We get it. Account based marketing (ABM) on paper sounds like a great idea. All you have to do is create a campaign that targets a specific account or set of accounts, track the results and adjust your strategy as needed.

But where do you start? What ABM tactics should you use? And how do you use them in a way that stands out from all of your competitors using the same tactics? 

Good questions—especially since research from MarketingProfs shows that organizations that have sales and marketing teams aligned on an account-based marketing strategy have seen up to a 208% increase in marketing revenue! 

In this blog post, we’ve put together a list of 9 ABM tactics that you can use to maximize the ROI of your account based marketing efforts. These tactics will go from foundational strategies like creating account-specific content to more innovative tactics like leveraging social media channels like LinkedIn and Twitter.

But before we dive into each of those tactics, let’s start with a few of the basics of account based marketing to ensure we’re all on the same page.

 

What is account based marketing?

Account based marketing (aka ABM) is a B2B-focused marketing strategy that puts customer relationships at the center of its efforts. It’s a way for you to build more profitable customer relationships and increase your sales pipeline with high-fit target accounts.

Unlike traditional B2B marketing, which focuses on mass outreach to as many people as possible, ABM is a targeted approach that enables businesses to build personal relationships with their ideal customers.

 

How to identify which accounts to target with account based marketing tactics

Want to save yourself some time? Consider using advanced marketing technology to quickly identify which accounts fit your company best. Typically, this type of technology employs predictive analytics, AI and machine learning to narrow down your ideal target market.

For example, Rev’s Sales Development Platform that uses AI to identify the most likely to convert accounts. Our platform identifies these accounts by comparing them to your current list of best customers using exegraphic data.

What’s that? Exegraphic data is any type of data point that gives you information on how a company operates and executes its mission. For example, exegraphics can give you insight into a company’s current hiring trends, how likely the CEO is to adopt new technologies and how the organization communicates its brand value to the public.

You can use this type of information to identify accounts similar to those already converted, increasing the likelihood of success for your account-based marketing tactics.

Once you’ve identified accounts that fit your criteria, it’s time to start engaging with them by crafting tailored ABM campaigns using sales and marketing tactics like the ones discussed below.

 

9 ABM tactics to maximize ROI 

Do your marketing and sales teams already have a decent target account list? Great! Here are 9 account based marketing tactics to help you maximize ROI and get the most out of your efforts.

 

#1 Use exegraphic data to refine your ICP

Your ideal customer profile (ICP) is the foundation of any successful ABM strategy. By leveraging the exegraphic data you found while building your target account list, you can also develop a more detailed picture of your ICP. Doing so will help ensure you create campaigns that resonate with your target audience.

For example, you can use exegraphics to identify the pain points and motivators most influential to key decision makers when they consider purchasing a new product or service. With this information, you can avoid ineffective marketing efforts and wasting time and resources on accounts that are not a good fit.

 

#2 Develop personalized content for each account

Has a friend ever sent you a personalized invitation to a party or event? If so, chances are that extra effort made you feel special and appreciated—and made it more likely you’d show up! The same concept applies to account based marketing.

Showing a target account that you’ve taken the time to craft personalized content for them can help build their trust and loyalty to your brand. How do you do this? Personalized content can come in many forms: custom videos, emails, social media posts and more. 

Just make sure it’s tailored to a target account’s specific business goals and needs, which you can find by looking at their exegraphics.

 

#3 Create account-specific offers or exclusive events

Imagine your favorite store has a sale. Would you rather get a generic coupon or one tailored to your specific interests, giving you a personalized customer experience? We know that we’d prefer the latter! The same logic applies to B2B account based marketing.

By creating account-specific offers or exclusive events showing your target accounts that you treat them differently, you can demonstrate your commitment to meeting their needs. This could be anything from an exclusive discount, a free trial period, or a free webinar or seminar to discuss ways your solution can help solve the account’s unique problems.

 

#4 Create account-level customer portals

Want to make a target account really feel special? Create a dedicated portal or app that gives them access to exclusive resources tailored to their unique needs. This portal can provide them with product updates, usage metrics and customer service resources.

Sure, this tactic requires some upfront work, but the rewards are worth it. Account-level customer portals can help you increase engagement and loyalty with target accounts by providing a one-stop shop for all their needs.

 

#5 Engage with the social media profiles of key accounts

Want your target accounts to know who you are before you reach out? How about wanting them to remember the value of your offer without needing to endlessly follow up? Well, have members of your sales and marketing teams engage with their social media profiles!

How? It’s easy! Go to a social media platform like LinkedIn or Twitter to follow their accounts, comment on their posts and share their content to make your company visible.

Why does this work? Because it shows that you’re paying attention to their business and care about what they have to say. You may even find yourself connecting with potential decision makers or influencers in the process.

 

#6 Perform website personalization for prospects and customers

One way to make your target accounts feel special is by personalizing their experience when they visit your website. This could include highlighting case studies relevant to their line of work, recommending products or services tailored to their specific needs or even providing a personalized landing page for each account. 

For example, a personalized landing page might include the company logo, visuals that are relevant to their industry and communication tailored to their specific account. This way, you can show them that you understand their needs, have solutions ready for them and make them feel like they’re being treated as an important part of your business.

 

#7 Develop influencer outreach programs

Influencers can play an essential role in an account based marketing strategy by helping to drive awareness of your brand and generate interest in your products or services. To succeed with this strategy, start by identifying relevant influencers to each of your target accounts. 

Then, you’ll develop outreach programs tailored to the needs of each influencer, including information on how they can help your brand stand out and the benefits of working with you.

For example, you could offer special discounts, early access to new products, or even exclusive sneak previews of upcoming features. By getting to know your target influencers and what they’re interested in, you can create more meaningful relationships that will benefit your company, the influencer and your target accounts.

 

#8 Use direct mail to reach out to decision makers

Direct mail is dead, right? Wrong! Despite its old-school reputation, direct mail is still an effective way to reach decision makers within your target accounts. You can use direct mailers to communicate your USP, deliver information about a new product or service and even provide exclusive deals.

For example, let’s imagine you work for a software company that offers a specialized customer relationship management (CRM) platform for enterprise technology companies. You can use exegraphic data to determine what qualities they look for when hiring the sales reps that will use their current CRM to manage customer relationships.

Once you have that information, you can craft a direct mail that offers a free trial of your platform for these companies, highlighting information that speaks to their specific needs regarding sales reps.

 

#9 Use retargeting ads to put your message in front of decision makers

Retargeting is another excellent ABM tactic that allows you to place ads directly in front of your target audience, no matter where they are online. These digital ads can also serve as a reminder that your product can provide the solutions they need.

As an example, let’s say one of your target accounts has recently visited a page about one of your products. You can then serve them with an ad that promotes the benefits of that product and how it can help them solve their unique problem.

Remember to personalize these ads with insights from exegraphic data to make them even more effective. For instance, your ad could speak directly about the account’s current pain points or how your product can help them meet their current objectives.

 

Final thoughts

Account based marketing is an effective way to get more out of customer relationships and increase customer loyalty. With the right ABM tactics, you can develop strategies tailored to specific accounts, track customer interactions, and create personalized marketing campaigns to help reach your company’s sales and revenue goals.

But to give your account based marketing strategy the best chance of succeeding, start by ensuring you’re targeting the high value accounts most likely to convert. How do you do that? We’ll show you!

Contact us, and we’ll show the exegraphics behind your best customers and provide you with a list of businesses that operate and behave just like them!

Account based marketing (ABM) has become one of the hottest new trends in marketing. It produces impressive results, making it a firm favorite strategy among leading companies, business startups and marketers. 

You may be wondering, beyond just being an in-vogue strategy for creating awareness and driving sales, what makes account based marketing so effective? 

At a high level, here’s the scoop: With ABM, customers are treated like individual accounts even when they’re grouped as leads within the same company or vertical. Each ABM campaign requires careful planning and an intimate understanding of what will resonate with each customer segment. It relies on tailored experiences to win a customer. While this strategic approach may require additional investment, the potential rewards outweighs the risk.

If you’re looking to get started with ABM—or need some fresh ideas for your existing program, we’ve got you. We’ve put together some of the best ABM examples that drove incredible results.

First, let’s dive into what account based marketing is.

 

What is account based marketing?

Account based marketing is a strategic approach to marketing that focuses on creating tailored campaigns for individual target accounts. It emphasizes the coordination between marketing and sales teams to reach the right prospects with personalized content.

ABM strategies are anchored on increasing engagement with key accounts to drive better results, such as higher quality engagements, more customer conversions and bigger deals. 

For example, if a company wants to target high-end accounts, it can create campaigns with special offers and incentives designed specifically for those accounts. With ABM, companies can target the right accounts and create content that resonates with those accounts’ specific needs and interests.

You can think of ABM as “one-to-one marketing,” where you tailor your messaging to each account instead of casting a wide net.

 

What are the benefits of account based marketing?

We’ve lightly touched on the benefits of ABM already, so let’s go deeper. They include the following.

 

#1. Targeted approach

Account based marketing allows you to direct your efforts (and resources) more precisely. By having an accurate view and intimate understanding of the customers you’re trying to reach, you can create content and campaigns tailored specifically to them. 

 

#2. Increased ROI

ABM strategies increase ROI because you’re focusing on accounts with the most potential. The tailored campaigns you build for your target accounts optimizes your spend, helping you avoid spending time and money on broad campaigns on a wide array of potential accounts that may or may not be receptive to the message.

In 2021, a global survey of B2B companies revealed that most had seen moderate success from their account based marketing (ABM) strategies. More than 1 in 5 even reported strong returns. Though nearly 30% saw little to no ROI, the vast majority were still moving forward with the strategy and working toward finding the right approach.

#3. Improved customer relationship

ABM allows you and your company to create a deeper connection with prospective and existing customers. As they begin to feel more valued and appreciated, their loyalty and engagement increases.

 

#4. Better insight

Through ABM, you can also come to better understand your customers’ needs and wants. As you dive into segmenting your targets, you’ll begin to develop more accurate customer profiles that can guide you in building meaningful campaigns that speaks to the challenges and opportunities they have. 

 

#5. Increased reach

Account based marketing gives you the opportunity to reach more customers. Now, I kow that sounds counterintuitive because we just said that ABM helps you target a specific set of accounts. But here’s the truth behind it all. By understanding the needs and wants of your target audience, you can create campaigns that more people will see. You’ll no longer be throwing spaghetti at a wall.

 

#6. Manageable costs

ABM also allows you to be very precise about how you allocate your budget. You’ll know if anything you spend is moving the needle at the account level and you’ll know where to invest more.

 

Examples of great ABM campaigns

The moment you’ve been waiting for: examples of strong ABM campaigns. Here are a few ABM campaigns to inspire your next one.

GumGum personalized storytelling

GumGum, an AI contextual intelligence company, leverages ABM for its “personalized storytelling ” approach. Specifically, they used this approach to close a big deal with T-Mobile.

GumGum was able to gain insight into the preferences of its target client through research. They discovered that T-Mobile’s CEO was a huge Batman fan and used this information to their advantage.

Knowing this, they printed out personalized comic books called “T-man and Gums,” featuring the CEO as the main character. It generated a lot of buzz and excitement among T-Mobile’s agencies, which helped GumGum secure the deal.

As a result of using an ABM strategy, they witnessed great success in their campaign and gained traction among their target accounts. Their sales pipeline rose by more than 10x. 

 

LiveRamp’s hyper-targeted approach

LiveRamp, a data onboarding company, also experienced success with its ABM strategy. 

They made a 33% conversion rate in 4 weeks after creating a comprehensive list of their 15 highest-value clients and targeting them with multi-channel campaigns. The list included the clients’ names, contact information and preferences. Their campaigns included emails, snail mail, webinars, and personalized content tailored to these accounts’ specific needs and wants.

Then, they tracked the responses for each channel and analyzed which was the most effective. While the campaigns were targeted, they also included a “bait” element that encouraged their clients to engage with them in the future. It showed that LiveRamp was actively interested in feedback and understanding the needs of its customers.

The main takeaway from LiveRamp’s ABM strategy was identifying the most valuable accounts and assuring them of a personalized experience tailored to their needs. It helped them increase conversions and create long-term, lasting relationships with clients. 

 

Salsify’s multi-channel account based marketing

Salsify is a product experience platform provider that helps companies to create and manage digital content for their products. To increase the visibility of their products to their target accounts, Salsify implemented an account based marketing strategy. 

They planned a roadshow in New York with large companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Google to speak on their behalf. At the same time, they took to social media to find and connect with their targets. 

In addition, Salsify followed up with targeted ads and emails to close dozens of accounts in 2 hours, exceeding their target conversion by 22%. With the help of their marketing and sales departments, the multi-channel account based marketing strategy created a massive success for Salsify. 

The strategy increased brand awareness and made it easier to launch their product into the market. It also created a more personal experience for their clients, allowing them to tailor their message to their accounts’ individual needs and wants. 

The success of Salsify’s ABM strategy demonstrated the power of multi-channel account based marketing. It showed that companies could exceed their conversion expectations by taking a more personal approach to their campaigns. 

 

DocuSign’s segmented approach

DocuSign is a digital transaction management platform that provides businesses with an easier way to manage their contracts and documents online. Along with the challenge of having to target six different industries, they needed to find a way to connect with their customers effectively. 

With the challenges in mind, DocuSign decided to create a segmented approach on its website. By asking users simple questions about their industry, they could determine which content was most relevant for each individual. 

This allowed them to direct marketing efforts with industry-specific campaigns, such as webinars and whitepapers. It also helped them better understand their customers’ needs, making it easier to create more customized content that resonated with their audiences. 

The result of this approach was a 22% boost in their sales pipeline, proving that segmentation can be a powerful tool in ABM. They also increased their engagement rate by over 59% as users felt more connected with the company. Also, they boosted the number of views on their page to more than 30%

By segmenting their approach, DocuSign was able to drive more traffic, increase click-through rates and boost conversation percentage from high-value accounts.

 

The bottom line

ABM can fuel tremendous growth results. To see that lift, you have to make sure you’re targeting the right accounts from the beginning. The superficial markers you may have once relied on—things like industry, company size, geography—are not enough.

You need to target accounts based on deeper signals, exegraphics. Exegraphics data tell you how companies operate, so you can not only target the accounts that have the characteristics you care about, but so you can also create campaigns that align with their core needs.

Curious to learn how to bring exegraphics into your ABM strategy? Contact us and we’ll show you the exegraphics behind your best customers—and even show you the accounts you’re missing from your ABM list.

Did you know that revenue generation isn’t just the responsibility of your sales team? In fact, all departments—including marketing, customer success, revenue operations and even finance—play a role in driving the growth of your business.

So, if you want to ensure that your B2B company is profitable, it’s essential to have a strong revenue generation strategy that empowers each department to contribute to the bottom line.

But what is revenue generation exactly? And how do you improve your revenue generation process without sacrificing the customer experience? Good questions! And we’re going to answer them in this blog post as we look at:

• The meaning of revenue generation
• Examples of revenue generation tasks for sales, marketing, customer success, finance and revenue operations teams
• 7 profitable strategies your business can implement to start generating more revenue

Let’s begin!

 

What is revenue generation?

Revenue generation is the process of creating and capturing sales opportunities for a company. This process can involve various activities such as identifying market segments, setting pricing strategies and converting leads to customers.

Without an efficient revenue generation process, your business may fail to attract and retain new customers. In the B2B world, this process can be even more complex, as sales cycles tend to be longer and involve multiple decision-makers.

 

Which teams are responsible for revenue generation activities? 

Revenue generation isn’t a task reserved for one specific team within a company. Instead, it’s a collaborative effort between different departments, including marketing, sales, customer success, finance and revenue operations—with each team having specific responsibilities and tasks.

 

Sales

You probably already know that the sales team is responsible for generating revenue. Sales Development Reps (SDRs) do this directly through prospecting and closing deals. But they also play a crucial role in this process by:

• Identifying and targeting the right leads based on an understanding of their pain points and how the company’s solutions can address them
• Proactively reaching out to leads through cold calling, emailing, networking and other lead generation activities
• Building and maintaining relationships with clients to increase the likelihood of repeat purchases
• Conducting product demos with potential customers
• Tracking and analyzing sales performance data to improve processes and strategies continually

 

Marketing

Your marketing team’s role in revenue generation is just as crucial as the sales team’s. They generate demand for your product or service, increase the flow of high-quality leads and create brand awareness. Ultimately, your marketing team aims to guide potential customers through the initial stages of your sales funnel and convert them into qualified leads by:

• Creating content such as blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and webinars to attract and educate potential buyers
• Launching marketing campaigns, often in collaboration with the sales team, to drive leads and conversions
• Conducting market and competitor research to inform go-to-market strategies
• Building and maintaining relationships with key industry influencers and partners to increase brand visibility and credibility
• Tracking and analyzing lead conversion rates, website traffic and other relevant metrics 

 

Customer success

The customer experience can make or break any company’s revenue generation efforts. The customer success team takes ownership of ensuring a positive customer journey that supports and contributes to revenue growth by:

• Providing onboarding and training to ensure customers are fully using your product
• Building strong relationships with clients to encourage loyalty and retention
• Collecting customer feedback and making suggestions for product improvements
• Recommending new products or services based on customer needs and interests
• Working with the sales team to upsell or cross-sell additional products and services

 

Finance

The finance team often isn’t thought of as directly contributing to revenue generation. But they play a crucial role in helping your company make informed decisions about pricing, product offerings and investments. For example, finance contributes to revenue growth by:

• Analyzing and forecasting financial performance so the company can set realistic revenue goals
• Providing insights on pricing strategies and identifying new revenue streams
• Conducting cost analyses to maximize profitability
• Ensuring compliance with financial regulations and minimizing financial risk
• Using financial data to drive decision-making and optimize revenue generation efforts

 

Revenue operations

Revenue operations (RevOps) is an emerging business function becoming increasingly crucial in data-driven B2B companies. If your business has a RevOps team, you know their main priority is to identify and eliminate any roadblocks to revenue generation. To achieve that goal, the RevOps team will perform tasks like:

• Aligning the message and strategy of all go-to-market teams to ensure consistency and optimize revenue generation
• Implementing sales technology, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, to improve accuracy and efficiency in revenue forecasting
• Going beyond traditional lead scoring methods to understand the ideal customer profile (ICP) and determine the signals that indicate a lead is ready to buy
• Optimizing pricing and packaging for maximum revenue and profitability
• Analyzing data and presenting insights to inform decision-making for the whole revenue generation team

 

7 strategies to improve your B2B revenue generation process

Generating sustainable revenue sounds like a no-brainer for any business. But it can often be a challenge for B2B companies that sell complex or high-value products to other businesses.

So, you may need to experiment with different strategies and tactics to find what works best. Here are 7 revenue generation strategies that can help your business boost profitability.

 

Strategy 1: Use exegraphics to better understand your ICP

Your ideal customer profile (ICP) is a crucial component of any revenue generation process. Why? Because understanding who your ICP is helps you focus on the leads most likely to convert into customers and bring in revenue.

Unfortunately, many businesses have trouble accurately defining their ICP because they rely on superficial information like company size, annual revenue or industry. But does that type of information tell you whether a particular lead is actually a good fit for your product or if they’re ready to buy it anytime soon? Not really.

By using exegraphics—data and insights on the characteristics, behaviors and needs of your best customers—you can more accurately define and target your ICP. When studying a company’s exegraphics, you might find that your best customers tend to have a specific pain point in common when they buy from you, like a need for better data security due to new compliance regulations and a small IT department.

With that information, you can better target similar companies in your outreach efforts and tailor your messaging to address their specific pain points. The only problem is that finding this type of data can be tedious and time-consuming as it’s not readily available in one centralized location.

That’s where Rev comes in. Our AI-powered Sales Development Platform can quickly analyze your current customer data and gather insights into the characteristics and behaviors that your best customers tend to display when they’re ready to buy. This data helps you better understand your ideal customer profile and identify and target similar companies for your outreach efforts.

 

Strategy 2: Invest in demand generation marketing

Demand generation (aka demand gen) involves creating content that attracts the attention of your ideal customer, builds brand awareness, and drives demand for your product or service. Despite being a long-term investment, demand gen can significantly impact revenue generation.

Not only does demand generation bring in new leads, but it also helps with lead nurturing—turning those leads into paying customers. By creating valuable content targeted towards your ideal customer, your target audience will see your brand as a thought leader in the industry and be more likely to do business with you.

Demand generation activities can include content marketing to attract and educate your target audience, using search engine optimization (SEO) to improve visibility on search engines and running targeted advertising campaigns. Learn more by reading our demand generation marketing guide.

 

Strategy 3: Leverage the power of social proof

In his book Influence, Robert Cialdini discusses the power of social proof—the idea that people will mimic the actions of others to fit in or feel safe. In the B2B world, this translates to potential customers being more likely to buy from a company that has proven success in the form of customer reviews and case studies.

Think about it. As a potential customer, you are more likely to trust and believe in the capabilities of a company that has glowing reviews from other companies like yours or has a case study outlining how they successfully solved a problem for a past customer.

So, how can you leverage this to improve your B2B revenue generation strategy? First, ensure that you have a system for collecting and showcasing customer reviews, whether on your website or through third-party review sites.

You can also work with your customer success team to gather and publish case studies highlighting the successes of your past clients. These types of social proof can go a long way in building trust and credibility with potential customers, ultimately leading to more sales and revenue generation.

 

Strategy 4: Empower your customer success team to generate revenue

While the customer success team’s primary focus may be on retention and advocacy, they also can have a significant impact on revenue. But if you want to maximize their potential for revenue generation, it’s essential to provide them with the necessary data and resources.

Access to customer data such as account health, churn likelihood and renewal dates can help the customer success team prioritize accounts and proactively address potential risks. And by equipping them with that information, your customer success team will better understand how to upsell and cross-sell to current customers.

You can also encourage direct collaboration between customer success and sales. In a recent interview, the Chief Customer Officer of AppsFlyer shared just how much of an impact the customer success team can have on revenue generation.

By empowering their customer success managers to identify customer support qualified leads to pass to their sales team, AppsFlyer was able to generate over 300 million dollars in revenue from their existing customers in less than four years!

 

Strategy 5: Master psychological pricing strategies

When was the last time you noticed a price ending in “9” or “99”? Chances are, it was recently. Why? Because this tactic, known as charm pricing, is one of the most commonly used psychological pricing strategies.

Psychological pricing refers to any pricing strategy that uses psychological tricks or techniques to influence customer behavior and drive sales. Along with charm pricing, other examples of psychological pricing strategies include:

• Prestige pricing: Setting a high price to convey luxury or exclusivity
• Comparative pricing: Comparing your lower-priced products to higher-priced products
• Bundle pricing: Offering a discounted price for purchasing multiple products at once

While these pricing tactics may seem subtle, they can actually be effective in driving sales and revenue growth. However, it’s important to use them ethically and make sure they align with your company’s values.

 

Strategy 6: Create the environment of a high-performing SDR team

Whether it’s funding a training program or providing the latest sales technology, investing in your SDR team can help better equip them to close more deals from high-fit accounts. It’s also important to continuously gather feedback from them to improve and fine-tune your messaging, value propositions and lead scoring criteria.

Another way to support your SDR team is by creating a warm lead handoff process between marketing and sales. This process ensures that the leads passed over to your SDRs have already shown interest in your product or solution or are showing signs of being fit and ready to engage.

It’s also crucial to audit your sales pipeline regularly to ensure that your SDRs spend their time on the right deals and target the best-fit accounts rather than wasting time on low-fit leads. For more tips like these, check out our post on 12 steps to build a high-performing SDR team.

 

Strategy 7: Prioritize sales and marketing alignment

It’s unfortunately common for sales and marketing teams to operate in silos, with little communication or collaboration between the two. As a result, quality leads fall through the cracks, marketing feels their efforts aren’t translating into sales, sales feels like they are constantly starting from scratch with few qualified leads and revenue growth suffers.

Sound familiar? If so, it’s time to get these teams on the same page. Because when sales and marketing teams align their efforts, they can create a streamlined approach to generate leads, nurture them through the sales funnel and close more deals

But how do you go about coordinating your sales and marketing teams? It begins with breaking down silos and fostering open communication and collaboration. You can achieve this through regular meetings, joint goal setting, creating shared metrics to track progress, and using the same tools and systems to track leads and sales data.

Sales and marketing alignment is also one of the core goals of a revenue operations team. So, a transition to RevOps at your organization (if you haven’t already) can also play a crucial role in hitting revenue targets by bringing together all the revenue generating teams and aligning their efforts.

 

Final thoughts

Driving consistent revenue growth can be a challenge for B2B companies. But by understanding each team’s role in the revenue generation process and aligning their efforts, you can ensure everyone knows how to contribute to achieving revenue targets.

It also helps to empower your teams with the tools and technology to make revenue generation activities more effective and efficient. For example, Rev’s Sales Development Platform helps you better understand your ICP and the signals that indicate when they’re ready to buy. This information lets you identify and target high-value leads and close deals faster.

Want to see how Rev can improve your revenue generation plan? Contact us and request your free ICP audit! 

 

Companies can’t survive without customers. And every customer is a “converted” lead. But, not all leads will convert. Some may not fit your ideal customer profile and others may not be ready to buy. That’s where marketing qualified leads, or MQLs, come into play. 

You might be asking, “What exactly is an MQL?” “How do you identify an MQL?” and “Why do MQLs matter?” 

This blog post covers all you need to know about MQLs—from definitions to strategies for converting leads into paying customers. You’ll also learn how MQLs compare to sales qualified leads, (SQLs) and how they work together in the sales funnel.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in.

 

What is a marketing qualified lead (MQL)?

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a person or organization that has expressed interest in your company’s product or services. MQLs are leads your marketing team has identified as having the potential to become customers. 

In other words, MQLs are leads that have met specific criteria that indicate that the leads are more likely to move further down the sales funnel.

These criteria can be based on a variety of factors, including

• Website interactions: How often does the lead view your website? Are they clicking on CTAs or downloading content? 
• Paid advertising: Are they responding to your paid ads? Are they clicking through or engaging with them? 
• Content engagement: Are they interacting with content such as emails, blog posts or e-books?
• Social media engagement: Are they engaging with your social media accounts? Are they sharing posts and commenting? 

Because MQLs have already taken actions that signal they are likely to become customers, they are more valuable to your business. These marketing qualified leads are likely to become sales-qualified leads (SQLs). And with that confidence, you can prioritize them over other leads—saving you time, money and resources in closing pipeline. 

 

Marketing qualified lead (MQL) vs. sales qualified lead (SQL)

Now that you know what MQLs are, let’s look at how they differ from sales qualified leads (SQLs).

As the name implies, sales qualified leads are leads that the sales team has deemed worth pursuing. These leads have shown enough interest in your product or service to make it worthwhile to engage them further in the sales process. 

The main difference between MQLs and SQLs is which team sourced them. MQLs are identified by the marketing team, and SQLs are qualified by the sales team. 

While MQLs have the potential to convert into customers, they still need to enter the sales funnel. But, this is not the case with SQLs. SQLs are already in the sales funnel and are ready for sales to engage further.

 

How a lead becomes an MQL

MQLs have specific attributes that differentiate them from other leads, and much of it can be tracked and measured. 

Some examples of MQL common behavior include:

1. Regularly visiting your website: MQLs will consistently visit your website, view content and explore different pages.
2. Completion of web forms: MQLs are likely to fill out web forms, to get more information or request a product demo.
3. Interacting with online ads: This may involve clicking on ads or engaging with sponsored content. Most MQLs will have interacted with at least one of your online ads.
4. Downloading content from your website: MQLs will likely have downloaded content from your websites, such as e-books, white papers, case studies and other valuable information.
5. Requesting more information or demos: MQLs have taken the initiative to request more information about your product or service and may even ask for a demonstration.
6. Signing up for emails: MQLs will have signed up for emails and newsletters to receive ongoing updates about your product or service.
7. Engaging with social media posts: MQLs tend to engage with posts and content by liking or commenting.
8. Subscribing to newsletters: MQLs may also have subscribed to newsletters and other email campaigns to stay up-to-date on your product or service.
9. Attending webinars and other events: This involves MQLs taking the extra step of attending webinars and other events to get more information about your product or service.

But in order for a lead to become an MQL, they don’t need to engage in ALL of the trackable activities. In fact, that’s why it’s important for sales and marketing teams to align on lead scoring and how to weight engagements. 

Lead scoring is a process that assigns values to leads based on their interactions with your company. This helps you see which leads are more likely to convert and should be given more attention.

To score a lead, assign a point value to each interaction with your website, ads, content and other digital assets. This helps to determine the worthiness of each lead.

 

High quality vs. low quality MQL

You might be wondering why we’re calling out high vs. low quality MQLs, especially when we just said that all MQLs had to meet a specific threshold in order to become “qualified.” The truth is, lead scoring optimizes for the lowest common denominator. So yes, high and low quality leads get bucketed—equally—as MQLs.

But they’re not equal, really.

Both hit minimum criteria. High quality MQLs, however, are more likely to engage. They have a higher closing and revenue potential and are further along in the buyer’s journey. Low quality MQLs showed just enough interest, but may require a bit more nurturing and time before they’ll be ready to move to the next stage.

Lead nurturing is essential, for both high and low quality MQLs. But right out of the gate, it’s even more important to identify low-fit from high-fit leads. The faster a high-fit lead can be identified, the faster you can book revenue.

 

How sales and marketing can increase their pool of high-fit leads

All revenue teams—sales and marketing, specifically—need to have a unified strategy in place to bring in high-fit leads. The strategy needs to start at the most fundamental level: the ICP. Understanding who your ICP really is at the deepest level, the exegraphic level, will help revenue teams target and engage with accounts that have the characteristics they care about most. 

After all, when you engage with the wrong account, every step after is wasted.

Don’t be that team.

At Rev, we help revenue teams understand their ICP, and we find and prioritize other high-fit accounts that look just like them. Curious to know what your ICP really looks like so your demand gen team can run a stronger campaign and your SDRs can be more efficient in their outreach? Contact us for your free ICP audit.

Whether you’re working at a startup or a large enterprise, demand generation marketing is too good for business to ignore. Because imagine this…

You’ve just launched a unique, innovative SaaS platform. You have no doubt that it’s the best on the market, sure to revolutionize your industry. BUT… no one’s buying. Like, at all. Why? Few people know your platform exists. And even the people who do know can’t articulate why they would choose your platform over another.

So, despite being the best on the market, you struggle to hit your sales goals. And eventually, you begin to doubt whether you’ll actually revolutionize your industry.

Unfortunately, this scenario happens all the time to businesses with outstanding products and services. But it doesn’t have to. If you apply what you’re about to learn in this guide, you can start to harness the power of demand generation (demand gen) to increase your sales pipeline with quality leads.

Here’s a preview of what we’ll cover:

• The difference between demand generation and lead generation
• A 5-step demand gen strategy using AI and exegraphic data
• How to measure the success of a demand generation campaign
• Our recommendations for the top demand gen tools
• Answers to frequently asked questions on demand gen for startups, enterprises and everyone in between

Feel free to skip to the section that interests you most. Or, stick with us, and we’ll teach you everything you need to know, starting with…

 

What is demand generation marketing?

Demand generation marketing is the process of creating interest in your brand and its offerings. Rather than waiting for your ideal customer to stumble upon your website, demand gen involves actively connecting with your target audience to:

• Build brand awareness and interest in your offer
• Attract and build long-term relationships with prospects
• Nurture prospects towards making a purchase decision
• Drive steady revenue for your business

If you think this sounds like lead generation, you’re not alone. But there is a difference. So, before we go further, let’s explain…

 

Demand generation vs. lead generation: What’s the difference?

Understandably, many people don’t know how to explain demand generation vs. lead generation. And that’s because both are important for a successful marketing strategy and often go hand in hand.

However, demand generation focuses on interest and desire for your product or service over the long term. In contrast, lead generation (aka lead gen) focuses more on acquiring new leads and customers.

For example, to generate demand, you might create compelling content that teaches your ideal buyer how to solve a common problem related to your offering. On the other hand, to generate leads, you might create a landing page to capture leads interested in signing up for a free trial of your service.

Ultimately, lead gen is a form of demand gen. But demand gen encompasses a broader range of marketing tactics to build brand awareness and get attention from high-quality leads—sometimes before they’re even in the market to purchase a new service or product.

Learn more about:

• Demand generation vs lead generation

 

Why is demand generation important for B2B companies?

You may think, “I already have leads coming in from my marketing and sales team’s strategies. Why would I need to focus on demand gen?”

In today’s digital age, buyers are more informed and less reliant on salespeople for information. They’re also doing their own research before making a purchasing decision.

Just think about what you do whenever you need to buy new software for your job. You could only authorize purchasing new software after explaining why you’ve chosen it to your team.

So, you’ll research and read reviews before making a decision. Then, you may start seeing targeted ads and receiving content recommendations about one company. And because you’ve become familiar with this option, you’re more likely to consider it a top choice when it’s time to buy.

A demand gen campaign helps to build brand awareness to drive qualified leads to your business and build a steady pipeline of sales opportunities. And it does this without your sales team needing to push your audience with hard sales tactics, excessive discounts or endless promotions.

Instead, your ideal customer gets pulled through your demand generation funnel until they’re ready to contact your sales teams for more information or make a purchase.

 

What is a demand generation funnel?

Your demand generation funnel outlines a lead’s steps, from first becoming aware of your brand to making a purchase. It can also help you retain the customers you already have and increase their overall customer lifetime value. 

Creating this type of funnel is similar to any other marketing or sales funnel. You’d start by defining your ideal customer profile and developing buyer personas, then create messaging and content that aligns with each stage of the customer journey. 

Learn more about:

• How to create a demand generation funnel

However, you’ll have the most success with your funnel if it’s incorporated into a strategy that begins with a rigorous update to your ideal customer profile.

 

How to develop a B2B demand generation strategy

Your marketing team is likely already doing things to drive demand for your product or service. For instance, you might drive demand with content marketing or social media campaigns.

But to truly succeed with demand generation marketing, you need a plan to ensure you’re targeting the right audience, creating personalized messaging and nurturing leads until they are sales-ready. Here’s an overview of a 5-step B2B demand generation strategy to achieve those goals.

 

Step 1: Determine clear goals and metrics of success

What exactly do you want to achieve with demand? Take some time to determine what a successful demand generation campaign would look like for you and ensure it aligns with your overall business goals.

Here are some examples of goals you may have for your demand gen campaigns:

• Generate X number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs)
• Increase website traffic by X% to build brand awareness
• Decrease MQL churn rate by X%

Your goals will also inform the metrics you track to gauge success. We’ll discuss that soon. But first, your ICP needs an update. 

 

Step 2: Use exegraphic data to update your ICP

Understanding your ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer personas is critical to creating a successful demand gen strategy. Doing so will inform your targeting and messaging, ensuring that you’re reaching the right people with the right message at the right time.

Unfortunately, many businesses use demographics and firmographics to make generic assumptions about their target audience. These two types of data give you information like geographic location, company size and industry. But they don’t provide the deeper insights that truly define your ideal customers.

That’s why we recommend studying the exegraphics of your current best customers to create a more comprehensive ICP. What are exegraphics? The behaviors, attitudes and motivations of your ideal customers that drive purchasing decisions. For example, an exegraphic of your ideal account might be:

• Brands that are currently expanding their sales and marketing teams
• Companies with a CEO who’s an early adopter of cloud-based software solutions
• Businesses with high turnover in their accounting departments

Why go through all of the effort to create a more rigorous ICP? Because this is how you can better understand your customers’ pain points, buying behavior and more.

As a result, your demand generation campaigns have a higher chance of success because you’ll be able to create content that resonates with the issues your target audience is experiencing.

How do you find this information? Well, you could find it by studying things like a company’s website, job postings or messaging from PR campaigns. It might take you forever to gather sufficient information on all of your best customers, but you can do it.

Another option is Rev’s Sales Development Platform, which uses AI to gather this information quickly and create a dynamic model of your ICP that updates as the behaviors of your ideal customer change.

Learn more about:

• Exegraphic data
• The limitations of traditional ICPs
• How to use Rev for demand generation

 

Step 3: Create content for every stage of the customer journey

Content is a crucial component of demand generation, as it helps attract and educate prospects while driving them to take the desired actions. When creating demand gen content, you’ll aim to strike a balance of top-of-the-funnel (TOFU), middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) and bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content.

TOFU Content

For the awareness stage, focus on providing valuable information about your industry and solutions to common problems that potential buyers may have. For example, you might create blog posts, whitepapers, infographics and social media posts.

MOFU Content

In the consideration stage, your content should focus on showcasing your product’s or service’s benefits and features. For example, case studies, demo videos, free trials and webinars could help guide prospects to begin seeing your business as a potential solution to their problem.

BOFU Content

Finally, for the decision stage, your content should focus on building trust and showcasing the results that customers can expect when using your product or service. This type of content can include product demos, ROI calculators and free consultations.

As you develop your content, you must also consider what channels you will use to distribute it. These channels may include your website, email marketing, paid advertising, social media and events.

 

Step 4: Test, analyze and optimize

You’ll want to regularly test, analyze and optimize your demand generation strategies to ensure it’s achieving the desired results. This can include A/B testing different variations of content, analyzing the performance of each distribution channel, and making changes based on what’s working and what’s not.

 

Step 5: Measure success based on your goals

Some people think measuring the ROI of demand generation is impossible because they believe there is no direct correlation between the strategies and revenue. However, that’s not true—it just takes a bit more effort to track the right metrics and connect them to your bottom line.

Once your demand gen campaigns run for a few months, go back to the goals you set in step 1. Where are you in terms of reaching those goals? Are you seeing an increase in website traffic or leads? Are those leads converting to customers at a higher rate? If not, it’s time to re-evaluate.

Learn more about:

• How to create a demand generation strategy

 

How do you measure the success of demand generation strategies?

You’ll know whether your demand gen strategies are effective by tracking the metrics related to the goals set for your demand generation campaigns. Here are the metrics we recommend you use to communicate the value of demand gen to the rest of your organization: 

• Number of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs): These are leads that have demonstrated interest in your product or service through their actions and fit your target buyer persona
• MQL to SQL conversion rate: This metric tracks the effectiveness of your lead nurturing efforts by showing how many MQLs turn into sales qualified leads (SQLs)
• MQL churn rate: The percentage of MQLs lost during the sales process
• MQL and SQL to customer conversion rate: The percentage of MQLs and SQLs that turn into paying customers
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): The total revenue that a customer is expected to generate over their lifetime with your company
• Cost per acquisition (CPA): The cost incurred from sales and marketing activities to acquire one paying customer
• Content marketing performance metrics: This could include metrics such as website page views, blog post shares and email open rates that come from your demand gen content and campaigns 
• Close rate per channel: The percentage of leads converted to customers through each demand gen marketing channel
• Marketing cycle length: The average time it takes for a lead to go through the entire funnel and become a customer
• Contribution to total revenue: The percentage of revenue generated from demand generation strategies

For more information on these metrics, including tips on improving them, check out our article on demand generation metrics for B2B marketing. 

 

Which tools should you use to maximize your demand gen campaigns?

There’s a vast array of tools available for demand generation. These tools will help you automate and optimize your marketing efforts, saving time and improving results. Some particularly helpful ones we recommend are: 

• Rev: A Sales Development Platform that uses AI to help you identify the exegraphic characteristics of your best customers, build a living model of your ICP and provide a data-driven list of high-fit target accounts. 

• Ahrefs: An SEO tool that helps you do things like track your website’s search traffic, find the keywords your target audience uses on search engines and learn your competitors’ backlink strategy.

• Quora: A Q&A website where you can answer relevant questions and build brand awareness by positioning yourself as an expert in your industry.

• Leadpages: A website and landing page builder that includes options for lead generation forms and pop-ups.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: A tool for finding, connecting with and nurturing leads on LinkedIn.
• Wishpond: A tool for creating and running social media contests, promotions and landing pages.
• RiteKit: A tool for finding and scheduling relevant hashtags for social media posts and other tasks like creating and sharing branded graphics.
• Outgrow: A tool for creating interactive content such as calculators, quizzes, and surveys to engage and capture leads.
• HotJar: A tool for analyzing website user behavior and visually representing it through heatmaps, recordings and surveys.
• Zapier: A tool for automating repetitive tasks by connecting different software and applications.
• EverWebinar: A tool for automating live and evergreen webinars to generate demand and leads.
• BuzzStream: A tool for managing and organizing outreach campaigns to potential leads and influencers.
• ZoomInfo: A tool for finding and connecting with targeted accounts through advanced search filters.

For more information on these tools and why we recommend them, check out our article on the essential demand generation tools for B2B marketers.

 

Demand gen FAQ

There’s no one size fits all approach to demand generation, and it’s essential to tailor your strategy to fit the specific needs of your business. So, you may have questions we haven’t covered in this guide. However, here are answers to a few frequently asked questions that may arise as you get started:

 

How often should I run B2B demand generation campaigns?

The frequency will depend on your industry and target audience, but it’s important not to bombard your audience with too many messages. A good rule of thumb is to run campaigns consistently but not more than once a week.

 

Who is responsible for demand generation?

Ultimately, demand generation is a collaborative effort involving input and buy-in from sales, marketing, product and management. In larger organizations, a demand generation team or department may be responsible for planning and executing demand generation strategies. In startups and SMEs, the responsibility may fall on the marketing team or an individual marketer.

 

Does demand gen work for startups?

Demand gen can definitely work for startups, as it allows them to build awareness among their target audience and generate interest in their products or services.

However, startups may have to tailor their strategies and tactics compared to larger, established companies. This could include focusing on a niche audience and targeting them through personalized messaging and content. Startups may also have to be more resourceful and creative in their approach, using paid and organic tactics.

 

What makes valuable content for demand generation campaigns?

Demand generation content is valuable when it offers solutions and helpful information for potential customers rather than just promoting your products or services. Additionally, it should address your target audience’s specific pain points and needs.

 

How does thought leadership impact demand generation?

Establishing thought leadership in your industry can significantly impact demand generation. By positioning yourself as a go-to source for information and solutions in your field, your target audience will likely turn to your business when they need it. 

Thought leadership pieces can also increase brand recognition and trust, leading to more organic demand generation. Additionally, thought leadership can help establish valuable partnerships and collaborations with other industry leaders, further expanding your reach and potential customer base.

 

How is inbound marketing different from demand generation? 

Inbound marketing focuses on creating valuable content and experiences for customers to attract them to your brand. Demand generation, on the other hand, aims to actively drive demand for your products and services through targeted tactics and campaigns. 

While inbound marketing is a larger umbrella strategy, demand generation can be a tactic you use within or without an overall inbound strategy.

 

Can demand generation increase pipeline growth?

Yes, demand generation can increase pipeline growth by sending your sales team high-quality leads that show signs of being ready to convert. However, it’s essential to remember that a demand generation strategy should be supplemented with efficient lead scoring, lead nurturing and sales processes to maximize pipeline growth.

For example, Splunk increased its pipeline by 15% using Rev to develop an AI-generated ICP, identify leads in a new market segment and run an efficient content syndication campaign targeting high-fit accounts with a high propensity to engage.

 

What are some examples of businesses that demonstrate demand gen best practices?

One example of a company that excels at demand generation is HubSpot. They have a well-defined buyer persona and offer various free educational content, including online courses, webinars and ebooks, to attract their ideal buyers.

Another example is Litmus. To generate demand for their email marketing platform, Litmus has created various resources, such as ebooks and blog articles, to educate their audience on email marketing best practices.

Learn more about:

• Our favorite demand generation examples from top B2B companies

 

Final thoughts

Demand generation shouldn’t be an afterthought for any brand that wants to increase sales and attract high-quality leads. It’s one of the best ways to drive long-term growth and success as it builds a foundation for the continuous demand of your offer.

If you want to hit the ground running with demand gen, make sure you take time to understand your ideal customer profile before you launch your next campaign. Contact us, and we’ll help you create an ICP that reveals the hidden characteristics your best customers share.