Account Based Marketing in 2024: The Critical Guide to Increasing B2B Conversions

Is your business looking to increase conversions from your most valuable accounts in 2024? Then account based marketing (ABM) should be a central part of your B2B growth strategy this coming year.

Why Every B2B Leader Needs to Prioritize ABM in 2024

The statistics speak for themselves:

• 77% of ABM practitioners see at least a 10% increase in ROI according to ITSMA.
• 46% of businesses say improving conversion rates is a top reason for adopting ABM per Demandbase.
• Accounts targeted through ABM convert to sales at a rate 208% higher than non-targeted accounts as reported by Demand Metric.

It‘s clear that taking an account-focused approach delivers results. Here are some of the key reasons why ABM is so critical right now:

Buyers Expect Personalized Experiences

ABM is all about tailoring engagements to each target account. Today‘s buyers have come to expect this level of personalization:

• 91% of buyers expect vendors to personalize engagements. (Salesforce)
• 86% say personalization influences their purchasing decisions. (Epsilon)

Remote Selling Is Now the Norm

The pandemic has accelerated the shift towards remote selling. ABM enables businesses to nurture and convert target accounts in a digital-first environment through customized campaigns.

More Data Means More Precise Targeting

Sophisticated intent data, predictive analytics, and AI allow businesses to segment targets and identify lookalike accounts with pinpoint accuracy.

Marketing ROI Is More Important Than Ever

In today‘s economy, demonstrating the ROI of marketing activities is crucial. With its targeted approach, ABM provides clear measurement and attribution.

ABM adoption was already growing rapidly before 2020, but recent events have made it even more relevant. Let‘s look at some projected trends:

• ABM adoption will increase from 26% of B2B businesses in 2019 to 51% by 2023 according to ITSMA.
• Around 70% of B2B companies currently have some form of ABM program implemented already per Demandbase.

It‘s clear that ABM is quickly becoming an essential component for B2B success. This guide will overview strategies and tips to maximize your ABM impact in 2024.

Step 1: Strategically Select Your Target Accounts

The first step in any ABM program is identifying and researching the accounts you want to target. Here are some tips on selecting accounts with the highest potential:

Leverage Firmographic Data

Review company attributes like industry, company size, location, and revenue data to build your ideal customer profile. Identify common themes across your best customers.

Analyze Current Customers

Which of your current customers have contributed the most revenue? What traits do they share that you can look for in new accounts?

Consult Your Sales Team

Your sales reps likely have insight into accounts that have shown interest but not yet converted. Include their feedback in your selection process.

Monitor Buying Signals

Leverage intent data to see which accounts are actively researching solutions relevant to your offering. These are prime targets.

Prioritizing accounts using a data-driven approach ensures you focus energy where it‘s mostly likely to convert to revenue.

Tools to Identify Valuable Accounts

Here are some top tools to incorporate intent, technographic, and other data to uncover the most promising accounts:

• Bombora
• 6sense
• Demandbase
• TechTarget
• Aberdeen Group

Step 2: Create Hyper-Targeted Campaigns

Once you‘ve identified priority accounts, the next step is building tailored campaigns specific to each one:

Develop Account-Specific Value Propositions

A core component of ABM is crafting messaging that speaks directly to each account‘s pain points. Leverage research to tailor content.

Personalize Your Landing Pages

Create customized landing pages that showcase how your solution solves the unique challenges of each target account.

Time Campaigns Based on Buyer Signals

Use intent data to identify when target accounts are most actively researching to determine the right time to engage.

Retarget Across the Buyer‘s Journey

Stay top of mind by retargeting accounts with relevant content as they navigate new stages of the buyer‘s journey.

Expand Beyond Email

Execute campaigns across multiple channels like paid social ads, direct mail, and more to surround accounts with relevant messaging.

Tools to Orchestrate Targeted Campaigns

Top marketing automation platforms like Marketo and Pardot along with dedicated ABM tools like Demandbase and Terminus can assist in coordinating personalized account-based campaigns.

Step 3: Engage the Full Buying Committee

While your campaigns may start by targeting a few key decision makers, it‘s important to expand your reach over time to cover the entire buying committee.

Map All Buying Stakeholders

Use LinkedIn, intent data, and organizational charts to identify all key roles involved in decisions.

Tailor Content to Buyer Personas

Develop messaging and content tailored to different roles like technical evaluators, procurement, executives, and end users.

Vary Channels to Reach Broader Audiences

Leverage channels like social media ads, events, and more to expand your reach to the broader buying group.

Tools to Identify and Engage Buying Groups

Solutions like Demandbase, Metadata.io, and EverString offer intelligence to map buying groups and orchestrate targeted outreach at scale.

Reaching beyond just top executives to cover the full buying committee ensures your message penetrates deeply within key accounts.

Step 4: Continuously Measure and Optimize Campaigns

The last critical component is rigorously tracking KPIs and acting on insights to improve performance:

Monitor Marketing Qualified Accounts (MQAs)

Gauge how many accounts are progressing to sales qualified leads to assess campaign effectiveness.

Review Account-Centric Metrics

Analyze account engagement across touchpoints along with traffic, ad clicks, and other account-specific metrics.

Calculate Return on Investment

Determine the true ROI of campaigns by comparing revenue generated from accounts to total cost.

Double Down on What Works

Continuously test messages, content types, and channels to determine what resonates – then reuse those elements.

Tools to Connect Marketing to Revenue

Solutions like Bizible, Marketing Evolution, and Looker integrate ad spend, account engagement, and CRM data to uncover what‘s working.

By closely monitoring performance, you can optimize efforts to maximize account conversions and program ROI.

How Microsoft Does ABM

To boost Azure consumption, Microsoft targeted IT decision makers at key accounts with personalized LinkedIn ads timed based on buyer signals. This ABM program delivered a 386% ROI through highly aligned sales and marketing efforts.

Key Components of an ABM Technology Stack

The right tools are foundational to executing a successful account-based approach. Here are some of the key capabilities to look for:

Account Identification – Seamlessly compile firmographic, technographic, and intent data to uncover your most valuable accounts.

Targeting and Segmentation – Use advanced analytics to segment targets then develop tailored campaigns for each segment.

Campaign Personalization – Create dynamic, customized ad copy, landing pages, and messaging automatically for each target.

Multichannel Marketing – Execute coordinated multichannel campaigns spanning different digital and offline touchpoints.

Performance Tracking – Comprehensively track account-level engagement, lead quality, and marketing influenced revenue.

CRM Integration – Integrate with your CRM to align sales and pass on sales-ready accounts.

Real-Time Optimization – Get recommendations to optimize campaigns and improve performance.

Reporting – Robust dashboards to analyze account metrics, campaign ROI and provide insights.

Here are some top ABM focused solutions:

• Terminus
• Demandbase
• 6sense
• Triblio
• Madison Logic

You can also leverage leading CRM platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot that offer built-in ABM capabilities.

Now Is the Time for ABM

The businesses seeing the most success today are taking an account-based approach to increase conversions from their most valuable accounts. While ABM has been around for years, adoption is accelerating. Now is the time to join the leaders attributing 20%, 30% or more of revenue directly to their ABM programs.

This guide has provided a blueprint of strategies and tools to maximize your ABM impact. The key steps include identifying and researching target accounts, building hyper-targeted campaigns, and continuously optimizing performance.

To learn more about launching a successful ABM program, check out these additional resources:

• ABM Best Practices for Sales Teams
• The CMO‘s Guide to ABM Success
• Using ABM to Boost Customer Retention

Now is the time to join the most cutting-edge B2B companies fully embracing account-based marketing. Follow this guide to execute effective ABM strategies tailored to your unique business needs in 2024.