Is Account Based Marketing (ABM) Right For Your Marketing Strategy?

In every industry we will use words terms and phrases in a particular way that others might not understand. In marketing when we say “account” we mean our client. The term “account manager” refers to the person (the manager) who maintains a relationship with the client (the account).

With that definition of “account” in mind, it becomes clear that Account Based Marketing (ABM) means tailoring your marketing strategy with the goal of landing certain accounts. That means you are not targeting a general industry or “market” with a broad criteria, you are targeting a specific “account”, for example a business or brands, that meet specific criteria.

Which leads to another important point, ABM is a business-to-business strategy. This strategy has a high success rate for marketers who market to other businesses, not directly to everyday people.

So, ABM is B2B – got it? Good! Let’s continue.

Because this tactic is a focused approach you don’t need to use vague language or generic terms and try to appeal to everyone. All your messaging can be relevant to the accounts that you want to target. The goal of ABM is to find your prospects, entice them and secure the accounts to do business together – that’s why an essential part of the ABM strategy is to work closely with the Sales Team. The sales team will identify the accounts that they need to interact with, then throw to the marketing team who will create and execute strategic campaigns that encourage that interaction, and back to the sales team who will close the deal.

A key idea in ABM is personalisation. Here is something you can take to your B2C marketing as well. Everyone craves connection. Knowing they are an individual to you, not just a number. So, if you are not personalising your messaging, you are not going to see success, or, it will take you much longer to do so.

And don’t forget to track those campaigns. Now that you are targeting a very focussed group with the goal of attracting specific accounts engagement can be measured and assessed and next steps can be implemented much more efficiently. If sales efforts and marketing campaigns in your business are not optimal, and you believe you are doing a version of ABM perhaps you should really go all in on this strategy to improve overall performance. Being specific and focused on your ABM goals will give the Sales and Marketing teams the opportunity to align their goals which gives way to the natural path of aligning the actions. Sometimes these two teams can work against each other if one doesn’t know what the other is doing. ABM brings the teams together and points them in the same direction for the good of the entire company.

Of course, employing the right tools for the job is essential. There are many great apps, software and programs that can bring this strategy together and get all teams on the same page.

15 ABM Software/Apps To Try: