Account-based marketing (ABM) enables you to create campaigns that are impossible for your ideal customers to ignore. Thanks to scalable personalization and data-driven insights, you’ll be able to zero in on high-value accounts and channel your efforts into creating meaningful, high-impact connections that drive conversions.
If you’re ready to leave behind generic marketing approaches that yield little engagement, you’re in the right place. But it can be difficult to know where to get started with ABM—which is why we’ve created this blueprint to set up your strategy and replicate success.
Benefits of Implementing an ABM Strategy
According to a study by Foundry, 93% of marketers feel their ABM efforts are either extremely or very successful. Let’s take a look some of the reasons why so many marketers find value in ABM:
- Higher ROI: Focusing on high-value accounts enables marketers to drive the highest possible return on investment.
- Greater marketing impact: By speaking directly to your audience’s unique needs, you can make every message count.
- Competitive differentiation: Delivering unmatched value to your key accounts helps you to stand out in the sea of sameness within your market.
- Shortened sales cycles: Engaging the right people with the right message at the right time encourages them to move quickly.
- Stronger relationships with target accounts: Nurturing client relationships can see prospects turn into long-term partners.
- Improved customer retention: Building relationships that last well beyond the first sale reduces your customer acquisition cost.
- Better sales and marketing alignment: Tearing down silos and getting both teams working toward shared goals reduces inefficiency and pays dividends.
- Enhanced marketing efficiency: Investing your resources where it matters most helps you to cut costs and increase profitability.
- Measurable results: Closely tracking your wins and losses allows you to refine your approach to drive future success.
- Scalability: Using ABM tools allows you to scale your strategy and personalize more marketing material without using extra resources
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Deciding Whether to Implement an ABM Strategy
Before jumping into the world of ABM, ask yourself whether it’s the right fit for your business. To do so, start by looking at a few key factors:
- Business goals: ABM works best for businesses with clear, high-value goals (whether that’s increasing revenue from existing accounts or landing new, big-ticket clients).
- Target audience size: ABM thrives in environments where you can clearly identify a smaller, high-value audience. If you’re targeting a vast, broad market, this might not be the best fit.
- Team readiness: Is your marketing and sales team ready to collaborate closely? ABM requires tight alignment between the two.
- Resources and technology: ABM is resource-intensive. Make sure your team has the right tools to create personalized campaigns.
- Investment vs. return: Weigh the cost and potential benefits of ABM against each other. If you’re targeting large, strategic accounts, the returns can far outweigh the investment.
- Customer lifetime value (CLV): ABM is highly effective for businesses focused on high-value, long-term customers, which deliver better ROI over time.
- Account data availability: Success in ABM relies on detailed, actionable insights about target accounts. Ensure you have the right data to inform your strategy.
- Market maturity: In mature, competitive markets, ABM helps you stand out. In emerging markets, broader marketing strategies might work better.
- Current marketing and sales strategy: If your strategy already emphasizes relationship-building, ABM can be a natural next step. If it's volume-based, ABM may require a mindset shift.
- Sales cycle length: ABM works best for longer, more complex sales cycles. If your sales are quick and transactional, ABM might not be the ideal fit.
Userled’s ABM Checklist
Our ABM checklist gives you a blueprint for marketing success. It breaks down the exact steps you need to take—and the order you need to take them in—so you can hit the ground running.
1. Identify High-Intent Accounts
With ABM, you want to focus your efforts on companies that are ready to buy the type of product that you’re selling.
It’s easiest to identify potential targets by figuring out whether or not they meet certain criteria. This could include businesses of a particular size or in a specific industry, those that have certain other tools in their tech stack, or even those that are customers of one of your partners.
Once you've got a list of potential targets, start ranking them based on two things: proximity and engagement. Consider whether you have any shared investors or business ties and how actively they interact with your brand.
If they’re closely connected to you and frequently visit your website or click on your ads, they’re the ones most likely to convert. These high-intent accounts should be the top targets of your ABM strategy.
2. Conduct In-Depth Account Research
Research is at the heart of any ABM campaign. Without it, you won’t be able to personalize your campaigns in a way that grabs target stakeholders’ attention. Doing a deep dive into account data can give you the insights you need to craft messaging that resonates. Here’s what to look at:
- Industry: Understand their market, competitors, and pain points.
- Company size: Figure out their buying power and scalability needs.
- Location: Identify service provision challenges or expansion opportunities.
- Subsidiaries: Spot potential for expansion or diversification.
- Growth stage: Know where they are in their journey and their potential for growth.
- Market share: Assess their competitive standing and opportunities in the market.
- Key competitors: Know who else they’re up against.
- Unique selling proposition (USP): Understand their differentiators.
- Pain points: Identify which challenges they’re trying to solve.
- Industry trends: Get an idea of where their industry is currently and where it’s going.
- Regulatory issues: Understand what laws they need to comply with.
- Organizational structure: Map out their company’s decision-making process.
- Buying signals: Note behavioral signals that show readiness to purchase.
3. Map Key Decision-Makers
The next step after identifying your target accounts is to pinpoint the individuals who can actually make purchasing decisions.
3.1 Identify Stakeholders
The decision-making process at any company is rarely a one-person show. Instead, it’s usually a team effort involving multiple players. Each of these individuals brings their own perspective and priorities to the table.
To run an effective ABM campaign, you can’t just focus on the final decision-maker; you need to identify all the stakeholders who have a say in the decision-making process. More importantly, you need to understand what drives their choices.
Mapping out the who’s who of decision-making enables you to tailor your outreach to resonate with each person. This could look like presenting ROI to the CFO, showcasing your solution at work to a team lead, and demonstrating how your product will reduce an individual team members’ workload.
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3.2 Understand Internal Dynamics
Knowing who’s involved in the decision-making process is only half the battle, and mapping out the internal decision-making dynamics can make or break your approach.
To truly nail your ABM campaign, you need to understand how the people on your stakeholder map people work together. Who calls the shots? Who influences the influencers? And how do decisions actually move through the organization?
Creating a stakeholder map like the one above is a great starting point. Use it to dig deeper into organizational hierarchies and decision-making processes in order to identify who you should target and what you need to say to them.
4. Develop Tailored Account Strategies
Now it’s time to create customized plans that speak directly to each of your accounts.
4.1 Personalize Outreach
Content personalization helps you to build connections with key stakeholders and set you apart from your competitors. Here are some straightforward but creative outreach strategies that you can try out:
- custom landing pages with tailored resources or offers
- LinkedIn engagement like thoughtful and relevant comments or DMs
- personalized emails that address each decision-maker’s challenges and goals
- one-on-one executive briefings for strategic discussions
- webinars focused on their industry-specific pain points
- influencer partnerships to build credibility with key stakeholders
4.2 Create Personalized Content
Personalized content shows that you understand a particular decision-maker’s challenges and are able to offer the solution they need.
You can demonstrate your understanding by providing stakeholders with case studies that feature similar accounts to show how your product helped past customers overcome challenges comparable to their own.
You can pair your case studies with customized product demos, which highlight features that solve a target’s unique challenges. White papers are another option here, and you can use them to offer detailed solutions for the account’s specific pain points.
The goal is simple: show your audience that you’ve done your homework so you know what it takes to solve their problems.
5. Launch an ABM Pilot Program
Going from zero to one hundred isn’t always the smartest approach with ABM. In fact, starting out too big can overwhelm your team and stunt your efforts. Instead, start with a pilot program: a smaller test that lets you experiment, measure, and adapt before scaling up.
Here are the steps to follow to run a successful ABM pilot program:
- Start small: Select a handful of accounts that align with your ideal customer profile.
- Set measurable goals: Decide what you want to achieve and how you’ll track success.
- Craft tailored content: Personalize every touchpoint for your test accounts.
- Execute campaigns: Identify top channels for each account and distribute content.
- Analyze performance: Gather insights on what drives results and what doesn’t.
- Iterate and refine: Use this data to refine your strategy and scale up
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6. Execute the Full ABM Campaign
The planning is done, the groundwork is laid, and now it’s go time. Executing your full ABM campaign is where your research, strategy, and creativity all come together.
6.1 Integrate Marketing and Sales Efforts
Marketing knows the story. Sales knows the people. Together with operations, they form a go-to-market powerhouse that drives ABM success—but only if they collaborate effectively. To truly hit the mark with high-value accounts, these teams need to break down silos and work as one.
To start, align your objectives and empower your go-to-market team to work toward a common goal. Next, build workflows that don’t just coexist but complement each other so that marketing can provide the tailored content and sales can deliver it at just the right time.
Finally, foster open communication. Regular check-ins, shared insights, and a unified understanding of each account ensure that no detail slips through the cracks.
6.2 Implement Multichannel Tactics
Using a single channel to connect with your ideal customer won’t yield the results you're looking for. Your target accounts’ attention is spread across multiple platforms, so your ABM strategy needs to be too.
Combining ABM tactics like personalized landing pages and 1:1 LinkedIn campaigns will help you create a surround-sound effect that keeps your brand visible and relevant. Add personalized events into the mix and you’ve got a powerful way to deepen relationships.
Keep in mind, though, that multichannel success is about showing up with purpose as much as it’s about showing up everywhere. Consistent messaging across platforms builds trust and positions your business as a dependable partner.
7. Analyze Performance and Optimize
It’s not enough to just set ABM campaigns in motion; you also need to track results at every step of the way. Monitoring account-based marketing metrics like engagement rates, pipeline growth, and ROI will help you understand what works, what falls flat, and where untapped opportunities lie.
With these insights, you can fine-tune your approach at every stage. Is a particular channel underperforming? Redirect your efforts to one that’s driving better results. Are certain accounts showing promising engagement? Focus your resources on nurturing those relationships.
The more you learn from your metrics, the sharper your ABM strategy becomes. Plus, refining messaging, adjusting budgets and experimenting with new tactics become easier when you’re guided by data.
Choose Userled for Better Account Based Marketing Outcomes
Every ABM journey has one destination in mind: securing high-value clients that will deliver unmatched ROI.
ABM might seem straightforward, but the journey to get there isn’t always clear-cut. From identifying the right accounts and mapping stakeholders to crafting personalized messages for key decision-makers, there are plenty of places you may run into roadblocks.
Fortunately, Userled is here to help. Our ABM tool simplifies every step of the process and allows you to easily pinpoint ideal accounts and deliver personalized, multichannel experiences at scale.
Plus, with powerful analytics and insight-packed dashboards, Userled ensures your efforts are efficient, effective, and always optimized for success.
Author
Generated £1.3M pipeline by focusing on UTM parameters personalisation.
Generated £1.3M pipeline by focusing on UTM parameters personalisation.
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