The modern buying journey is a messy one. 

One buyer might become aware of your company by seeing a LinkedIn post. Then go check out a few pages of your website. Then stop at your booth at a conference. Then talk to their peers to learn more about your product.

While another buyer will click on an ad and immediately book a demo.

That's also why more companies are pairing their inbound demand generation program with an account-based marketing program — so they can fish with a net (inbound) and a spear (ABM) at the same time.

In this post, Grace Kleaveland Kupczak from 6sense shares her strategies for using predictive analytics and intent data to create interactive buyer journeys across multiple channels. 

Do You Have A Solid Grasp Of Your Ideal Customer Profile?

The first step in personalizing the customer journey is to define your ideal customer profile (ICP). An ICP is a detailed description of the type of company that would get the most value from your product or service. It includes characteristics like industry, company size, location, technology stack, and key pain points or challenges.

Once you have your ICP defined, you can use predictive modeling tools to identify accounts that fit that profile and are showing intent to buy. Grace explains how 6sense enables this:

"We're able to import historical CRM data inside of 6sense to then tailor a predictive score. So an account that maybe looks like an account you've won in the past might get a higher score or a better profile fit."

By feeding historical win/loss data into AI models, tools like 6sense can analyze thousands of account attributes to predict which prospects are likely to convert. This allows you to focus your marketing and sales efforts on ‌accounts with the highest revenue potential.

Grace recommends segmenting your audiences into 3 categories:

1. ICP accounts that are actively researching a purchase (in-market) 

2. ICP accounts not yet showing intent (out-of-market)

3. Non-ICP accounts (bad fits)

These 6sense segment characteristics can then be combined using Mutiny to create segments to deliver specific personalizations to.

Having this granular segmentation based on both fit and intent enables much more precise targeting and personalization.

Personalize Web Experiences by Audience Segment

With your high-value accounts identified, the next step is to tailor their experience when they land on your website. Grace's team uses Mutiny to dynamically change site content based on which audience segment a visitor belongs to.

"We'll change the H1 for each segment, and add relevant copy and images. It's all focused around finding hidden demand inside your marketing funnel who's already engaged with your marketing efforts."

For example, if an in-market ICP account lands on the 6sense homepage, they will see different messaging and calls-to-action than an out-of-market visitor. In-market accounts will be presented with bottom-funnel CTAs like "Book a Demo", while out-of-market visitors will be offered educational content to nurture them until they are sales-ready.

Personalizing the web experience in this way had a huge impact on 6sense's conversion rates. Grace shares:

"When we dove into the results, our average conversion rate on our home page was sitting just under around 1%. But with personalization for out target segments, we got up to just shy of 2%. A doubling of our previous conversion rate."

By making the website experience more relevant to each visitor, 6sense captures more of their ideal customers in the buying journey and funnel them to sales.

They've also used a similar playbook to break into new industry verticals — check it out here.

Establish Distinct Roles for Different Funnel Stages

A cornerstone of 6sense's successful ABM strategy is the clear delineation of roles within the ABM team, with each group focusing on different stages of the buying funnel.

The "Growth Marketing" team at 6sense is dedicated to driving awareness and engagement among accounts that are not yet ready for sales interaction. This early-stage engagement is crucial for warming up potential leads and setting the stage for future sales efforts.

Grace sheds light on her team's focus: "My team is primarily focused on those people in the pre-6QA bucket...Then we've got our ABX team who really help support that with events and webinars and content."

The ABX team she mentions is tasked with nurturing "6sense Qualified Accounts" (6QA) – those that are actively seeking solutions and are ripe for direct sales engagement.

By having specialized teams, 6sense makes sure that each account receives the most appropriate marketing attention for their position in the buying cycle.

Measure, Learn, and Optimize

Of course, ABM personalization is not a set-it-and-forget-it tactic. Grace emphasizes the importance of continuously measuring results and optimizing based on data.

"We're able to run campaign influence reports inside of Salesforce. We can see what experiences are leading to opportunities, demo requests and which ones aren't."

Tracking conversion rates by audience segment and calculating pipeline and revenue impact helps to quantify the value of personalization efforts. But it's also important to check assumptions and let the data tell you what's working.

Regularly analyzing the results allows you to double down on high-performing segments and experiences while adjusting tactics that are underperforming. Over time, this test-and-learn approach will help you fine-tune your personalization to drive maximum business impact.

Bringing It All Together

By combining AI data sources, audience segmentation, and dynamic website personalization, marketers can deliver relevant experiences at scale and drive more efficient pipeline. 

As Grace puts it, "We're able to tell you who to go after, who is involved in the buying process and even what message to share with them."

With these powerful AI and data capabilities, there's no excuse not to be tailoring your marketing to each prospect's unique needs and journey stage. Companies that get this right will build stronger customer relationships and gain a decisive competitive edge.

Learn ABM From Those Who Have Done It Before

These insights are only a few from Grace’s full ABM class she taught as part of ABM MBA.

ABM MBA brings together the best account-based marketing plays being used by B2B companies to grow. Learn from the best and apply them to your own company to hit your pipeline goals.

Watch Grace's full class here, and explore the other classes from companies like Snowflake, Qualtrics, Vendr, and more.