By definition, Account-Based Marketing is a strategy adopted to tailor each client’s experiences and align these with their attributes. It is based on the idea that just as no two business leaders are the same, despite harboring similar objectives and possibly functioning in the same industry, no two accounts/clients can be managed using a linear approach. As such, businesses study each account, curate SWOT analyses for better and more lucrative experiences, and adopt other strategies to help support their retention efforts – one such strategy being corporate gifting.
While sending corporate gifts to clients may seem like a small and insignificant hinge housed in a large machine, the gesture is, in fact, pivotal to effective account management – and should be considered an integral part of a business’ Account-Based Marketing strategy.
This blog delves into ways corporate gifting can help businesses tighten their ABM strategy bolts, and increase the velocity of their sales cycles. We look at some ABM-specific use cases and help you identify the importance of launching corporate gifting campaigns during every stage of the sales funnel. Keep reading for more!
Understanding The Account = Understanding The Recipient
Before dissecting the technicalities, it is essential for a business’ account research efforts to focus on decision-makers, their solution buying tendencies, and their general commercial personality. By adding a personal touch to your business outreach, you can break through the noise and make the recipients feel that their needs are being kept in mind. This way sales cycles can be shortened significantly by increasing the speed at which decision-makers arrive at their decisions.
Corporate Gifting Can Help Refocus Your Key ABM Accounts
Another point to keep in mind is the categorization of clients in the order of their business. It is an undisputed truth that every single client is instrumental to an organization’s success, and should receive due attention. However, some business relationships are more equal than others – especially when distinguishing between current clients and prospects.
The corporate gifting process requires that this distinction be made in order for appropriate messaging to accompany gift offers, and when this becomes a religious function, businesses are able to reassess their account focus strategies and re-identify their key accounts.
The following gifting approach can assist Account-Based Managers in better categorizing their accounts, and identifying key accounts:
i. Input (Internal): Recognize potential recipients (current clients, former clients, cold leads, or prospects), identify and state the reasons behind wanting to send these recipients gifts (reward, appreciate, rekindle, entice, celebrate or even apologize), and align your contacts accordingly.
ii. Process: Now that the recipients have been ‘tiered’ and the objectives defined, it’s time to put your dollar where your target is. Decide on and allocate a budget for each recipient tier, and spread the budget across your fiscal.
iii. Output: This is when you launch your campaigns on your corporate gifting platform of choice. At this stage, recipients are recognized according to their tiers.
Corporate Gifts Are Packaged Experiences
The current B2B buying process is quite multi-dimensional, and thanks to advancements in comms tactics, digital marketing, and general process automation, marketers can reach their audiences through multiple touchpoints. But, with the increased use of these channels by various companies, sellers are finding it increasingly challenging to meet their buyers, both in person and virtually. The market has become buyer-led, and now more than ever, buyers expect sellers to influence their decisions in more advanced ways. Decision-makers no longer simply buy into ideas, no matter how lucrative they may sound – they buy into people and experiences.
By adopting corporate gifting as an ABM tactic, businesses better position themselves to offer their buyers these experiences while guiding them through the sales process. They can use gifting to carve user journeys and showcase their offerings without using traditional pitching tactics.
When using the Giftsenda platform, for example, recipients are given an option to either accept, swap, decline, or donate their gifts. The ‘accept’ and ‘swap’ options open a portal of endless gift item possibilities for recipients, because instead of fixed choices made by the sender, recipients can browse through a number of gift items, and choose any gift item to the value of the gift offer. Furthermore, should recipients’ business policies not allow corporate gifting, they can simply donate the value of the gift to a charity of their choice.
Corporate Gifting Helps Businesses Nurture Client Relationships
According to Gartner’s 2021 CMO survey, 73% of CMOs are focussing their growth efforts on nurturing existing buyer-seller relationships. As part of the process of nurturing client relationships, corporate gifting campaigns can be launched to reinitiate contact with buyers who’ve had good and bad experiences with your products, and the following can be established:
- How was the buyer’s experience with your product/service?
- What influenced the buyer’s decision to initiate/halt activity?
- What can you do to improve the buyer’s experience?
- Have there been structural changes that may have influenced a halt in activity?
- Is there potential for more business?
When the above questions are answered, Account-Based Marketing Managers will be able to identify issues in the sales funnel – and can refine their processes to address these.
In a nutshell, Account-Based Marketing professionals can use corporate gifting to:
- Maintain existing business relationships
- Redefine relationships with inactive clients
- Redefine key accounts and reinforce management strategies
- Find new clients that are good MQLs
- Reward and delight both existing and prospective clients
Using A Corporate Gifting Platform For Your Account-Based Marketing
By adding gifting to your ABM activities, you can add that personal touch that is required to attain new and retain your key accounts. The Giftsenda corporate gifting platform can help you streamline your gift campaigns by automating various gifting processes and keeping track of your campaigns to improve your results. Here are some examples of ways that you can use gift-first tactics:
- Event Gifting: Personalized invitations and ‘thank you for attending’ gifts to key prospects from target accounts can be created and sent via the Giftsenda platform using email gift invites or by sharing links to specially curated gift collections. You can also easily load targeted lists via CSV files or integrate your CRM.
- Direct Mail: Gifts of higher value with higher income probability can be sent to celebrate Holidays or business milestones.
- Meeting Invites: By adding gifts to meeting invites marketers can increase their meeting acceptance rates. The Giftsenda platform allows you to do this easily by creating easily shareable and trackable gift links.
- Personalized Gifts and Messages: With Giftsenda you can send personalized messages with your gift invites and gifts can be branded, enabling you to craft specially tailored gift experiences focused on your recipient’s business, interests, or needs.
Ready to get started with corporate gifting on a global scale? Book a 30-minute demo with one of our Gift Campaign Managers to see how the gifting platform works and to get access to Giftsenda so that you can start gifting.
