Unraveling the Elusive “ABM” Strategy

The time has finally come for you to shine as an office hero. How, you ask? With your expert knowledge and advice on ABM (account-based marketing), of course! Okay, not office hero per say (you’ll need to bring bagels for the office every Tuesday to win that title), but you can at least become your sales team’s favorite marketer and impress your boss by joining us on our quest to demystify account-based marketing.

You can hardly get through a meeting nowadays without hearing the word ABM in the B2B world. The idea behind account-based marketing is to flip the buying funnel on its head and switch gears from lead-centric marketing to account-centric marketing. Instead of casting a wide net with your message, you start with a pool of named accounts that are more likely to convert.

It’s all the rage for marketers in B2B, and people are catching on fast.

What’s all the fuss about?

According to the 2017 State of Account-Based Marketing Survey, 81% of respondents practiced an ABM strategy in 2017 compared to 49% the previous year. SiriusDecisions reports 92% of B2B marketers worldwide consider ABM extremely or very important to their marketing efforts. B2B News Networks lists a few reasons why they believe the account-based marketing adoption rate is on fire:

• The way we market is ever-evolving. Marketers need to stay sensitive to the changes in customer behavior. This includes demand-gen teams in B2B.
• ABM’s highly targeted methodology is a breath of fresh air compared to the boggy numbers game. Volume is the enemy of precision and thus efficiency. Instead of dumping thousands of leads over to sales hoping for a couple of opportunities, ABM brings a new wave of accuracy and focus to lead generation.
• The ABM approach is spreading to all facets of demand gen and marketing. It has come to mean anything inclusive of having very focused marketing programs. It can be deployed via technology or simple processes.

The most compelling reason to adopt an ABM strategy? It works. Alterra Group’s research found that 97% of marketers achieved a higher ROI with ABM than with all other marketing tactics. The ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance Account-Based Marketing Benchmarking Survey found that 69% of respondents reported an improvement in annual revenue per account. The increase in ROI is likely due to the penetration of accounts. In the same survey, 74% reported an improvement in the number of relationships across accounts.

Why is ABM so successful?

The ABM approach personalizes your message and improves the customer experience while helping you measure impactful results on the accounts that actually matter. Plus, it helps close the gap between sales and marketing.

With these impressive results, everyone is jumping on the ABM bandwagon. After their bosses inevitably hear the argument for an ABM strategy, many demand-gen teams find themselves in the new position of running their brand’s ABM strategy. A lot of those teams are starting from scratch, despite how long ABM has been around. Of those who use ABM in their marketing plans, 50% identify as beginners.

The funny thing about ABM marketing? You can ask five different B2B marketers “What is ABM?” and will likely get five different answers. This is simply because a lot of ideas exist about exactly how to do ABM right. In fact, there are two different acronyms for it: ABM = Account-Based Marketing and ABT = Account-Based Targeting. How confusing is that?

Instead of sifting through every article and white paper on the internet, join us on our deep dive into ABM. This series will serve as your go-to guide for building your account-based marketing strategy. For those who already exercise ABM in their marketing programs, this series can also give value. We’ll cover all kinds of questions such as “How do I know which accounts matter for my business?” or “How can I target an account that has many HQ locations?”

To give you a sneak peek, here’s what we have in store:

PMG Unraveling the Elusive ABM Strategy Series

• Part 1: Establish Your Goals and Set Up For Success
• Part 2: Execution In-Market — Launching Your New ABM Campaigns
• Part 3: Common Challenges in Account-Based Marketing
• Part 4: ABM Partners and Technology Landscape — Tools and Partners at Every Step

Once completed, this series should serve as the foundation for your ABM action plan. If you haven’t already, I would hit that bookmark button right about now.

Originally published at www.pmg.com on April 25, 2018.