Storytelling Is The Unsung Hero Of Account-Based Marketing’s Success

In this guest post, Jaime Nelson (lead image), managing director at Hotwire Australia, says data, insights and personalisation are credited as the stars of account-based marketing; however, storytelling is the real hero of this marketing model…

Account-based marketing (ABM) has been around for some time, but the recent developments in technology and data analysis have helped propel the popularity of this strategic marketing model.

Targeting specific accounts with highly personalised campaigns, the ABM model can enhance high-value clients’ engagements and conversions and drive growth and results for your business.

Research by Hotwire has revealed that ABM is highly effective when well-executed as part of an integrated strategy. So, it’s unsurprising that investment in ABM is rising, with 70% of marketers using ABM in 2021, up 15 per cent from 2020, according to a recent HubSpot survey.

The success of the ABM model is often attributed to data, and there’s no doubt that good quality data is crucial for success; however, data alone is not enough.

To succeed, ABM requires three crucial elements: the data to identify the targets, the insights to understand the best times and ways to target these accounts, and the content to engage and ultimately convert them.

To build your successful ABM model, you require a very human element to contextualise the data. This calls for a collaborative approach from the sales and marketing teams to work with the data to identify targets and leads. This human lens is also crucial to understanding these leads’ habits and media consumption patterns to create highly personalised messaging and campaigns that will connect and engage with the targeted accounts.

This ability to create a truly bespoke experience essentially defines the success of ABM campaigns – and the key to those experiences lies in a very human element: storytelling.

The ability to craft content that speaks to the customer in a relevant, engaging and highly personalised manner is immensely valuable. This content can be the difference between a hit or miss campaign.

An effective ABM campaign can craft a story or a series of messages to engage with a customer as they move through their customer journey. It enables you to tell the stories your products can’t tell while ensuring the messaging fits within a broader communications strategy.

At a time when all companies are swimming in data, and your competitors can access the same raw data as you, your success can come down to the quality of your relationship with your customer.

This is why great storytelling that speaks to people on a human emotional level is so powerful for helping to create those exclusive one-to-one relationships. We know that rational messaging can only go so far; the addition of more emotional messages can help to drive significant growth.

That’s part of the power of ABM. It marries the rational (data) and the emotional (storytelling) to create truly bespoke personalised models that engage with your customers to drive qualified leads and help accelerate business growth. When executed well within a broader communications strategy, this winning formula can help to supercharge your results.

ABM is in its infancy in Australia, but that won’t last long. Many companies are already investing significantly in data, but how many apply the same importance to storytelling? With the quality data already in place, those investing in quality storytelling and integrated strategies will lead the pack.

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