Account-Based Marketing Strategy & Approach | Examples

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach to business marketing in which an organization considers and communicates with individual prospects or customer accounts as markets of one. Unlike traditional marketing strategies that aim to reach many people with a broad message, ABM focuses on tailoring the marketing message to specific accounts identified as key targets.

ABM is particularly effective for B2B organizations with high-value products or services and a relatively small number of potential or existing key accounts. It allows companies to allocate their marketing resources more efficiently and create more relevant and engaging experiences for their target accounts.

Here’s how it typically works:

Step 1: Identify Target Accounts

Identifying target accounts is a foundational step in Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and involves a strategic process to select accounts representing your business’s highest-value opportunities. This process is critical because the success of ABM initiatives hinges on focusing your marketing and sales resources on a limited number of high-potential accounts. Here’s a detailed look at how businesses typically identify target accounts in ABM:

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) Development: The first step is clearly understanding your Ideal Customer Profile. An ICP is a detailed description of a company that would benefit most from your product or service, leading to higher sales success rates. This profile can include industry, company size, location, annual revenue, technological maturity, and other relevant characteristics.
Data-Driven Analysis: Leveraging data and analytics is crucial in identifying target accounts. Companies often analyze historical sales data, customer success stories, and market research to understand which types of accounts have been most successful in the past. This analysis helps in recognizing patterns and characteristics that high-value accounts share.
Account Selection Criteria: Based on the ICP, businesses establish specific criteria for selecting target accounts. Criteria might include market influence, revenue potential, strategic value, likelihood of repeat business, or fit with your product/service offerings. The aim is to ensure that selected accounts have the potential to deliver maximum impact on your business objectives.
Stakeholder Alignment: It’s essential to have alignment among key stakeholders within your organization, including sales, marketing, and executive teams, on the chosen target accounts. This ensures a unified approach and maximizes the effectiveness of your ABM efforts. Stakeholder alignment also involves agreeing on the number of accounts to target, ranging from a few high-value accounts to several hundred, depending on your business’s capabilities and strategy.
Use of Technology and Tools: Many businesses leverage ABM platforms and tools like CRM systems, marketing automation, and data analytics software to help identify and prioritize target accounts. These tools can analyze large datasets to spot ideal accounts and provide insights into account behavior, engagement levels, and growth potential.
Market and Competitive Analysis: Understanding the market landscape and where your target accounts stand about their competitors can also guide the selection process. This involves assessing the market position, growth trajectory, and competitive challenges potential target accounts face, which can influence their receptiveness to your solutions.
Continuous Review and Adaptation: Identifying target accounts is not a one-time activity. High-performing ABM strategies involve continuously reviewing and adapting target accounts based on changing market conditions, account feedback, and business priorities. This dynamic approach allows businesses to remain agile and focused on accounts that offer the best opportunities at any given time.

Step 2: Research and Insight Gathering

Research and insight gathering are critical phases in the account-based marketing (ABM) approach, where detailed information about each identified target account is collected and analyzed. This phase is crucial for developing a deep understanding of each account’s specific needs, challenges, organizational structure, and decision-making processes. Here’s a closer look at how this process unfolds:

Understanding the Account’s Business: The first step involves gaining a comprehensive understanding of the target account’s industry, market position, competitors, and overall business strategy. This includes researching the account’s products or services, market segments, and key business objectives.
Identifying Key Stakeholders: Some key individuals influence or make purchasing decisions within each target account. Identifying these stakeholders, including executives, managers, and other influencers. Understanding their roles, responsibilities, and priorities enables personalized communication and engagement strategies.
Mapping the Decision-Making Process: Different organizations have different processes for making purchasing decisions. Researching and mapping out how decisions are made within the target account, including who is involved at each stage and what criteria are considered, is key to tailoring your ABM strategy effectively.
Gathering Account Insights: This involves collecting detailed information about the account’s current challenges, pain points, and goals. This can be done by analyzing publicly available information, leveraging industry reports, conducting surveys, or using insights from previous interactions with the account.
Technological Landscape: Understanding the technological environment of the target account is also essential, particularly for tech-based solutions or services. This includes knowing the account’s existing solutions, any gaps or limitations in their current setup, and their openness to adopting new technologies.
Personalized Value Proposition: Based on the insights gathered, you can develop a value proposition that speaks directly to the account’s specific needs and how your product or service can address those needs better than competitors. This personalized value proposition is crucial for engaging the account effectively.
Leveraging Social Media and Professional Networks: Social media platforms like LinkedIn, industry forums, and professional networks can provide valuable insights into the target account and its key stakeholders. Engaging with these platforms helps understand the professional interests, challenges, and discussion points relevant to the account.
Engagement History Analysis: If there has been previous engagement with the target account, analyzing the history and outcomes of these interactions can provide valuable insights. Understanding what has worked well or not in the past can help refine your approach.
Continuous Monitoring and Updating: Research and insight gathering is an ongoing process. Continuously monitoring the target account for any changes in their business environment, organizational structure, or strategic priorities is essential for keeping your ABM strategy relevant and effective.

Step 3: Customized Marketing Strategy

In Account-Based Marketing (ABM), developing a customized marketing strategy for each target account involves tailoring your marketing efforts to align with each account’s specific needs, challenges, and opportunities. This customization extends across messaging, content, channels, and timing, ensuring the marketing activities resonate deeply with the target account and its decision-makers. Here’s a detailed look into how a customized marketing strategy is developed and implemented in ABM:

Personalized Messaging: Based on the insights gathered during the research phase, craft customized messages that speak directly to the unique challenges and needs of the account. This involves using language and terms familiar to the account’s industry and addressing the specific pain points and goals identified during the research.
Tailored Content Creation: Develop content specifically designed for the target account. This could include whitepapers, case studies, blog posts, videos, or infographics that address the account’s particular issues or opportunities. The content should demonstrate a deep understanding of the account’s business and offer valuable insights or solutions.
Account-Specific Offers: Design offers or promotions uniquely appealing to the target account. This could involve customized pricing, bundled services, or special terms particularly relevant to the account’s current situation or business objectives.
Channel Strategy: Identify the most effective channels for reaching the key stakeholders within the account. This may vary significantly from one account to another, depending on the account’s industry, its decision-makers preferences, and the message’s nature. Channels include email, social media, direct mail, events, webinars, or personalized landing pages.
Sales and Marketing Alignment: Ensure that sales and marketing teams are closely aligned in their approach to the target account. Sales teams should be equipped with customized marketing materials and insights to help them directly engage with the account. Regular communication between sales and marketing ensures that messages and tactics are consistent and complementary.
Timing and Sequencing: Develop a timeline for your marketing activities considering the target account’s business cycles, budgeting periods, and other relevant timing considerations. Sequencing your activities to align with these factors can increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
Engagement and Interaction Strategy: Plan for interactive and engaging experiences to further personalize the relationship with the target account. This might include invitations to exclusive events, personalized demos or consultations, or interactive online experiences tailored to the account’s interests and needs.
Feedback Loops and Adaptation: Incorporate mechanisms for gathering feedback on your marketing efforts from the target account. This feedback can be invaluable in refining and adapting your strategy to meet the account’s needs and preferences.
Measurement and KPIs: Define clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will help you measure the success of your customized marketing strategy. These should go beyond traditional marketing metrics to include account-specific indicators such as engagement levels, account penetration, and influence on sales opportunities.

Step 4: Multi-Channel Engagement

Multi-channel engagement in Account-Based Marketing (ABM) involves interacting with target accounts through various communication channels to ensure a consistent and personalized experience at every touchpoint. This approach recognizes that decision-makers within target accounts consume information and engage with vendors across multiple platforms. By leveraging different channels, ABM strategies can increase visibility, engagement, and influence within targeted accounts. Here’s a deeper look into how multi-channel engagement is implemented in ABM:

Channel Selection: Identify the most effective channels for reaching key stakeholders within the target accounts. This decision should be based on insights gathered during the research phase, understanding where these stakeholders spend their time and how they prefer to consume information. Common channels include email, social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook), direct mail, personalized landing pages, webinars, events, and digital advertising.
Integrated Campaigns: Design integrated marketing campaigns that deliver a consistent message across all selected channels. This ensures that no matter where a stakeholder encounters your brand, they receive a unified message that resonates with their specific needs and challenges.
Personalized Content: Tailor content to suit the format and audience of each channel while maintaining a consistent message. For example, a detailed whitepaper might be appropriate for email distribution, while critical insights from that whitepaper can be repurposed into posts for social media or topics for webinars.
Account-Specific Landing Pages: Create personalized landing pages for each target account. These pages can feature content, offers, and case studies specifically relevant to the account, providing a highly personalized experience for visitors from the target organization.
Social Media Engagement: Use social media platforms to engage with key stakeholders within the target accounts. This can include sharing relevant content, commenting on their posts, and starting conversations around topics of mutual interest. LinkedIn, in particular, is a powerful tool for B2B engagement.
Direct Mail and Offline Channels: Incorporate offline channels like direct mail to add a personal touch that stands out. Sending personalized gifts, custom notes, or industry books can significantly impact, especially when combined with online engagement activities.
Event Marketing: Host or participate in events, webinars, or roundtables relevant to the target accounts. These can be industry-specific events or custom events explicitly designed for the stakeholders of your target accounts, providing opportunities for direct engagement.
Sales Alignment: Ensure the sales team is aligned with the multi-channel strategy and equipped to engage with the target accounts through their preferred channels. Sales should have access to all marketing materials and insights derived from multi-channel engagements to facilitate informed and personalized sales conversations.
Measurement and Optimization: Monitor engagement across all channels and measure the effectiveness of each. Use this data to refine your approach, focusing on the channels and tactics that generate the best results for each target account.
Consistent Experience Across Channels: Maintain a consistent brand experience and messaging across all channels to build trust and recognition. Each interaction should feel like a continuation of the conversation, regardless of the channel.

Step 5: Alignment of Sales and Marketing

Alignment of sales and marketing is a pivotal aspect of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and is essential for its success. In ABM, both teams work closely together toward the common goal of converting targeted accounts into customers, requiring collaboration beyond traditional sales and marketing relationships. This alignment involves shared strategies, goals, communications, and metrics. Here’s a detailed look into how this alignment is achieved and maintained in an ABM approach:

Shared Goals and Objectives: ABM’s foundation of sales and marketing alignment is establishing shared goals and objectives tied explicitly to targeted account success. This means moving beyond generic marketing metrics like lead generation to focus on account-specific outcomes such as account engagement levels, pipeline contributions, and revenue generated from targeted accounts.
Account Selection Collaboration: Sales and marketing teams should collaborate on selecting target accounts from the outset. This involves using both teams’ insights to identify accounts with high potential for business impact. Sales teams can provide valuable information on the accounts’ history, relationships, and potential for growth, while marketing can contribute data-driven insights and market analysis.
Unified Messaging and Content Strategy: Both teams should work together to develop messaging and content that resonates with the target accounts. This includes creating personalized content that addresses each account’s specific needs, challenges, and business goals, ensuring that messaging is consistent across all touchpoints, whether it’s a marketing email or a sales pitch.
Integrated Communication Channels: Sales and marketing should coordinate on the channels used to communicate with target accounts to ensure a cohesive experience. For example, suppose marketing is engaging an account through personalized email campaigns. In that case, sales should be aware and follow up with a related phone call or LinkedIn message, reinforcing the message and continuing the conversation.
Joint Engagement Plans: Develop joint plans for engaging each target account, detailing how and when marketing and sales will interact with the account. This includes scheduling marketing campaigns, sales outreach, and coordinating events or webinars targeted at specific accounts.
Regular Communication and Meetings: Regular meetings between sales and marketing teams help ensure alignment on strategies, tactics, and progress toward goals. These meetings can be used to share updates on account engagement, discuss challenges, and adjust strategy as needed.
Shared Analytics and Metrics: Both teams should have access to shared analytics and metrics that reflect the performance of ABM efforts. This includes account-specific engagement and pipeline metrics and broader metrics that reflect the overall health of the ABM program, such as account retention rates, average deal sizes, and sales cycles.
Feedback Loops: Establish feedback loops between sales and marketing to share insights gained from interactions with target accounts. This feedback can help refine messaging, content, and strategies, ensuring that both teams continuously learn and improve their approach.
Sales Enablement: Marketing should provide sales with the tools, content, and information they need to engage with target accounts effectively. This includes personalized content, account intelligence, and insights into account-specific marketing campaigns.
Collaborative Technology Stack: Leveraging a shared technology stack, including CRM and marketing automation platforms, helps ensure both teams have visibility into account activities, engagements, and progress. This shared view enables better coordination and more personalized engagement with target accounts.

Step 6: Measurement and Optimization

Measurement and optimization are critical components of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) that ensure the strategy’s effectiveness and its ability to drive meaningful business outcomes. Unlike traditional marketing metrics that often focus on volume-based metrics like leads generated, ABM measurement focuses on engagement quality and impact on targeted accounts. Here’s a closer look at how measurement and optimization are approached in ABM:

Defining ABM Metrics: ABM requires a distinct set of metrics tailored to its strategic focus on targeted accounts. These metrics can include engagement within targeted accounts, pipeline impact (opportunities created and influenced), deal velocity (how quickly deals move through the sales pipeline), win rates, average contract value, and revenue generated from targeted accounts.
Account Engagement Scoring: To measure how engaged an account is, companies often develop an account engagement score that reflects the depth and breadth of interactions across the account. This can include metrics such as the number of engaged contacts within the account, frequency, types of interactions (website visits, content downloads, email opens, event attendance), and the quality of those interactions.
Pipeline and Revenue Metrics: These metrics focus on the impact of ABM efforts on the sales pipeline and revenue. They include the number of opportunities created within targeted accounts, the influence of marketing activities on pipeline progression, the conversion rates of opportunities to closed deals, and the revenue attributed to ABM efforts.
Influence on Deal Size and Sales Cycle: ABM aims to win deals and more significant and strategic deals. Measuring and comparing the average deal size to non-ABM deals can provide insights into ABM’s effectiveness. Similarly, analyzing the sales cycle length for ABM-targeted accounts can reveal if ABM efforts are helping to accelerate deal closures.
Account Coverage: This metric assesses the breadth of engagement within each targeted account, including the number of contacts reached and the relevance of those contacts to the buying process. It helps ensure that ABM efforts penetrate the account deeply and engage the right stakeholders.
Marketing and Sales Alignment: Measuring the alignment between marketing and sales can involve tracking joint activities, shared goals achievement, and the level of collaboration on account strategies. This can also include feedback from both teams on the effectiveness of cooperation and areas for improvement.
Technology and Data Utilization: Evaluating the effectiveness of the technology and data used in ABM efforts, including CRM, marketing automation, and analytics tools. This involves assessing data quality, the integration of tools, and the ability to track and measure account engagement accurately.
Optimization Strategies: Optimization strategies can be developed based on the insights gathered from the above metrics. This can involve refining target account selection, personalizing content and messaging more effectively, adjusting channel strategies, enhancing sales and marketing alignment, and improving the overall customer experience.
Continuous Learning and Iteration: ABM is an iterative process that benefits from constant learning. Regular ABM strategies and performance reviews should be conducted to identify what is working well and where adjustments are needed. This includes staying agile and being willing to test new approaches or tactics within the ABM framework.
Customer Feedback and Satisfaction: Beyond quantitative metrics, qualitative feedback from targeted accounts can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of ABM strategies. This can include customer satisfaction surveys, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and direct feedback from key stakeholders within targeted accounts.

Examples of Account-Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) involves highly personalized and targeted approaches to engage specific accounts. Here are several examples of ABM strategies in action:

Personalized Content and Messaging: Creating content specifically tailored to the needs and interests of a target account. For example, a software company might develop a custom report for a potential client showing how their product can address the client’s unique challenges using their data and scenarios.
Targeted Digital Advertising: Using platforms like LinkedIn or Google Ads to serve highly targeted ads to individuals from selected accounts. This can include custom ad messages that address the specific pain points or opportunities relevant to each account.
Direct Mail Campaigns: Send personalized gifts, notes, or educational materials directly to key decision-makers within target accounts. For instance, a company might send a high-quality, branded item relevant to the recipient’s business challenges or interests, along with a personalized note.
Custom Events and Webinars: Hosting exclusive events, webinars, or roundtable discussions for select accounts. These events are tailored to the specific interests and industry issues relevant to the invited accounts, providing valuable insights and fostering direct relationships.
Account-Specific Landing Pages and Microsites: Designing web pages or entire microsites dedicated to individual target accounts. These pages can provide content and offers specifically relevant to the account, such as case studies, testimonials, or solutions that align with the account’s specific needs.
Executive Engagement Programs: Establish direct communication channels between your company’s senior executives and the target account. This might involve setting up dinners, golf outings, or one-on-one meetings to discuss industry trends, challenges, and opportunities at a strategic level.
Social Media Engagement: Using social media platforms to engage directly with individuals from target accounts. This can involve sharing relevant content, commenting on their posts, or starting conversations on topics of mutual interest to build rapport.
Customized Solutions and Demonstrations: Offering personalized product demonstrations or pilot programs that showcase how your solution can meet the specific needs of the target account. This can involve customizing aspects of your product or service to better align with the account’s requirements.