Your B2B SaaS needs a working and effective marketing strategy to generate leads. While lead-based strategy was often used before, nowadays, it is proven to be not as effective as an Account-Based Marketing strategy. We will compare these two strategies, and you will see for yourself.
How Are These Strategies Different?
According to a Lead-Based Marketing strategy, marketers create a list of prospects that they try to attract. In Lead-Based Marketing, the goal is to attract as many leads as possible. However, in this approach, many leads may be found unqualified.
In an ABM strategy, the target audience is much narrower. The focus is not on generating more leads but on nurturing the right leads. Also, ABM focuses on retaining the existing customers by cross-selling and up-selling techniques.
The Difference in Metrics
Lead-based metrics mostly look good on paper but don’t deliver the expected results. Lead-Based Marketing is concerned with clicks and page views. However, their numbers do not tell about the number of customers who got to the bottom of the funnel. The same can be said about conversions. They are generally a good practice. Nevertheless, if they come from non-targeted accounts, they will likely lead to a waste of resources for your B2B SaaS.
As for leads, they can be randomly gained by purchase or joining a LinkedIn Group. However, their number alone will not guarantee B2B SaaS revenue growth. It is much more effective when leads come from the target audience. An ABM strategy is about quality not quantity. As opposed to the metrics in the Lead-Based Marketing strategy, ABM uses the following ones: coverage, awareness, engagement, reach, and influence. These metrics allow marketers to assess the effectiveness of their strategy.
ABM strategy is also better for forming long-lasting relationships with customers. Whereas, in Lead-Based Marketing, a lead may become a customer, they may not become your B2B SaaS advocate. It takes continued nurturing that is done using an ABM strategy.
The Difference in Sales
As Lead-Based Marketing attracts leads from various sources, sales tend to be smaller and unconnected. However, in Account-Based Marketing strategy, leads are gained from the target audience, which shows greater effectiveness in sales. According to research conducted by Demandbase, with ABM, targeted enterprise accounts experience a 285% higher close rate, and for targeted mid-market accounts, it is 166% higher (Source: The Starr Conspiracy). Also, by getting to know the customer and their pains well, in ABM, the continuation of sales is more likely by upgrading the product.
Sales and Marketing Alignment
In ABM, rather than working separately, the sales and marketing teams align their efforts for a common purpose – to generate revenue for B2B SaaS. This has proven to be more effective than when not aligning these departments. In fact, 70% of ABM users claim their sales and marketing to be aligned.
The difference in the effectiveness of Account-Based Marketing over Lead-Based Marketing is salient. By choosing an ABM strategy, your B2B lead generation will improve, which will lead to B2B SaaS revenue growth.
P.S. By the way, you may be interested to learn which B2B SaaS Marketing Agency can help you with marketing – and you came to the right place. Check us out at, “Revenue, Inc.” 😉