After pinpointing your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), the next step in your ABM (Account-Based Marketing) journey is developing a Target Account List (TAL).
In this post, I’ll explain what a TAL is and highlight the essential areas you should focus on when creating one.
What is TAL?
A Target Account List (TAL) is a thoughtfully curated list of accounts, derived from your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). These accounts show the highest likelihood of purchasing your products or services.
To assemble this list, I rely on a blend of static and dynamic data. It’s crucial for both marketing and sales teams to be on the same page. They need to decide which accounts to prioritize, when to do so, and allocate the appropriate budget.
The size of your TAL mostly depends on factors like the Target Addressable Market (TAM), your revenue goals, and your team’s capacity.
If your business offers multiple products or services, it’s wise to create separate TALs for each target market. Otherwise, I’d recommend sticking to a single TAL.
How to Identify Your TAL
Finding the right account at the opportune moment is pivotal to a thriving ABM program. That’s why it’s essential to back your TAL with solid data. Remember, the more refined your list, the greater your chances of conversion.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to pinpointing your TAL:
1. Begin with Your ICP: Analyze your ICP to spot the current accounts in your CRM that align with those company-level attributes. It’s also a good idea to eye accounts that bear a resemblance to your existing customer base—these are often termed “look-alike” accounts.
2. Incorporate Third-Party Data: Source third-party data to unearth unknown accounts. Identify which ones match your crafted ICP.
3. Gather Insights from Internal Stakeholders: Different teams within your company can be invaluable. Sales might be engaging with certain accounts, customer success might know accounts ripe for expansion, and marketing might have insights based on past interactions. Collect these lists, and then align them with your ICP to zero in on suitable accounts.
4. Study Your Competitors’ Customers: Not only can you consider targeting your competitors’ customers directly, but also those companies that mirror them—again, “look-alike” accounts.
5. Evaluate Intent & Engagement Data: Delve into accounts that have shown interest, whether they’ve browsed your website, downloaded content, or attended webinars and events. Then, cross-reference these accounts with your ICPs.
6. Strive for a Balanced TAL: The number of accounts on your TAL should hit a sweet spot. It shouldn’t be sparse, nor should it be overwhelming. Ensure that the size is congruent with both your revenue aspirations and your sales team’s capabilities.
How to Resize Your TAL
So, you’ve run your ICP through your database (or used an account-based data provider) and now have an extensive TAL. What’s the next move?
It’s vital to fine-tune this list, aligning it with your business objectives, revenue targets, and team’s capabilities.
Here’s how you can effectively resize your TAL:
1. Employ Predictive Models: Use ML (Machine Learning) predictive models to score your accounts. Consider removing those at the lower end of the spectrum.
2. Re-examine Your ICP: Revisit your ICP criteria. By refining it, you can reduce the number of accounts that match, ensuring a more tailored list.
3. Apply Manual Filters: You can also manually trim the list based on specific firmographic attributes, such as region or revenue size.
These methods can streamline your TAL considerably. However, while adjusting, always keep a keen eye on your revenue goals and the capacity of your team to ensure balance.
How to Tier Your TAL
Why should you consider tiering your TAL? Well, picture this: you have an extensive TAL but limited marketing funds and sales personnel. Yet, there’s a substantial revenue target looming. You’ll want to zero in on accounts that genuinely matter, right? That’s where TAL tiering steps in.
Segmenting your TAL into tiers helps pinpoint which accounts demand more focus and a personalized touch.
Breaking Down the Tiers:
– Tier 1: These are the crème de la crème. They’re a perfect match for your ICP and have the highest potential.
– Tier 2: While these accounts align well with your ICP, they might offer a lower lifetime value.
– Tier 3: These accounts might not fully align with your ICP criteria. They’re worth a shot, but perhaps not worth significant time and resources.
Strategies to Tier Your TAL
1. Account Scoring: Deploy ML to score the accounts on your TAL, pinpointing those with the highest likelihood to convert. Alternatively, your sales and marketing leaders can manually score based on conversion probabilities and specific parameters.
2. Intent Signals: Curate a list of intent topics vital to your business. Use vendor data to extract accounts that have shown interest in these areas, focusing on the depth and recentness of their intent.
3. Engagement Attributes: Delve into your CRM. Examine metrics like channel engagement, website visits, and content interaction. This provides insights into which accounts to spotlight based on their interactions with your brand.
Let’s visualize it. Say your original TAL consisted of 2000 accounts. Post-tiering, it might look something like:
– Tier 1: 100 accounts
– Tier 2: 500 accounts
– Tier 3: 1400 accounts
With this tiered structure, it’s clear which accounts to approach. However, remember that a one-size-fits-all message won’t cut it. It’s essential to tailor your communications. Pull different levers, merge various attributes, and create specialized audiences. This ensures each segment resonates with a specific channel or message.
Your next move? Dive deeper into micro-segments for an even more refined audience list.
Understanding Sub-segmented Audiences
Sub-segmented audiences are essentially refined groupings carved out from your main TAL. They’re based on specific fit-based and readiness indicators, allowing for more targeted activation across various channels.
For instance, consider a micro-segment consisting of accounts that have interacted with a particular piece of content in the last month. Conversely, another segment might be those accounts that, while unfamiliar with your brand, exhibit intent signals about specific topics.
Now, let’s delve deeper into the types of data combinations you can harness to craft these sub-segments:
1. Fit-based Data: This relates to how well an account matches your ICP or business criteria.
2. Behavioral Data: Insights into an account’s interactions, preferences, and patterns.
3. Firmographic Data: Specific company details like revenue size, industry type, and geographical location.
4. Technographic Data: Information on an account’s tech stack and tools they utilize.
5. Sales Stage Data: Recognizing where an account stands in the sales process, such as being unaware, potential upsell opportunities, etc.
6. Intent Data: Accounts displaying interest in keywords or topics pertinent to your business.
7. Engagement Data: Accounts that have demonstrated interest by interacting with your website, content, or brand in other capacities.
Once you’ve shaped your sub-segments, it’s time to sift through your CRM. You’ll want to discern how many contacts per account are currently within your radar. This provides clarity on familiar contacts and those yet to be discovered. With this knowledge in hand, you can then decide on the most apt channels, be it for winning new accounts or nurturing existing relationships.
In Conclusion
Making the right list of target accounts is crucial for your marketing plans, whether they’re big or focused.
If you get the list wrong? It can waste money, time, and even attract the wrong set of accounts.
But with the right list, you can convert customers faster and meet your sales targets.
So, before you start your marketing, ensure your list is spot-on. If you need help with this, reach out for a chat. I’m here to assist!
