Bullseye: Ultimate guide to account-based marketing (ABM)

Account-based marketing (ABM) has been around long enough to experience a number of revivals, resurgences, and evolutions. Given the incredibly competitive landscape and increased need for efficiency that marketers and sales teams face right now, ABM is a worthwhile pursuit for all B2B businesses, especially those in tech and SaaS. 

In this guide, we’re going to look at:

• What is account-based marketing?

• Benefits of ABM and who it is for 

• Putting an ABM strategy in place

What is account-based marketing?

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B marketing and sales strategy where specific, best-fit accounts are targeted via personalized campaigns directed to multiple key decision-makers within the target company. 

In other words, the focus is on targeting, landing, and expanding a smaller volume of high-quality, high-value accounts. 

Who is account-based marketing best suited to and what are the benefits? 

Account-based marketing requires teams to invest significant resources in targeting specific accounts. To generate ROI on that effort, the accounts that enter the pipe need to be enterprise-level deals, and there needs to be confidence that they will go on to become loyal, high-value customers. 

This means the approach is best suited to B2B businesses with high customer lifetime value. It has become particularly popular with B2B tech and SaaS companies who look at the potential MRR for a prospect, rather than a one-off sale. 

For these types of businesses, the benefits are far and wide. They include:

• Improve key sales metrics

In a study conducted by Gartner Digital Markets, it was found that ABM provided a 28% increase in overall account engagement and a 25% rise in the marketing-qualified lead (MQL) to sales-accepted lead (SAL) conversion rates. 

• Get your sales and marketing teams in sync

ABM simply won’t work unless your sales and marketing teams are aligned. This includes working within an agreed-upon budget, targeting a set list of specific accounts, and sticking to the same strategic messaging in communications. 

It can take a little more work up-front, but removing the friction and increasing transparency between the two teams makes things more efficient in the long-term and leads to a far better customer experience. 

• Shorten the sales cycle 

With fewer, more qualified leads to work, sales can dedicate more time to converting leads that are ready to buy. Moreover, marketing messages will be targeted and specific, meaning the lead is more likely to have an understanding of how your product or service can solve a problem or fill a gap for their business. 

• Track ROI and better understand the buyer’s journey

Since ABM requires such a targeted, specific approach to marketing, it is far easier to map the buyer’s journey back to the first point of awareness. This means channels, creative, and messaging can be better attributed and you can learn more the path to conversion. 

With this kind of clarity, you can make better decisions about where you spend your time and money, and can speak with confidence when requesting more resources from business decision makers. 

• Improve time-to-value-realization and customer lifetime value

By now B2B marketers are well aware of how important retention is — and the crucial role marketing can play in retaining customers. With ABM, marketing and sales can share the highly-personalized messaging a new account receives throughout their journey with customer success. This means the initial onboarding process can speak specifically to the new customer’s needs to shorten time to value realization. Once that happens, the focus can quickly shift to retention and expansion, ultimately increasing the customer lifetime value. 

In other words, with ABM there’s no need to make guesses. Everyone who interacts with a customer — whether through a digital banner, a face-to-face conversation, or a conversation on live chat — is clear on who the account is, what they need, and their next best action. 

Putting an ABM strategy in place

One thing’s for sure — there will be no random acts of marketing when an ABM strategy is in place. Account-based marketing requires a very detailed and clear strategy to be outlined, agreed upon, and communicated widely. 

To start building your ABM strategy, follow these steps:

1. Align team leads and get buy-in

Before you get into the specifics, sales and marketing leads need to identify the resources required and expected outcomes, then ensure the key leads across the business are aligned. It's crucial that sales and marketing are singing from the same hymn sheet, and can confidently answer questions like:

• Who is on the ABM task force? For example, it could be one existing marketer and sales person initially, with a plan to scale up 

• What budget is required to target key accounts? 

• What KPIs will you put in place?

  • How many deals are expected within the first quarter/half/year and what is the average deal size? Identify most likely, best, and worst case

  • What is the expected increase in CLV?

  • What is the expected ROI?

• How will an ABM approach change the rest of your marketing strategy? 

Remember, ABM requires a lot of focus and collaboration, and often a bit of patience. This makes leadership buy-in and alignment is more important than ever.

2. Identify target accounts 

One key difference between ABM and traditional marketing strategy: You are targeting specific accounts, not individual profiles. 

So, rather than referencing your ideal customer profile (ICP), you want to think about what your highest-value accounts have in common, and then identify other accounts that match that profile. Another way to do this is to get clear on the specific problem your product solves, and identify what kind of enterprises might be facing that problem. 

With this information, you can put together a profile of the accounts you want to target including things like the industry, company size and stage, location, and even technographic information like complementary products in their tech stack. The more information the better! 

3. Research the accounts 

The more you know about each account in your list and the decision makers you’ll be targeting, the better you’ll be able to personalize messaging and win the deal. 

Build an account profile by starting with the most obvious and publicly available information, then go from there. Here are some things to look for:

• The mission and vision of the company

• Their ICP, plus their goals and needs 

• Company size and stage

• Revenue model 

• Other products in their tech stack 

• Number of employees and org chart 

• Employees (past or present) who have engaged with your business in the past 

Once you have this information, you will want to take a look at a few of the key decision-makers to decide exactly who you will be targeting — and do some research into who they are and what drives them. 

It’s important to keep this information up to date throughout the buyer’s journey to ensure you’re aware of any reorgs, layoffs, rounds of funding, market positioning changes, or key decision-maker movements that could change your messaging approach or the individuals you are targeting. Staying abreast of these changes helps you avoid wasting resources and ad spend. 

4. Develop a messaging and targeting strategy 

Now you know who you are targeting and why your product or service is right for them, it’s time to answer two important questions:

• Where am I most likely to reach these organizations and individuals?

• What kind of messaging is most likely to grab their attention? 

There will be some obvious answers to the first question — you’re more likely to reach B2B decision makers on LinkedIn than TikTok for example — but the best campaigns push beyond the obvious. Think about what these individual’s day might look like, and the various media placements they encounter along the way. In a digital environment, that could be trade press or newsletter specific to their industry, or a podcast they are likely to listen to. In the real world, it could be an out-of-home placement near their office. 

The second question will likely be a little harder to answer, but the good news is you’ve done the hard work in the research phase. You know why your product is right for this audience, and you understand the problem you can solve for them or the benefit you can offer. Now it’s about nailing that message, and repeating it in new, creative ways. 

5. Finalize cross-departmental plans

Account-based marketing is a team effort, and success is more likely if everyone is on the same page from the get-go. Now that you have your research and targeting strategy in place, look at how you will surface information cross-departmentally, and work together to bring in the account. 

To do this, you will want to agree on:

• Allocated resources and budget for each account

• Individuals allocated to each account - at least one marketing and sales team member, and potentially a customer success specialist ready to be briefed on sign

• Intent data or lead scoring methodology for identifying and tracking accounts

• Shared dashboards and reports to track progress towards KPIs

• Sales collateral that reinforces the messaging in marketing materials

• Pivot plans for feedback and optimizations 

• Regular cadence to review target account list — choose when to pivot (e.g. target a new decision maker on the account), remove (e.g. you might agree that after 3 months without engagement, you move on), or add (e.g. you’ve identified a new account to target) 

• Handover plan for sales to success 

From here, it’s time to press play. Account-based marketing tends to move more slowly — but has greater rewards. So be patient, work collaboratively and strategically, continue to monitor your results against KPIs to make changes as you need to, and celebrate the wins together. 

Final word 

Sales and marketing teams are being asked to do more with less, and take a full-funnel approach to create a more churn-resistant customer list. Account-based marketing is one strategy that can help you meet these big asks while winning big accounts.