4 Steps to Account Based Marketing Success

4 Steps to Account Based Marketing Success

ABM is gaining ground with many companies, especially IT companies and businesses with complex products and long sales cycles. The reality is that most B2B companies realize 80% of revenues from just 20% of their customers. Still, traditional marketing is evenly spread through out the whole customer base, generating in a great deal of wastage.


Account Based Marketing is targeted marketing to the accounts that stand for the largest potential in revenue. If you’re thinking it’s time to get started or improve your ABM, here are four steps to set you on the right path:

1. Begin by identifying your top accounts

The majority of B2B marketers fail to produce reliable lists of their top accounts. Doing so is vital. The key to getting a high ROI from AMB is understanding targeted accounts.

First and foremost, establish the business value of your accounts Identify where the largest sales potential lies  Establish where each account is in the buying journey  If they’re current accounts, understand which products they have or have not purchased

Work together with sales and finance to create a list of high-profit target customers and document the information you need. Your initial investment in this process will enable you to make smarter investments, delivering the relevant content to the right people at the right time and generate sales.

2. Create valuable content

Your ABM program will feature ads to draw target customers to content published on your website. In this age of self-serve customers, your website needs to offer a much heavier dose of useful content relative to its sales pages.
You need a content marketing plan that becomes a roadmap to consistently producing valuable content in the form of blog posts, eBooks, video, research studies, infographics and more. As you create a content marketing plan, consider the following:
An ideal way to discover your customers’ information needs is to interview them. Also, ask your best sales people to create a list of questions they’re often asked

Audit your existing content. It’s possible you have useful content in various forms that aren’t published on your website. Even content on your website could become more valuable and relevant to current needs with some updates  Create customer case studies when possible, and include industry specific references in your content Communicate big ideas to establish industry expertise and become perceived as a thought-leader

3. Use a targeted distribution platform

Target via social media. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook advertising programs offer highly targeted advertising programs Align marketing activities such as events and email campaigns with your ABM plan Vendemore offers an ad distribution service where top accounts are targeted based on their IP address. Learn more about how to place ads on large media networks to be seen by the employees on your target list

4. Measure your marketing efforts based on accounts

With ABM tactics website visits will come from people within the companies you’re targeting. Your challenge is to measure and assess user behavior.

Record ad impressions by account Use Google Analytics to gauge traffic and record engagement metrics from top accounts Set up systems with your CRM and marketing automation enabling you to measure win rates Establish revenue per account measures Consult with analytics professionals to develop a useful formula to measure sales and marketing costs per account

Informed by the type of analytics outline here, you’ll work with your sales managers to create smart follow-up strategies to nurture and/or close deals.

ABM takes time

Be fair and understand ABM takes time to gain traction. If your sales process usually takes over six months or more, resist evaluating results after just a month or two. Gather metrics on a monthly basis, but give it at least six months before you draw any conclusions