Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach that focuses on delivering personalized marketing efforts to specific, high-value accounts to drive targeted revenue growth. Its impact on businesses is significant. But don’t just take our word for it. Industry leaders already using ABM are demonstrating real ROI:

·         171% lift in annual contract value

·         48% higher win rate

·         84% increase in reputation scores

Account-based marketing is executed by offering personalized messaging by account and persona to drive pipeline and revenue and requires tying business goals to a focused go-to-market strategy. But you don’t get to dream state overnight.

While the value to organizations is crystal clear, it can feel overwhelming to start. And with every organization at varying maturity levels, one starting point for everyone is to gain alignment between marketing and sales on target lists.

Start with a checklist

Often, brands think that they need to choose between ABM or demand gen for budgeting purposes, but we see them as complementary efforts. Think of it as a double funnel: every company needs both quantity (the wide net of demand gen) and the refined, focused efforts of ABM.

Before jumping into ABM, build a foundation, using these steps as a checklist:

1.      Develop an ideal customer profile.

2.      Use the profile to develop a target account list (make sure marketing and sales are aligned here).

3.      Set goals and objectives and level-set resources.

Begin with a subset of your entire audience

When you develop your customer profile and target account list, start with a small ABM pilot or proof of concept, maybe beginning with an industry lens. For example, a tech company that sells to a variety of industries may begin their ABM efforts with just their financial services firm audience. They can target specific personas, like C-level executives, architects, and developers with a value-based solution, like increasing data center efficiency.

One of the common pain points and fears we see in this process is that brands will need a tremendous amount of content to keep up with this level of personalization. We encourage our clients to leverage their current content assets as a baseline that can be tailored or tweaked, conduct a content audit to assess any gaps of where net-new assets need to be created, then lean into technology to automate some of the content production and content supply chain to keep up with this demand. Modular and templatized solutions augmented by AI engines can help save time and effort here. 

Build a measurement framework

A measurement framework is a key building block of a pilot or proof of concept. Tracking KPIs and leading indicators helps optimize and assess your program’s success. Metrics should be tailored to your business goals.

We lead our clients through a maturity engagement and measurement scale that starts with leading indicators that are easy to track and measure, such as accounts reached and lead captures, then moves towards more sophisticated measures like relevance, perception, and ultimately, pipeline. Start with the metrics already being captured in your regular campaign measurement today, then build maturity over time with more ABM-specific measurement. 

Understand what ABM success looks like

It’s critical to note that there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. However, there are key elements that make up a successful program:

1. A well-defined ABM framework and strategy aligned with business outcomes.
   
   
2. An operational model that supports ABM, including the necessary technology and data.
   
   
3. Audience data and insights, including intent and propensity scoring for prioritizing sales efforts and fostering collaboration.
   
   
4. Orchestrated experiences and activation across multiple channels. This includes not only paid media but also owned and earned media, webinars, offline events, sales touches, and emails.
   
   
5. Comprehensive measurement and optimization processes.
    

By following these best practices, companies can harness the full potential of ABM to drive meaningful business results. Want to learn more? Reach out to our team of experts here to see how your business could benefit.