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EdTech’s Biggest Problem That Account-Based Marketing Cannot Fix

EdTech’s Biggest Problem That Account-Based Marketing Cannot Fix

ABM is overrated for EdTech. There is a more effective approach that could save you time and money. Here’s what you should do instead.

Rod Vronscki | AmplifyED
June 23, 2024

ABM is overrated for EdTech. There is a more effective approach that could save you time and money.

Here’s what you should do instead.

True ABM campaigns are huge monsters.

They have their time, place, budget, and specific goal - and usually won’t be the silver bullet for most EdTechs.

You need to:

Be clear on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Research prospect companies
Enrich with intent and other information
Research customization points
Design multiple customized creatives
Create and manage messaging
Track results
And ABOVE ALL: People working on all of the above.

And these are only the hands-on tasks.

There are multi-layered problems that come with it:

Resource Allocation

A small marketing budget can’t afford ABM

Expensive, competitive targeting

Forming an ABM team, at least for the duration of the campaign

Strategic

Unclear ICP will detract from the campaign

Difficulty in justifying ABM, budget, and ROI

Performance

ABM can be cruel with results

Technical

Difficulty in finding reliable intent signals

External

Intent signals don’t guarantee purchase readiness or drive

Sales Enablement

Accounts can still be cold for SDRs to act upon

Furthermore, in a recent survey, Foundry found:

But the BIG, UNDERLYING PROBLEM is:

ABM does not build trust.

And without TRUST, there’s no ADVOCACY.

This is especially true in the case of EdTech solutions that involve buying groups, RFPs, expensive products, integration with other software, and long sales cycles.

So, what should you do instead? (or in addition to)

ACCOUNT-BASED RETARGETING

The BIG IDEA is that ABR will retarget the ICP companies who already visited your website - leads or not.

Instead of shooting in the dark, you’re now zeroing in on the key stakeholders at companies who are looking for a solution like yours, but still need a push.

The BENEFITS of doing so, you ask?

Create Trust and Advocacy through Thought-Leadership

When you reach people in the account with the right message for the awareness stage they’re at, you resonate with them.

Maximize all marketing efforts and traffic

Retargeting accounts means you multiply the reach of your previous marketing efforts and create a synchronized mindset within the accounts.

True Alignment with Sales

Reaching your ICP accounts who are already aware of your brand or solution, creates better alignment with your sales teams.

Warmer buying groups

Buying groups are a tricky entity. The lead you have might not be the leader or decision-maker. Even worse, the lead could be biased towards a competitor.

Reaching and warming up the entire buying group will create new leads and, more likely, create a champion for your solution.

Smaller campaign budget

When you don’t have a significant budget for large campaigns, reinforcing your previous efforts with a well-crafted retargeting campaign allows you to maximize the budget you have.

Simplification of campaigns

Retargeting accounts allows you to create dynamic audiences and campaigns, meaning you will have super low maintenance of the campaigns, focusing on ads and messages.

Here’s the big picture of how I do it:

1. Collect account names from website visits on key pages

2. Score accounts by their lead stage or number of visits

3. Enrich account and lead data

4. Send accounts to dynamic paid audiences

5. Drive persona-based campaigns

6. Send persona-based warm emails

7. SDRs call engaged leads or prospects

When you combine this with a demand generation workflow, you create a resilient pipeline that maximizes all the other sales and marketing efforts.

Download the EdTech Demand Generation Workflow