Account-based marketing (ABM): why and how

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A post from the POLISH YELLOW PAGES® blog (formerly DATABOT.PL), originally published on 17.11.2022. Some information (tools, prices, regulations) may have changed since then.

Account-based marketing:

what you and your customers gain from ABM (+ checklist)

Account Based Marketing – is it another of those buzzwords? Or is it actually a strategy that can solve your B2B marketing problems? In this article we find out. First we explain what the term actually means.

Attempting a definition: what is account-based marketing (ABM)?

To define the term, we need to look at what account-based marketing is not. Account Based Marketing is the counterpart of mass marketing, and therefore a strategy for avoiding large amounts of wasted reach, especially in the B2B environment. Nor is it – as the name suggests – a pure marketing strategy.

What exactly is account-based marketing? ABM is essentially a long-term sales and marketing strategy. The focus is on individual “accounts”, i.e. companies or decision-makers. Accounts can therefore be prospects, but also potential or existing customers. It is important that all available information about a particular company is linked to that one account. This will help you approach that company and win it in a very targeted and individual way . In ABM you run personalised campaigns instead of large-scale ones. The goal is to direct all activities and content at your target account.

A popular metaphor illustrates the idea: while mass marketing or conventional lead generation uses big nets to fish in the sea, account-based marketing uses a harpoon and catches the fish that match your “prey pattern”. The main funnel is turned upside down, so to speak.

Source: www.neilpatel.com

What is the difference between account-based marketing, inbound marketing and key account management?

Now you might say: but… I already tailor my inbound activities and content exactly to my target group. And since my target group is limited to a specific industry, that is also account-based marketing, right? No, not quite. While in particular you attract interested parties through your website, content and lead generation BEFORE you select them in inbound marketing , with ABM you make the selection at the very start (see the lead funnel).

ABM focuses on highly individualised accounts instead of as many target customers as possible.

That is why in ABM you communicate only with prospects already selected. Your target audience is much more carefully selected and you can address them individually. With direct marketing, on the other hand, you reach the broad masses . 

More similar, but also not to be confused with ABM, is key account management , which describes looking after certain important customers of high value to the company. Although a key account manager is sometimes also responsible for winning new customers and cross-selling, their focus is more on the personal care of important customers . Despite the fact that both focus on a few key target customers, account-based marketing has a clear goal of winning new customers.

Account-based marketing is basically the interface between inbound marketing, key account management and classic lead management.

How exactly does account-based marketing work?

Now that you know what account-based marketing is, you are probably wondering how exactly you can implement it in your processes. If you want to proceed strategically, it is best to follow these five steps :

1. Identify and define your high-value target customers

In ABM the target group is even more important than in other marketing strategies. Because the effort is relatively high, the target group must be chosen so that the strategy pays off. Find out whom you want to address and what distinguishes your target company or person!

Include all the information about the target company you can find. That means: when selecting target customers, have an open conversation with sales, customer service and perhaps even management. You should create so-called Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) and define what your ideal target customer looks like. Do you base quality solely on sales, or do criteria such as location or number of employees also play a role?

To personalise your approach, it helps to know the decision-makers at the target companies. To address them better later, ICPs can help you define decision-makers in more detail. You need to know exactly the pain points of your personas in order to tailor your content to them.

2. Find and complete your target customer profiles

First of all, make sure you really have all the companies that match your ICP on the list. It would be very annoying if you forgot a few valuable candidates on the list. An easy way to find out which companies you absolutely must include is to find lookalikes of some of your high-value customers .

Now it is time to gather the missing information about your target accounts. Do you really know all the people who have a say in the decision-making process? Where are your touchpoints with them? If some of your target accounts are already in the lead funnel, analyse them and the processes. This gives insight into which website content individual accounts are interested in, or what ultimately made them buy your product.

Source:  www.clickdimensions.com

3. Personalise your activities to build relationships

Now you need to be creative. Use the information gathered to decide what content to create for target accounts . What are they interested in? It may also make sense to provide individual decision-makers within the target account with different information.

Today it is no longer enough, nor very creative, to greet a company personally on the website. The only way to build a real relationship is to give the target company exactly the information it is looking for. Maybe they need a white paper, maybe an individual landing page, or maybe a unique ad? Be curious, surprising and, most importantly: relevant! 

The goal should be not only to attract attention but to keep the target account on your content for as long as possible. This can be achieved only with the right content.

4. Decide which channels you want to use

The first goal is to get the decision-makers in the target account to convert for the first time. Try personalised ads and use retargeting, e.g. via Google, LinkedIn or even native advertising. The possibilities are so varied that this step deserves its own name: Account-based advertising . More on this later.

If you manage to direct the selected company to a personalised landing page, you can offer further relevant content there via a contact form. Ideally, you would later obtain consent for email. In that case you can rely on marketing automation to provide the target company with relevant content throughout the customer journey.

Very important: the top priority is to match your approach as closely as possible to the previously defined personas/ICPs . That is why the channels listed don’t always have to be the right ones. Sometimes a personal phone call may be more suitable, or perhaps an event invitation works better? Be creative when choosing channels.

Source: www.titangrowth.com

5. Analyse and optimise your approach

The beauty of a long-term strategy is that you can continuously collect data and optimise regularly. So it doesn’t matter if your account-based marketing strategy isn’t perfect from the start.

The whole sales cycle is best monitored with suitable tools such as HubSpot or other CRM systems. This lets you assess how effective your activities are and where adjustments are needed.

Questions that can help with analysis might be:

• Does the prospect respond to your activities?
• Does each activity move the prospect forward along the customer journey?
• Is contact with the target account maintained without long breaks?
• Are sales opportunities taken, and is closing profitable?

You can extend the list of questions as you like. It may also be a good idea to ask the target account directly which content was helpful and what information they missed or are missing. You can also ask directly after closing or during the sales process, which requires some tact; after all, you don’t want to scare off a prospect with an endless list of questions.

If you want to start using ABM now, we have prepared a clear guide to help you take the first steps:

Checklist:

10 steps to getting started with account-based marketing

Clear advantages: what are the reasons for account-based marketing?

All the advantages of ABM at a glance:

• Better customer retention 
• More deals
• Almost no wasted reach
• High return on investment
• Brings sales and marketing closer

By focusing on individual key customers and repeatedly analysing and optimising the customer journey, customers naturally benefit from ABM. Thanks to an individually tailored buying journey, purchases are more pleasant, and customer relationships get the best possible start.

This unique customer experience ultimately also makes closing deals easier . You are now creating the best basis for the customer to stay loyal in future.

Compared with marketing activities aimed at the whole target group, with ABM you can very effectively avoid wasted reach . You direct your activities only at the recipients they are tailored to – i.e. maximum efficiency!

You certainly put a lot of work into your activities, but the result is all the higher because you consciously choose target customers beforehand, and customer relationships can only gain from your efforts. That, and avoiding waste, means in plain language: a high return on investment (ROI) and more sales.

It is common knowledge that sales and marketing go together like coffee and cake. Yet most of the time the cooperation works more like Coca-Cola and Mentos. ABM forces sales and marketing into effective teamwork , because both sides benefit enormously.

Marketing gains valuable information about target customers and the customer journey, while sales receives leads that are almost ready to close. Why does ABM cooperation actually work better? It’s quite simple: thanks to the 1:1 perspective, marketing moves much closer to sales, and mutual understanding grows.

In addition, the targeted approach tailored to each target account makes ABM a GDPR-compliant marketing strategy.

Finally, ABM measures are also easy to measure and very insightful . Instead of otherwise large amounts of data, account-based marketing provides insight into how accounts respond to your activities. These would usually be lost in “standard marketing”.

Account-based marketing increases your relevance and, at the same time, the likelihood of closing deals with your best customers. The combination of content, paid ads and a direct approach – tailored to specific target audiences – is what makes ABM so effective!

Zoran Katic CEO Pluspulso GmbH

Who can benefit most profitably from account-based marketing?

Basically, ABM is suitable for any company that wants to make its marketing and sales activities more targeted and individual. It doesn’t matter how much revenue you generate, what industry your target customers are in or how big your marketing budget is. There are, however, certain things to bear in mind when implementing an ABM strategy. Accordingly, using ABM is particularly profitable if the following points apply:

• You usually have relatively high turnover per customer or key customer
• You genuinely want to help your accounts solve problems and challenges
• You consider a stable, trust-based customer relationship very important (often with one contact person per customer)
• You regularly engage in up-selling and cross-selling
• Decision-making processes with customers can often take longer

In addition, some business models or products benefit from ABM: imagine a company produces a special seal for a particular type of vehicle; that company would want to direct its campaigns and mailings only at manufacturers, dealers or workshops for that type of vehicle, and so on.

ABM is very well suited to niche products.

Of course, it works the other way round too. Large car manufacturers are just as dependent on their suppliers and their quality . If, for example, specific parts are needed for a new model, tenders are often announced to ensure only the best parts are installed. For this reason a personalised marketing strategy can also pay off for a big player that is specifically looking for producers of a niche product .

ABM is also suitable for all kinds of “business” services . For example, consulting or coaching providers can use ABM for highly individualised campaigns tailored to their customer segment. An example? Assuming you offer pronunciation training for salespeople, you can use ABM to focus oncompanies with a sales department . Address precisely the pain points of sales managers regarding language coaching, and look for companies that have their own sales department and budget.

ABM works very well in consulting and specific market segments.

Even if you serve many target or key customers in a specific market segment , ABM can be an advantage for you. Suppose you focus on a specific industry, e.g. you sell tax software for tax advisers and lawyers – then ABM is for you! If you define a precisely tailored advertising strategy for these segments, your target customers will automatically feel addressed.

As mentioned at the beginning, in principle anyone can use ABM. But remember one thing: ABM is both more time-consuming and more costly than a general marketing approach. That is why it is usually worth using if your product or service generates high turnover .

Areas of application: where exactly does account-based marketing come in?

ABM has several areas of application. It can be used at every stage of the customer journey: when winning new customers , in the nurturing or sales phase , as well as in customer service or retargeting .

Winning new customers: build awareness and generate good B2B leads

Let’s take a closer look: many people certainly think of ABM first in the context of winning new customers – personalised, highly individual ads, mailings or content strategies are the order of the day. Also interesting is so-called dynamic content , i.e. content that only certain people can see. 

Suppose you produce natural cosmetics and want to win a large drugstore chain as a customer. You could, for example, create brochures and information materials on how to sell your brand in all those drugstores. Only employees of that chain who visit your website can now see these materials, because they are shown only to the chain’s IP address. If you combine this technique with ads, mailings or other relevant content, you have a very good chance of success.

Retargeting: personalised ads for decision-makers

ABM is also very useful for retargeting. If someone visits your website but doesn’t interact through downloads or other materials, and then comes back, you can use personalised marketing to rekindle their interest. 

Retargeting in ABM involves targeting the right people, contacts and decision-makers . For example, supported by suitable tools, you can make perfect use of your budget: Account-based retargeting lets you place retargeting ads in front of decision-makers. With account-based retargeting you can track visitors to specific URLs and include company-specific filters (such as size or industry) and individual characteristics (such as job description, hierarchy). This way you can be sure your retargeting reaches the right person in the company.

Source: www.retargeter.com

Nurturing leads and accounts: better features for better leads

ABM also helps in the sales process – especially in lead management . Once you know the characteristics of the customer segments you want to target with ABM, you can segment them further and create a list of similar companies to target.

The task then is to create a targeted ABM campaign for each of these companies, aimed at the key decision-makers and their problems. When you run a campaign for another segment, you automatically gather more data and information . This way you can determine whether your analysis of characteristics was correct. 

If so, you can refine your ABM activities even further – for example using the dynamic content mentioned above! Perhaps you can build a separate landing page for specific customer groups or show additional content from that area to those who downloaded a white paper on a particular topic.

Cross-selling and up-selling: increase your sales with ABM

ABM also supports you when you have already won certain companies as customers. In up-selling, for example, it makes sense to show the customer relevant success stories or case studies . This way you can persuade them not to stick with the basic version of your software but to upgrade to the premium version. 

The same applies to cross-selling : show the customer, for example, what competitors have achieved with another product from your portfolio.

How does account-based marketing succeed?

For ABM to be implemented successfully and deliver good results, cross-departmental work is absolutely important. It won’t help you at all if marketing designs campaigns without talking to sales to find out what excites customers most. The same applies to exchange with customer service. Here decision-makers in marketing, sales and customer service in the individual teams must join forces and work out a goal and strategy .

Important: Set goals, define KPIs and plan resources together

Above all, you should plan the budget and resources together. That way everyone knows who is booked, where and for how long, and no misunderstandings arise. Especially when KPIs and goals are worked out together, everyone feels they belong and that they aren’t working in vain.

If you want to be sure your goals are reached, we recommend setting up a team or task force for ABM . Members of all teams should be represented there. That way you can make it clear that every area will fully benefit from ABM: marketing increases the conversion rate, sales gets leads that are almost ready to close, and customer service increases the chance of fully satisfied customers.

Source: www.linkedin.com

What is account-based advertising?

Account-Based Advertising (ABA), like ABM, is a personalised marketing measure tailored to a small number of target accounts , this time in the field of advertising. With digital ad campaigns, ABA specifically promotes to a few target customers, unlike regular campaigns that aim to reach as many potential customers as possible.

A survey carried out by Terminus found that account-based ads with fewer than 25 accounts generate more than 400% more clicks than campaigns with more than 300 accounts. As you can see, personalisation is the key to the success of ABM and ABA. Of course, this requires knowledge of the market, the industry and the accounts in question.

Try ABM with your ads too!

Which channels does ABA work on? Essentially all the channels you also use for regular marketing activities:

• LinkedIn: As a business network, LinkedIn has huge potential to reach many of your accounts. The fact that many people move around here with their professional profile makes it the ideal place for personalised ads. 
• Google Ads: On Google your personalised ads are shown to your target audience ahead of all other links when they search on Google.
• Display ads: can also be more personalised and aimed at a smaller audience with ABA. 
• Matched Audiences/Custom Audiences/Similar Audiences: On LinkedIn, Facebook or Google you can show ads aimed at specific audiences that these platforms generate for you and automatically show only to your selected target audience. 
• Facebook and Instagram: Of course you can also place ads on Facebook and Instagram. These platforms are, however, more suitable for the B2C sector.

What tools are available for account-based marketing?

Of course you have a range of useful tools at your disposal for implementing ABM! In addition to tools designed specifically for ABM, we also present other software from the areas of prospecting, IP tracking and customer relationship management (CRM). Only a combination of all areas will make your ABM a success in the long run!

Specifically for ABM there are tools that provide exactly the data about your accounts needed to design an individual strategy. The best known include:

• Terminus
• Demandbase
• Bombora
• InsideView
• and many more

There are also tools to help you with prospecting . Originally, prospecting meant buying a static list of prospects. As you can imagine, this information became outdated very quickly, because company information changes very fast. Now prospecting means using dynamic databases to find prospects. The following tools, among others, will help you with this:

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• Echobot TARGET
• Apollo
• Clearbit
• DiscoverOrg
• ZoomInfo
• and many more

If you want to be sure you have the best leads in the long term, it is worth using software or tools for IP or website visitor identification . With these tools you can track which companies have visited your website to learn about your products or services, and so define ABM strategies. The most popular include:

• Google Analytics
• Lead Forensics 
• Salespanel
• Leadfeeder
• and many more

Of course, we can’t forget CRM tools here. They make sure your customer data is always up to date and maintained – so you always have the latest information about your accounts! They also give a good overview of your customers’ journeys and touchpoints, which is essential for ABM. Make sure your CRM tool comes with marketing automation features to simplify ABM. Some of the most popular CRM tools are:

• Salesforce
• SmartCRM
• HubSpot
• Zoho CRM
• Freshworks
• Creatio CRM
• and many more

With this toolkit you will be well prepared to work with ABM. Make sure you get high-quality data, develop strategies for it and maintain it in the end. You will certainly find the right tool for you among those above.

What are good examples of successful account-based marketing?

But enough theory — let’s bring everything you’ve learned about ABM to life with a few examples!

For this we have gathered a wide selection of examples from various companies that were very creative and successful in developing and implementing ABM. First we would like to present some ideas on how our customers have successfully used Echobot in their account-based marketing, and what experience we ourselves have had using events and webinars.

How does DataBot help with account-based marketing?

As a first example, take an office services provider from Bavaria. With the help of DataBot TARGET and its prospect search and trigger events, the customer was able to find companies in his postcode area that were just opening new offices. These companies urgently needed office furniture. This let our customer approach these companies directly and develop individual marketing activities for exactly this target group.

Later it became clear that among the new customers won, the most profitable for our customer were mid-sized companies with just under 250 employees and a certain sales margin, so he used the “Find similar companies” feature. This enabled him to “clone” exactly those companies with the characteristics just mentioned. He found even more ideal target companies and, combined with DataBot CONNECT, found the right contact persons in the right department. His marketing team created ads tailored to these accounts, and the sales team could move on to social selling via a link to the Xing profiles.

Events as a tool in account-based marketing

You might think: how is that supposed to work? I can’t invite my accounts to a party! We say: why not? It doesn’t have to be a party, but why not invite them to a webinar with a lunchtime snack ? Or to an after-work beer with an open chat and small talk?

Terminus, an ABM software provider, coined the idea of Lunch & Learn. Here’s what it means: you hold a webinar and offer those who sign up something extra, such as pizza, pasta or whatever else comes to mind. While your customers or prospects enjoy the meal, you have plenty of time to run a webinar on a topic important to them. If you promote yourself and your product in such a situation, it will beless pushy and promotional than in other situations.

At Echobot we have had good experiences with this too. We usually hold an annual EchoBoost with two event days, including presentations and after-work parties. But this year, because of the pandemic, it took place online as a series of webinars . So as not to miss the informal evening programme, all participants were invited to a digital beer and/or wine tasting . The response was very positive, the mood relaxed, and we had the chance to get to know our customers and prospects on a completely different level. To support these events, we also ran ads on all channelsand placed them at the centre of our social media, website and customer communications. That was personalised marketing at its best!

More examples from other companies

We want to show what an ABM campaign can look like at other companies. So we have gathered more examples. Let’s get inspired!

GumGum gets creative on a 1:1 level

The technology and media company GumGum launched two flagship ABM campaigns. The target accounts were T-Mobile and McDonald’s. To attract T-Mobile , GumGum used CEO John Legere’s passion for Batman and created its own comic featuring the CEO. The story ultimately won him over. In the case of McDonald’s the company sent 100 personalised burger boxes to McDonald’s and its agency. Each box was personally named and contained a fast-food recipe, layered like a Big Mac, that described GumGum’s technology.

Source: www.gumgum.com

Optimizely personalises its website

Optimizely wanted to move away from a website optimised for the average user and sought to greet specific industries and target specific companies in a personalised way on its website. This includes not only a matching cover image and custom greeting but also calls to action, customer reviews and content tailored to the visiting company.

Source: www.optimizely.com

BillingTree sends locked briefcases

Because mass mailings did not bring the desired success and missed decision-makers, the payment provider BillingTree decided to choose its 100 best prospects and send them a briefcase secured with a combination lock – without the number to unlock it! Those who managed to open it anyway were rewarded with an Amazon voucher and a video presentation.

Source: www.linkedin.com

Intridea relies on classic media

The agency Intridea proves that ABM is possible not only with technological support. To win Ogilvy & Mather, it placed its message on a classic billboard directly in front of the target account’s office. Every time Ogilvy & Mather employees looked out of the window, they were confronted with the message.

Vidyard personalised a Christmas video

A last example from the sidelines, as there was no direct sales intention behind it. Vidyard was actually looking for a way to stand out from other companies with its Christmas message, and as a result launched a campaign with a personalised Christmas video . This video sent email open rates and click-through rates soaring, impressively demonstrating what one-to-one marketing can achieve.

Conclusion: you have to try account-based marketing!

Now you have an overview of the many possibilities and advantages of ABM. So what are you waiting for? Secure higher conversion rates and return on investment with campaigns tailored to your accounts. ABM will also bring your teams closer together, because everyone benefits.

If you don’t know where to start, download our checklist “10 steps to getting started with account-based marketing” .

Checklist: 10 steps to getting started with ABM

Not sure where and how to start with account-based marketing? Download our free checklist to see how ABM fits your strategies!

Checklist:

10 steps to getting started with account-based marketing

Tags:  Account Based Marketing, B2B, B2B marketing, B2B sales, Strategy

What do you think?

Which ways of winning customers work in your business? Tell us in the comments below the post.

Source

• POLISH YELLOW PAGES® (databot.pl) – original blog post

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