Ever tried finding the perfect account for your account based marketing efforts and felt like you were hunting for a needle in a haystack? Well, put down that magnifying glass and let’s talk about a better ABM strategy. Growth and expansion indicators are the clear, reliable signs that lead you straight to high-potential accounts.

In this blog, we’re diving into how you can use these indicators to transform your ABM strategy. We’ll cover everything from tracking employee growth rates (because who doesn’t love a company that’s hiring like crazy?) to stalking—er, monitoring—fundraising activities, M&A news, and geographic expansion efforts. Let’s get into it and make your ABM targeting as sharp as a tack and twice as effective.

ABM and Intent Data: Spotting the Right Signals

Intent data is like your marketing crystal ball. It tells you which companies are actively looking for solutions like yours. Whether they’re googling specific topics, downloading whitepapers, or attending relevant webinars, these signals scream, “Hey, we’re interested!”

But here’s the kicker—growth and expansion indicators. These are the neon signs that a company is not just interested but primed for new solutions and partnerships. When a company is expanding its workforce, securing funding, or merging with another firm, it’s basically waving a flag that says, “Help! We’re growing and we need solutions!”

Here’s the logic: companies in growth mode are facing new challenges and opportunities. They’re actively looking for tools, platforms, and services to support their expansion. By zeroing in on these high-growth companies, your account based marketing efforts will have amplified results.

Growth and Expansion Indicators for ABM Tracking

Tracking Employee Growth Rates

One often overlooked but critical indicator is the growth rate of a company’s workforce. Tracking growth rates, especially in key departments like engineering or sales, can reveal expansion trends that signal a company’s increasing capacity and need for new solutions. For instance, a tech company with a rapidly growing engineering team is likely investing heavily in innovation and may require advanced tools and platforms to support this growth.

Analyzing Fundraising Activities

Fundraising activities are strong indicators of a company’s financial health and expansion plans. Using tools like Crunchbase, you can keep track of recent funding rounds via official or unofficial APIs. Crunchbase allows you to see if a company has had any fundraising activity, including when it occurred and the amount raised. Setting up triggers through Slack can provide real-time notifications of significant fundraising events. This data helps you identify companies that are financially equipped and motivated to invest in new solutions.

Impact of M&A Activities

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are significant indicators of strategic growth and new opportunities. Google News can be a valuable resource for identifying M&A news related to your target accounts. Utilizing APIs like WebscrapingAPI, you can automate the extraction of relevant M&A information. Furthermore, using OpenAI API can help establish the relevance of this data and extract key details, which can be used to qualify companies or personalize your messaging.

Monitoring Geographic Expansion

Companies expanding into new regions are often pursuing aggressive growth strategies. Identifying these expansion efforts can highlight high-growth prospects. Similar to M&A tracking, Google News and APIs can help you monitor geographic expansion news. OpenAI API can assist in analyzing and summarizing this information, ensuring you have precise and actionable insights.

Spotting Product Launches

New product launches indicate a company’s commitment to innovation and growth. Tracking these launches can provide opportunities to offer complementary solutions. Google News can help identify these events, while APIs can automate the data collection. OpenAI API can be used to assess the relevance of these launches and tailor your outreach to address specific needs and challenges highlighted by the new products.

Using SEC 10K Filings for Insight

SEC 10K filings provide comprehensive insights into a company’s financial health, strategy, and future plans. These documents can reveal expansion plans, R&D investments, and other critical information. OpenAI API can be employed to parse these filings and extract relevant details, making it easier to understand a company's strategic direction and identify potential opportunities.

Side Kick’s Case Concept

Let’s consider a B2B software company targeting mid-sized firms in the healthcare sector. Like many in their industry, they faced the challenge of identifying high-potential accounts that were genuinely in need of their innovative solutions. Traditional marketing methods were falling short, leading to low engagement and missed opportunities.

Challenges:

1. Identifying High-Growth Accounts: They needed a way to pinpoint which companies were expanding rapidly and, thus, more likely to invest in new software solutions.

2. Personalizing Outreach: Crafting generic messages wasn’t cutting it. They needed personalized, data-driven content to capture the attention of decision-makers.

3. Increasing Engagement Rates: Despite substantial efforts, their engagement rates were stagnant, and they struggled to secure qualified meetings.

To tackle these challenges, They adopted a data-driven ABM approach focused on growth and expansion indicators.

Results:

The impact of this refined ABM strategy was significant:

• 23% Increase in Engagement Rates: Personalized and timely outreach led to a notable uptick in engagement, as decision-makers responded positively to the tailored messaging.

• 36% Boost in Qualified Meetings: By targeting the right companies at the right time, they saw a substantial increase in the number of qualified meetings, leading to more meaningful conversations with potential clients.

• Enhanced Pipeline Value: The focus on high-growth accounts not only improved immediate engagement but also enhanced the overall value of their sales pipeline, with higher potential deal sizes and a more strategic fit for their solutions.

By leveraging growth and expansion indicators, they transformed their ABM efforts, turning data into actionable insights and driving substantial business results.

Combining Growth Data with Other Metrics

While growth data is powerful, combining it with financial and firmographic data can enhance your targeting precision. Overlaying employee growth rates, fundraising activities, and expansion indicators with data on company size, industry, and financial health helps you zero in on the most viable accounts for your ABM strategy. This integrated approach ensures you are targeting accounts with both the need and the resources for your solutions.

Leveraging Growth and Expansion for ABM Strategy

Growth and expansion indicators are essential tools for effective ABM strategy. By understanding and leveraging these data points, you can identify and engage accounts that are on the path to significant growth and are likely to benefit from your offerings. Use these insights to refine your ABM strategy, focus your efforts on the most promising accounts, and drive better business outcomes.

How Side Kick Helps ABM strategy

Struggling to hit your ABM targets? Feeling like you’re trying to catch a greased pig in the dark? Enter Side Kick—your trusty sidekick (pun intended) in the quest for better account based marketing engagement rates and shorter sales cycles.

Side Kick to the Rescue: Key Features and Benefits

Side Kick is your go-to marketing and sales automation platform, designed to track every vital sign of your target accounts. Here’s how it tackles the usual ABM headaches:

1. Real-Time Updates: Get instant notifications about key developments via Slack or Teams. Whether it’s a merger, a product launch, or a sudden flurry of job postings, you’ll know about it before your competition does. No more FOMO on critical sales opportunities.

2. Track Job Posts and Hiring Data: Want to know when a company’s ramping up their tech team or when they’ve posted a new role that screams, “We need help, stat”? Side Kick has got you covered. Extract budget insights, urgency levels, and even the tech stack they’re working with.

3. Monitor Employee Growth Rates: Whether it’s the entire company or just the marketing department, you’ll know when growth hits a tipping point. More employees often mean more problems to solve—problems that your solution can fix.

4. Track Reviews: Selling to SaaS companies? Keep an eye on G2 and Google reviews. Be the hero who swoops in to save the day when a negative review surfaces.

5. LinkedIn Lead Tracking: Keep tabs on key decision-makers. Know when they post, win awards, get mentioned in the news, or—here’s a juicy one—leave their job. Perfect for timing that pitch just right.

6. Instant Notifications: Timing is everything. Real-time updates mean your team can act quickly, pushing deals down the funnel faster than a cat on a hot tin roof.

   
   

The Workflow Magic

Your Side Kick Account Manager works with you to automate everything. From emails to LinkedIn outreach to CRM tasks, we make sure no opportunity slips through the cracks. Plus, with Nexta handling consultative cold calls for those big fish in long sales cycles, you’re armed to the teeth.

Expected Outcomes? Glad You Asked:

• Enhanced Engagement: Expect around 10 engagement opportunities per day. Yep, per day.

• Reduced Sales Cycle: Watch as your sales cycle shrinks before your eyes.

• Scalable ABM Play: Scale up your account based marketing efforts without breaking a sweat.

  
  

Who Needs Side Kick?

• Enterprise Sales Teams Missing Quota: If your Account Executives are falling short, Side Kick helps pinpoint why and fixes it.

• ABM Underperformers: Running an account based marketing campaign that’s not quite hitting the mark? Side Kick will turn those numbers around.

  
  

So, if your ABM strategy feels like herding cats, maybe it’s time to give Side Kick a try. Book a demo and see how this Workflow can transform your ABM game. Because, let’s face it, every hero needs a Side Kick.