Account Based Marketing, also known as ABM, is a growing trend in the marketing & sales sectors. Throughout the next decade, this method is expected to expand greatly in adoption, as more and more B2B marketers encounter its highly focused and effective qualities. 

Though ABM  is often misconceived for an exaggerated, complicated, or all-solving concept, there is actually not much mystery to the whole. ABM is simply another system or strategy, thought out with an aim at fueling your sales pipeline in a particularly focused way. 

For those involved with B2B, this is a major opportunity to deliver incredible benefits and profits, however requiring great commitment to long-term, skill-demanding and hard working habits.

In this guide, let’s define what is Account Based Marketing, explore its varying approaches, techniques, and overall prerequisites. By the end of this article, you will know how this differs from a B2C mindset, and why exactly this form of marketing is now so largely predominant in B2B. 

What is Account Based Marketing (ABM)?

The idea in ABM is to treat a prospect as an industry itself- with immense focus, dedication, and provision of resources. Think of your customer as an entire market; that’s how much devotion ABM requires. 

You may now be thinking… ‘’That sounds overloading for a single individual.’’ If that’s the case, consider the following:
 

In ABM, each targeted prospect holds an incredibly high value. Instead of operating with a large number of indifferent prospects, ABM prioritizes low volume at greater influence. With that said, allocating resources for such qualified individuals is justifiable, and in logical accordance with the processes of an impactful sale. 

Is Account Based Marketing for You?

With the attention on qualified, low volume deals, ABM is naturally more suitable for B2B organizations.

Here’s why: 

Business to Consumer (B2C) aims at reaching a wide target audience with a high number of prospects, not necessarily demanding exceptional value. The quantity of sales mounts up seeked rewards.  On the other hand, Business to Business (B2B) strives for communication with internal decision makers. This process requires a deeper and more personal chase. The number of sales are therefore naturally lower, however much larger in worth. Conclusively, the quality of each sale provides sufficient profits. 

To summarize it, ABM is ideal for:

• Business to Business (B2B) 
• Software as a Service (Saas) organizations 
• Any business targeting specifically vital accounts 

Why ABM? Know the Benefits 

Several studies have been conducted on Account Based Marketing, indicating clearly observable benefits.  Demandbase, SiriusDecisions and ITSMA are great examples of analytical conductions, showing increased reputation levels, customer relationships, growth in deal sizes, and growth in revenue. 

Apart from higher return of investments, ABM operates with a more effective use of resources. Essentially, ABM resolves the occasion of badly qualified leads and poor availability of content. 

Targeting high value accounts demands high value material, and this is what fuses the marketing and sales worlds together. This shared mindset is one of ABM’s innovative characteristics, allowing for an even more specialized and broad understanding of customer needs. 

Remember the following! 

In Account Based Marketing:

• Leads are qualified in the beginning of the cycle
• More marketing resources are utilized 

As a result, sales conversions are more prone to occur. 

Forms of Account Based Marketing (ABM)

1. One to One – This method invests the entire budget into targeting, selecting 1-5 highly qualified accounts only. 

2. One to Few – This variation is focused on a specific industry, selecting 10-30 accounts maximally. 

3. One to Many – Similar to traditional digital marketing, however utilizing customer-focused communication. 30+ accounts may be targeted at a lower value. 

Choosing the correct ABM campaign for your business depends on the essence of your organization and the context of any accounts you are after. Consider the impact of your pursued deals. 

You may start with one-to-many and explore its turnouts, gradually narrowing down to one-to-one depending on success rates. This will allow you to reach a better understanding of the process before committing to a more limited and challenging formula. 

Get to know Ninja Partner’s ABM process as an outsourced marketing & sales firm. 

By Julia Arguello Busch