Account-Based Marketing Guide: ABM Strategy, Tactics & ROI

This is a significant increase from 2015 when only 20% of B2B marketers took this approach. Using an ABM approach yields higher conversions, lower acquisition costs and increased sales growth Account based marketing approaches between prospects and customers alike. By focusing on specific accounts, the content teams can create copy tailored to those prospects; when high-value content showcases the expertise of the company, the accounts become more engaged.

Are there clear patterns among your most valuable customers that could help identify similar prospects? While some businesses thrive with highly targeted campaigns, others may find their resources better invested in traditional marketing approaches. Account-Based Marketing can improve how B2B companies engage their most valuable prospects – but it isn't a universal solution.

Establish a regular meeting cadence between sales and marketing leadership to stay in lockstep. Executing ABM plays requires tight handoffs and ongoing collaboration between sales and marketing. Orchestrate these touchpoints to create coordinated sales and marketing plays. Progressive profiling and automated data enrichment can help scale your research efforts. Capture these insights in your CRM and make them easily accessible to both marketing and sales. Many organizations tier or score their target account list to further prioritize ABM investment.

• Account-based marketing fundamentally shifts how B2B organizations approach growth- replacing volume-based lead generation with precision-targeted account engagement.
• Rather than hiring permanent CMO-level expertise plus building internal ABM capabilities from scratch, organizations access proven frameworks, established processes, and cross-functional teams already skilled in account-based marketing implementation.
• To engage and convert potential customers with high-value accounts, businesses must combine high-impact tactics that align with their target audience’s behavior and decision-making process.
• You may even gain a new target account through your inbound marketing efforts – one that perfectly fits your definition of an ideal customer but was overlooked as you pulled together your target list.
• These case studies exemplify the potential of ABM strategies for businesses looking to enhance their marketing effectiveness and return on investment inbound marketing efforts.

What is Account Based Marketing (ABM)?

Aligning sales and marketing departments is essential for creating cohesive campaigns covering the entire buyer’s journey. Forrester found that many small businesses need to widen their definition of a target account to attract new customers. While assessing your target accounts, don’t overlook existing accounts that might be interested in cross-sell and up-sell conversations—especially those you acquired through inbound sales. Here are five steps to create an ABM strategy that makes the most of your sales and marketing resources.

Innovation leadership

Engagement analytics See how prospects and clients interact with your PDFs. Let’s not forget about the technology and tools at your disposal. The success of your traditional marketing and ABM strategy hinges on the ability of your teams to work together and execute campaigns effectively. By gaining a deep understanding of who you’re trying to reach, you’ll be able to craft an effective Account-Based Marketing strategy that has long-lasting effects. Coordinate your marketing efforts across multiple channels, such as email, paid social media ads, advertising, and content marketing, to create a consistent and unified experience for your target accounts. You’ll be able to deliver personalized content, precisely tailored to their needs and preferences ensuring that your communications are both memorable and relevant.

Personalization at Scale

One of the biggest advantages of account-based marketing strategies is the tight alignment they create between sales and marketing. That approach helps you understand the account’s needs from different angles and positions your team as a trusted resource. ABM strategies boost conversion rates because they’re designed to reach the right people at the right accounts with the right value proposition. ABM strategies are tailor-made for B2B sales teams who want to close bigger deals, faster. 72% of B2B people who used ABM in 2021 reported increased ROI compared to other forms of lead generation. For sales teams, ABM strategies offer a smarter way to use limited resources by focusing outreach on accounts that actually fit your solution.

“Finding people with the right skills for ABM can be really tricky. With ABM marketers need to adapt the way they budget, because to market at the account level, you need to budget at the account level. B2B Marketing’s annual ABM Tech Maturity Map below shows how the tech landscape maps to marketers’ levels of ABM adoption. Data and insight is fundamental to the success of both account defintion and selection, and to create and deliver effectively targeted, resonant messaging and content. Within that process they should realise that there are shed-loads of stuff they don’t know and therefore need to find out.”