Account-based marketing: What it is, why to do it, and how to do it right

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions adds organizational advice like executive alignment and defining objectives, plus more specific ABM steps, such as developing an ideal customer profile. ABM proponents often publish frameworks that closely map to the main steps of ABM but augment them with best practices and advice about technical requirements. "That's job No. 1. Make sure you understand the curve of opportunities and then figure out how to tier the various services." Segmenting accounts — by region, for example — and ranking them in tiers according to their revenue potential helps in deciding how many resources to devote to them, according to Gerry Murray, a research director at IDC.

This framework breaks down the process into actionable steps that reflect account based marketing best practices. Prioritizing accounts based on intent alone, without fit validation, leads to wasted outreach. Smartsheet used ZoomInfo's ABM capabilities to achieve an 84% increase in MQLs and 26% higher opportunity rates by targeting the full buying committee with coordinated, account-specific outreach. This coordinated effort helps move accounts through the pipeline faster because there is no confusion about messaging or next steps.

With seamless automation and AI, your teams may find it easier to align your ABM efforts and grow relationships with high-value accounts. To get started with ABM, you need enough high-value customer accounts to make the strategy worthwhile; the data in your CRM can help you see whether this is the case. As more than 79% of marketers report higher ROI from ABM than any other marketing effort, it's clear that ABM can be an effective strategy for almost any B2B company or business with long sales cycles. This means sales and marketing have to work together, not in silos. AI technology can help marketers drill down into customer data and determine the most suitable accounts. This step could be the most important because if you’re putting time and effort into a targeted ABM campaign, you want to target the correct accounts.

The companies that succeed are those that start small, measure what matters, and iterate based on real results. When you're speaking directly to an account's specific pain points instead of delivering generic messages, prospects actually pay attention. ABM isn't just another marketing buzzword; it's a fundamental shift in how smart B2B companies approach their most valuable prospects. We always recommend starting with a small pilot program targeting accounts.

GumGum: a custom comic book to reach a decision-maker

If customers can evaluate and buy your product in a single session, the extended nurturing process of Definition of account based marketing ABM becomes overkill. If you're looking to upsell or cross-sell to current customers, ABM principles help you identify new opportunities within accounts you already understand. When prospects take months to make decisions and involve multiple stakeholders, the relationship-building aspect of ABM becomes crucial.

Tiering helps you decide how much time, effort, and budget to invest in different accounts. Behavioral signals show you who's actively looking for solutions like yours right now, while understanding their business challenges helps you speak directly to their pain points. The collaboration between marketing and sales creates a more effective go-to-market strategy. While many think of it as purely an acquisition strategy, many marketers report that ABM delivers significant benefits for retaining and expanding existing client relationships. By concentrating efforts on accounts with the highest potential value, both marketing and sales can develop deeper relationships with key stakeholders at target companies.

Learn all the essentials of account-based marketing in this interactive guide.

See how Agentforce Marketing helps you move faster than ever, while making every interaction more personal. Creating unique content for each account can also be time-consuming; using templates and automating parts of the process can make it easier. Finally, ensure your sales team is fully involved in the process from start to finish. Top ABM strategies start with clearly identifying your ideal target accounts.

Account Based Marketing KPIs: Measuring success

• Account-based marketing encourages marketing teams and sales organizations to work together across the buyer journey.
• That well-considered approach matters at a time when buyers are increasingly insistent on outreach tailored to their business and even their personal interests within the business.
• Instead of broad outreach, it focuses on selected accounts.
• Creating an ideal customer profile for the accounts your company wants to target is key to answering this question and creating an ABM framework.

Funnel marketing is when you generate leads from a broad audience of prospects, then filter out the unqualified leads through actions until you’re left with a small audience of customers. ABM provides marketers with the ability to tailor their highly-targeted messaging and content to each individual prospect in order to build deeper relationships and increase customer lifetime value. The conclusion of account based marketing is that it is an effective and powerful tool for B2B and B2C businesses alike. By combining sales and marketing efforts, it allows a business to focus on specific accounts and utilize tailored strategies best suited to them.

By building strong, authentic relationships with prospects, you will have the solid foundation needed to nurture them into loyal, long-term customers. Data should give you a better understanding of the people you are selling to, or it’s not doing the right job. Account-based marketing might be most effective for enterprise clients, but the goal remains to build personal relationships with key stakeholders and the people who make decisions. As a B2B marketing agency, xGrowth helps tech companies tailor marketing campaigns to their target accounts. Data gathered helps measure intent signals and overall campaign success. These insights help you identify what’s resonating with your target accounts and where prospects are dropping off.

Setting the right Marketing and Sales KPIs

Tech companies typically have innovation as a goal, so it's important for ABM practitioners to provide thought leadership tailored to buyers in those accounts, Bennington said. In a 2022 ABM benchmark survey of 279 B2B marketers by Momentum ITSMA and the ABM Leadership Alliance, ABM ranked as the No. 1 priority and accounted for an average of 28% of marketing budgets. "Some people call this fishing with spears versus fishing with nets," said Ray Pun, a senior director analyst at Gartner.

Why Smart B2B Teams Are Ditching the Marketing Funnel

If not, it might be a good idea to have your customer success team check in with missed opportunities to find out why. The best way to align marketing and sales around ABM is to demonstrate its value; once everyone is in agreement, it’s time to establish unified marketing and sales goals. Sales and marketing teams should view closing the lead as a joint effort.” If your ABM dashboard starts and ends with MQLs, you’re missing the point.

By focusing on building relationships with key accounts, ABM (especially HubSpot ABM) helps businesses accelerate sales cycles, increase deal size, and drive sustainable growth. Throughout her career, Jillian has helped SaaS companies scale marketing-sourced revenue and build high-performing marketing teams across international markets. She specializes in revenue-driven marketing strategy, demand generation, and aligning marketing and sales organizations. The key is choosing software that supports your goals rather than simply following the latest trend. Account-based marketing strategies require significant strategizing and data gathering to identify the prospects you should be targeting. The differences between these ABM types are the number of people targeted.