Is your business truly maximizing the potential of its Account-Based Marketing (ABM) efforts? If it’s hard to tell, you’re not alone. Measuring ABM success and proving its ROI remains one of the biggest challenges for B2B marketers.
So, if you are struggling to understand how ABM brings in high-value leads, we get it. Tracking engagement, pipeline influence, and revenue from a few key accounts can often feel overwhelming.
Not every campaign immediately translates into direct sales. But that doesn’t mean your ABM strategy isn’t working. Yet, at the same time, businesses need to justify the investment in resources and technology that goes into their ABM efforts.
That’s why we’ve crafted this guide to help you build an ABM strategy that not only engages your high-value accounts but also delivers measurable ROI.
Why ABM matters in B2B
Table of Contents
To some skeptics, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) might seem like an intensive strategy with no guaranteed payoff.
Sure, businesses can spend countless hours developing personalized campaigns for select accounts without seeing immediate results.
But on the flip side, many brands are thriving with ABM—unlocking:
- Higher ROI
- Shorter sales cycles
- Improved customer relationships
Today, ABM isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s a must-have for B2B companies looking to win high-value accounts.
Why? Because ABM focuses on quality over quantity. By honing in on the most promising prospects, your brand can build stronger relationships and deliver hyper-personalized experiences that resonate.
And companies that excel at ABM are not just generating leads; they’re fostering long-term partnerships and boosting their revenue.
It’s not just about spending time and resources; it’s about investing in a strategy that aligns with your company’s growth goals.
The best part? When you successfully execute an ABM strategy, you can better allocate resources, refine your messaging, and ultimately drive more significant results.
Step-by-Step Guide to Build an ABM Strategy
A. Identifying Target Accounts: The Foundation of ABM
The first obvious step is identifying the right accounts to target. Make sure to select accounts that are not only a good fit for your product or service but also have the potential to generate significant revenue.
ABM requires a more focused, data-driven approach. How to do it? You need intent data to identify target accounts.
With intent data, marketers can identify companies that are actively researching your solutions, making it easier to prioritize accounts that are likely to convert.
ABM is often criticized for taking too long to show results. You can shorten this time frame by using intent data to identify accounts already showing buying signals.
ABM ensures quicker engagement and pipeline opportunities, so that the process doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out.
By focusing efforts on accounts showing buying signals, marketers can significantly increase their chances of success. In fact, 62% of marketers believe that intent data is critical for successful ABM, according to a 2023 Forrester report.
b. Building Detailed Account Profiles
Identified your target accounts. What’s next? Build comprehensive account profiles.
Your profiles should include detailed insights into each company’s goals, challenges, key decision-makers, and current solutions. Understanding the most effective methods for creating ABM target account lists is crucial for ensuring you’re focusing on the right accounts from the start.
According to a 2023 Salesforce report, companies that use AI for personalization see a 44% increase in customer engagement.
Use AI-powered tools- the easiest and most effective way to build these profiles. These tools allow you to gather deeper insights into account behavior, including what content they are engaging with and which solutions they are considering.
With these insights, you’ll be able to refine your outreach and deliver highly personalized content—the kind of content that speaks directly to the needs of each account.
Scaling personalization. That’s a common concern. The solution? Use AI alongside marketing automation tools.
These tools enable you to dynamically segment accounts and predict which type of content will resonate best with each one, even as your account list grows.
C. Aligning Sales and Marketing: A Crucial Step for ABM Success
Aligning sales and marketing teams is a must for ABM success. Without alignment, creating campaigns that resonate with target accounts becomes challenging.
To achieve this alignment, both teams need to have shared goals and a unified approach to account engagement.
Organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing teams experience 36% higher customer retention rates and 38% higher sales win rates, according to a report by Marketo.
Use ABM platforms that provide both sales and marketing with access to real-time data on account engagement. This makes it easier for the teams to collaborate.
To foster this alignment, conduct regular meetings and joint planning sessions, ensuring both teams work toward the same objectives.
For better collaboration, start by setting shared KPIs, such as account engagement and pipeline generation. This reflects that both teams are accountable for the success of the ABM strategy.
As Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing, says:
“The best ABM programs aren’t just about marketing campaigns, but about improving the alignment between sales and marketing to deliver a cohesive experience to the customer.”
D. Crafting Personalized Messaging and Content
Personalization is at the core of any ABM strategy. Your messaging should be tailored to address the specific needs of each target account.
Rather than surface-level customization, ABM targets hyper-personalization. This allows you to deliver messaging that directly addresses each account’s challenges and goals.
According to a 2023 Demand Gen Report, personalized marketing strategies lead to a 20% increase in sales opportunities.
For example, instead of sending generic emails, marketers can craft personalized case studies, whitepapers, and webinars that speak to the unique pain points of each account.
To create personalized experiences at scale, you’ll want to use dynamic content tools. These tools help maintain a personal touch while allowing for scalability.
The benefits of account-based marketing lie in this ability to deliver highly relevant content tailored to specific accounts, increasing engagement and conversion rates.
Don’t miss out on relevance. This means crafting content for every stage of the buyer’s journey, from awareness to decision-making.
And when you deliver relevant content at the right time, you can build stronger connections with your accounts and keep them engaged throughout the process.
E. Selecting the Right Channels for ABM
Don’t stick to a single channel. ABM requires a multi-channel approach because your target accounts are now using a variety of digital touchpoints. That’s why integrating multi-channel strategies has become essential to maintaining engagement.
Understanding the types of account-based marketing—such as strategic, programmatic, and one-to-one ABM—can help you choose the right mix for your campaigns.
Integrating a mix of channels, such as email marketing, LinkedIn, webinars, and personalized ads, helps increase the chances of engaging accounts at the right time.
For instance, combining email campaigns with LinkedIn outreach and personalized digital ads ensure that your message reaches key decision-makers through multiple platforms.
You’ll need to map the buyer’s journey to different channels so that your messaging is relevant at each stage of the account’s decision-making process.
This integrated experience across channels helps build trust and improve engagement with your target accounts.
F. Executing Your ABM Campaign
Now it’s time to execute your ABM campaign. A successful ABM campaign requires clear timelines, measurable goals, and continuous optimization.
Need to streamline your campaign execution? You’ll need to use ABM platforms and marketing automation tools.
These tools allow you to track account engagement and optimize your campaigns in real time.
Automation tools are particularly helpful when targeting a large number of accounts, allowing you to maintain personalization without losing the individualized touch.
It’s important to remember that ABM is not a one-time strategy. You need to continuously monitor performance and adjust your approach based on account engagement.
Regular check-ins with both the marketing and sales teams ensure your campaign stays aligned with its objectives and delivers the desired results.
This is the best way to track account engagement and optimize in real time.
Automation tools can be especially helpful when targeting a large number of accounts—without losing the individualized touch.
Remember that ABM is not a one-time strategy. You need to continuously monitor performance and adjust your approach based on account engagement. Staying updated on the latest ABM trends can also help you refine your strategy and keep it effective.
Regular check-ins with both the marketing and sales teams ensure your campaign stays aligned with its objectives and delivers the desired results.
3. Measuring ABM Success: Key Metrics to Track
To evaluate the effectiveness of your ABM strategy, you need to track key metrics that go beyond traditional lead generation. While lead generation focuses on attracting a broader audience, ABM is more targeted, making it essential to differentiate between ABM vs. lead generation metrics to measure success accurately.
In ABM, metrics such as account engagement, pipeline influence, and revenue attribution are far more valuable than lead volume.
Setting clear account-based marketing benchmarks for these metrics will ensure you can track progress and compare performance over time.
Measuring ROI in ABM can be complex. But with the right tools, you can gain a clear understanding of how your efforts are impacting account relationships and revenue growth.
Multi-touch attribution models, for instance, can help you see how different touchpoints contributed to moving the account through the funnel.
Some key metrics to track include:
- Account Engagement: Measure how often your target accounts interact with your content and messaging.
- Pipeline Influence: Track the number of opportunities and deals generated from your ABM efforts.
- Revenue Attribution: Measure the revenue generated from both new and existing accounts as a result of your ABM campaigns.
As Peter Isaacson, CMO at Demandbase, says:
“Measuring ABM success isn’t just about looking at leads or conversions; it’s about tracking engagement and the influence you’re having on key accounts. It’s a long game, but the payoff is bigger.”
Grow Better with Account-Based Marketing
Account-based marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Sure, it’s challenging, but it’s far from impossible.
To start, focus on your audience. Narrow down your target list and design ABM campaigns that address their specific pain points and needs.
Remember, your creativity should work hand in hand with ABM. If your campaign delivers the same message to 1,000 different accounts, it’s time to rethink your approach. Incorporating diverse account-based marketing tactics can help personalize your strategy and increase engagement.
There’s no doubt that ABM is a powerful method for both marketing and sales teams to boost their performance—especially compared to traditional methods.
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.
