8 Irresistible ABM Campaign Plays that Win Hearts and Seal Deals

Go-to-market teams today are trying to break through the noise so the right potential buyers engage with their brand. They’re also looking for new ways to deliver personalized, but scalable, content to their high-priority accounts. What if we told you there’s a secret channel can deliver both?

Employee email is becoming a channel ABMers LOVE for targeting, engagement, and overall account based marketing success. Whether you’re wooing new prospects or rekindling old flames, every email becomes a chance to sweep your audience off their feet and onto the next stage of the buyers’ journey. The best part? Your entire go-to-market team including marketing, sales, customer success, and C-level can easily get involved. 

Build Pipeline

When your target accounts are already smitten with your brand, employee email is the perfect channel to keep the romance alive and create some at-bats for your sales team. With every email sent, you can continue to establish trust and credibility, all while nudging them to the next stage. But like any great love story, it’s the content that sets the scene for a lasting and fruitful connection. Resources like ebooks, guides, webinars, podcasts, or a relatable case study. Anything that can provide value and prove your knowledge in the space. And like candy hearts, it can keep the conversation sweet and engaging, leading your prospects to naturally desire the next step - a demo of your product or service.

‍Example: Share a Relatable Case Study

At this stage, your target accounts are familiar with your brand, and it's time to show them how others have found their happily ever after with your offering. Craft a case study that speaks to their pain points, goals, or use cases, showing them real examples of success that they can't help but fall in love with. And when you deliver it in the right channel, like a beautifully designed and interactive Valentine's Day email ad banner, it will capture their attention, help you build trust, and even spark a little FOMO as they see others finding success with your brand.

Example: Schedule A Demo

In the love story between go-to-market teams and their prospects, scheduling a demo or meeting is a pivotal moment. But timing is also important, as well as how you present this all-important “ask”. If you’re looking for a non-intrusive way, while knowing it won’t be missed in the next email you send, consider a banner similar to what you see below, giving them a Valentine’s ticket to meet with you. It's a romantic gesture that's hard to resist and won't go unnoticed. Bonus: including “Schedule a chat” in the top part of your email signature also provides another opportunity to advance them to the demo stage.

Accelerate Deals in Your Pipeline

ABM can help close deals more efficiently by offering your target accounts a personalized buying process and this channel can make a huge impact with that effort. It's the cupid's arrow that hits the bullseye. Teams today are leveraging their CRM data and marketing automation platforms to target accounts in creative ways. This includes by recipient, language, location, opportunity stage, and more. From initial interest to sealing the deal, email signatures are the love notes that deliver timely and relevant ads, guiding potential buyers down the aisle.

Example: Next-Level Personalization

Can you imagine scrolling through your favorite websites and seeing your company’s name in a display ad? Then, as if by fate, you open your email to find the same personalized touch. Whether it’s digital advertising, direct mail, or email, incorporating a “wow” factor like account-specific personalization can make your brand stand out amongst the other solutions they may be evaluating. And if you can do it in multiple channels, all coordinating together and at once, that can really give you an edge. And who doesn’t love the nostalgia of receiving an old-school Valentine’s card like this in their email?

Example: Show More About Pricing

Buyers today are smart. They do their own research, which often includes checking out your pricing page. So why not make it easy for them to find? Especially when you know they’re at the stage where they’re ready to see it.

Reunite with Closed-Lost Accounts

Rejection from potential customers is hard, but it doesn’t mean you lost them forever. Some reasons for losing accounts are completely out of your hands. Others, however, are very much in your control. If you can pinpoint the reason why you lost their business the first time around, you can figure out when and how to reach back out and turn it into a win. Here are a few examples:

• Pricing: Woo them with irresistible pricing changes or a ROI case study
• Competition: Show your devotion by spotlighting your strengths vs. their weaknesses
• Recent Wins: Capture their attention with a bouquet of new features, offerings, products or new customers

After taking some time to evaluate the why and what to do about it, use your favorite engagement channels to reach out to them with the right message. Here are a few email signature plays for inspiration:

Example: Show Why You’re the Best Option

Proudly displaying a company milestone, recognition, or award can get the attention of any email recipient within the account you’re trying to win back. It can also be a conversation starter if you’re looking to reestablish any form of engagement to make them fall in love with you. Plus, it effectively represents the positive momentum of your organization.

Example: Promote A New Feature, Service, or Product

Can you think of an account that asked about a certain feature or product that you just couldn’t offer at that time, but can now? If the answer is yes, it’s time to make a move and email them right away. And within that message should be an email signature banner that showcases the benefit, excitement, or impact that new feature can deliver on. Hit send, get a reply, and boom, now you have a rekindled deal added to your pipeline, sparking a love story with your product once more!

Customer Retention and Expansion

Your customer marketing strategy is important, but that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated. It all starts with identifying and targeting the right high-value customer accounts, driving engagement with customers through the right channels, and then activating your go-to-market team to serenade them with the right data to drive focused plays. Wait a minute, doesn’t that sound like account based marketing? Yep! Your customer retention and expansion strategy can be ABM at its finest. Customer acquisition is expensive, yes. But losing customers? That's an even more costly heartbreak. Here are a few Cupid-approved ideas to help you get started.

‍Example: Enable Customer with Training

Happy customers lead to sustainable revenue growth. And oftentimes, your happiest customers are those who are well-trained and confident in using your service or product. The first step to this is providing as many opportunities as you can for customers to feel love and supported. So whether it’s a product tutorial, virtual training workshop, or link to your knowledge base, make it easy for them to find helpful resources so they can cruise through onboarding and on into full adoption. Why not use every email sent to your customers to promote these resources?

Example: Introduce New Products, Features, or Services

The basic fundamentals of account based marketing say to first identify, target, and then engage a specific audience that represents potential revenue for your business. So try following those steps with this simple, yet effective, customer marketing play. First, identify a list of customers with the healthiest app usage, biggest contract value, or highest expansion potential. Then, target them with a campaign that promotes a new feature, product, or service that they currently aren’t using. Use employee email as one of your main channels for engagement to capture their attention and see how this can become an effective conversation starter for your account managers and customer success team.

Interested in even more email signature plays for your ABM strategy?

This blog is just an appetizer to what we served up in our recent webinar with Scrappy ABM, Rollworks, and Sendoso. We broke down the most creative, compelling, and scrappy full-funnel ABM plays you can deploy to help your prospects feel the love, ultimately allowing you to secure your top accounts. Check it out here!