In B2B today, account-based marketing (ABM) is becoming more and more common. But 70% of marketers are still “considering it” or are stagnating in the early stages of their ABM journeys. Additionally, only 19% of those are pursuing an ABM strategy.
We’ve been trying to determine why that is. After all, in B2B, there are multiple individuals who decide whether or not to go forward with a purchase decision. So it doesn’t make sense to target a single individual in an organization when the impacts are organization-wide.
One of the places where marketers are getting stuck when it comes to ABM is matching leads to the accounts they correspond with.
In today’s post, we talk about lead matching, what it is, and how you can match leads for a more successful ABM strategy.
What is lead matching?
When you are using an ABM strategy, you have a couple of options on how you link individual leads with accounts or vice versa. This is called lead matching. They are:
- Matching contacts – if you have a list of contacts, you can match them with a company to create the basis of an ABM strategy.
- Matching accounts – if you don’t have contacts, you can match the types of accounts you want to target and build up contacts from there.
What is the match rate?
The rate to which we match actions (typically via cookies) with leads and leads to accounts is called lead match rate. There are a couple of different kinds of lead match rates. They are:
- Total match rate – the total number of cookies matched to inputted emails. The total match rate can be misleading because it only matches cookies to inputted emails, which tells you very little about the number of individuals that have cookies matched to their contact information.
- True match rate – the number of contacts matched to at least one cookie. True match rate reveals the number of contacts matched to a cookie, no matter how many different devices, browsers, etc. that they used. That makes this number more accurate than total match rate.
When you’re trying to determine how you want to wield an ABM program and deciding on data vendors to bulk up your system, these rates are something to keep in mind.
How does lead matching tie into ABM?
ABM makes matching contacts easier, using IPs, domains, and more to ensure that data vendors can better attach behavior to a contact. That’s because IP, domain, and more can link a set of behaviors to a company and then an individual at that organization.
HIPB2B sells behavioral data and leads to companies working within an ABM strategy. Here is what we’ve found to make our matching services the most effective for you.
Ask How Their Matching Works
You want to know what you’re getting when you purchase lead matching services. Don’t be afraid to ask what type of lead matching they’re using and how they determine their lead match rate. If they give you a dodgy answer or fail to provide you with specifics, don’t be afraid to pass them over in favor of another vendor.
Provide Vendors With Domains
If you give your data vendor a list of domains, you will get better outcomes. According to our records, companies that provide us with an ABM list of company names get a true match rate of just 40%. Compare that with companies that give us an ABM list of domains, and we can match 80% or more.
That’s a significant difference. Domains are easier to match since company names can vary wildly in how they’re written, while domain names are attached to emails and have a much smaller variance. Do your homework, no matter if you’re a syndicator or a brand. It will result in better outcomes.
Keep Titles Broad
ABM lists are much smaller than a general lead list. This is because they target a specific brand or account as opposed to every individual that fills out a form.
You know exactly which individuals you want to target, so why shouldn’t you give a narrow set of requirements?
Title specificity is often preferable in a classic lead generation offering, but in ABM, it makes requirements so narrow that it might miss those you want to target. An IT director might be the final word on whether a decision gets made, but you might miss this key stakeholder by only looking for the keyword “security” in a title.
This is a very broad overview of contact/lead matching. Now we’re wondering, what other ABM issues are you facing? How can we help you make your ABM dreams into reality? Let us know in the comments.
