The Ultimate Guide to Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
In today‘s highly competitive B2B landscape, marketers are constantly seeking more effective ways to engage key accounts, drive pipeline, and grow revenue. One strategy that has gained significant traction in recent years is Account-Based Marketing, or ABM. By treating individual prospect or customer accounts as markets of one, ABM enables tighter alignment between marketing and sales, more relevant and personalized outreach, and ultimately, higher win rates and deal sizes.
If you‘re new to ABM or looking to take your ABM program to the next level, this comprehensive guide will walk you through everything you need to know, including what ABM is, why it matters, how to get started, and tips for maximizing your success. Let‘s dive in!
What is Account-Based Marketing?
Account-Based Marketing is a strategic go-to-market approach that focuses marketing and sales resources on a defined set of target accounts and employs personalized campaigns designed to resonate with each account. Instead of broad-based marketing and lead generation, ABM concentrates efforts on the accounts that matter most to the business.
The goal is to treat each account as its own market, or even as its own individual, with highly tailored messaging, content, and interactions across the full buyer‘s journey. By aligning marketing programs with account strategies, understanding the needs and pain points of each stakeholder in the buying center, and engaging them with relevant information and offers, companies can build deeper relationships, shorten sales cycles, and win more business with ABM.
Why ABM Matters for B2B Marketing
The B2B buying process has become increasingly complex. More stakeholders are involved in purchase decisions (6-10 on average), sales cycles are getting longer, and buyers are doing more research online before ever engaging with a sales rep. At the same time, B2B marketers are under pressure to show clear ROI and revenue impact from their programs.
ABM has emerged as a way to adapt to these shifts and drive better business outcomes. By focusing efforts on the accounts with the greatest revenue potential, deeply understanding and engaging key stakeholders, and measuring success based on pipeline and closed-won deals, ABM helps marketers become a strategic partner to sales and the business.
Consider these ABM statistics:
- 84% of businesses say ABM delivers higher ROI than other types of marketing (ITSMA)
- 80% of marketers say ABM improves customer lifetime values (Marketo)
- 71% of B2B organizations are using ABM, with 55% reporting plans to invest more in the next year (SiriusDecisions)
- 1 in 5 accounts targeted through ABM becomes a qualified sales opportunity (Demandbase)
As B2B marketing becomes more targeted, technology-enabled, and revenue-focused, ABM provides a framework for driving scalable growth with the accounts that matter most. By bridging the gap between marketing and sales, personalizing engagement across channels, and measuring full-funnel impact, ABM enables a truly customer-centric go-to-market strategy.
How ABM Differs from Traditional Marketing
To understand the shift towards ABM, it‘s helpful to compare it with traditional marketing approaches. Historically, B2B marketing has focused on generating a high volume of leads through channels like trade shows, email blasts, and digital advertising. The goal was to fill the funnel with as many contacts as possible and rely on sales to qualify and close them.
ABM takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of casting a wide net, ABM is about fishing with spears. Key differences include:
Targeting: Traditional marketing targets broad audiences and segments. ABM focuses on high-value target accounts that are carefully selected in coordination with sales.
Personalization: Traditional marketing uses mass communication and generic messaging. ABM creates highly personalized content and experiences for each account and stakeholder.
Tactics: Traditional marketing relies on tactics like events, email campaigns, and broadly-targeted ads. ABM leverages account-level tactics such as direct mail, custom content, and individualized ad campaigns.
Measurement: Traditional marketing measures success through metrics like leads, clicks, and website traffic. ABM tracks pipeline velocity, deal size, win rates, and customer retention.
Alignment: Traditional marketing is often siloed from sales. ABM requires tight orchestration between marketing and sales, as well as other customer-facing teams.
At its core, ABM is a more integrated, insight-driven, and impactful way of engaging high-value accounts. By treating them as individual markets and personalizing interactions at every touchpoint, ABM delivers the relevant experiences that today‘s B2B buyers expect.
Getting Started: Implementing an ABM Strategy
Ready to put ABM into practice? Here are the key steps to launching an effective account-based strategy:
Define and prioritize your target accounts
- Work with sales to identify accounts with the greatest revenue potential based on factors like size, industry, geography, propensity to buy, etc.
- Tier accounts into segments (e.g. 1:1, 1:few, 1:many) to determine the level of customization and resources to invest in each
Align marketing and sales around the ABM strategy
- Get executive buy-in and sponsorship to drive change management
- Establish an ABM taskforce with representatives from marketing, sales, customer success, and operations
- Define clear roles, responsibilities, handoffs, and joint KPIs for the ABM program
Build account profiles and stakeholder maps
- Do deep research into each account‘s business, goals, challenges, and organizational chart
- Map out all key stakeholders and decision-makers, including their individual needs and preferences
Develop personalized content and campaigns
- Create content and offers that are highly relevant to each account and persona, such as custom eBooks, case studies, videos, events, and web pages
- Use account-level messaging across marketing channels like direct mail, email, web, social, and digital advertising
- Work with sales to implement targeted sales plays, such as executive briefings, demos, and workshops
Activate, orchestrate, and measure
- Use ABM technology platforms to scale account targeting, engagement, and reporting
- Coordinate interactions across touchpoints to optimize the customer journey
- Regularly track and report on account engagement, pipeline velocity, deal size, win rates, and revenue influenced
Analyze, learn, and iterate
- Assess what‘s working and what‘s not for each account segment
- Gather feedback from sales and customers to refine content, tactics, and playbooks
- Continuously expand and improve the ABM program based on results and changing account needs
Implementing an ABM strategy requires close collaboration between marketing, sales, and other customer-facing teams. It‘s essential to align everyone around shared goals, metrics, and processes. Acting as "one team" and providing seamless, end-to-end account experiences is critical for ABM success.
Scaling and Optimizing Your ABM Program
As you start seeing results from your initial ABM efforts, you‘ll want to find ways to scale the strategy across your organization and continue optimizing performance. Here are some tips and best practices:
Leverage technology
- Invest in an ABM platform (e.g. Terminus, Demandbase, 6sense) that can help with account selection, engagement, and measurement
- Integrate your ABM platform with your CRM, marketing automation, and other tools to enable full-funnel orchestration
- Use intent data to identify which accounts are in-market and what topics they‘re researching
Test and learn
- Experiment with different types of content, messaging, and offers for each account segment
- A/B test elements like ad copy, landing pages, and CTAs to optimize conversions
- Try new channels and tactics, such as virtual events, chatbots, and account-based paid social
Empower the front line
- Arm your SDRs and account executives with relevant content, insights, and plays for their accounts
- Provide sales enablement and training on how to use ABM for outreach and follow-up
- Gather ongoing feedback and ideas from the sales team to improve the ABM program
Measure and communicate impact
- Implement multi-touch attribution to understand the influence of ABM efforts on pipeline and revenue
- Track leading indicators of ABM success like account engagement, meetings set, and opportunities created
- Share ABM results and insights with leadership and the broader organization to build momentum and secure further investment
Ultimately, the key to ABM success is to start small, learn fast, and scale smart. Focus on a few high-priority accounts, test and iterate quickly, and expand your program as you see results. Over time, ABM can become a core go-to-market strategy that delivers outsized returns for the business.
ABM Example and Case Study
To bring the concepts of ABM to life, let‘s look at a real-world example. Snowflake, a cloud data platform company, implemented an ABM strategy to engage key accounts and drive growth. Here‘s how they did it:
- Partnered with sales to identify and tier target accounts based on revenue potential
- Built detailed account profiles and stakeholder maps for each target account
- Created personalized content hubs for each account featuring relevant case studies, whitepapers, and videos
- Ran targeted display and LinkedIn ads to key decision-makers at each account
- Orchestrated direct mail and email campaigns in coordination with sales outreach
- Hosted exclusive executive events and workshops for high-priority accounts
- Measured account engagement, pipeline velocity, and closed-won deals influenced by ABM
The results? Snowflake saw a 3x increase in engagement within target accounts, 78% faster sales cycles, and a 4x return on investment from the ABM program. By focusing on the right accounts, personalizing experiences at scale, and aligning closely with sales, Snowflake was able to drive rapid growth and build lasting customer relationships using ABM.
The Future of ABM
As ABM continues to mature and evolve, there are several trends and innovations shaping its future:
Convergence with inbound
- ABM strategies are increasingly being combined with inbound marketing tactics to drive target account engagement
- By aligning content marketing, SEO, and social media with ABM efforts, businesses can surround key accounts across channels
AI and predictive
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning are being used to predict which accounts are most likely to buy and when
- Predictive analytics can help with account selection, lead scoring, and personalized content recommendations at an individual level
Hyper-personalization
- Advances in natural language processing and dynamic content are enabling marketers to tailor messages and offers to each account and stakeholder in real-time
- Personalized videos, chatbots, and 1:1 web experiences will become more commonplace in ABM programs
Account-based experience (ABX)
- ABM is expanding beyond acquisition to encompass the full post-sale customer lifecycle
- By extending ABM principles to customer success, businesses can drive account growth, retention, and advocacy
The scope and impact of ABM will continue to grow as more B2B organizations embrace the strategy and technology catches up to enable execution at scale. The future of B2B marketing is account-based, and the companies that harness it effectively will be well-positioned to drive long-term growth and competitive advantage.
Getting Started with ABM
As a B2B marketer, ABM represents a massive opportunity to drive more revenue and deepen relationships with your most important customers. But it also requires a fundamental shift in mindset, strategy, and execution. To be successful with ABM, you need to:
- Align closely with sales and other customer-facing teams
- Focus relentlessly on account insights and personalization
- Embrace technology and data to scale your efforts
- Measure and optimize based on full-funnel metrics
Most importantly, you need to start somewhere. Begin by identifying a few high-value target accounts, building out your strategy and content, and launching initial campaigns. Learn from your early wins and challenges, and gradually expand your program over time.
ABM is not a silver bullet, but it is one of the most promising strategies in B2B marketing today. By treating each account as a market of one and delivering relevant, personalized experiences at every stage of the buyer‘s journey, you can accelerate revenue, reduce churn, and build customer relationships that last. The age of account-based marketing is here – are you ready?
