Inbound Marketing vs. Account Based Marketing

Nowadays, companies are looking for the best ways to both attract and connect with their potential customers, but finding the right strategy is not always easy.

These days, we have two different methodologies oriented around a very similar objective: Inbound Marketing vs. Account Based Marketing.

Below, we will explain what each of these strategies are, how they differ, and when to apply each of them.

First, what is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound Marketing is a methodology that focuses on attracting potential customers through useful content. One of the main purposes of Inbound content is to offer customers valuable actions, to teach them something.

This strategy starts at lead capture and lead nurturing and goes all the way through facilitating the close of the sale. Note that at it's core, Inbound Marketing focuses more on customer quality than quantity.

In this article, you can deepen your knowledge on Inbound Marketing based on mbudo's experience in the field. 

What is Account Based Marketing?

Account Based Marketing is a hyper-segmentation strategy for reaching specific customers. This type of practice is more beneficial in the B2B (business-to-business) sector. ABM stands out especially for its personalization efforts, with personalized Marketing and content carried out for each individual account. 

Account Based Marketing features some very important benefits, such as using resources more efficiently and the ability to align Marketing and Sales departments, reaching the most relevant accounts for your business.

ABM can be beneficial for B2B if the market in which the business operates meets the following characteristics:

• Highly concentrated markets, that is, markets with few but very large clients.
• Numerous contacts or leads in these target accounts, with great influence on the final decision.
• Large opportunity size, long sales cycle, multiple decision-makers.

HubSpot is the perfect platform to carry out an Account-Based Marketing strategy, and in addition, it's always introducing new ABM tools and updates for greater functionality.

When to use each method

It is advisable to use Account Based Marketing if the market you are targeting is very specific or when your product/service is highly specialized or aimed at large corporations where decision processes are complex. In this case you would have to make more individualized Marketing plans for each account.

However, if you're focusing on a larger market with thousands of potential accounts, it is obvious that you cannot make a specialized Marketing plan for each of them, since it would take a lot of time and money. If this is your case, the best methodology you can use is Inbound Marketing.

Inbound Marketing and ABM, together?

The essence of both strategies is to choose a specific target and focus all content on that target to achieve conversion. ABM will give you greater customization, while Inbound will help you to reach your target. By combining these methodologies, you can be more profitable and cost-efficient.

The context is the epicenter of both methodologies; if you know the problems that your Buyer Personas are facing, you can give them a solution. This will make your strategy more effective in the following areas:

• Marketing and Sales Alignment: For both ABM and Inbound Marketing it is important that both departments are aligned. Putting together Buyer Personas and the strategies to follow for each profile is essential to develop recruitment and nurturing programs by the Marketing team and strengthen commercial activities on the sales side.
• Specialized, targeted content: Content is king for both inbound marketing and ABM. Creating specialized content according to your Buyer Personas and according to each specific stage of the Buyer's Journey will facilitate the way to close the sale.
• Increased customer retention: If you have obtained a lead but they were not satisfied, it is very likely that you will never hear from them again. With the ABM and Inbound methodologies, you can achieve a deeper understanding of each of your customers, thus offering them personalization and, consequently, greater loyalty.

Our final piece of advice: ask for our opinion on whether ABM or Inbound Marketing (or both) would work better for your business. Contact mbudo and we will help you discover all the possibilities.