Account-Based Marketing FAQ — Questions & Answers

Account-based marketing is a form of B2B marketing that focuses sales and marketing programs on a defined set of named accounts.

The IT Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) defines ABM this way:

“Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach to designing and executing highly-targeted and personalized marketing programs to drive business growth and impact with specific, named accounts.”
Source: ABM 2020 Benchmark Study (ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance)

For an interesting look at the early development of account-based marketing, click on the ABM history thumbnail image below. It illustrates key ABM milestones over the 1993-2017 period.



For more recent details and insights, visit ITSMA here and browse their ABM content.

Note: ITSMA is now part of the ‘Momentum’ growth consultancy group.

ABM is important because it provides a more effective, higher-ROI marketing methodology for many B2B firms. It also helps to strengthen relationships between B2B firms and their highest-value strategic accounts. This in turn contributes to higher ‘lifetime customer value’ (LCV) for these accounts.

ABM can help solve several problems for B2B firms, including:

Missed revenue and profit targets
Loss of strategic accounts to key competitors
Poor lead quality from traditional demand generation campaigns
Lower than expected win rates for pursued deals
Poor alignment between marketing and sales teams
Overall lower ROI from marketing expenditures
Uncertainty about where to focus limited B2B marketing budgets

Account-based marketing strategies can be broken down into three distinct approaches:

One-to-One ABM, also called Strategic ABM. Highly customized and tightly coordinated sales and marketing for individual accounts.

One-to-Few ABM, also called ‘ABM Lite’ by ITSMA. Lightly customized programs for smaller clusters of target accounts with similar issues, pain points, and solution needs.

One-to-Many ABM, also sometimes called ‘Programmatic ABM’. This model leverages technology to tailor marketing campaigns for larger numbers of specific named accounts. With the right technology and processes in place, programmatic ABM can scale to hundreds or even thousands of identified accounts.

Many B2B firms involved in ABM also report implementing more than one level of ABM strategy at a time. For example, one-to-one ABM for a small number of highly strategic accounts, plus an expanded ABM effort using an ABM Lite approach.

For B2B firms with very limited staff and budget available, there is also an ‘Ultralight ABM’ approach as described here. This is an example of a lower-cost and more affordable way to get going with ABM.

ABM works by coordinating and focusing B2B sales and marketing resources, time, and budget on target named accounts.

When done properly, account-based marketing is more effective than traditional B2B marketing as a result of much better sales/marketing teamwork and better financial performance (revenue, profit, average deal size, etc.)

B2B firms that want to implement an account-based marketing strategy should follow methodologies that have been proven to work in their industry and with firms of their approximate size.

ABM consultants and vendors provide helpful guidance regarding how to implement successful account-based marketing strategies. For examples, see these resources:

Leadfeeder’s ABM Step-By-Step Guide

HubSpot’s Ultimate Guide to ABM

ITSMA’s ABM Consulting Resources

Demandbase’s ABM 101 Guide

There are also ABM-focused marketing agencies that can help B2B firms start or grow effective ABM programs.

A primary benefit of ABM is higher return on investment, or ROI, as measured for B2B marketing and sales budgets.

For example, ITSMA’s ABM research has shown that over 75% of ABM survey respondents reported significantly or somewhat higher ROI for ABM vs traditional B2B marketing initiatives.

Only 12% reported experiencing lower ROI from ABM.

Source: ABM 2020 Benchmark Study (ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance)

Download the full ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance report here. (It’s an instant PDF download; no registration required.)

The sales funnel in account-based marketing looks like the example provided below. It is inverted or ‘flipped’ compared to the typical B2B lead generation funnel, which is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.

In contrast, the ABM sales funnel (demand generation funnel) is narrow at the top because it starts with a finite number of named accounts and then expands from there.


The ABM demand generation funnel. Source: Leadfeeder

This ABM approach to demand generation and deal progression is supported by tools like specialized B2B website visitor identification and tracking software.

These tools can also support advanced forms of ABM that utilize tactics like ABM retargeting and account-based advertising on LinkedIn, etc.

Further, these ABM-enabled tools can also help reduce the cost per lead compared to more traditional B2B marketing methods.

At a minimum, ABM includes the following 5 core elements:

1. Purposeful and extensive teamwork between B2B marketing and sales team members.

2. Joint agreement on which accounts to target for ABM. This typically includes working together to define an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) as a best practice. Being selective and intentional about picking the right B2B accounts to target is an important aspect of ABM.

3. Content and messaging that is customized at the target account level when possible. Further personalization down to individual known buyers can also be helpful.

4. Target account engagement through coordinated sales/marketing efforts. This includes content and other agreed-upon ABM tactics for a target account and/or group of accounts.

5. Measurement and program refinement. Defining and using specific ABM metrics and KPIs to help measure ABM program success and make informed changes where needed.

These are just the basics. Refer to the ABM guides and resources mentioned above for more details.

Account-based marketing can include both inbound and outbound marketing.

It is not one or the other; ABM typically incorporates both inbound and outbound marketing tactics.

However, since in ABM we know the target accounts by name, we will often see outbound marketing campaigns play a more prominent role, vs pure-play inbound marketing approaches.

These outbound marketing tactics can involve very traditional offline methods (e.g., targeted direct mail and live events), and more tech-based digital campaigns (such as account-based advertising and retargeting).

Virtually all marketing tactics in the modern marketing toolbox can be used in account-based marketing. Email and direct mail, social media, content, virtual and live events, webinars, digital ads, SEO, executive briefings, etc., can all play important roles in ABM.

For more insights, see how ABM compares to traditional marketing and ABM vs inbound marketing.

An ABM platform is a software solution that specifically supports B2B account-based marketing. Examples include Demandbase, Terminus, 6Sense, and others that help B2B firms deploy and manage ABM strategies and campaigns, either in full or in part.

For good examples, see the member vendors of the ABM Leadership Alliance.

Other ABM platforms include website visitor tracking vendors such as Leadfeeder and similar solutions. Learn more about how B2B website visitor tracking supports account-based marketing.

These platforms and tools are also designed to capture and leverage B2B buyer intent data, for better predictive marketing results.

Other ABM-capable platforms include popular CRM solutions such as Salesforce, and marketing automation leaders such as HubSpot and Marketo.

As noted above, there are many options available today for account-based marketing tools and platforms.

See these resources as a good introduction to ABM software tools:

The ABM Leadership Alliance

Leadfeeder (website visitor tracking and ABM sales intelligence)

Salesforce (AI-based ABM tools built on top of CRM platform)

HubSpot and Marketo (B2B marketing automation with ABM capabilities)

Given the great interest in account-based marketing today, most B2B marketing software tools will promote some form of ABM support. Be sure to check your current marketing/sales technology stack for ABM features and options you may already have at your disposal.

ABM content marketing is simply the content-specific activities of account-based marketing.

Since ABM relies on developing account-specific, customized content, ABM content marketing refers to that aspect of an overall account-based marketing strategy.

Account-based content marketing can include any form of customized and/or personalized content, such as:

Product collateral, solution briefs, slide decks, etc.
Website pages and/or landing pages
Microsites
White papers
Customer success stories and case studies
Video content
Webinars
Executive briefings

In short, any content that can be customized and/or personalized to assist the selling and closing of a target account deal is fair game here.

Marketing and sales teams can scale their ABM programs using methods and software vendor tools that go beyond 1:1 ABM into at least one-to-few (ABM Lite) or even one-to-many ABM programs.

ABM program scaling options often include:

Expanding from a small pilot ABM program into more target accounts that match the ideal customer profile (ICP).

Expanding beyond large strategic named accounts into mid-tier account clusters.

Expanding ABM into more product/service/solution areas.

Expanding into new sales territories or target geographies. (e.g., from Europe into the USA)

For much more, see ITSMA’s ABM coverage here and download their ABM report (PDF) here.

See especially ITSMA’s ABM Adoption Model, which includes four stages of ABM adoption and scaling:

1) Exploring — planning an ABM strategy
2) Experimenting — piloting, measuring, and refining your ABM program
3) Expanding — increasing ABM account coverage
4) Embedded — driving strategic growth with ABM