Digital Kungfu, Africa’s Best Tech Start-Up, invites you to participate in the first nationwide research project exploring the state of the holy grail of B2B lead generation: account-based marketing (ABM).

What is ABM?

Given the recent hype, it may be more useful to start with what ABM is not. ABM is not algorithmic software. It is also not list-based marketing. Nor is it re-marketing and the clever use of cookies. While a successful ABM campaign might comprise these components, it is considerably more than the sum of its parts.

ABM is the structured and strategic treatment of key accounts as markets in their own right. It is the traditional sales and marketing funnel flipped. And while it may feel counter-intuitive to put a lot of one’s eggs (budget) in one strategic basket, according to a survey from the Information Technology Services Marketing Association, 84% of businesses using ABM report that this strategy delivers higher returns on investment than other marketing campaigns.

Give us your opinion here.

Why it works

ABM is the almost inevitable answer to a digital landscape that increasingly presents greater opportunity for insights and greater demand for personalised, precise messaging on relevant channels.

ABM is to traditional marketing what spearfishing is to trawling. While the traditional marketing mindset aims to net as many fish as possible with the hopes of landing a few keepers, ABM is a much more strategic way to do outbound and requires planning, patience and precision. With ABM, instead of ending your campaign with a jumbled assortment of prospects in your net, you dive deep to get to your best catch first.

Sometimes (and perhaps more accurately) termed “account-centric marketing”, ABM takes its queues from its target audience. The first step in any successful ABM campaign is the careful selection of target accounts based on a number of factors: buyer propensity, likelihood and estimated value of conversion and ability to reach stakeholders with personalised content.

Buyer personas (and in the case of systematic ABM, actual individuals) are identified at critical phases of the buyer process and diverse stakeholder pain points are mapped. Personalised content is then generated and channelled to stakeholders, guiding each along a unique buyer narrative culminating in a common destination — conversion (and/or retention, and/or expansion!).

The current state of Africa ABM

Matt Brown, founder and CEO of Digital Kungfu, a purpose-built storytelling production company specialising in building sales and marketing pipelines for technology businesses, first encountered ABM in the boardrooms of South Africa’s leading ICT businesses.

“While ABM was clearly on the minds and agendas of a lot of sales and marketing execs, a lack of executional expertise seemed the primary obstacle to implementation of an ABM programme,” says Brown.

To explore this and other assumptions around the state of lead generation in South Africa further, Digital Kungfu has prepared this important market research initiative.

“We hope to gain a deeper insight into what is and isn’t working when it comes to lead generation and ABM in the ICT sector, and as pioneers in the space, to explore the potential of incorporating ABM into our client’s marketing strategies to further improve ROI,” says Brown.

Click here to take the survey and stand a chance to win a white paper for your company worth R25 000. Note that your answers and information will be kept strictly confidential and the average time to complete is just two minutes and 48 seconds.

About Digital Kungfu
Digital Kungfu is a storytelling production company that helps technology businesses market their software products/services, generate leads and build their brands. To address the pace of the technology sector, Digital Kungfu combines storytelling, branded content and agile marketing to take new or existing products and services to market quickly and, in the process, maximise market share and generate leads and key accounts. Visit digitalkungfu.co.za to find out more.

About Matt Brown
Matt Brown is the Chief Excitement Officer (CEO) of Digital Kungfu, a storytelling production company that helps technology businesses generate leads and acquire key accounts, market their software products/services and build their brands. He is also the founder of The Matt Brown Show, South Africa’s favourite podcast for entrepreneurs and business leaders.