Three ways to use personalized destinations for your ABM campaigns (without getting too creepy)
Most modern marketers understand that account-based marketing is now an essential strategy for effectively reaching and engaging with target accounts. But personalization at that scale can be intimidating (not to mention time-consuming). And if the experience isn’t totally personalized, it can fall flat. Putting time and money into targeted ads, outreach, and direct mail will only take you so far. Have you considered where you’re sending your target accounts back to?
What is a personalized ABM destination?
Whether you’re targeting accounts through direct mail or display ads, it’s a good idea to always have a digital destination to send prospects back to. Think of it as a place where you can curate everything they’ll need to know about you, some content they may be interested in, and provide an easy way to get in touch.
Your level of personalization will depend on whether you’re doing one-to-one, one-to-few, or one-to-many outreach, but you should always try to make at least one element—whether it’s job title, industry, pain point, or company—feel tailored to your prospects.
The example below is a personalized destination from Tokbox targeting an account in the education industry. You can see that they’ve altered the copy on this landing page to appeal to that particular account’s use case for their product, compelling further engagement from them.
What truly matters is having an engaging destination to send target accounts to that will compel them to do a bit of clicking around. And we know that personalization works: Amazon has reported that 35 percent of product sales result from their personalized recommendation engine. From Amazon to Netflix, today’s consumers are used to being served experiences that are tailored to them. It’s become an expectation.
We’re lucky to be marketers in a time where creative examples are aplenty and there are tons of tools to help us achieve the perfect level of personalization. Below we’ve outlined some instances where personalized destinations will help boost engagement with your ABM campaigns, and how to get personal without getting creepy.
1. ABM destinations for targeted ads
So you’re pumping money and resources into display ads and social media campaigns, but are you thinking strategically about what happens after your target accounts click on them? The post-click experience is just (if not more) important than your ads themselves. The destination you send people to is what makes them decide if they want to bounce or stay, so it has to be something that will grab their attention.
Check out this example of a display ad from our friends at CollabNet VersionOne.
Once the targeted account clicks through the ad, they’re sent to a page like the one below that reinforces the ad messaging, pulls in their prospect’s logo, and also provides additional resources that will engage that particular account.
When creating customized destinations for your ad campaigns, it’s a good idea to include calls-to-action where people can engage further if they want to. This can include anything from webinar signups to demo requests, depending on how far down the funnel the accounts you’re targeting are.
2. Digital destinations for your direct mail plays
Customized web pages can also serve as a digital destination for your direct mail plays. Check out the example below of a campaign that our account-based marketer at Uberflip ran. She sent our target accounts a box that included a bag of microwave popcorn and a note prompting the recipient to go visit our digital experience to book a demo, after which, we’d top up their Netflix account for a year.
You’ll notice that the page is branded to match the experience created with the Netflix box, and also includes additional content that is likely to engage those accounts, who in this case were CMOs. While the page doesn’t mention anyone’s name, company, or even industry, it still generated a ton of engagement because the content was hand-picked to appeal to a marketing leader.
3. Personalized destinations for one-to-one emails
If you’re sending out one-to-one emails to hot target accounts, you could send people a bunch of links and attach your best assets, or you could put all those elements together on a branded webpage to direct them to. (We’d suggest the latter).
For this hyper-personalized, one-to-one outreach, you can even go as far as including your contact’s name, company, and logo in your web experience, along with any assets that may be particularly relevant to their job title or industry. This isn’t too creepy—you’re reaching out by email, after all, and this isn’t anything you don’t already know!
Directing your prospects to an experience created just for them shows you care about their business and their needs, which already gives you a leg up on your competition.
Turn the tables on personalization
When it comes to ABM outreach, you get what you put into it. Generic landing pages yield less than impressive results, while going the extra mile and getting personalized is sure to get you noticed. And there are a ton of creative things you can do!
We love this example from Vidyard—they’ve included a custom CTA with a photo of the sales rep, Reid, who this particular account would be engaging with. He’s also linked a video introducing himself in the page’s header.
This example turns modern marketing’s definition of personalization on its head, because rather than customizing the page with the target account’s details, it’s customized with the sales rep’s. The page is so personalized to him that when someone clicks on the Connect with Reid CTA, they’re sent directly to his Calendly where they can book a meeting.
Now it’s time to start scaling
Creating personalized content experiences (at scale) isn’t always the easiest task, but it’s always worth the effort. With the right tech and team on your side, you’ll find that scaling personalized experiences for ABM is actually easier than ever. The only thing left for you to do now is get started—and don’t forget to keep a close eye on your content metrics to see how your engagement and conversion rates start trending way up! 😉