6 Quick Tips for Driving ABM Success with Bonnie Thomas

I often hear from Marketing leaders that they are unsure about how to organize their Account-Based Marketing (ABM) efforts to ensure that they are generating impact. There are so many moving parts to ABM that it’s easy to get mired in the details, but we can make our lives a lot easier if we take a high-level view and organize our efforts around the key initiatives that actually move the needle. 

I’m a big proponent of starting off with the waterfall approach:

• What are my goals?
• Which of my key initiatives support these goals? 
• Which key tactics move the ball forward on these initiatives?
• What specific activities should I make sure I’m covering in order to support those tactics? 

Let’s assume that your main objectives are to drive demand and revenue (as they should be). There are six key initiatives (or success drivers) that you should leverage in order to meet those key objectives:

1. Measurable business goals: Not Marketing goals, but business goals. Of course, you want to drive Marketing success (e.g., increasing awareness and engagement), but ABM is all about driving real business outcomes like greater Marketing efficiency and increased revenue. 

2. Targeting your best opportunities: Marketers often cast too wide a net in the hopes of landing a few big fish. But fishing with a spear instead of a net allows you to focus on your best opportunities at a lower cost per acquisition than traditional Marketing strategies.

3. Sales and Marketing alignment: The days of Marketing tossing leads over the fence to Sales and thinking “my job here is done” are over. There are just too many valuable insights available today – like intent and engagement data – that Marketing can share with Sales in order to close more deals, faster. 

4. A full journey approach: Audiences that are barely aware of you should be treated differently than those that are highly engaged with you. ABM teams that have specific strategies for driving awareness, engagement, and conversion win. 

5. Personalized experiences: The data is in and it shows that relevance matters. B2B buyers are more likely to consider messages and offers that are relevant to their industry and unique pain points. In fact, B2B buyers expect these kinds of personalized experiences today. 

6. Measurement and reporting that delivers actionable insights: Old school Marketers measure success by counting activity (e.g., we served a million impressions this quarter or generated 500 new leads), but ABM is about generating impact. Observing and reporting on spikes in intent data, for instance, is more actionable. We can use this improved reporting to help Sales prioritize and personalize their outreach and, as a result, land more meetings.

If your ABM team is consistently firing on these six key success drivers, chances are you’ll drive greater business outcomes, like greater Marketing efficiency and increased Sales revenue. For more guidance on how to optimize your ABM approach, take a look at these resources and implement the tips in this piece to accelerate your growth drivers.