Account-based marketing
In a nutshell, account-based marketing (ABM) is a set of coordinated activities aimed at developing a company's reputation, relationships and revenue within a focused set of priority accounts.
The term ABM emerged in the early 2000s when organisations like ITSMA (Information Technology Services Marketing Association) adopted it to describe a shift towards a more targeted and integrated way to go to market.
ABM is commonly divided into 3 categories: 1:1, 1:few and 1:many.
The number of accounts in an initiative can vary from between one and ten in a 1:1 ABM programme, all the way up to several thousand in 1:many ABM.
ABM is particularly well-suited to companies with complex, high-value offerings that want to generate sales opportunities from a defined list of ideal customers.
Below, we outline the key steps that we take alongside our clients when working on an ABM initiative.
Step 1: Account selection
When selecting accounts to include in an account-based marketing initiative, it’s crucial to balance idealism and pragmatism.
ABM is an opportunity to be bold and ambitious. It’s worth including some dream (and even seemingly unobtainable) accounts. It’s also sensible to include some that you feel have the highest propensity to become customers. The idea is to create space for some groundbreaking deals, while maximising the likelihood of generating a good return on investment from the programme.
We also advise clients to be “approximately right, not precisely wrong” when selecting accounts for ABM. When starting out, it’s especially important to ensure there is a degree of variety within the selected accounts, to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.
Good account selection requires data, instinct and experience, and it’s 50% of the equation for ABM success.
Step 2: Creating content and a suite of compelling ways that selected accounts can enter into a relationship with your brand
Example approaches would include:
Creating content together with your selected ABM accounts. For example, through a podcast, or through co-writing a blog or thought-leadership piece together, or recording a video interview.
Inviting your dream accounts to attend and participate in virtual and in-person events.
Conducting research that involves interviewing and surveying ideal accounts, with a detailed report as the output.
In addition to the above, we also enable and support clients to reach out to their ideal accounts to propose introductory meetings and demos, as that will often be the simplest and most effective way to generate traction and sales. In our experience, it’s important to combine one-to-one outreach with content and other softer, more value-led ways that selected accounts can enter into a relationship with your brand.
Step 3: Activation and engagement with the selected accounts
We support and enable clients to engage with the accounts in the ABM programme, typically through a combination of digital channels as well as via one to one outreach.
We prioritise ensuring that the content and communications destined for the target accounts get seen, and are optimised to start conversations, open up new relationships, and ultimately drive revenue.