What is Account-Based Marketing?

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach to B2B marketing that is focused on growing relationships and revenue within high-value accounts.

With ABM you target and engage a priority account as its own audience, addressing key stakeholders with as much personalisation as possible. A one-to-a-few ABM approach is also effective, where a closely related cluster of accounts are treated in a similar way.

AMB tailors your marketing efforts to address a key account’s buying centre pains and gains, and clearly communicates how value generated by your products or services specifically meets their needs.

ABM is proven to be effective, as shown by a 2020 ITSMA study:

  • 76% of companies see higher ROI with ABM than with other types of marketing
  • 60% of companies that use ABM see a revenue increase of at least 10% within 12 months
  • 1 in 5 companies experience a revenue increase of 30% or more

CBC blog link: How ABM can complement your global B2B branding and marketing strategy

Sales and marketing alignment is key

Many organisations suffer from a lack of alignment across their marketing and sales efforts, resulting in unclear goals and less effective campaigns.

For instance, sales teams may find that leads acquired by marketing are of unsatisfactory quality, while marketing perceives a lack of effective support in follow-up from sales. To make your ABM efforts successful, it’s crucial to onboard sales and marketing alike, helping both teams align through mutual ownership of campaign goals, roles and responsibilities, and outcomes.

Sales should help identify target accounts, while both teams share insights about specific challenges faced by buyers along their journey. Marketing can then generate additional insights that refine a buyer’s profile through market research.

Marketing and sales must align on what attributes define lead quality. That is, what differentiates an MQL from an SQL, according to measurable inputs. Lead scoring ensures that marketing captures and moves quality leads in the right direction when delivering content across communication channels throughout the buyer’s journey.

CBC blog link: Supercharge B2B opportunities: a guide to social selling on LinkedIn

Value-adding touchpoints that convert

A centrepiece of your ABM programme will be high-quality content that delivers value to your audience and fuels active communication channels. As a starting point, look to repurpose existing content, but don’t just reuse generic material without considering if it’s relevant – content must be personalised to create the desired effect.

You can start with developing a better understanding of a target account’s relevant buying centres. It’s important to realise how specific pains and gains can inform content creation so that it addresses their business challenges in the most personal way. For example, an R&D buying centre might trigger messaging focused on product quality, key features, or technical innovation, while a C-suite audience may desire information about cost savings and financial impact.

With a strategic approach to content creation, targeting, and delivery, you’ll ensure that outreach efforts engage the most relevant stakeholders to build trust in your brand, your people, and your promise.

Let’s explore your options

According to Salesforce, 92% of B2B marketers have already implemented ABM practices. If you think that ABM could offer a shorter route to success for your business, or if you’d like some inspiration to boost your current ABM efforts, we’d be very happy to help.

To explore your options, give Ralph Krøyer, Managing Director of CBC, a call on +45 35 25 01 75 or email directly at rk@cbc.dk.