Robin Dimond of Fifth & Cor On The Top 5 Most Effective Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Strategies

An Interview With Rachel Kline

Fostering strong collaboration and alignment between sales and marketing teams is huge. Regular communication, shared goals, and a unified approach enable a seamless customer experience and create a smooth work environment. We coordinate efforts to deliver consistent messaging, provide relevant insights, and ensure smooth handoffs throughout the buyer’s journey.

As the marketing landscape evolves, businesses are increasingly adopting Account Based Marketing as a targeted and strategic approach to engage high-value accounts. With its emphasis on personalized and relevant content, ABM has proven to deliver impressive ROI and foster long-term relationships with key customers. However, the effectiveness of an ABM strategy hinges on the proper implementation and execution of the right tactics. How can organizations optimize their ABM efforts to drive success? In this interview series, we are talking to marketing professionals, ABM experts, thought leaders, and successful practitioners about their “Top 5 Most Effective Account-Based Marketing Strategies.” As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Robin Dimond.

Being a Founder and CEO is no simple feat. It can be challenging and isolating at times, so it’s important to come prepared to manage stress in all its forms. Dimond brings over 18 years of experience that has led to a successful team and client success stories over the years. Passionate about the human experience, Dimond strives to bring sensory experiences and the heart back into all her team’s work, thus comes the name — Fifth (five senses) & Cor (Latin for heart).

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share your personal backstory with us?

Thanks for interviewing me! I’m Robin Dimond, CEO and Founder of Fifth & Cor, a marketing & innovation company. I’ve been working in marketing for the past 18 years. For me, the leap to start my own company really came from seeing the market shift. Businesses needed so much more than your typical agency. It was just no longer an option. So I set out on a mission for our relationship with our clients to be a true partnership that was agile to the ever-changing needs of the market. I knew I needed to create a company that could pivot quickly and deliver immediate results. At Fifth & Cor we’re passionate about the human experience and strive to bring sensory experiences and the heart back into all my team’s work, thus comes the name — Fifth (five senses) & Cor (Latin for heart).

Can you share with us three strengths, skills, or characteristics that helped you to reach this place in your career? How can others actively build these areas within themselves?

I would say the top three strengths that got me to where I am are resilience, adaptability, and my social skills. Resilience can be built by getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and constantly embracing challenges of any size. Adaptability goes hand in hand with this, being able to roll with the punches, taking things as they come and pivoting when needed gives you strength. Lastly, but most importantly, social skills. You need to talk and form relationships with people. That is the only way to move up personally or as a business, through communities and partnerships you can accomplish what you otherwise could not. Get out there and talk to one new person each week, send someone a message with a connection request on linkedin, ask someone to go for coffee with you. Get comfortable talking to people and remember that it’s okay if people say no, because some people will.

Fantastic. Let’s now shift to the main part of our interview. What inspired you to focus on account-based marketing, and what results have you seen from this approach?

Account Based Marketing (ABM) offers several benefits and advantages over traditional marketing strategies. It’s a targeted approach that focuses on identifying and engaging key accounts or high-value prospects rather than casting a wide net to a broader audience. It also allows us to focus on building strong relationships with key accounts over time, as well as create highly personalized and tailored experiences for individual accounts or companies.

How do you identify the right accounts to target, and what criteria do you use to determine whether an account is a good fit for your ABM strategy?

It really comes down to a combination of data analysis, market research, and aligning with a company’s goals and ideal customer profile or “persona”.

What is your process for creating personalized content and messaging for each account, and how do you ensure that it resonates with your target audience?

We start by defining our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and outlining the characteristics of our ideal customers. Then, we assess firmographics such as company size, industry, and location. It’s important to ensure that the accounts align with our value proposition and can benefit from our offering. We then evaluate the revenue potential of each account and consider their buying power and decision-making structure, identifying key stakeholders and decision-makers. After that, we need to assess the market opportunity and the account’s impact on our business. Finally, we look for insights on engagement and fit. Lastly,and most importantly, we regularly review and refine our target account list based on data and campaign results to update and optimize our ABM efforts.

What role does technology play in your ABM strategy, and how do you leverage tools like AI and machine learning to improve targeting and personalization?

Tech is in everything we do. AI is probably the greatest thing to happen to marketing since social media. We use AI to help us track our metrics and keep a finger on the pulse of our posts.

How do you measure the success of your ABM campaigns, and what metrics do you track to evaluate their effectiveness?

To measure ABM campaign success, we track metrics like CTR, conversion rates, website visits, pipeline acceleration, deal velocity, account engagement, and alignment between marketing and sales. Customer satisfaction metrics like NPS and referrals also provide valuable insights. Evaluating these metrics helps gauge effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

Here is our main question: Can you please share your “Top 5 Most Effective Account Based Marketing (ABM) Strategies.”

1 . Prioritize identifying and selecting target accounts that align closely with your ideal customer profile (ICP). Conduct thorough research and analysis to ensure you’re focusing your efforts on accounts with the highest potential for conversion and revenue.

2 . Tailor, Leverage, Craft (TLC): Tailor your content and messaging to resonate with specific target accounts. Leverage account-specific data to create customized experiences that demonstrate your understanding of their unique needs. Craft personalized messages that address their pain points, goals, and challenges.

3 . Here at Fifth & Cor we love a good omni-channel approach to content, we Implement a multi-channel approach to engage target accounts across various touchpoints. Using channels like email, social media, personalized website experiences, direct mail, and events to create a cohesive and consistent brand experience. The goal is to build awareness, nurture relationships, and drive meaningful interactions.

4 . Fostering strong collaboration and alignment between sales and marketing teams is huge. Regular communication, shared goals, and a unified approach enable a seamless customer experience and create a smooth work environment. We coordinate efforts to deliver consistent messaging, provide relevant insights, and ensure smooth handoffs throughout the buyer’s journey.

5 . We Continuously measure and analyze the performance of your ABM campaigns. Tracking key metrics such as engagement rates, conversion rates, pipeline acceleration, and revenue generated from target accounts; we use these insights to refine and optimize our strategies over time, ensuring maximum effectiveness.

How do you see the future of ABM evolving, and what new strategies or technologies do you think will be most impactful in the years to come?

The future of ABM is exciting, with several impactful trends on the horizon, including AI-powered personalization, leveraging intent data and predictive analytics, advanced data analytics and attribution, integration with sales enablement, and hyper-personalized content experiences. These advancements will enable marketers to deliver highly targeted and personalized experiences, optimize campaigns, and foster stronger customer relationships.

What would you say is the most valuable marketing software in your tech stack?

That would probably be LinkedIn, I’m all about people. There is so much value in communities and partnerships.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Lead with your heart. When you hire people, when you partner with people, and especially when you find the right client. It’s important to be authentic to you, now more than ever.

How can our readers best continue to follow your work online?

I’m on all the platforms but I’m most active here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-dimond/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinssweetconfessions/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/robin_dimond

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.