Introduction to Account Based Marketing

Defining ABM

ABM is not as broad a discipline as inbound marketing and focuses on key accounts which are identified and selected by sales and marketing teams. ACM then focuses on employing a personalised experience for each customer account. The marketing message is based on the needs of the targeted account, which tend to be high-value accounts that will generate more revenue.


ABM looks at targeting a specific buyer or set of buyers in one industry. It works by identifying which customers are the most valuable to the business. Once the market and customer has been identified, it’s then a case of optimising a marketing campaign in order to create personalised sales messages that really resonate with the customer.

Benefits of ABM

So what benefits can account based marketing afford B2B marketers? According to Marketo, the top five include:

Clear ROI – a 2014 study found that “ABM delivers the highest Return on Investment of any B2B marketing strategy or tactic.”

Reduced waste of resources – due to the targeted nature of ABM marketers can more efficiently focus resources and optimise target accounts.

Personalisation and optimisation – ABM allows B2B marketing campaigns to resonate more effectively with the audience due to its personalised and optimised nature.

Tracking and measurement – as marketers are working with a more focused and targeted group, it’s easier to track and measure metrics and analytics.

Alignment with sales is easier – sales and marketing align when using ABM as it requires marketers to think more like a sales person insomuch as they’re required to consider how they can effectively target accounts and gain the most revenue from them. ABM requires sales and marketing to work closely together and is perhaps the most effective way in which sales and marketing can be aligned.
ABM – if it’s to be successful – should deliver high conversion rates due to its targeted nature. This means that marketers have to consider how they can personalise the experience for the buyer and how they can further use retargeting in order to gain the most from each account.

This means that it’s necessary for marketers to create various means of ensuring that the most is made of each account.

This could include personalised landing pages for each account which include:

Custom copy/images
Deep personalisation – e.g. having the name of the account/key contact on the landing page
Targeted and personalised offers
Tracking its Effectiveness

It will of course be necessary to track the effectiveness of any ABM campaign using analytics. This will then allow the campaigns to be tweaked in order to more effectively create further campaigns and to remarket to the target accounts.

Using analytics, marketers can track sales and market to subsegments of accounts, sending out customised and personalised messages to target accounts. However, these don’t necessarily have to be individual accounts, it’s possible to meet the needs of a range of buyer personas once ABM is in place.

Like most business processes, in order to use ABM effectively, it’s necessary to plan and to understand what the goals of the business are. Since ABM is reasonably specific, it’s safe to say that the first steps will be in successfully aligning sales and marketing. Following this, it will also be necessary to fully understand the customer pain points and how these can be effectively addressed.

Technology can help to automate and scale ABM processes, but it’s always going to be necessary to plan in order to identify key target accounts, market to them and measure the accounts in order to further tweak and remarket.

Identifying ABM Prospects

But how do you identify those accounts in the first instance? Many marketers will have used buyer personas in the past and it’s true that it seems like the most logical first step when it comes to ABM. In B2B marketing it’s easier to identify those accounts that are likely to be high value when compared with the consumer market. So the first steps will be in coming up with a strategy to identify high value accounts. This can be done using analytics (predictive) or it can be done by simply working more closely with sales.

It’s likely that as a marketer, you will need:

A list of accounts from sales
Targeted segments
A list of customers

A list of customers who are likely to buy soon and can be targeted almost immediately
Once you’ve identified and planned target accounts, then you can create campaigns based on landing pages and advertising. It’s vital once you begin your campaign that you begin to measure results immediately so that you can see what’s working and adjust accordingly.

Depending on your industry and the size of the business that you’re applying ABM to, you may want to start small. Stakeholders may be resistant to new approaches so you may want to begin with a small set of high value accounts that sales and marketing have identified in order to prove ROI in the first instance. Once you have demonstrated that ABM can be a success in the initial stages, then it’s a simple matter to scale and ensure that it can be applied to further accounts across the business.

ABM is something that many B2B businesses are taking a huge interest in this year and going into 2016. It relies on personalisation which we know works well in both the consumer and B2B markets. Whilst many companies appear to understand its worth, adoption is currently slow, so if you’re a B2B marketer then now is the time to jump on the ABM bandwagon and identify those high value customers who will boost sales.

In this multi-channel digital environment that we find ourselves in today, it’s necessary to find new and innovative ways to reach customers, no matter what industry we’re in. ABM offers an opportunity to gain the most profit from each account that’s identified as being valuable in both sales and marketing.