From campaign to strategy: how ABM is changing the marketing game

Intro

As the reality of account-based marketing (ABM) is finally catching up to the hype, many B2B companies are keen on giving it a go. They’ve heard about the great results of an account-based approach (ROI, anyone?) and they want to see for themselves if, and more importantly, how their company can benefit.

That’s where we come in. Due to the recent proliferation of interest in ABM, a lot of B2B organizations turn to full-service marketing agencies like ours. With quick results on their minds, they aim to create a one-shot campaign with an account based-approach and then take it from there.

Our reply? Lose the campaign mindset. Let’s talk strategy.

What we talk about, when we talk about ABM

An account-based marketing approach entails nothing short of a paradigm shift: it’s a strategy, not a campaign.

ABM is all about switching the focus from a big, blurry pool of potential leads to highly targeted accounts that are the best possible fit for a product or service. And it’s about providing these individual accounts (whether you’re talking about a single person or an entire buying team) with the right content at the right time.

To realize its full potential, ABM requires a highly creative, holistic approach that contrasts sharply with a siloed workflow in which each distinct division in a company blindly passes on responsibility to the next.

What makes ABM stand out from target account campaigns?

So why not just set up a highly targeted, tightly integrated, multi-channel campaign aimed at a specific number of carefully selected key accounts? While target account campaigns do have a role to play in a broader marketing strategy, they’re primarily about tactics, and they lack the typical ABM mindset:

• ABM is a ‘zero waste’ strategy. You invest 100% of your time, budget and efforts in the customers you deem most important to your organization.
• Whereas traditional target account lists are based on vertical or company size, ABM uses the concept of the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), which identifies the key characteristics that make an account likely to become one of the organization’s most valuable customers.
• By synchronizing all the account touch-points across every channel and highly targeting to maximize relevance, ABM consistently delivers the relevant experience that customers demand.
• The Target Account Pipeline (TAP) of ABM replaces earlier-stage metrics (like leads or meetings) as the primary way of measuring outcomes. It’s focused on account-level metrics such as awareness, influence and penetration.
• By definition, ABM requires sales and marketing to focus on the same accounts with clear and agreed criteria. ABM is where sales and marketing come together.

Start small, think big, scale fast.

Want to get started with ABM, but not quite sure how it all works? Try taking a tiered approach. Remember that ABM entails a wide range of strategies, from the most intensive (aimed at a few big fish) to the highly scalable (aimed at up to thousands of small accounts).

Or just give us a call, we’ve got you covered.