Take charge of your segmentation! How are you connecting with your target segments? Yesterday’s marketing used a kind of “shotgun approach” with getting people into your funnel, sending your messaging to a broad audience, and praying for conversion.

What if I told you there was a better way?

Relationship marketing with Account Based Marketing (ABM) is the way to do that. With a more selective and more targeted approach, you can transform your conversion rate.

The AMA Boston Sponsorship team has been working to expand our outreach and improve our sponsor revenue stream using ABM.

We’re happy to announce the AMA Boston Account-Based Marketing Education Project. The project is a way for marketers and salespeople to gain some experience with Account-Based marketing.

Marketers want to learn by doing, and this project gives them the chance to have experience with running an Account Based Marketing campaign. Our goal is to provide AMA members the experience of learning about Account-Based marketing.

What is ABM and why do you need it?

Account-based marketing is a powerful tool for reaching your target audience. It’s an approach to B2B (business-between) business that gets results by melding together sales and marketing teams.The purpose is to find opportunities with high-value accounts by building relationships early on before approaching them as potential customers
This strategy allows marketers to focus their efforts on a select number of accounts that have the highest potential for conversion, rather than trying to reach a wider audience with a generic message. By personalizing their approach and tailoring their messaging to each account, marketers can increase the likelihood of success while also saving time and resources.
ABM can be an extremely effective way to grow your business, but it’s not without its challenges. Implementing an ABM strategy requires careful planning and coordination between sales and marketing teams, and it can be difficult to measure the results of your efforts. But if done correctly, ABM can be a powerful tool for driving growth and achieving success in your B2B marketing efforts.

To learn more about ABM check out DemandBase’s content on the topic: (Jon Miller, CTO at Demandbase, co-founder at Marketo, and Ex-Engagio helped propel ABM to new heights in 2015)

ABM Maturity Model from DemandBase

How will the ABM project help AMA Boston Members succeed with ABM strategies?

We at AMA Boston hope that this ABM project will be one of the best experiences of your career. We’re confident it’ll help you succeed with all sorts of marketing strategies! We hope to increase the size of the volunteer team substantially as individual requirements to do volunteer work will be light across their activities with this method. AMA Boston members who volunteer on the project will receive some direct career experience and benefits including:

· Each volunteer would have opportunities to work on an aspect of an account-based marketing strategy, but everyone has to do some part of each activity so that work is shared.
· If as a marketer you’ve never had to do sales work, it’s tough to put yourself in the salesperson’s shoes, and the same for salespeople regarding their understanding of what marketers do.
· While our members are marketers, we are sure we will have some salespeople thinking of making the jump over to marketing, so this might be a nice training program to bring more sales folks into the marketing profession.

Here’s what a few of our volunteers are saying about the ABM project:

“The ABM Education Project will help volunteers better understand the importance of maintaining sponsorship relationships, and will better help AMA Boston cater to the sponsor’s needs. We look forward to seeing the results of the project, while also expanding our volunteers’ experience.” Valerie Quickel, AMA Boston, VP of E-mail Marketing

“As a marketer, it has been phenomenal having the opportunity to work with AMA Boston on their ABM Project. I have gained practical knowledge and experience I can use on my resume and in the workplace. I’ve had the ability to learn, and put new skills to use in building out our sponsor relationship process. I also love the professional connections I’ve made working with the Sponsorship team. I can’t recommend it enough!” Trevor Stasik, AMA Boston Sponsorship Volunteer

“Being a student volunteer of the sponsorship team for AMA Boston is undoubtedly a fantastic learning experience, especially working on the ABM project. This project helps me comprehend how the sales and marketing processes are integrated, coming from a sales background, and guiding my journey to core marketing. It has improved my knowledge and skills and will help my resume stand out to employers in the future. I also enjoy the opportunity to network with and engage with marketing professionals. I can’t recommend it enough. –Samina Banu, AMA Boston Sponsorship Volunteer

Another one of our volunteers, Trevor Stasik, created this handy video about AMA Boston’s ABM project!

Is the ABM approach worth exploring for your career, and if so, how can you get started today?

The bottom line is that the ABM approach is worth learning for your career. If you’re looking to up your game in B2B marketing, this is something you need to know about. Luckily, AMA Boston has set up a project that will give marketers and salespeople the experience of running an ABM campaign. We can provide you with the tools and resources you need to get started. So what are you waiting for?

We started the project by researching which companies AMA Boston will target to pitch to become potential sponsors. Likely segments include:

Customer Segments
· Internal marketing teams who are looking for marketers
· Recruiting firms who are selling to marketers, or who are hiring marketers for clients
· Companies selling to marketers

To join the education project, and learn more, first become an AMA member and volunteer for the project to work on ABM strategy, content marketing, and sponsor outreach.

The Sponsorship Team is always on the lookout for volunteers that want to learn by doing. These roles or roles like them are available for you to join us now:
  • Director of Academic Sponsorship
  • Manager of Student & Corporate Partnerships
  • Manager of University Location & In-Kind Sponsorships
  • Director of Corporate Sponsorship
  • Manager of Acquisitions & Onboarding
  • Manager of Regional & National Events
  • Manager of Stewardship & Renewals
  • Director of Sponsorship Educational Support
  • Director of Sponsorship Team Recruitment

Please reach out to us to learn more, or apply to volunteer on our site:  https://amaboston.org/join-our-team/

Author

  • John Cass

    John is the current VP of Sponsorship for the Boston Chapter of the American Marketing Association, and also the 2005 Past President.