I was contacted by a B2B company that was interested in Account Based Marketing. But they would like to start with sorting out their social media strategy. Account based marketing is most used in B2B marketing in the IT market. Average order values exceed €100.000.000,- and the buying journey is 1 to 2 years long. That’s why marketing and communication is tuned to that one specific potential client. Peppers and Rogers started writing about account based marketing in 1993 (Wikipedia). A lot has changes since then. The market has become more customer centric and company mindsets shifted to outside-in. The digital revoltion also please a key role in the big change (e.g. sociale media, profiling and personalization based on online behavior on websites and mailings).

Account Based Marketing 2.0
Account based marketing 1.0 focusses on client specific marketing intelligence, ambassadeurs recognition, customer insight, organisational goals, internal politics and than tuning ones (online) communication. Account Based Marketing 2.0 is much more than that. It requires an outside-in mindset, good social CRM, abilities for online personalization (based on behavior). For example researching what ambassadors find interesting based on what e-mails where opened. This in irder to be relevant at the right moment. The main goal is to stay top-of-mind as prefered supplier. Most important is to become an authority on the content matter. Most inspiring about Account Based Marketing 2.0 is that the customer triggers the communication based on his own actions, interests, location and so forth. Communicating changes to engaging in multichannel (or better Omnichannel). “Account Based Marketing 2.0” was first mentioned and introduced by Diederik Martens in 2010!

The Roadmap Towards Success
Account based marketing 1.0 usually starts analyzing a client and storing in a CRM-system. Account Based Marketing 2.0 starts with social media and working towards an outside-in mindset, where more and more technology is used to create an interactive (two-way) communication based on a clients behavior.

The 5 E’s of Account Based Marketing 2.0

The roadmap has 5 maturity stages for ultimate Account Based Marketing 2.0.

1. Explore
   Start learning what happens on social media channels. Start with social media monitoring and create dashboards.
2. Enter
   Start using and leveraging your social media channels.
3. Engage
   Start helping your client with solutions instead of trying to sell your services. Share whitepapers and answer questions.
4. Energize
   Recognize brand ambassadors and start inspiring them. Make use of the crowd to co-create solutions for the market.
5. Experience
   Make sure your Account Based Marketing 2.0 strategy is seemlessly integrated with your customer buying journey or customer lifecycle.