How to Build an ABM Strategy in 6 Steps

The sales process is much easier when you target the highest-value clients. That’s why account-based marketing (ABM) works. With this tactic, sales and marketing professionals nurture target accounts that fit your ideal customer profile.

However, ABM still requires a strategy for engaging leads, personalizing content, and nurturing them down the sales funnel.

Factors such as efficiency and marketing/sales alignment contribute to an effective ABM strategy. This guide will cover everything you need to know to create a results-driven ABM plan.

Key Takeaways

• Account-based marketing requires an ideal customer profile, tools, personalized content, B2B marketing channels, and KPIs.
• There are three types of ABM strategies: strategic ABM, ABM lite, and programmatic ABM.
• To create an ABM strategy, create ICPs, find the contact information for key decision-makers, align your sales and marketing departments, create personalized marketing content, nurture leads down the customer journey funnel, and track KPIs.
• ABM marketing has challenges, such as unrealistic expectations, account-based marketing software issues, misalignment between sales and marketing management, and measuring ABM marketing metrics.
• Some tips for ABM success include starting small, focusing on specific accounts, using intent data, building relationships with potential customers, and keeping teams aligned.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Key Components of an Effective ABM Strategy

To convert accounts, B2B marketers must personalize the selling experience to individual leads to attract and retain clients. That’s why your ABM strategy must include these factors.

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Source: GTMnow

Using ICPs is one of the best ABM best practices. An ICP is a list of qualities for target accounts; in B2B marketing, this could include company location, size, niche/industry, revenue, and even data about the position you’re targeting.

When creating an ICP, you’ll also need to gauge qualities that will make these accounts want to convert. These qualities can include:

• Common pain points
• Tech stack
• Goals
• Potential deal size
• Buying intent signals
• Strategies they’re already using

Leverage tools like CRM platforms to refine your account selection process.

Account-Based Marketing Tools

There are numerous ABM tools to execute your strategy. The tool you choose depends on your needs. You can find all-in-one platforms where sales and marketing teams can collaborate, create and distribute content, visualize the sales funnel, schedule meetings, and view data-driven insights.

There are also niche tools focusing on one strategy, most of which integrate into other platforms, like CRM, for greater efficiency.

Personalized Content

A critical part of ABM is delivering tailored content to target accounts. Develop content and campaigns that resonate with the unique needs of each account. Examples include:

• Customized email sequences
• Personalized landing pages
• Industry-specific case studies
• Targeted ads featuring account-specific solutions
• Exclusive offers

It also helps to have dedicated account reps for each client. They can identify problems and recommend strategies to ensure account retention. The more relevant your content, the higher the likelihood of engagement.

The Right Marketing Channels

B2B marketers should use a combination of traditional and web-based channels, though that also depends on your target accounts and where they look for new products and services. Popular ABM channels include:

• Email marketing
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Programmatic advertising
• Direct mail (e.g., personalized gifts or handwritten notes)
• Webinars and events
• Blogs

Marketers must also use personalized and conversion-boosting messaging, so aligning the sales and marketing teams is crucial.

KPIs

Tracking essential KPIs will prove that your ABM efforts are successful. The most important KPIs to measure include:

• Account engagement rates
• Pipeline velocity
• Conversion rates
• ROI per account

You should also regularly review these performance metrics to identify areas for improvement and refine your strategy.

Types of ABM Strategies

Source: TechTarget

Many ABM strategies can boost your ROI. Depending on your business goals and resources, you can adopt one of the following ABM approaches:

• One-to-one ABM (strategic ABM): This approach focuses on a small number of high-value accounts and involves deeply personalized content tailored to each account.
• One-to-few ABM (ABM lite): Targets clusters of accounts with similar characteristics or needs. This strategy segments accounts to balance scalability and personalization. ABM lite is ideal for mid-sized marketing teams because they can get more results from a campaign while saving money and boosting efficiency.
• One-to-many ABM (programmatic ABM): A more flexible strategy that scales ABM efforts to reach a broader audience. Marketers can use the same sales funnel to target accounts in a cluster, which can have as many as hundreds or thousands. While less personalized, marketers can still tailor to each prospect by grouping each account into set ICPs.

Let’s Do ABM Right

Steps to Creating an ABM Strategy

Source: Sendoso

Are you ready to get started on ABM? Follow these steps to implement this ABM process.

Step 1: Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Target Accounts

ABM begins with identifying the accounts that offer the most significant growth potential for your business. These accounts will most likely visit your website or click on your ads or content. As stated, your ICP doesn’t only include firmographics about the company but also the role you’re targeting.

How to do it:

Develop a detailed profile of your ideal customers based on factors such as:

• Industry
• Company size
• Revenue
• Geographic location
• Buying signals
• Intent data

Tools:

Intent-data platforms (e.g., Bombora, Demandbase) to identify and prioritize accounts that match your ICP.

Step 2. Build Deep Account Insights

To create personalized campaigns, you need a thorough understanding of your target accounts, including their key stakeholders, pain points, and goals. This is also when you will locate the account’s contact information.

How to do it:

• Research the organization’s structure and identify decision-makers and influencers.
• Analyze publicly available data such as company news, earnings reports, and social media activity.
• Gather information such as names, email addresses, and LinkedIn profiles.

Tools:

Gather insights from LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Step 3. Align Sales and Marketing Teams

ABM requires close collaboration between sales and marketing to ensure consistent messaging and coordinated outreach.

How to do it:

• Define key performance indicators (KPIs) that both teams will measure, such as account engagement and pipeline velocity.
• Collaboratively decide on messaging, campaign timing, and outreach responsibilities.
• Hold weekly or bi-weekly meetings to review progress, share insights, and adjust strategies as needed.

Tools:

Lead management tools like Salesforce and Pipedrive.

Step 4. Develop Personalized Campaigns

Personalization is at the heart of ABM. Tailored messaging increases relevance and boosts engagement within target accounts.

How to do it:

• Group accounts with similar challenges or goals to streamline campaign development.
• Develop account-specific materials such as emails, blogs, whitepapers, landing pages, direct mail, case studies, and ads.
• Deploy campaigns through channels where your target audience is most active, such as LinkedIn, email, or industry-specific forums.

Tools:

Use marketing automation tools like Constant Contact and Trendemon to scale personalization.

Step 5. Engage and Nurture Accounts

The ultimate goal of ABM is to build meaningful relationships with your target accounts, positioning your business as a trusted partner. The key is engaging your high-value accounts at every sales funnel stage.

How to do it:

• Coordinate engagement across multiple touchpoints, including social media, email, direct mail, and webinars.
• Equip your sales team with insights from marketing campaigns to craft personalized pitches and follow-ups.
• Consider hosting exclusive events, webinars, or workshops tailored to the needs of key accounts.

Tools:

Focus on lead nurturing tools such as ActiveCampaign and Zixflow.

Step 6. Measure, Optimize, and Scale

To ensure long-term success, you must measure the effectiveness of your ABM campaigns and refine your approach based on performance data.

How to do it:

• Monitor KPIs such as account engagement rates, pipeline velocity, revenue generated from target accounts, and ROI per account.
• Collect insights from marketing and sales teams to understand what’s working and what’s not.
• Refine your messaging, content, and targeting for more growth.
• Expand your strategy to include additional accounts.

Tools:

KPI tracking dashboards like Geckoboard that update in real-time.

Overcoming Common ABM Challenges

An account-based marketing strategy requires much effort, and B2B marketers may encounter problems. Before launching your ABM program, look at these common challenges and solutions.

• Unrealistic expectations: ABM won’t expedite accounts down the funnel and boost your revenue overnight. Set realistic goals and track your results.
• Resource constraints: ABM requires tools to identify and narrow your reach. If you’re new to ABM, these tools can be expensive and complex. Select tools carefully and consider leveraging automation to save time.
• Problems with sales and marketing alignment: Lacking shared metrics, goals, and processes will pause ABM’s success. Use collaboration tools so marketing professionals and sales reps can strategize together.
• Measuring success: Unlike traditional metrics, ABM focuses on account-level KPIs. Invest in analytics tools to track engagements and conversions for target accounts.

Tips for ABM Success

Account-based marketing can generate some serious results. However, some best practices will prevent conflicts down the line. Here are some tips to benefit from an account-based marketing strategy.

• Start small: Begin with a pilot campaign targeting a small number of accounts. Monitor insights to fine-tune your approach before implementing it across all accounts.
• Focus on quality accounts: While programmatic ABM benefits some organizations, resist the temptation to expand your target list too quickly. ABM works best when efforts are concentrated on truly high-value accounts.
• Leverage intent data: Invest in resources that identify high-value accounts and opportunities. Use tools that track account activity and signals of buying intent, such as visits to your website or engagements with your content.
• Build relationships: Relationship-building will help your accounts move faster down the sales funnel. Engage with accounts through personalized interactions. Offer valuable content that sets you up as a trustworthy leader. Use targeted account interactions to foster loyalty even after a deal is closed.
• Continuously align teams: Marketing and sales often work on different campaigns, and each role has other objectives. However, regular collaboration between sales and marketing is essential to account-based marketing. Unify marketing and sales teams to create buyer personas and target account segments.

Are You Having Trouble Implementing an ABM Strategy?

Source: Datamatics

Creating account-based marketing campaigns can take your business to new heights. However, ABM takes a lot of effort and is a challenging strategy to DIY. Partnering with an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) firm can elevate your marketing efforts by bringing in experts to craft a solution for your unique business.

ABM marketing firms use tools and various services to target high-value accounts with a better chance of converting.

These firms implement many of the tactics discussed previously, such as creating an ICP, segmenting accounts, and crafting personalized campaigns to target key accounts. With access to advanced analytics, intent data, and industry insights, an ABM firm will focus its tactics on target companies that fit your customer profile.

Revenue Growth Starts With the Right ABM Marketing Strategy

When you target high-value clients, you have a better chance of making more from a closed deal, versus winning deals with lower-value prospects.

Marketers ought to create ICPs and know how to contact them to make a successful ABM strategy. Align your sales and marketing teams to create personalized marketing campaigns and nurture accounts down the sales funnel. Continue measuring KPIs to ensure the success of your marketing and sales efforts.

Another best practice is partnering with an ABM marketing firm. These experts can execute your strategy and use the right tools to enhance your account-based marketing efforts. Contact us today if you’re ready to implement the most effective account-based marketing tactics.

If you’re ready to level up your account-based marketing strategy, Single Grain’s ABM experts can help!👇

Let’s Do ABM Right

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