Account Based Marketing (ABM) in Detail

Definition of Account-Based Marketing

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a highly targeted, strategic marketing approach focusing on identifying, targeting, and engaging specific high-value accounts (prospective customers) with personalized content, marketing campaigns, and sales efforts. ABM aims to build long-term, meaningful relationships with these accounts, ultimately converting them into loyal customers and driving higher revenue.

ABM is a highly effective method of reaching key organizational decision-makers and tailoring marketing strategies to address their unique needs and pain points, providing tailored solutions to solve their specific problems.

Callouts on ABM Before the 'Where' & 'How'

First, ABM is not a catch-all strategy for aligning sales and marketing. It's a great way to align the org, but outstanding leadership is an absolute requirement for great ABM. If your revenue teams don't know how to communicate before ABM, ABM isn't going to suddenly make things better.

Secondly, ABM is not a software investment. It's a strategic investment. And sometimes, it can add a tool to your arsenal to advance that strategy.

ABM is not advertising. Advertising is a channel, sure, but... and it cannot be stressed enough ... ABM is a strategic investment. A point so excellent we made it twice! When orgs lean into ABM tools, the tool features define more of what ABM is than the strategic revenue alignment goals.

Types of companies where Account-Based Marketing works best

Account Based Marketing is best suited for companies in the B2B space, particularly those targeting:

• Large enterprises: ABM is highly effective for companies selling complex solutions, products, or services to large enterprises with multiple stakeholders and long sales cycles.
• High-value, low-volume markets: Companies targeting niche industries with high-value products or services and a limited number of potential customers can benefit from ABM's personalized approach.
• Vertical industries: Companies targeting specific industries can use ABM to demonstrate their expertise and in-depth understanding of that industry's unique challenges and requirements.
• Early-stage startups: this might seem contrarian, but early-stage companies can learn a lot from getting hyper-aligned between sales and marketing around a short list of accounts. From refining the ideal customer profile to optimizing how limited resources are applied, knowing exactly who you're trying to close can be a superpower in the early days.

Aligning sales and marketing teams through Account Based Marketing

This is the entire thesis of ABM. ABM helps align sales and marketing teams in several ways:

• Shared goals and objectives: Both teams focus on the same high-value target accounts, allowing them to collaborate more effectively and work towards shared goals.
• Clear communication: ABM requires constant communication between marketing and sales, fostering a culture of collaboration and improving teamwork.
• Personalized outreach: Sales and marketing teams work together to create personalized content and messaging for each target account, ensuring a consistent and tailored approach across all touchpoints.
• Better measurement of success: With ABM, success is measured by the level of engagement and revenue generated from target accounts rather than the quantity of leads. This shared metric helps both teams focus on what matters most: driving business results.

Checklist for building an Account Based Marketing program

• Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Identify the characteristics of your ideal customer, including company size, industry, location, and other relevant factors. The narrower, the better.
• Create a target account list: Research and identify the high-value accounts that fit your ICP, prioritizing them based on potential revenue, strategic importance, and likelihood to convert.
• Develop personalized content and messaging: Understand each target account's unique challenges and needs, and create tailored content and messaging that addresses those needs and positions your solution as the best fit. Remember, you might already have great content for your ICP, so this step is only sometimes about content creation as much as it is alignment. At ATC, when we audit our customers' content relative to their target audience's interests, we find there's *awesome* alignment with 25% -35 % of those prospects. The most efficient call, in this case, is to narrow your ICP again to this segment where you know you have the right assets ready to go. (You can schedule a free Personalization Readiness Audit here) 
  
• Coordinate sales and marketing efforts: Foster collaboration and communication between sales and marketing teams to ensure a unified approach across all touchpoints.
• Leverage multi-channel marketing: Employ a mix of marketing channels, such as email, social media, events, webinars, and digital advertising, to engage target accounts effectively. One of our favorite plays that piggyback on the personalized content goal is to boost content on LinkedIn to those narrow audiences you already know are likely to engage with it. Focused, easy to execute, and has a very high Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
• Implement account-specific marketing campaigns: Design and execute targeted campaigns using personalized content and messaging to engage and nurture target accounts. Remember, this can vary by role within the buying organization and works best when everything from awareness to sales cadences and content is fully aligned.
• Measure, analyze, and optimize: Monitor the performance of your ABM efforts and use data-driven insights to refine and optimize your strategies for better engagement and conversion.

Following this comprehensive approach, companies can build a successful Account Based Marketing program that drives revenue and fosters long-lasting relationships with their most valuable customers.

Naturally, given the comprehensive nature of ABM, we would expect companies to only see results in a few months, so don't over-optimize too soon. The planning phase is arguably more critical than execution, and give yourself 6 months before you start dismantling anything. Measure twice and cut once, as they say.

Happy marketing!