Marketing versus Customer Experience – why ABX can take your ABM to new heights!

It’s fair to say that in the world of post-pandemic B2B,  marketing and selling have become just that little bit harder. New operational complexities such as hybrid working, accelerated digital transformation and changes to commercial focus have shifted the ways in which brands interact. Add into the mix heightened regulation, the continuous drive for efficiency and dare I say it, AI, and the sales cycle becomes increasingly complicated.

As a result, B2B companies face more challenges and opportunities. In such an environment, customer retention and expansion are of growing importance, as simply acquiring new customers is insufficient to sustain growth and profitability.  

Enter ABX!

ABX is a B2B ‘Account Based Experience’ approach. ABX builds on the practice of Account Based Marketing (ABM) to include all the key aspects of the customer journey. The aim is to provide a personalised and cohesive experience for your target accounts.

ABX emphasises the importance of personalised engagement utilising multiple touchpoints across the customer lifecycle. ABX goes beyond ‘marketing’ and includes sales, customer success, and other teams to develop a seamless and individual experience for each target account.

With ABX, marketers focus on understanding the unique needs and preferences of key accounts, delivering relevant content, and offering consistent experiences across all channels. ABX is employed to build stronger customer relationships, improve customer satisfaction, and facilitate better commercial outcomes.

ABX versus ABM

It’s true that ABX and ABM target quality B2B customer accounts but both tackle the aim in a different way. ABM focuses on the tactics and channels used to acquire key accounts. This typically involves using an outbound sales approach that relies on data. However, to ensure optimal success, the data needs to be accurate and up to date. With ABM there is also the danger that campaigns and outreach become cookie-cutter and don’t reflect the individual buying traits of the target customer.

ABX is intrinsically data driven and identifies, prioritises, engages, and measures success with customer accounts. It does require close alignment between sales, marketing, and customer service teams. ABX’s focus is to provide highly personalised and engaging interactions based on the needs, preferences, and intents of individual target organisations.  

ABX tactics

• Building awareness through trust – less overt selling, more sharing relevant and informative content.
• Account nurturing through highly personalised interactions and communications.
• Cross team collaboration, collating supporting content such as industry reports, third party reviews etc.
• Maintaining post sale interactions. Don’t walk away once you’ve closed a deal.

An effective ABX strategy will unite your sales and customer service operations to ensure you always treat existing customers with the utmost importance.

Tips for developing an ABX strategy

• Research the content your potential customers look at - videos, blogs, podcasts, social media etc.
• Know your audience. Use accurate data and insights to drive account interactions.  
• Know where your prospect is in their purchasing cycle. Create the right content for the right time.
• Be consistent and ensure all marketing and sales touchpoints deliver the same message.
• Measure success. Use KPIs to understand what is working and what is not. Make necessary changes to improve future account interactions.

In summary, an account-based experience helps ensure a seamless and satisfying engagement throughout the customer lifecycle. With ABX, B2B businesses can align their sales and marketing efforts, leverage data and insights, and prioritise customer-centric strategies to enhance the overall experience and drive customer success.

In our next blog, we dive into AI in ABM.