Hey ,

Account-based marketing (ABM) is making a comeback. With its personalized approach and attention to detail, consumers are benefiting from messages that are tailored just for them.

A CEB study found that individual stakeholders who received personalized content tailored to their specific needs are 40% more willing to purchase from a company than stakeholders who do not. 

That said, if you're not doing ABM, you're probably missing a lot.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll break down to you 9 practical steps that will help you create a successful ABM strategy.

But first, let’s start with what ABM is.

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B growth strategy that implies a coordinated effort between your left hand (marketing) and your right hand (sales) to create highly-personalized content for a specific audience that’s an ideal fit for your business.

In other words, your marketing and sales teams collaborate to create a tailored buying experience for a set of target accounts. These accounts are usually your tier 1 and tier 2 accounts. In contrast to spray-and-pray strategies, ABM emphasizes a personal engagement with high-value accounts……and the result is tremendous. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide you can follow to create your own successful ABM strategy.

1. Team Alignment

A successful ABM strategy is made (or broken) by the amount of communication and alignment between your sales, marketing, and execs teams.”

Research shows that companies with closely aligned sales and marketing teams have: 

• 36% higher customer retention rates, 
• 38% higher sales win rates, and
• 67% improved chance of leads becoming clients.

Without an aligned and cohesive team, achieving a common goal becomes difficult. So, you first need to set your goals and have your teams aligned on them. Speaking of goals, it can be: 

• generating a net new revenue ;
• generating new accounts ;
• generating new opportunities ;
• expanding some deals ;
• accelerating your pipeline or activating frozen leads in the pipeline ;
• entering a new market ;
• etc.

After fixing your goals, you now need to figure out the metrics that you are going to track. In other words, what will you define as success in the course of your ABM campaign? And what are the leading metrics you should keep an eye on? 

Leading metrics can be :

• the number of accounts that are engaging ;
• the number of conversations you are generating ;
• How deeply you are penetrating different accounts: what are you learning about them, are they landing, is there traction with the way that you are talking about your product or service ; 
• etc. 

Figure out who your best customers are. Then dive really deep in understanding the most profitable verticals that you have. You can spend time studying and analyzing things like :

• the fastest deals you won ;
• the biggest deals you won ;
• the biggest fastest deals you won ; 
• the biggest fastest deals you lost and why you lost them ;
• etc. 

Furthermore, do not focus too much on firmographic data while you think too little of the buying process. Understand how your current customers discovered you and more importantly, how they buy from you. 

2. Tier segmentation.

All accounts are not created equal. So, when it comes to ABM, you need to have a well-defined ICP.

Let’s get this straight: why would you approach a company that can generate 50x more revenue the exact same way you approach your other accounts?

By default, these are the 3 tiers we have in account-based marketing.

• Tier 1: One-to-one: companies with the highest revenue potential
• Tier 2: One-to-few: companies with medium revenue potential
• Tier 3: One-to-many: companies with the lowest revenue potential 

And when you’re doing ABM, more often than not, you’ll have to work with tier 1 and tier 2 accounts. 

The difference between tier 1 accounts and tier 2 accounts is that tier 1 accounts are completely customized. Your campaigns, your content, and the value proposition you show tier 1 accounts must be highly-personalized. 

3. The minimal viable skillset

One of the most common myths about ABM is that you need advanced marketers that know how to run sophisticated ABM software.

But the truth is, the skills required to run pilot campaigns are copywriting, account research, and sales. That’s all.

4. The minimal viable stack.

You don't need to purchase expensive software right from the bat. All you need is:

• an account enrichment platform (e.g. Clearbit), 
• an intent data tool (e.g. Leadfeeder), 
• a CRM, 
• a platform for personalized content hubs (e.g. Paperflite), and 
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The total cost might be less than $250/month.

5. Starting small.

It's never been more relevant to believe the proverb that says "slow but sure wins the race".

Instead of launching a mass ABM campaign, use the 1-1-1-1-10 principle:

• 1 marketer 
• 1 SDR 
• 1 geo market 
• 1 vertical 
• 10 accounts max.

While some first campaigns might generate opportunities, most of them will be about learning and refining messaging, account research, and account qualification.

6. Responsibilities and timeline.

It's crucial to define who will be in charge of what, define a list of tasks, and block these tasks in the calendar. That way, your campaign won't fail due to a lack of commitment.

7.  Develop a simple ABM campaign structure including:

- list building

- account enrichment & research

- warm-up

- activation

- follow-ups & nurturing

8. Dashboard with the most important metrics.

Everybody should align with metrics and know how to evaluate the efficiency of the campaign.

9. Integrate ABM in your marketing and sales ops.

Everybody has other tasks and responsibilities. Make sure there is no overlap with ongoing marketing campaigns and plan how to turn a pilot campaign into regular operations.

PS: This webinar run by Andrei and Vlad has been condensed and edited for more clarity. You can watch the full webinar here.

[Recording] B2B marketing communities roundtable

Here is the recording of the roundtable about B2B marketing communities with Nick Bennett, Arthur Castillo, Katie Ray, and Stefan Smulders.

You can also join our community for B2B marketers - The Trenches. 

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Adechina ODJO