“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

This phrase comes to mind when choosing between Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and Lead Generation. At first glance, it might seem logical to pour all your efforts into one approach. After all, focusing on either generating leads broadly or targeting high-value accounts sounds like a solid plan, right?

But in reality-your business likely has several marketing initiatives running in tandem- each with distinct goals and audiences. And relying solely on one strategy could mean missing out on valuable opportunities.

If you want to maximize your marketing impact, you should consider—combining ABM with lead generation.

Curious about how it works and why it matters? Keep reading…

But first understand what’s Account-Based Marketing (ABM)?

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a highly targeted strategy that focuses on identifying and marketing to specific accounts rather than attracting general leads. ABM is about quality over quantity—focusing on high-value accounts that are most likely to convert into sales.

Often, campaigns and content are tailored to meet the specific needs of decision-makers within a target company. ABM requires close collaboration between marketing and sales teams. And every interaction should align with the business goals of the targeted account.

A well-executed ABM campaign paysoff:

• Yields better ROI
• Highly tailored marketing efforts.
• Streamlines the sales process
• Long-term relationships with key accounts.
• Precise account level tracking and measurement.

Must Read: 5 ABM Mistakes You Can Not Afford to Commit

What are the Core Principles of ABM

The key principles of ABM include:

Personalization:

ABM campaigns are designed to speak directly to the needs and challenges of specific accounts. This often involves customizing messaging, content, and offers to resonate with decision-makers within the target account.

Sounds good. But personalizing campaigns at scale can be resource-intensive and time-consuming.

To avoid this, you’ll need data-driven insights and marketing automation tools to efficiently create personalized content while maintaining scalability.

Alignment of Sales and Marketing:

Close collaboration between sales and marketing is a cornerstone of ABM. Both teams must work together to identify target accounts, develop strategies, and execute campaigns that drive engagement and conversions

But remember, simply having a shared goal between sales and marketing won’t work. You need to establish regular cross-functional meetings, shared KPIs, and integrated systems to foster ongoing collaboration

Multi-Channel Engagement:

ABM leverages multiple channels to reach target accounts, including personalized email campaigns, direct mail, content marketing, and targeted ads.

The goal is to engage decision-makers across various touchpoints and guide them through the buyer’s journey.

Identifying Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs)

As always, your first step should be – identifying Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). These are accounts most likely to benefit from your product or service and deliver the highest value to your business.

ICP criteria include-

• Industry
• Company size
• Revenue
• Customer success stories

Once ICPs are identified, you’ll want to tailor ABM campaigns to target these accounts with personalized messaging and offers.

Must Read: The Most Effective Methods For Creating ABM Target Account Lists

Here is a Step-by-step guide to executing an Account-Based Marketing (ABM):

To execute your ABM strategy, consider the following steps:

Step 1. Identify Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs)

Define the characteristics of high-value accounts using firmographic and technographic data. Focus on accounts that align with your business goals.

Tools: Use CRM tools like Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or ZoomInfo to gather account data and identify ICPs.

Step 2. Build a Target Account List

Collaborate with sales and marketing to create and prioritize a list of target accounts based on ICPs.

Best Practices: Regularly review and update your target account list to reflect current market conditions and your business objectives.

Step 3. Personalize Messaging and Content

Develop tailored content that addresses the specific needs of each account, such as personalized emails and landing pages.

Best Practices: Make sure that your messaging resonates with key decision-makers within the account and speaks directly to their challenges and objectives.

Step 4. Implement Multi-Channel Engagement

Engage target accounts across multiple channels like email, social media, and direct mail to reinforce your messaging.

Tools: Use platforms like HubSpot or Marketo for campaign management.

Step 5. Align Sales and Marketing Teams

Maintain continuous collaboration between sales and marketing with shared KPIs and regular communication.

Best Practices: Set shared KPIs and regularly communicate progress to ensure that both teams are working towards the same objectives.

Step 6. Engage Decision-Makers

Focus your efforts on engaging key decision-makers within the target account. Use personalized outreach strategies, such as direct messages on LinkedIn or account-specific content, to build relationships with stakeholders.

Tools: Use platforms like LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Outreach.io can help you target and engage specific decision-makers effectively.

Step 7. Measure and Optimize Campaigns

Track engagement and conversion rates, then optimize based on data insights. Regularly analyze this data to identify what’s working and where improvements are needed.

Best Practices: Use ABM platforms like Demandbase or Engagio to track and measure account-level engagement and performance metrics.

Step 8. Iterate and Scale

Based on your performance metrics, refine your ABM strategy by focusing on what’s driving success. Once you’ve identified successful tactics, scale your efforts to target additional high-value accounts.

Best Practices: Continuously review and adapt your ABM strategy to keep it aligned with evolving business goals and market trends.

Now understand what’s Lead Generation?

Lead generation, on the other hand, is a broader approach aimed at attracting potential customers who have shown interest in a product or service. It’s all about generating a high volume of leads that can be nurtured through the sales funnel.

Must Read: Account Based Marketing vs. Demand Generation

What are the Key Components of Lead Generation

The key components include:

Inbound Marketing:

You need to attract leads and build relationships by consistently showing up through tactics such as blog posts, SEO, webinars, and social media posts.

This not only drives traffic to your website but also helps capture leads. How? Gated content like eBooks, white papers, or demo requests will do the trick.

Must Read: How to Qualify Inbound Leads

Outbound Marketing:

You’ll want to actively engage with prospects who may not yet be aware of your brand. Best way to do this? Direct outreach via email campaigns, cold calling, and paid advertisements.

Lead Scoring and Qualification:

To focus your time and effort on leads that are most likely to convert, lead scoring is a great tactic. It typically relies on factors like engagement with your content, job title, company size, or behaviors such as visiting your pricing page.

Next. Once leads are scored, they are qualified and passed to the sales team for further nurturing.

Here are steps to Effective Lead Generation

Step 1. Define Your Target Audience

Create detailed buyer personas to define your ideal customers. This includes demographic information, job titles, pain points, and motivations.

Tools: Use tools like HubSpot’s Persona Creator or Google Analytics to gather insights.

Step 2. Build a Lead Magnet

Offer valuable content (eBooks, white papers, case studies) or resources (free trials, consultations) that attract your target audience in exchange for their contact information.

Best Practices: Ensure your lead magnet is directly relevant to the needs of your audience and easy to access.

Step 3. Create Optimized Landing Pages

Develop landing pages that are directly tied to your lead magnets. The landing page should have a clear call-to-action (CTA) and a form to capture lead information.

Best Practices: Keep the landing page simple, with minimal distractions, and see that the form is easy to fill out. Tools like Unbounce and Instapage can be helpful here.

Step 4. Use Multi-Channel Promotion

Promote your lead magnets across various channels including email, social media, paid ads, and SEO-optimized blog posts.

Best Practices: Tailor your promotion strategy to each channel, ensuring that your messaging aligns with the audience and platform.

Step 5. Implement Lead Scoring

Rank leads based on criteria like engagement level, fit with your buyer persona, and readiness to purchase. Assign point values to these criteria to prioritize leads.

Best Practices: CRM systems like Salesforce and HubSpot offer lead-scoring functionality to help automate this process.

Must Read: 5 Surefire Ways To Increase The Lead Quality

Step 6. Nurture Leads

Set up automated email workflows to nurture leads through the buyer’s journey. Send educational content and follow-up emails based on their interactions with your brand.

Tools: Email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or Marketo can be used to set up these workflows.

Step 7. Qualify and Hand Off Leads to Sales

Once a lead meets your qualification criteria, such as reaching a certain score or engaging in specific behaviors, pass them on to your sales team for further engagement.

Best Practices: Foster seamless communication between marketing and sales to avoid gaps in the handoff process.

Step 8. Track and Measure Performance

Regularly track key metrics such as conversion rates, cost per lead, and ROI to measure the effectiveness of your lead generation efforts.

Tools: Use Google Analytics, your CRM, and marketing automation tools to track performance data and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Step 9. Optimize and Iterate

Continuously review your lead generation campaigns to identify areas for improvement. A/B test landing pages, email content, and ad creatives to optimize performance.

Best Practices: Make data-driven decisions based on your performance metrics to refine your strategy over time.

ABM vs. Lead Generation: A Comparative Analysis

When comparing ABM and lead generation, it’s essential to consider the unique strengths and challenges of each approach.

Best of both worlds: The ABM + Lead Gen Hybrid Model

Converting high-quality prospects is the dream of B2B companies, and account-based marketing (ABM) can help make it happen. While it’s lucrative to target high-value accounts, remember that lucrative accounts don’t always materialize into demand.

Even if your company sells highly specialized, industry-specific products, potential buyers might slip below the radar despite your best efforts to stay informed.

That’s why it’s important to have a lead generation campaign running alongside your ABM. This confirms that you’re always nurturing leads that are good candidates for your ABM efforts.

Must Read: How The Lead Generation Strategies In USA Market Differ From Rest Of The World

Takeaway:

Don’t think of lead generation and ABM as opposing strategies. Instead, see them as two complementary paths leading to the same destination: increased sales and revenue.

While lead generation casts a wider net and ABM hones in on high-value targets- combining both approaches creates a powerful synergy.

Together, they can fuel a more productive sales funnel, ultimately driving more revenue for your business.

Vikas Bhatt

Vikas Bhatt is the Co-Founder of ONLY B2B, a premium B2B lead generation company that specializes in helping businesses achieve their growth objectives through targeted marketing & sales campaigns. With 10+ years of experience in the industry, Vikas has a deep understanding of the challenges faced by businesses today and has developed a unique approach to lead generation that has helped clients across a range of industries around the globe. As a thought leader in the B2B marketing community, ONLY B2B specializes in demand generation, content syndication, database services and more.