Account-based marketing (ABM) is gaining popularity for B2B companies looking to maximize marketing success by focusing on key target accounts. This comprehensive guide covers everything B2B vendors and bloggers need to know to leverage ABM tactics effectively.

Key Takeaways

• ABM focuses marketing efforts on a select group of strategically identified accounts to engage them deeply rather than using a comprehensive approach.
• Aligning sales and marketing teams through shared goals, data, and coordinated outreach is critical for ABM’s success.
• Effective ABM requires extensive research and personalization for each target account with high-value potential.
• Tactics like personalized content, email, events, and advertising help break through to accounts and move them through the sales cycle.
• Ongoing optimization, measurement, and collaboration between sales and marketing improve results from an ABM approach over time.

What is Account-Based Marketing?

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach that focuses your marketing efforts on a select group of target accounts you’ve identified as offering the highest potential value. Instead of casting a wide net to reach many accounts simultaneously, ABM focuses valuable marketing resources on the accounts likely to generate the most success and revenue aligned with sales priorities.

While traditional lead-based marketing often takes an inbound approach, hoping to capture interest from as many contacts as possible, ABM takes an outbound approach. It aligns sales and marketing behind personalized campaigns crafted to resonate with decision-makers at each target account. This increases relevancy for the recipients and effectiveness for your sales and marketing teams.

“ABM allows marketing and sales teams to take coordinated actions tailored to engage a targeted list of accounts systematically.”

Ultimately, ABM aims to increase engagement, move target accounts through the sales cycle faster, and improve win rates for your best-fit potential customers.

Benefits of Account-Based Marketing

There are several vital reasons B2B companies are increasingly adopting ABM approaches:

More personalized: Each target account gets a customized marketing approach based on their needs, challenges, and where they are in the buyer journey. This level of personalization cuts through the noise to deliver actual value.

Aligns sales and marketing: Shared goals, target account lists, contact databases, and coordinated campaigns connect sales and marketing around what matters most – your best accounts.

Maximizes resources: Focusing budget, content creation, and staff time on what generates pipeline and revenue instead of wasting resources on broadly targeted efforts with low conversion rates.

Proven results: Companies adopting ABM are seeing substantial lifts across metrics like win rates, deal sizes, pipeline generation, and marketing origin ROI.

7 Key Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Tactics

These powerful ABM tactics will help you cut through and effectively engage your highest-potential target accounts:

1. Create Ideal Customer Profiles

Identify common attributes across your best customers, such as size, industry, tech stack, revenue, and pains. Build ideal customer profiles representing your best-fit accounts with the most significant revenue potential. Share these tightly defined profiles with sales and refine them together over time.

2. Select Target Account List

Leverage firmographic data and insights from sales on where they see potential to create a target account list of 50-100 highest-value accounts. Ensure marketing and sales leaders provide input and align on which accounts offer the most significant opportunities to pursue through ABM.

3. Personalize Content

For each target account, develop customized content like blog posts, emails, landing pages, case studies, and ads that speak directly to their needs and challenges. Personalized content campaigns result in up to 70% higher conversion rates.

4. Schedule Targeted Outreach

Map outreach cadences over time, combining sales touchpoints and marketing campaigns tailored for each target account. Ensure messaging, offers, and value align to each account’s place in the buyer’s journey when executing multi-touch campaigns.

5. Promote On Social Media

While target accounts may not engage right away on social, leveraging promoted posts and paid ads on platforms where they have a presence raises awareness. Retarget critical contacts at target accounts by promoting relevant content across channels.

6. Utilize Retargeting Ads

Use pixels and cookies to track account contacts and serve up ads tailored to their interests across sites. Retargeting helps get your brand in front of the right people when they are receptive to messaging.

7. Host Personalized Events

In-person events offer invaluable opportunities to connect directly with key accounts. Host customized ABM events relevant to specific accounts featuring leaders from their industry presenting on topics that matter most to them.

FAQ: Key Account-Based Marketing Questions

What’s the difference between ABM and inbound marketing?

While inbound marketing casts a wide net, hoping to capture interest, ABM focuses directly on accounts sales and has been identified as offering the most potential. Instead of waiting for accounts to find you, ABM takes an orchestrated approach tailored to strategically targeted accounts.

What does account-based marketing software do?

ABM software like Terminus helps you track target account contacts for coordination with sales. Features like website personalization, ads, and orchestration improve how you target critical accounts across channels.

How many accounts should you target for ABM?

The number varies based on your business, but 50-100 accounts allow for greater personalization and alignment of sales and marketing resources focused on what matters most. Account selection should be a collaborative process between sales and marketing leadership teams.

How do you measure ABM success?

Key metrics to gauge ABM approaches include:

• Win rates for target accounts
• Deal sizes from target accounts
• Marketing influenced pipeline & revenue, specifically from target accounts
• Program scale, such as the number of accounts worked and contacts reached
• Marketing originated wins tracking the first touch to marketing qualify score

Assess these regularly to optimize your ABM strategy and improve over time. Marketing and sales leaders need shared accountability for results.

How can small businesses do ABM without big budgets?

The key is focus – identify where your best customers come from now and double down on those similarly attractive segments precisely and consistently. Expand efforts as capacity allows, but early-stage alignment and focusing on personalization go a long way.

Key Takeaways to Implement an ABM Approach

Follow these best practices to ensure your ABM approach drives success:

Secure executive support – Educate leadership on ABM and have them sponsor sales and marketing adoption efforts.

Do your homework – Research target accounts extensively, identify key players, and map existing connections into each account. Look for triggers indicating they may be considering solutions you offer.

Set shared goals – Marketing and sales teams must commit to the approach and have joint accountability tied to the pipeline and revenue from target accounts.

Personalize program elements – Messages, content, ads, landing pages, and sales conversations should all be tailored for each account. The more you customize efforts, the better results you’ll see.

Take an always-on approach – ABM isn’t a one-time project; it needs to become how your teams consistently engage target accounts with relevant, valuable touchpoints over time.

Review results together – Assess response rates and pipeline velocity, deal with progression regularly for target accounts, and optimize efforts across the board. What works well, do more of it, and vice versa.

Expand over time – Once your program takes root, consider adding resources, tools, or headcount to broaden your account selection and boost results.

Leveraging ABM can create powerful alignment between sales and marketing teams focused on the accounts offering the most mutual success. The customized approach helps cut through noise to advance high-potential targets through the pipeline systematically. While it takes commitment, shared vision, executive support, and consistent effort, ABM’s proven power delivers incredible marketing and sales results.