Uncover the Secrets of Account Based Marketing in B2B

What is account-based marketing?
Account-based marketing is a more narrowly focused take on business-to-business marketing strategy, that uses highly targeted and personalized campaigns.

History of account-based marketing

While traditional marketing dates back to the printing press in 1450 and beyond, account-based marketing is a much more recent trend, dating back to the early 1990s. At this time, both B2B and B2C companies recognized a need for marketing that focused on personalization over appealing to the masses. This book, referred to by Business Week as «the bible of new marketing,» was a well-known and respected prediction of the transition from the mass marketing approach to the more personalized one-to-one marketing. The book encouraged marketing and sales teams to seek out the small percentage of their customers that offered the greatest financial gain.

Then, to work individually with each customer and establish a personalized nurture plan for each. Specifically with the rise of CRM software which made it easier to track particular traits, wants, and needs of individual customers. However, it wasn’t until 2003 that somebody coined the term account-based marketing.

What does that really mean?

A lot of the B2B website visitors are not potential customers. Account-based marketing is a much-needed alternative. By identifying the accounts that are most valuable to the businesses, marketing and sales teams can narrowly focus their resources for higher financial gain.

Strategic ABM: one-to-one

One-to-one ABM is usually spearheaded by one or two key members of an organization’s marketing team and directed toward the most valuable clients – the 10 percent of clients that are likely to bring your sales team the six-figure deals they’re after.

ABM lite: one-to-few

While following the same principles as strategic ABM, it requires a lower financial commitment and is likely spearheaded by mid-level marketers and salespeople. This strategy targets key accounts that have lower revenue or upsell potential than the accounts you’re targeting individually. For example, say 30 percent of your target accounts in total have the same revenue potential as the 10 percent we mentioned above. That 30 percent would be who you reach out to via ABM lite.

Programmatic ABM: one-to-many

Not to be confused with segmented or traditional marketing, the one-to-many approach is still targeted – it merely uses larger clusters of accounts. Through email marketing campaigns, paid social media targeting, and more, one marketer can reach hundreds, or even thousands, of different accounts. Account-based marketing vs. Traditional lead generation is a method often used in business-to-consumer and B2B companies.

The marketing funnel here is linear, where your audience starts at the wider end of the funnel and goes through the stages in order.

Traditional lead generation marketing funnel

Potential customers who make it to this stage realize that your offering may provide a solution to the problem they’re facing. A potential buyer in this stage would likely show signals that they’re close to a purchase. A B2B software buyer could've recently completed a free trial, or a B2C buyer may have added your product to their cart. At this stage, marketers reach out again, offering a limited-time discount or a little something extra with the purchase.

At this point, the buyer has made their decision and gone through with buying your product or service. Your last stage in the traditional marketing funnel is retention. Ideally, this is when a first-time customer turns into a loyal advocate. Account-based marketing acknowledged that shortcoming and instead decided to flip the funnel.

How does account-based marketing work: ABM and flipping the funnel

B2B marketers often have smaller audiences, which makes ABM an easier approach than traditional mass marketing. Marketers and sales teams use ABM on some of their high-stake customers – the ones who have the potential to bring in the most revenue for the business. It may seem like account-based marketers are fishing with a spear instead of a large net, like their mass-marketing counterparts, and that may be true. But, think of ABM marketers using that spear to catch a 400-pound salmon, when other marketers are coming away with a net full of 200 small trout.

Account-based marketers are looking for customers that will have the highest customer lifetime value . Account-based marketing is like a subject line with your name in it, on a grander scale. To some, ABM sounds like it would be more straightforward than traditional marketing. In fact, identifying key companies, the decision-makers within them, and their wants and needs requires significant work – not to mention a lot of joint effort from marketing and sales.

Ultimately, a lot of what account-based marketing comes down to is the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule. In ABM, it means that 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers. When you know which of your customers are included in that 20 percent, you can tailor your marketing efforts specifically toward them – and there it is- account-based marketing. ABM isn’t the only buzz-worthy trend making its way through the marketing industry. Inbound marketing, a term coined by HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan in 2005, has taken off in popularity since its inception. B2B marketers especially took the concept in stride starting in 2012, when the purchasing process began its transition to be more customer-centric. Today, inbound is still gaining popularity, with HubSpot leading the way for a multitude of other B2B marketing teams.

That said, using them in tandem can help marketers optimize their tactics. Inbound marketing is all about empowering your customers through organically found content. This phase is about turning loyal readers into marketing-qualified leads. The close stage’s primary goal is to turn marketing-qualified leads into customers.

When marketers receive a contact’s email address, they can continue to nurture the contact by sending tailored content their way. If this effort to build a relationship is successful, marketers can pass them along to sales. Using the knowledge marketing has gathered through various nurture campaigns, sales can ideally turn this lead into a customer. The delight stage is about turning customers into advocates.

As opposed to the traditional marketing funnel, the inbound approach is a loop. When you turn customers into advocates, they’ll reach out to their networks, turning them into visitors, and so on.

Difference between account-based and inbound marketing

While both types are customer-centric, account-based is about reaching out to the customer, whereas inbound focuses on letting the customer come to you.

In fact, inbound champions may argue that using ABM to market to broad audiences will resemble the spammy approaches – precisely what inbound was created to counter. Due to the goals and tactics associated with ABM, deal sizes are often larger. On the other hand, inbound deals closed may be smaller, but the deals themselves will likely be more plentiful.

Account-based marketing and inbound marketing combined

Both were created with the intention of empowering the customer, and they act as an alternative to the traditional sales pitch. With inbound, this content is written to be an authoritative and educational resource. In account-based marketing, the content can range from a well-written nurture email to a thought-out social post, and anything in between. More importantly, you can combine inbound and account-based marketing to optimize your strategy.

If you are primarily using an inbound strategy, the content you’ve already created can be your most significant resource. Similarly, you can leverage ABM techniques to follow up with readers who have turned into marketing-qualified leads through your inbound efforts.

Account-based marketing strategies

It’s true that ABM is a sophisticated strategy that requires a lot of moving parts.

Assemble your ABM team

If both your marketing and sales teams are built out, it’s more likely that a few employees can devote the majority of their time to ABM. Content marketers, marketing operations managers, and field marketers can all be great additions to this team. Having a marketing-focused graphic designer is always a plus, as well. On the sales side, a sales or business development representative is a must-have.

Define your ABM goals

You probably learned this back in middle school, but as a reminder, you should never start a project without first defining your goals. This is especially true when beginning an ABM strategy. By that, we mean Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. When you’ve determined your goals, you can begin working on your strategies to achieve them.

Identify target accounts and decision-makers

Now that you’ve assembled your team and documented your goals, we’ll start working on the tactical level. ABM is all about personalizing each campaign by account. To determine your target accounts, you’ll want to look at the companies that could provide you with the highest possible revenue. Consider the growth potential of each company.

If your offering is a marketing automation tool, perhaps you’ll want to seek out the chief marketing officer, director of marketing, and marketing operations manager. When you identify these people, you’ll know where to focus your marketing efforts.

Focus marketing efforts on engaging decision-makers

At this point, you’ll begin your marketing efforts. If you’re targeting just five high-impact accounts, you may opt for a personalized strategic ABM campaign, customized to each company in particular. Whether it’s a direct mailer, paid social media ads, or anything in between, this is when you’ll begin outreach and start the conversation.

Making the sale

That’s right – it’s time for the sales team to step in. ABM is all about making sales conversations more productive. Once you’ve finished your marketing outreach, your account executives should be armed with all they need to reach out to their key prospects. By focusing marketing efforts on the decision-makers, you’ve given them a head start in sealing the deal.

Turning customers into advocates

This step is what account-based marketing is all about. While making sales and bringing in revenue is important , ABM’s primary function is to build relationships. If forming a connection with your customers is the goal, turning them into advocates is how you’ll know you’ve achieved it. Turning a paying customer into your company’s biggest fan may sound intimidating, but it’s not impossible.

And while it isn’t easy, stellar customer service will get you started. Continue being attentive to your customer’s wants and needs post-purchase.

The final step is all about understanding just how well that strategy worked. The last stage of your ABM strategy is measuring success. Success in account-based marketing can mean a few things. Looking back at your performance and measuring success is vital to understanding what worked and what you’ll need to improve for next time.

Account-based marketing tactics

That said, as it has gained popularity over the years, different companies have developed various ways to approach it based on their size, resources, and target customers. Whether you are creating blogs, e-books, webinars, emails, videos, or any other type of media format, it must address your target audience's pain points. Depending on your budget and goals, you can determine which options will work best for your team. Nothing says «failed campaign» like a $75 box of specialty donuts going straight into the garbage .

Similar to the types of ABM, companies can employ multiple tactics depending on the target they’re trying to reach.

Example of account-based marketing

You know this customer could be a significant source of revenue, so your team designates a fair amount of resources for its particular campaign. You send them along with a note that says, «Having trouble listening to what your customers are saying on social media?» and a fully personalized sales deck describing exactly how your product can help. If this campaign pays off or at least gets your salesperson’s foot in the door, it will be money well spent.

Benefits of account-based marketing

Seeing desired financial results is critical to the success of an ABM strategy, but they certainly aren’t its only draw. In fact, the benefits of account-based marketing are plentiful. Improved customer experience. Prospects feel special when marketing efforts are customized to acknowledge their specific needs.

Through building more personalized campaigns, marketing teams become more well-rounded, and sales professionals learn to tailor their pitches to different audiences and create mutually beneficial relationships. With ABM, marketing teams aren’t sending out hundreds of generic packets that will likely end up in the garbage. Sped up the sales process. With an ABM strategy, it becomes easier for sales teams to jump into a productive conversation immediately.

The hyper-targeting leads to successful sales conversations instead of shot-in-the-dark emails that likely aren’t going to anybody with actual purchasing power. Tracking goals is critical when determining the success of any campaign.

Account-based marketing challenges

It requires a deep dive into the target market, a data-driven approach to select the right prospects, and a sound understanding of their goals and challenges. The next step is to connect with a decision-maker, which can be challenging via usual channels. Keep running the campaigns at a smaller level and collect data. Once you have enough data to identify engagement behavior and patterns, define your path and success metrics.

Aligning sales and marketing. Marketing and sales teams often have different priorities, goals, and key performance indicators . Where marketing is more focused on MQLs and quantitative data, sales is more centered around SQLs and qualitative data. For a successful ABM campaign, both teams should sit together to discuss the goals, success metrics, and ideas.

The key to scaling with content is to do thorough research on potential customers, create content that resonates with their pain points and make a library of high-quality content based on prospects' position in the marketing funnel.

Account-based marketing tools

Today, there are multiple tools within the greater realm of account-based marketing software. Each of these tools serves a different function as a part of an ABM strategy. Overall, account-based marketing software assists in realigning marketing and sales departments. As with many software tools, ABM software heavily focuses on task automation.

Let's take a closer look at the various categories within ABM software and provide a brief overview of their primary functions.

Account-based execution software

Account-based execution software facilitates the customization marketers need to execute their ABM strategies. This software is used by marketing teams to more efficiently assemble the custom messaging they need to deliver to each account. Often, these tools can integrate with marketing account management or marketing account intelligence software products.

Remember how much we stressed the importance of measuring the results of your ABM campaigns?

The software offers marketing and sales teams valuable metrics about the performance of their ABM strategies. When analyzed all together, these metrics enable professionals to see the efficacy of their account-based marketing strategy.

Account data management software

Documentation of this relevant information enables the communication between sales and marketing teams. With the increased transparency it provides, sales and marketing organizations remain aligned so that resources and efforts aren’t going to waste.

When implementing an ABM strategy, it’s important that marketing and sales professionals take the time to develop the list of prospects that will become their «key accounts.» As we’ve mentioned throughout this guide, these are the accounts that have the highest revenue potential and are most likely to become loyal advocates. In fact, it takes a lot of time from marketing and sales professionals alike. Account-based data software strives to simplify this process. This data enables the software to score or rank leads, better-connecting marketers with prospective accounts.

Account-based orchestration platforms

These systems use buyer intent and behavioral data to segregate and prioritize the most-promising accounts, further helping manage the ABM efforts.

Marketing-qualified lead

When a marketing professional passes an MQL on to their sales counterpart, it’s likely the prospect at that company are ready and willing to sit down and have a conversation.

Account-based marketing is a long-term strategy. Once you start creating ABM campaigns, stay committed to personalizing messages, refining strategies, and developing meaningful and deeper relationships.