Why Account-Based Marketing Is Your Agency's Secret Weapon

Hey there agency owners. It's Rob DeCosta here and welcome back to the Agency Accelerator, the podcast that helps you build a more profitable, scalable and enjoyable agency. Now, in today's episode, you'll discover why you should never rely on referrals, what account based marketing is, and why it's a great strategy for time poor agency owners, and why it's one of the few strategies that can deliver new business in the short term. Now, before we dive into today's topic, I want to share something that happened just last week during one of my coaching sessions. I was talking to an agency owner and let's call her Sarah, who was absolutely crushing it with client work. Her team was delivering amazing results. Her current clients were happy, but she had this knot in her stomach because she knew that three of her biggest contracts were due to come to an end in the next few months. And when I asked her about a pipeline, she said those words I hear so often. Well, Rob, we mainly rely on referrals. And that's exactly why today's episode is so crucial. We're going to dive into account based marketing, or abm, and I'm going to show you exactly how to build a predictable pipeline of your dream clients without solely relying on referrals or spending a fortune on marketing. So if you've ever felt that feast or famine anxiety, or if you're tired of taking on less than ideal clients just because they were referred to you and you need the business, then and this episode is going to be a game changer. So grab a coffee, maybe get a notebook as well, and let's dive in. I'm Rob Da Costa and this is the Agency Accelerator Podcast. As someone who has stood in your shoes, having started, grown and sold my own agency, I know just how it feels in the ups and downs of agency life. So this podcast aims to ease your journey just a little by sharing mine and my guests experiences and advice as you navigate your way to growing a profitable, sustainable and enjoyable business. Now before we get going, I want to start by addressing something head on because I don't want you to get the wrong end of the stick. And that is that referrals are fantastic. In fact, they're often the best clients because they come to us pre sold on our expertise. I remember in my own agency some of our most successful client relationships started out as referrals. But. And this is a big but. Building your entire growth strategy on referrals is like betting your entire retirement fund on on a single stock. It might work out, but it is Incredibly risky. Let me share a story that really drives this home. Back when I was running my agency, we were absolutely flying. We had a steady stream of referrals coming in from happy clients. And honestly, I got a bit complacent. And to be honest, I was too busy serving clients to think about new business. In fact, we were even turning away work because we were so busy and life was really good. These were the good times in my agency. And then we hit a recession. Almost overnight, our referral pipeline dried up. And it wasn't because we were doing a bad job or bad work. Our clients were still happy. But everyone is tightening their belts. And those casual hey, you should talk to my agency. Conversations just stopped. And here's the really painful part. Because of relying on referrals, we had no systematic way of generating leads. We'd become so dependent on referrals, we'd never developed any other reliable lead generation strategies. It took us months to recover from that. And I promised myself that I would never be in that position again. Going from really joyful feast and very quickly into a space of famine. But it's not just about the feast or famine cycle. Let me break down the other hidden dangers of relying too heavily on referrals. Firstly, there's the quality and the fit issue. Because when someone you respect sends a referral your way, you feel obligated to take them on. Right? I was talking with an agency owner last month who took on a referred client that was about half the size of their usual minimum project value. Why did they do that? Well, because the referral came from one of their biggest clients. Twelve months later, they'd lost money on this project because of all the extra handholding and scope creep that took place. Then there's the over servicing trap. Because these clients came through relationships, we often feel extra pressure to deliver above and beyond. One agency I worked with calculated that they were spending 40% more time on referred clients compared to those directly acquired clients. Think about that. 40% more time for the same revenue. And then let's talk about timing and that point that you have little control over their timing. Referrals have this frustrating habit of all coming in at once. It's like waiting for a bus. Nothing happens for ages and then three come along at once. This makes resource planning a nightmare. How do you staff your agency when you have no idea when the next client is coming in? This is why we need a proactive and targeted approach to our marketing and our outreach and why account based marketing should should be in your mix. Let me Explain what account based marketing is and why it's such a perfect fit for agencies. So account based marketing, I'm going to keep saying that. So I'll say ABM is a strategic approach where you identify and target specific ideal clients with very personalized campaigns. So rather than casting a wide net with general marketing efforts, think of it fishing with a spear instead of a net. Here's why this matters so much for agencies specifically. First, let's be honest with our business model. As agencies, we typically don't need hundreds of new clients each year. Most agencies I work with would be thrilled with five to ten new significant clients annually. But, and this is crucial, they need to be the right clients. One wrong client, as we've already talked about, can drain more resources than five great ones. Second, our services are high value and complex. We're not selling widgets, we're selling strategic partnerships. This means our sales cycle is naturally longer and we need to build significant, significant trust before a client will commit. And account based marketing is perfectly suited for this because it's all about building relationships over time. So let me give you a real example. One of my coaching clients, an agency specializing in B2B tech marketing, was struggling to break into the SaaS space. They were doing all the usual things, content marketing, social media, they were even doing some paid advertising. But nothing was really sticking. We switched their approach to account based marketing, identified 50 specific SaaS companies that they wanted to work with, and within six months, they'd landed three of them as clients. Why? Because they were able to demonstrate deep understanding of each prospect's specific challenges and opportunities. Now, I know what you're thinking. This sounds great, Rob, but it sounds really time consuming. But here's the beauty of it. It actually saves you time in the long run because you're not wasting energy on poor fit prospects. And I recommend that what you should be allocating is one hour per day to this. And that's it. Let's get practical about how to implement this in your agency. And I'm going to break this down into three key areas. And I want you to think about these as building blocks. Each one builds on the previous. So first, let's talk about defining your audience. This all starts with creating what I call your dream 50 list. These are 50 companies that you would absolutely be. These are 50 companies that would be absolute dream clients for your agency. Now, I can hear some of you thinking 50. Well, that, that sounds like a lot, but trust me, when you start getting specific about who you want to work with, you'll find that 50 is actually quite easy to produce and is very focused. Let me walk you through exactly how to build this list. First, look for your current best clients. These are the ones who really value your work. They have healthy budgets and are enjoyable to work with. What characteristics do they share? Maybe they're all in the same industry or perhaps they're all at a similar growth stage. These characteristics form your ideal client profile. Now, when building your dream 50, consider these specific criteria. So first of all, revenue size. Are they big enough to afford your services? And then look at their growth stage. Are they experiencing problems that you solve best? Then look at industry alignment. So do you have relevant experience in their sector? Then cultural fit. So do their values align with yours? And finally, decision making structure. Can you identify and reach the right decision makers? And here's a practical tip. Spend an hour on LinkedIn looking at your best client connections and industry peers. I guarantee you'll find at least 10 perfect prospects right there. Once you've built your list, it's time to develop your approach. This is where most agencies get it completely wrong. They jump straight into selling. Instead, we need to focus on building what I call know, like and trust factor through a series of micro commitments. Let me give you a real example from one of my coaching clients. They identified a dream client in the fintech space and instead of pitching their services immediately, they first engaged with the company's content on LinkedIn for two weeks, then shared a relevant case study from another fintech client, followed up with a personalized video breaking down three opportunities they'd spotted on the prospect's website and finally invited them to a small roundtable discussion with other fintech leaders. And the result of this, over a period of time was 100,000 pound project because they built trust before they started to try and sell. Then the third piece is multi channel outreach. This is crucial because different decision makers engage in different ways. Some live on LinkedIn, others prefer email. Some might only engage through industry events. So here's what a comprehensive multi channel approach might look like. So LinkedIn engagement, but definitely not those awful automated messages, personalized email outreach, video content, industry event participation, podcast appearances, and targeted thought leadership content. Now I know all of that sounds like a lot, but you don't have to do all of that. You just have to focus on how do I build this know, like and trust relationship with someone who's my ideal target client before I start selling. So now let's dig into the nitty gritty of making this work day to day. Remember that one hour a day I mentioned earlier. Let me show you exactly how to use it. And here's what my most successful coaching clients do during their ABM hour. So Monday is all about researching and planning. They review their Dream50 list, research three to five target companies in depth and plan their outreach for the week, set specific goals for each target account. Tuesday they create content, so this is when they're going to create those personalized videos, write customized emails, develop some thought leadership pieces, and adapt case studies for the specific Dream50 target. Wednesday they're going to do LinkedIn engagements, so they're going to comment meaningfully on their target prospects posts. They're going to share relevant insights with prospects, send personalized connection requests, and engage in industry group discussions. Thursday they're going to do direct outreach, so they're sending some personalized emails and videos, following up on previous conversations, sharing relevant resources, and connecting with additional decision makers. And then on Friday, they review and adjust so they track their response rates, they update their CRM, they adjust their strategies based on what's working and stop what's not working. And then based on that, they plan next week's focus. And here is a crucial tip which I'm not very good at if I'm honest, but that is track absolutely everything. And you can do this in a simple spreadsheet or a CRM so that you're monitoring who you've contacted, what content you've shared, their engagement level, the next plan, touch point, and any personal details or insights that you've gathered. Now again, I know that sounds like a lot, but you need to work out what works for you. I worked with an agency in Manchester who implemented this exact system, and in their first week nothing happened. Second week was still quiet, but by week four they started getting responses. And by week 12 they booked six meetings with companies from their dreams 50 list. Two of those became clients worth a combined 180,000 in annual recurring revenue. So let's wrap today's episode up with three key things that you need to remember. Number one, consistency is everything. One hour a day is better than five hours once a week. Make it a habit, like checking your emails or having your morning coffee. I do all of mine very first thing in the morning so things don't get derailed and I don't get interrupted. Number two, personalization matters. Each interaction should show that you understand their specific business and challenges. No copy and paste allowed. And number three is track and measure everything. You can't improve what you don't measure. Now, if you're sitting there. Still thinking. Rob, this all makes a lot of sense but I need help implementing it. Then I have got you covered. What I want you to do is drop me an email at robert the costacoaching.co.uk and just say ABM or I'm interested and I'll be sending you some information about how I'm going to be helping more agencies implement account based marketing in the future. Okay, A lot to digest in a short 15 minute podcast. It's probably worth looking at the show notes or re listening to this and making your plan of action and I hope you found it useful. This is another value packed, action packed episode and as ever, if you did find it useful, please do consider leaving a review. I say this every week and obviously share the episode with your friends and make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you get alerted when the next episode goes live each and every Thursday. But other than that, go get started with your account based marketing, make a plan and I will see you back here next Thursday for the next episode of the Agency Accelerator podcast. Sam.