The fundamentals of ABM, its benefits, and how to launch an ABM strategy in 6 steps
How ABM compares to ABX, as well as its benefits and common challenges
ABM examples and learning resources to fuel your campaigns
Account based marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach to marketing that focuses on targeting and engaging specific higher-value businesses (accounts), rather than focusing on individuals within a broad audience. It involves personalising marketing efforts and messaging to address the specific needs and challenges of individual target accounts, with the aim of building relationships, building equity, and driving revenue.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM), originally introduced by ITSMA in 2004, has emerged as a popular strategy for numerous B2B businesses in the past decade. Account based marketing has grown in relevance as an approach due to the prevalence and significant influence of buying committees, which hold the authority to make purchasing decisions within their respective organisations.
In spite of this, a 2022 survey by DemandMetric and Integrate showed that 53% of B2B marketers will spend less on account based marketing in 2023. However, rather than demonstrating a failure or lack of efficiency with the strategy itself, industry leaders have commented that this is likely due to a lack of effective implementation.
Indeed, account based marketing boasts a plethora of benefits which have been demonstrated by multiple studies over the years including a 2019 report by Forrester on ABM Maturity where 62% of participants reported that they had measured a positive impact since adopting ABM. Organisations that effectively leverage ABM in their marketing efforts will secure a competitive edge over competitors who are either not seeing the benefits due to poor implementation, or have decided not to fund such a strategy.
This definitive guide defines the concept of ABM, demonstrates how to create an account based marketing strategy from scratch, breaks down the three pillars of ABM tactics, and more.
Indeed, Forrester’s 2019 report on ABM Maturity reported up to 56% of successful marketers strongly agreed that personalised content and advanced data management (43%) were key to their ABM success.
Building relationships is another essential component of ABM. Instead of treating accounts as isolated entities, ABM emphasises fostering strong, personalised relationships with key decision-makers and stakeholders within target accounts. The goal is to establish trust, credibility, and rapport with these individuals by delivering relevant and valuable content, addressing pain points, and providing solutions to specific challenges.
When it comes to account based marketing tactics, the most important is the scope of your campaign.
In ABM, there are three scopes:
1. One-to-one
This is the classic account based marketing tactic in which single accounts are targeted with a marketing campaign. It is this approach that offers the most personalisation and the highest possibility of an upsell.
Because these campaigns are so micro-targeted, they require the most effort and offer the highest payoff. B2B marketers usually apply one-to-one ABM to high-profile accounts that will bring in six figures or more.
However, if the one-to-one approach fails it can be costly. Even so, content can still be repurposed for other accounts or even inbound marketing campaigns.
2. One-to-few
Coined by ITSMA as 'ABM Lite', with this approach marketers target a group of similar accounts with a single campaign.
Whilst not as personalised as one-to-one, it requires a lower financial commitment to securing a conversion. However, it is not all or nothing. With the one-to-few approach, if one company fails to show interest there are always others.
3. One-to-many
This approach, also known as programmatic ABM, allows marketers to target hundreds or even thousands of accounts in a personalised way.
Typically launched with marketing automation software, the one-to-many tactic targets a cluster of accounts with similar features, making adjustments when needed on a case-to-case basis.
This approach is best suited to cost-conscious marketers who want to benefit from wide-reaching campaigns that still retain a more personalised touch, compared to a standard 'one-size-fits-all' marketing campaign. However, driving ABM at scale requires the right processes and tech stack to fuel campaigns.
The ABX strategy aims to create a seamless experience for leads throughout the buyer’s journey, from their initial brand impression to their conversion into clients. By utilising data, the strategy is focused on personalised interactions and enhancing client satisfaction, ultimately reducing churn rates. As a holistic approach, ABX necessitates all departments working together to maintain consistency across multiple touchpoints.
Account based marketing (ABM)
Account based experience (ABX)
Marketing and sales alignment
Focus on target account conversions
Personalisation relies on data
Assets are vetted internally before sharing with leads
Full organisation alignment
Focus on target account relationships
Personalisation relies on data and feedback
Real time pivots from direct feedback are necessary
Account Based Marketing (ABM)
Marketing and sales alignment
Focus on target account conversions
Personalisation relies on data
Assets are vetted internally before sharing with leads
Account Based Experience (ABX)
Full organisation alignment
Focus on target account relationships
Personalisation relies on data and feedback
Real time pivots from direct feedback are necessary
ABM exists across various sectors including B2B, B2C, G2B, and even G2C:
ABM has become a popular choice mostly in the B2B landscape due to its potential to boost revenue by securing high-profile accounts and supporting greater client loyalty through personalisation.
Below are the five major ABM benefits for B2B demand generation:
#1 Personalisation
ABM enables greater personalisation and more effective lead nurturing by focusing on specific target accounts. According to a 2022 Marketo Engage report, companies that excel at lead nurturing achieve a 50% increase in sales-ready leads whilst reducing costs by 33%. This highlights the significant advantage of quality lead nurturing and ABM personalisation. Additionally, the personalised data utilised to convert these accounts can be leveraged to enhance after-service care, resulting in an improved experience, increased brand equity, and less churn.
#2 Improved ROI
Due to increased personalisation and higher quality nurturing as a result, account based marketing creates strong, longer lasting relationships with leads that often result in a higher return on investment (ROI) than traditional marketing techniques. In fact, in a 2019 Marketing Measurement & Attribution Survey Report, 60% of companies that use ABM saw a revenue increase of at least 10% within 12 months, whilst 1 in 5 companies experienced a revenue increase of 30% or more.
The risks of investing in micro-targeted ABM campaigns can be mitigated by ensuring thorough and accurate research on targeted accounts using a host of both quantitative and qualitative methods in combination with ensuring data is current, relevant, and correct.
#3 Alignment
ABM both necessitates and supports alignment and collaboration across teams for effective data acquisition, nurturing, and lead follow up. Sales teams possess valuable data from direct interactions with prospects that can assist marketing teams to determine the content, format, platform, and specific needs that should be addressed in nurturing.
Working with sales teams during the nurturing phase of the buyer’s journey with accounts also allows marketing teams to pivot accordingly, particularly when members of the buying committee are in different parts of the buyer's journey and the sales team receives direct feedback on the account.
#4 A streamlined sales cycle
With ABM, companies can bypass the regular sales funnel model and advance straight to identifying key accounts and targeting them with personalised content and ads.
With traditional inbound marketing methods, resources are spent attracting leads to the top of the sales funnel, but with ABM, the funnel is replaced with direct contact with high-value targets.
HubSpot presents the ABM sales cycle as a pitch-focused model that includes identifying accounts, making presentations, closing opportunities, and delighting accounts. However, for the best outcomes, organisations need to take this process a step further, as ABM is not strictly pitch-based and requires the same if not more nurturing than leads within the traditional sales funnel.
Account based marketing sales cycle
Utilising current data on your ICP and target market, identify target accounts that have the means and resources to utilise your solution and therefore represent potential opportunities.
Thoroughly research each account and buying committee to ensure a good understanding of the account and committee members' pain points, challenges, and opportunities.
Develop valuable content and useful tools specifically tailored to tackle the challenges and pain points faced by accounts and individual committee members. These resources should aim to assist them in saving time with research or fulfilling their daily responsibilities. Ensure that this content is posted on platforms that committee members actively engage with.
Nurture the buying committee with relevant content, events, webinars, and more, taking into consideration their stage in the buyer’s journey and any changes occurring within the account as a whole.
When the account is prepared to genuinely consider a solution, the sales team proactively should contact them with the appropriate messaging, initiating a direct conversation.
Cultivate strong relationships with accounts by prioritising quality post-sales service. Consistently providing exceptional post-purchase support and remaining engaged with the account fosters trust, loyalty, and mutual success.
#5 Increased client retention and reduced churn
The data intensive and personalised nature of ABM means that successful campaigns build long lasting relationships with accounts and provide the opportunity for effective post-sales service and client care. This increases client retention rates and reduces churn. In fact, according to a survey by Marketo, almost 85% of marketers said ABM provided significant benefits to retaining and expanding existing client relationships.
Measuring content performance is essential for ABM. Marketing attribution and content engagement rate for ABM are made up of several KPIs depending on the particular approach of the campaign.
Example KPIs:
Forms filled
Content downloads
Content shares
Time spent on page
Advertising engagement rates
Email marketing metrics:
• Open rates
• Click-through rates
• Response rates
Social media engagement including:
• Likes
• Reposts
• Direct messages
By combining the above KPIs, teams can get a more detailed view of the engagement rate and stage in the buyer’s journey of a specific targeted account.
Conversion rate
This metric quantifies how successful ABM campaigns are in securing targeted accounts. An ABM conversion rate is worked out by dividing the number of successful conversions by the total number of interactions from engaged accounts. A low conversion rate generally indicates that teams need to revisit their ICP, total addressable market, data sources, or data validity to optimise their approach. A/B testing and client journey mapping can be useful tactics in informing a pivot for ABM strategies when facing a low conversion rate.
Account value
Identifying the potential value an account can bring to the organisation or its 'account value' is crucial. This can be determined by multiplying an account’s actual or projected contract time by their monthly or yearly returns. In the case of a new account, this calculation can be measured against the cost of acquisition to determine if an account is worth pursuing. However, other factors such as their relationship with other target accounts, client reach, and the effects of positive testimonials and potential upsells should also be factored into this metric.
Client lifetime value
The client lifetime value (CLTV) considers additional factors beyond account value, such as the account’s worth, purchasing habits, and the average duration of their engagement with the business. It calculates the potential revenue that an account can generate throughout their entire period with the organisation. This is another value that can be used to adjust target account lists (TAL) considering the resources necessary for an ABM campaign—as well as identifying successful strategies that contributed to a higher CLTV.
Client acquisition cost (CAC)
This metric determines the total funds spent on an ABM campaign for a specific account (also known as a cost per account analysis). This can also be done as a projection to anticipate whether the CAC will be more than the anticipated account value to either pivot campaigns or optimise future ABM strategies.
#2 Selecting too many accounts at once
When choosing accounts, it can be tempting to target as many high value accounts as possible to offset low conversion rates. However, this approach requires the ability to scale personalisation and nurturing. In the case of ABM, a greater quantity of accounts does not guarantee a greater return. By carefully selecting a specific group of targeted accounts and providing them with the organisation's undivided attention, conversion rates will be significantly higher.
#3 Heavily siloed structure
Organisations that operate within siloed structures may encounter various challenges when implementing ABM. This typically includes difficulties in managing data and providing a seamless experience. In cases where it is not possible to alter the siloed structures of organisations, collaboration between sales and marketing teams remains of utmost importance.
#4 Not measuring performance throughout the campaign
For ABM strategies to be successful, consistent monitoring is essential to enable timely pivots when needed. Without the ability to adapt nurturing, content, and platforms based on changes in the targeted account or committee members, ABM strategies will lack the necessary agility to drive performance.
The following account based marketing strategy is based on a one-to-one basis. There are other methods, such as one-to-few, which will be covered later in this guide.
#1 Define your Ideal Client Profile (ICP)
Before creating an ABM campaign, companies should first develop an ideal client profile (ICP) and buyer persona.
An Ideal Client Profile (ICP), also known as an ideal buyer profile, includes the firmographic and demographic criteria of an ideal client—a business that is most likely to benefit from and purchase your services. It includes details such as company size, industry, budget, job title, and tech stack.
Since ABM is a highly personalised and targeted approach, it makes sense to prioritise the highest-converting and most valuable accounts in the marketplace. The initial challenge to any account based marketing strategy will be to develop an ICP that aligns with the direction of the business.
Creating an ICP should include:
An audit of current clients to determine the type of accounts that are currently benefiting from the organisation's solutions
Firmographic and demographic data from these accounts to identify what they have in common (and can inform the ICP)
Define the average budget that accounts would need for the solution to generate suitable revenue for the organisation
Generate qualitative data from existing accounts to determine their pain points, as well as what factors motivated them to choose the organisation's solution
Once the ICP has been defined, businesses can start to target and define their Market Qualified Accounts (MQAs). An MQA profile is a unified account that encompasses a collection of individuals (also known as the buying committee) from a particular company. The ICP, in combination with buyer intent and market segmentation data, is used to determine if an account is worth the cost to the business, in a position to make a purchase, and well aligned with the organisation's end goals.
When determining the ICP and MQAs, it is important for the marketing and sales teams to collaborate on lead scoring criteria. This collaboration should involve determining the value of each type of intent signal and identifying the appropriate combination of frequency and intent type that indicates a shift in the buyer’s sales funnel stage.
For instance, this shift could be from the middle of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel, which would require a change in nurturing tactics or the initiation of direct contact from sales.
#2 Research the accounts
Before contacting or nurturing an account, thorough research is paramount and must not be overlooked.
This includes gathering data from analytics tools, Client Relationship Management (CRM) software, lead generation activities (such as gated content and webinars), and predictive analytics lead scoring software in addition to making use of marketing segmentation data.
Effective methods to gather qualitative data to optimise nurturing efforts include:
This qualitative data can inform lead nurturing content by identifying challenges, pain points, and opportunities for target accounts.
#3 Plan the content and delivery
Armed with data, marketing teams will need to decide how to drive engagement with target accounts. Generating awareness of your brand, and communicating how it can provide solutions to buyers’ challenges and pain points, is the main objective at this stage.
To do this, persona based and account specific content is key. Content that is custom-tailored is a winning strategy to make buying committee members feel recognised and acknowledged.A/B testing, and message testing may also be used to determine which approach and content yields greater engagement with target accounts.
The assets
Once the research phase has identified the correct approach, the next step is to strategise assets and content for effective lead nurturing.
The content type, format, length, messaging, tone, and even Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons should be personalised according to research on the target account. One of ABM’s greatest strengths is its ability to deliver relevant content to the right account at the right time in even the smallest details.
This can include elements like custom landing pages which help to ensure prospects are on board with the right messaging when visiting the brand’s website.
Example KPIs:
eBooks
Whitepapers
Tools
Events
Infographics
Market research and reports
Social media
Podcasts
The distribution
When planning content distribution, consider an omnichannel marketing approach that considers the target account’s most active and relevant channels. This will ensure a seamless experience for all members of the buying committee as they transition between channels.
ABM distribution can include a mixture of channels, such as:
Pay Per Click
Social media
Website
Personalised landing pages
Content distribution should be guided by engagement data to ensure that the nurturing process is adapted to the progress of each buying committee in the buyer’s journey and any changes that may occur with the account over time.
#4 Connect with the buying committee
Within the B2B landscape, a buying committee consists of individuals who make purchasing decisions and are responsible for selecting new solutions for the target account.
According to our recent market research, 41% of buyer groups consist of 7-15+ members and 38% of buyers report sales cycles lasting 6-12 months. This means multiple stakeholders are involved in the buying process.
Therefore, marketing and sales teams should consider that information has the potential to be seen by multiple members and influence a potential deal. Each account and buying committee should be approached as a single, fragmented entity to avoid erroneous outreach.
To identify the buying team for a particular account:
Search for C-suite and managers on the LinkedIn page of the company.
Check the 'who we are', 'leadership', or 'about us' pages of the company website.
Having identified the members of a buying committee and insights into their preferences, be sure to tailor a content plan accordingly (either by committee or individual members).
A 'problem > solution' structure explored in a thought leadership format is generally better received than product features alone. Consider that a problem such as churn will be understood by everyone, whilst specifics like 'cloud service latency' will likely only interest developers and IT staff.
Analyse each profile in the buying committee and create content that will resonate with members. Psychographics help identify the psychographic variables that can be leveraged to determine campaign elements such as keywords to include in a CTA button.
#5 Follow up with the buying committee
Lead follow-up needs to be carefully planned with content drips and marketing automation tools throughout the sales cycle.
In order to follow up effectively, it is important to leverage the data insights at your disposal to analyse buyer intent data for each account. There are multiple sources for extracting buyer intent data for ABM campaigns, such as product reviews, webinar attendance sheets, and website analytics.
Making contact should be a gradual process that is based on channel preferences. For example, if a committee member is a heavy LinkedIn user, an SDR should add them, interact with posts, and when the time is right, send a message.
Once you have defined the sales cycle strategy for the account, engage the buying committee at key moments with valuable content. A listicle, case study, or whitepaper are all good formats to spark discussions and set the foundation for creating the next point of contact or a meeting. However, be sure to align content types to preferences and make content value clear for prospects.
However, try not to overwhelm committees with information. Dripping content more than twice a week can be invasive.
#6 Make the sale
Based on engagement with the target account and the buying committee, SDRs should carefully time for the de facto sales pitch.
SDRs should base their timing on two key factors: engagement with the target account and members of the buying committee, and their sales readiness as indicated by intent data and lead scoring. By evaluating these factors, SDRs can determine the most opportune moment to deliver their sales pitch.
If on good terms with the prospective client, open communication on how the process is progressing may enable SDRs to speed up booking a sales meeting.
To give you some account based marketing examples, we will look at how INFUSE utilises a variety of platforms and channels to launch a campaign.
Applying the one-to-many tactic with programmatic ABM, INFUSE targets accounts most aligned with our ICP.
These posts and ads target key accounts on our ABM list, are measured for engagement, and optimised to resonate better with their pain points.
The creatives are designed to promote content and demonstrate social proof, including reviews and testimonials of our services.
Besides ads, another key pillar of INFUSE’s ABM strategy is engagement. We task our SDRs to connect with decision-makers at target accounts, interact with posts, and maintain a consistent presence.
With the LinkedIn Sales Navigator, INFUSE can identify ICP accounts, track their activity across the platform, and check for news, such as new hires or product launches to then mention in outreach.
INFUSE has kickstarted a one-to-many ABM campaign called #OwnYourFunnel, with weekly emails featuring insights from our experts on practical issues like demand generation and lead nurturing.
The emails are sent to accounts on our ICP list and contain scannable copy together with two-minute videos or recommended articles relevant to their pain points.
In another email campaign, INFUSE targets subscribers to ITCurated, our network of 30+ digital publications in verticals such as technology, healthcare, and finance.
Subscribers receive weekly updates on the most popular stories of their industry vertical.
Events
INFUSE also launches virtual and in-person events to nurture relationships with our target accounts.
Virtual events work best for international accounts or in locations where logistics for a conference are more challenging, whilst in-person events are held in the US, APAC, and Europe with account holders invited along as guests.
The events are designed with the preferences of the account holders in mind, which means we create an event for them, not us.
Other options include account based marketing tools that focus on key aspects of ABM, such as analysing the intent of buying committee members.
Whilst hubs are a full-service solution, ABM tools are designed to solve a specific problem. Examples include Tray.io (automation) and activeDEMAND (dynamic website content, call tracking, and more).
Most account based marketing service providers use a mix of both solutions (software and tools) for their campaigns.
Account based marketing services
With ABM software, companies can launch campaigns and track engagement. However, software still requires marketing teams to execute the campaigns, create assets and make necessary adjustments.
This can take up a substantial portion of a team’s schedule or require guidance. And if marketers are struggling, deciding to bring the ABM campaign in-house might not be the best idea.
Whatever the reason, an ABM services provider can help generate an ICP list, target those accounts, as well as create the content needed to engage contacts via in-house marketing and sales teams.
There are plenty of ABM resources available for those who want to further their knowledge:
ABM courses
ABM books
ABM digital assets
Another platform for ABM learning is LinkedIn. There are several groups on the subject users can join, and hashtags such as #ABM and #accountbasedmarketing allow followers to get expert analysis posted to their feed.
Account based marketing is a personalised marketing strategy that facilitates the identification and acquisition of the most valuable accounts for your business, compared to more traditional campaigns.
The main challenge of ABM is that more time and effort are required to micro-target content to individual accounts or groups.
There is no single successful approach for ABM. Each vertical has its own set of issues and pain points that need to be reflected in personalised campaigns.
Buying committees, often the final frontier in ABM campaigns, can also alter drastically from one another depending not only on the industry but company size and budget.
Successful ABM strategies provide increased ROI, personalisation, conversions, brand equity, and client retention whilst streamlining the sales process and encouraging collaboration between sales and marketing teams.
Understanding the buying committee members and account is important for effective lead nurturing and content creation.
CONTACT OUR TEAM AT [email protected] TO CREATE
IMMERSIVE ABM AND DEMAND INITIATIVES THAT SURPASS YOUR
EXPECTATIONS AND DRIVE GROWTH
Alexander Kesler is a visionary B2B marketing leader with over 15 years of experience in building highly successful organisations. As a Founder and CEO of INFUSE, one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, he specialises in driving growth through demand generation marketing.
