Why Account-Based Marketing (Done Right) Is A Game Changer

As founding partner of Bold Marketing & Communications, Bob leverages AI and big data to create an unfair competitive advantage for clients.

Account-based marketing (ABM) is all the rage with B2B companies, and for good reason. When done right, ABM is one of the most effective strategies for driving account revenue, improving customer retention, enhancing lead generation and shortening sales cycles. But most companies are doing it wrong.

Consider this: While 70% of marketers said they had an ABM program in 2021, up 15% from the prior year, only 45% of companies say their program is meeting or exceeding expectations, according to the most recent ABM Benchmark Survey report.

Start doing it right by using these five tips:

1. Create The Right Structure

Sounds simple enough, but it’s difficult in practice. At its heart, ABM is a collaboration between sales and marketing. These two groups should be natural bedfellows. Arguably, the primary objective of marketing is to support and drive sales. But corporate realities—fiefdoms, political alliances and departmental tribalism—combined with cultural differences, mean these two groups are frequently at odds.

Executive-level support is critical. Appoint an executive to lead the program, working directly with senior leaders from the marketing and sales teams, with KPIs and incentives tied to the success of the program.

And, of course, ensure the marketing and sales teams running the ABM program have sufficient training and support. Carefully consider whether new tools or vendors are needed to support the program.

2. Establish Clear Metrics

Launch your ABM program with metrics that are clearly understood by all participants.

The best metrics are those that can be tied directly to the program, such as an increase in revenue from the targeted accounts or an increase in conversions from a list of ABM-qualified prospects.

Stay away from broad metrics that can’t be directly tied to the ABM program (e.g., overall growth in sales) and those that are too far removed from a sale (e.g., page views). That said, increased engagements (e.g., webinar registrations, white paper downloads, scheduling a demo) with companies on the ABM target list are excellent metrics for determining if your program is moving in the right direction.

3. Develop The Right Target List

An ABM program will only be effective if it’s based on a relatively small number of targeted accounts. Typically this should be 1,000 or less. Why? Because a key advantage of ABM programs is the ability to customize content to individual accounts. Each targeted account should feel like you know their company, concerns and pain points. Too many targets will reduce the effectiveness of your program.

The quality of the targets is also essential to success. Use demographics and psychographics to identify accounts that are ripe for growth or prospects that are ripe for conversion. This requires a detailed understanding of why and when your solution is most compelling to each individual account.

Additional factors to consider when prioritizing accounts:

• Product fit: Do they have a distinct pain point that your product/service can solve, or are they facing a trigger event that will create such a pain point in the near future?
• Strategic value: Is the account in an industry or region you are targeting but haven’t yet penetrated? Or is the customer a marquee brand that will attract other customers? Are they currently with a competitor where taking them away might cause a shift in the industry herd mentality toward your product/service?
• Size of sale: Does the account represent a significant sale in terms of revenue?
• Time to close: Is the account likely to make a decision to select your product/service much faster than your typical sale?

4. Know Your Company Personas

Just as you should develop customer personas when creating a marketing program around your customer journey, creating personas at the account or company level is an important step in building your ABM program. Such personas provide insight into the companies on your target list in terms of pain points, trigger events that are likely to create an openness to starting or expanding a relationship with your company, how they make decisions, and what content would likely engage the account.

Company personas should include both demographic and psychographic data about the accounts in aggregate. Psychographic factors are important when trying to predict company behavior, just as they are when trying to predict an individual’s behavior. Is the target a relatively new company or in a new industry that moves quickly and tends to look for new solutions? Or are they a mature company in a mature industry that is slower to adopt new solutions?

Understanding such factors will give your content an edge over your competitors by zeroing in on the needs of your target accounts. The more your target accounts feel you know and understand them—and can help solve their problems—the more likely you are to close the sale.

5. Personalize, Personalize, Personalize

The foundation of any successful ABM program is personalized content and interactions. Use your account personas and insights to create content that is tailored to their specific needs, concerns and pain points.

Be sure your content is “outside-in,” from the account’s perspective, not yours. A simple analogy is helpful: If you go to a cocktail party, walk up to someone you don’t know and start talking about yourself, you are likely to get a cold reception. But, if you first ask questions about the person you are trying to engage, and seek to understand them, you can then uncover ways to relate to them on their terms, while still getting your message across. That’s the “outside-in” approach.

Account-based marketing isn’t easy. It requires changes to the structure of your marketing and sales teams, gathering and leveraging deep data and insights into your target accounts and prospects, and thinking about content differently. But, when done correctly, it can be the most effective strategy for growing your business, retaining key customers, and enhancing profitability by expanding deal size and shortening time-to-close cycles.

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