Account Based Marketing

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategy that uses highly personalized campaigns to engage a group of targeted accounts, usually by identifying key stakeholders and then crafting messaging designed to appeal to their needs.

If traditional marketing is like fishing with a net, ABM is like fishing with a spear. Instead of just attracting as many fish as possible and hoping a few are keepers, you find the particular fish you want and go after them directly.

ABM can become quite labor-intensive without the right tools and the right approach; the secret to using ABM effectively is market intelligence. You need to be incredibly careful choosing your targets—because if your hunch turns out to be wrong, it could cost your team a lot of time and aggravation. Before launching ABM, make sure you have a good database of leads and a robust customer relationship management system.

Why ABM works
There are a few reasons why ABM is effective and appealing to marketers. Firstly, it saves a lot of energy long term. Why waste time trying to sell to people who were never going to buy in the first place? ABM can help cut out bad sales leads.

Secondly, it gives marketers a much deeper understanding of who they’re selling to. It’s hard to design messaging that appeals to a massive audience—and it’s much easier to figure out a smaller group’s (or even one person’s) needs and make content specifically for them.

Thirdly, ABM makes for a better consumer experience. Personalized interactions will make your B2B consumers more receptive to your messaging.

ABM in action: one example
We used a form of ABM to go after a difficult-to-reach target for PSAV – the largest supplier of A/V services to the hotel industry. They asked us to support their sales team’s efforts to open a conversation with a more resistant prospect: general managers of locally owned, luxury hotels representing large meeting and event revenue potential.

Working from a list of 750 cherry-picked contacts culled by PSAV’s sales team, we created a series of messages focused on the benefits of proper internet bandwidth – a pain points for hoteliers. Messaging was delivered through email, direct mail (A/R postcards, video cards), mobile and digital (landing pages, SEM). The effort resulted in a 15% sales increase over the previous year.

Here are 5 takeaways to ensure a successful ABM plan:
Identify your target
Work with sales to gain a deep understanding of your target’s pain points
Share cost effective solutions (remember: it’s not what you make, but what you make possible)
Create ongoing, compelling messaging; test each message for effectiveness
Track and measure results