New Series: Say Hello to #ABMnow
Long Live ABM!
Out of sheer necessity, ABM has become the standard for conducting B2B marketing, and amen to that! This year has forced us all to up our game. In easy times—when SQL conversions were at an all-time high and leads were more plentiful than people on LinkedIn with opinions on what SDRs should say—sloppy marketing flew. But now? During the most ambiguous era most people have ever known? Well, you have to get smart.
Marketers always needed to get one-to-one personal, to deliver genuine value beyond the email capture, and to make a difference—not just be different. Only now, there are consequences. Software budget belts are being temporarily tightened and wartime buyer CEOs are announcing “Net-60” policies until the COVID scourge lifts.
Businesses everywhere are carefully and quietly separating their vendors and partners into two groups: the nice-to-haves and the need-to-haves. Those companies in the latter category are actually solving essential problems. They’re the ones who are certain to survive what some are calling “the great separation,” wherein category leaders who can prove their value become household names, vacuum up all the new business, and forever pull ahead.
Enter ABM. Now is the time for marketers to make those real personal connections and bulletproof cases for why they matter—directly to the accounts that matter, on the channels that matter.
That’s why I’m thrilled to announce our new ABM Now series. It’s an exploration of how the past six months have changed how marketers market forever. Over the next few months, we’ll open a portal so you can peer into how our members and their customers are doing ABM now, with specific, tangible tactics and discoveries.
We’ll ask them to reflect on what this moment has taught them and how it’ll make them a fundamentally different marketing team in a year’s time. Specifically, we ask each person:
What have you learned that you can take with you going forward?
What will you leave behind?
Based on how the conversations are going so far, I dare say it’s the meatiest, most idea-dense and delightfully-presented series we’ve ever produced. And because of the way the questions are framed, they aren’t just a snapshot of now. They offer a vision for the next decade, and what will work tomorrow.
Save yourself some time—subscribe now and get all 12 issues delivered to your inbox as they launch.
ABM Now Issues:
As the series progresses, we’ll return to update this post with links to each issue and social media so you can join the discussion.
Good luck out there! Though if you follow this series closely, you may not need it.
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Christine Farrier
Sr. Director, Partner and Channel Marketing, Demandbase
Christine Farrier is the Senior Director of Partner Marketing at Demandbase. In this role, she brings together substantive marketing, communications and entrepreneurial expertise primarily focused in the investment banking and technology industries. Prior to joining Demandbase, Christine held marketing leadership roles with IHS Markit and Imagine Software and successfully exited from her arts and culture startup.