Your guide to ABM | Markedspartner

1. What is ABM?

Definition of Account-Based Marketing (ABM):

"Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach to B2B marketing where the marketing and sales teams identify and engage a limited number of clearly defined accounts with a high degree of personalization."

ABM differs from traditional marketing by flipping the sales funnel upside down:

- First, you select which accounts (companies) you want as customers.
- Decision-makers are exposed to personalized ads and content.
- The sales team follows up and builds 1:1 relationships with these accounts.

The illustration below shows how ABM differs from traditional marketing, where you attract leads (individuals) and then filter out qualified leads, which the sales team follows up with.

abm-vs-tradisjonell-marketing

2. Who is ABM suitable for?

ABM is a B2B strategy for companies selling to the business market. According to SiriusDecisions, 93% of B2B companies consider ABM to be crucial for their success.

The following prerequisites should be in place for ABM to work effectively:

- You know who your target audience is, i.e., which companies you want as customers.
- You have created personas that cover the roles you wish to target within those companies.
- The marketing and sales departments work towards common goals with mutual commitments.
- You have up-to-date data in your CRM to avoid targeting existing customers.
- Salespeople are trained on how to follow up with prospects (methods and systems).
- You have enough content designed to help move prospects through the buying journey.

ABM is a marketing method specifically for the business market.

3. What results can you expect?

ABM can help businesses in various ways:

- Higher conversion of leads into customers.
- Spending time and money on the right customers (accounts).
- Better collaboration between the sales and marketing teams (alignment).
- Getting more out of every marketing dollar spent.
- Inspiring customers with compelling content.
- Identifying specific contacts within specific companies in a specific market.

According to SiriusDecisions (2017 State of Account-Based Marketing Study), ABM provides the following benefits:

- 56% say that their pipeline is larger or significantly larger than last year.
- 60% say that sales revenue is larger or significantly larger than last year.

ABM Lite

A more scalable strategy where the focus is on targeting accounts with similar challenges, needs, and company demographics – typically industries and niches. This approach is often used for larger accounts with long and complex sales processes that involve multiple decision-makers across different departments. In crafting the message and content, the focus is on the common needs, challenges, and pain points that businesses within the target group share.**

Tactics:

- Digital advertising
- Tailored content
- Website personalization

This strategy allows for broader targeting while still delivering relevant and personalized messaging to prospects within specific industries or niches.

1:1-ABM

This is a strategy for targeting large accounts, often in the enterprise segment, typically limited to 1-10 companies. The sales processes are long and complex, involving several decision-makers across different departments. All touchpoints and platforms are, at a minimum, customized for each company, and in some cases, highly personalized for individuals.

Tactics:

- Display ads, LinkedIn Account Targeting
- Personalized content (tailored specifically for the target company)
- Digital user experience
- Direct mail that complements events and sales follow-ups
- The sales department is highly involved in content production

This approach ensures a tailored and highly strategic effort to engage key decision-makers within targeted companies.

Programmatic ABM

A highly scalable form of ABM and a natural extension for businesses that have already implemented ABM Lite. This typically targets mid-sized accounts with sales processes involving multiple decision-makers. Personalized marketing automation is used in the initial sales process, followed by personal follow-up from the salesperson.

Tactics:

- Digital advertising
-Tailored content
- Website personalization

This approach allows businesses to target a broader range of accounts while still maintaining a personalized and effective sales process, combining automation with human follow-up for maximum impact.

Bolt-on ABM (inbound ABM)

In this approach, ABM principles are applied within an existing inbound strategy. A typical challenge in inbound marketing is that inbound leads from interesting accounts are often individuals who are not decision-makers. Additionally, there is a significant opportunity to identify and influence more decision-makers and influencers within the same account. Bolt-On ABM uses the following process to address this challenge:

- An inbound lead is qualified and placed in nurturing.
- Simultaneously, communication is triggered towards other contacts within the same account.
- When sales reach out, the entire decision-making group has already been exposed to the sales message.

This method enhances the effectiveness of inbound marketing by ensuring that not just one, but multiple key stakeholders from the same account are engaged and influenced during the sales process.

1. Identify

The goal of this process is to end up with a list of companies you want as customers. Start by defining your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), which means identifying the criteria that must be met to be included in your list of ideal customers. Examples of criteria include revenue, number of employees, industry, and geography. Accounts you wish to target are plugged into the ABM program and reached with ABA (lists, cookies, IP) through channels like Facebook or LinkedIn. Incoming leads that meet the ICP criteria are also funneled into the ABM program.

2. Expand

According to Forrester, 5.4 people are involved in B2B purchasing processes. Through channels like LinkedIn, you can reach multiple decision-makers in each company, either by using the network's segmentation tools or by uploading lists from your own CRM (Note: ensure compliance with GDPR requirements).

3. Engage

Now it's time to engage the contacts in your accounts with quality content. Here you have a wide range of channels and tactics to use; email, social media, ads, e-books, videos, guides, webinars, blog articles, and so on. The contacts you already have in CRM, you can reach via email (if you have obtained consent). Other decision-makers in the same account can be reached through targeted advertising. The point is to "prepare the ground" before your salespeople make contact, so that the first conversation is not a cold start, but a warm start, where the customer already knows who you are.

4. Evangelize

The final phase is the same as the last phase in the inbound method and is about turning your best customers into ambassadors. The result you want is for them to leave positive reviews, share your content on social media, and generally be enthusiastic evangelists for your product, service, or company.

Your guide til ABM (Account-Based Marketing)