Is it worth it?: ABM for SMBs
By Billy Jennings on 2/1/2022
Referencing If You Market Podcast Episode #154: ABM for Targeting SMB
In this episode of the If You Market podcast, Sky sat down with Lokesh Dave of Enlyft. On the topic of having ABM work on SMBs, both of our speakers have good takes. Just a quick review on the acronyms, ABM stands for “Account-Based Marketing” while SMBs stands for “Small to Medium Businesses.”
As someone who can say that they are an avid consumer of well-marketed goods on the internet and is all for #SupportLocal, it is somehow refreshing to the eyes to see advertisements of locally-made, and small businesses’ products at an arm’s length, or should I say with our current time, on a mouse’s reach. Aren’t we all for small-time businesses’ developments? Well, Lokesh and Sky tackled how it works and how to make it happen.
Lokesh described ABM as a “fancy term for something that has long been existing” that is complex, involves longer sale cycles, and requires a hands-on approach. As some of us know, with something as big and multibranched as an ABM system, most of the time it’s the big companies and enterprises that use them as they cover a much bigger audience and by that, a bigger market may it be nationwide, or even internationally. While SMB targeting focuses a lot more on understanding customers and giving a personalized experience, and as customers of his own company, Enlyft, going from enterprise to ABM or already have a product for SMB and are wanting to use ABM, Lokesh gave justification as to why it would be beneficial for any business if these two come together.
First, Lokesh addressed how the SMB is a very large market and is “something worth going after.” Indeed, almost half of the US workforce is a part of it which holds a tremendous amount of buying power. After all, it’s not just those big shot companies that make the business world go around, a huge population of them are consumers. Now, how do you make a costly and complex system work on SMBs? “You have to really apply an approach which works with a cohort or cluster. When going after enterprises, you have to know and meet with stakeholders. In SMB, see if you can find clusters or segments of companies to have scalable ways of engaging with them.” Or simply, one will be working on more numbers if their target market is SMB. Since there will be a bigger amount of affiliations, Lokesh also emphasized how finding a good fit, not only a single segment but segments of higher propensity are the key since “a lot of ABM within SMB is a needle-in-a-haystack type of problem.” He also included that it is important to understand the SMB first before approaching them. Compatibility check! Of course, we are still talking business here, it is crucial for a business owner to be well-informed of whom their company would be associating with and if they will reap substantial benefits from it in the long run.
Enlyft does B2B or Business-to-Business marketing, “very high level” as Lokesh said. They focus on making sales more efficient and to “discover accounts that are more likely to buy a product and give you more insights on why they are more likely to buy your product.” You might think that a high-cost marketing strategy might be too much for small to medium businesses but as the two proceeded to discuss the technicalities of Enlyft’s AI system, you might deem it worth it too. Enlyft has a wide range of information acquired and how it filters and distills the target market in a specific and rather sophisticated way that adheres to what the customer is aiming for. They target audiences that have been already narrowed down enough to their criteria. To cut it short, Enlyft makes ABM possible for SMBs. It’s like ABM Lite, as Sky said but with more focus on replicating the impact of ABM without actually just repeating everything up. That would be like “spray and pray”, Lokesh also added.
If you think about it, there is actually no use in runnig a lot of advertisements because as an SMB, you still need to have those people who have been reached by your ads interact to consider it working and effective. But then, you might also think that the more, the merrier, and reaching numbers is still better than none, which is true, but I personally think that what’s more important is the impact it leaves on whoever encounters it. Your brand, name, or product remembered? It’s a yes for me! Or to put things a tad simpler, just who sees my products?
To conclude, this podcast episode was a fun and informative listen especially if you are thinking of starting a business and do not know where to start particularly in the marketing aspect. Well, in that case, Enlyft and the If You Market Podcast will surely help you get a head start.