are intrinsically connected – it is impossible to ignore that. This can be a benefit to your ABM strategy. Focusing on the core of your SEO strategy will give you a better understanding of what your potential clients value.

It is crucial to understand which keywords perform best in order to make the most of your SEO strategy. This will also help you to decide who to target with an ABM campaign. Google Analytics allows you to see how visitors respond to keywords. You can expect a conversion if you have paid for a plum keywords. You can watch to see whether users leave the page connected to the keyword, or if they stay on the page and interact. Your Google Quality Score should also be monitored as it should be improving with the effective use of keywords.

Your keywords may not be generating traction if they aren’t as relevant to your target audience. This means that your keywords and, by extension, your micro-copy and macro are not aligned with your target audience’s needs.

It is better to know this before you try to create an ABM campaign using inefficient keywords. A first impression is only one. If you are not able to present a relevant offering, it will be difficult to build an account-based marketing campaign. Before approaching potential ABM clients, practice SEO and road-test your keywords.

It’s good news if your keywords perform well. Now you know what is most important to your audience. These features can be integrated into your ABM strategy. If the ‘free trial” is working well, you might write to businesses offering a 30-day trial of a software program. You can also focus on a specific adjective to describe your product or service when you market it.

A solid understanding of keywords performance is key to social media marketing. Once you have a good understanding of which keywords are most likely to succeed, you can go to Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to start applying PPC campaigns for business pages. ABM will be a part of this, since social media campaigns allow you to target your audience and reach the most interested people.

Search Engine Optimization opens doors to your target audience

Sometimes it can be difficult to choose where to pitch your marketing campaign, especially when you are in a B2B environment. You should try to win the hearts and minds decision-makers as they will ultimately hold the purse strings for a company’s account.

Be aware that the CEO and financial controllers don’t have the time or the patience to carefully consider the benefits of a product. Their staffing team will recommend a product or service to them. Based on their roles, each employee will have different priorities. SEO is the key to this.

Financial departments will be attracted to the promise of discounted or free services. They will appreciate any chance to increase a company’s bottom line. Administrative staff and support will be more interested in how the product or service will solve common problems, particularly if it is labor-saving. Managers will respond most positively to promises of higher performance and greater productivity from their subordinates.

These priorities will be addressed in your SEO strategy and you’ll get the attention of many business employees. This will increase your chances of success when you launch an ABM strategy that targets the CEO of a company. A business leader will ask their staff if they are familiar to your offering.

ABM can be used to identify a specific business or individual interested in your offer using SEO. Imagine you get significant traffic from local businesses whose offering matches yours. This is a clear sign that you are getting the attention of this company. Now that you have baited the hook, it is time to reel in the catch.

SEO leads to new ABM leads

You will be able to identify your ABM targets early and have roaring success in every campaign. Unfortunately, we don’t live in perfect worlds. Even when you start with ABM, it’s unlikely that you will hit the bullseye every single time. It’s important to always keep your eyes on the next campaign target.

A solid SEO strategy will allow you to track a lot of data. This includes who visits your site and how they behave once they have arrived. ABM and Inbound Marketing can co-exist here. Create a profile for those who are interested in your content.

Does this align with your target audience? If not, there is a new source of potential clients for you to apply an ABM approach to. Attracting attention is all about what you offer. Google Analytics allows you to look deeper into this. Sign into your dimensions and metrics summaries and view reports that summarize page views and bounce rates. These analytics will help you determine what is drawing the most attention.

This data will allow you to identify the source of these visits (more info anon) and then you can start approaching potential leads for ABM campaigns. These SEO-generated leads, which are easy to find, have already been done by your content marketing. Use your ABM approach to turn them into long-term clients.

Search Engine Optimization reveals the buyer journey for your target audience

SEO and ABM can be combined to create the ideal buyer persona, as we have discussed. But, just getting in touch is not enough. It is important to get to know the person and their preferred method of completing a transaction. Four stages are typical for a B2B transaction.

These steps can be used to appeal to your target audience using SEO. This will reinforce promises of trust and value for money as well as exemplary performance. This involves analyzing where your core web traffic comes from and creating a profile about who’s visiting. Are you more popular in local searches or do your visitors come from all over the world? Are you a popular site in particular regions or is your traffic distributed across the globe? Which pages attract more clicks? Does this mean you need to shift your SEO focus to use different keywords? These lessons can be applied to your conversion funnel to tailor the experience to the increasingly promising leads.

ABM analytics give insight into ABM campaigns

You should first use your Google Analytics results to create a targeted, account-based marketing campaign that meets the needs of every potential buyer. This will give you the best chance of converting.

Your mileage may vary as to which metrics are worth the most attention. Each business has different priorities. However, customers will be attracted to distinct industries. Analytics to embrace include:

• Is the website visited by the user via a desktop or mobile computer? You should consider developing an app and promoting it as part of your marketing strategy, claiming that it is the best way to do business.
• What channel do potential customers use to interact with you and visit your site? Are they more likely to visit your site through Google or on one of the social media platforms? Your ABM efforts should be focused on the channel that is most appealing to the user.
• Once they have visited your site, you should study their behavior. You should tailor your ABM to the user’s behavior if they spend long periods on Page A or bounce from Page B. However, it is worth considering adjusting the content of Page B (one more note).

Knowing is only half of the battle. These educational opportunities will not be enough. You must also put these learning opportunities into practice. This involves creating audience clusters in Google Analytics, and then targeting different groups at different stages of your sales funnel.

You’ll be able use Google Analytics to identify frequent visitors to a business in an ideal world. Log in to your Analytics account. Select Audience and Technology. Next, select Network. You can now see which ISPs have been visiting your site. With a little detective work and a paid tool such as Leadfeeder (or something that suits you best), you will be able to uncover who’s been visiting your site.

Let’s return to the ABM example we used earlier. Imagine that you have a group of people who spend a lot of time on your website, including the product pages. But they never attempt conversions. You find out that all of them are coming from Samsung headquarters in your country.

This sounds like the perfect lead-in to an ABM campaign. Samsung knows who you are and what you do. This is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to business contacts and to start a conversation about how you could work together.

SEO analytics can be a goldmine of marketing opportunities, including ABM. Account-based marketing is a great way to build and expand your business empire.

Joe Dawson is the Director of Creative.onl, a UK-based strategic growth agency. You can find him on Twitter @jdwn.

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Search Engine Watch’s first article was How to Use SEO to Create a Great ABM Strategy.