A practical Account-Based Marketing Guide
By: Ashwin Krishna
Tags: Account Based Marketing, B2b Marketing, Marketing, Growth Hacking, Lead Generation

Account-Based Marketing. The biggest buzzword for B2B marketers in recent years. So much has been spoken. So less has been implemented.

The phrase ‘account-based marketing’ was coined over a decade ago, in 2004. The concept itself is simple: engage 1:1 with a focused set of accounts, with the intention of converting them into customers.

Account-based marketing is the marketing strategy for this new decade — the search volume for the phrase “Account-Based Marketing” peaked in 2020, and still averages at about 100K monthly searches, according to Google Trends data.

Google Trends data for Account Based Marketing

There are several advantages to account-based marketing.

Higher average contract value (ACV), because you maximize the opportunities across the company/business units/brands

(ACV), because you maximize the opportunities across the company/business units/brands Shortening of the sales cycle , as focused sales and marketing teams take a systematic approach to nurture account

, as focused sales and marketing teams take a systematic approach to nurture account Marketing spends Optimization. Rather than “spray and pray”, you can achieve bullseye targeting for focused accounts

Before we jump into the framework, let’s take a quick look at the 3-tier growth marketing framework for B2B / SaaS companies, and what you should aim for at each stage:

The three-tier framework for B2B Marketing

Let’s take an example of an eCommerce platform company, which helps brands to set up an eCommerce storefront.

The process of ABM can be distilled into six easy steps.

Step 1: Setting the objective

It is important to set an objective or end result for any marketing strategy you have chosen, and ABM is no exception. The three outcomes that can be achieved with ABM are lead generation, pipeline acceleration, and account expansion (upsell/cross-sell).

Step 2: Selecting the right accounts

When selecting the right set of accounts to pursue, it is vital to decide what exactly is the ‘right type of account. That means defining an ICP, or Ideal Customer Profile.

Different filters for defining the Ideal Customer Profile segment are:

Firmographics: Revenue, Employees, Number of Users, Geography, Industry

Technographics: Install-base (Eg: Salesforce / SAP), No of licenses, Date of contract expiry

Platforms such as BuiltWith (for Web Technologies) and HGInsights/Slintel provide granular information about the install base in different companies.

Let's consider the eCommerce platform company that wants to find out the technology platform used by gap.com. Here is a Builtwith snapshot

Technographics date for GAP.com

Stage of the Maturity curve: You have to define the maturity curve for your industry.

The maturity curve for companies targeted by eCommerce platform company can be bucketed into 3 stages

Basic: Brands with an active website and social media presence

Intermediate: Brands with a basic eCommerce site, digital catalog and clocking less than 1000 orders a month

Advanced: Brands that offer omnichannel commerce options (web, app, etc) with more than 1000 orders a month.

Intent data: Platforms like Bombora offer intent data for accounts. If folks from specific accounts are reading articles related to “eCommerce / Digital transformation”, intent data platforms tag the keywords for the specific accounts and personas.

The Ideal Customer Profile for the eCommerce platform company can be the following:

Lifestyle/Apparel companies in the United States, that have >$20 Million in revenue, are in the intermediate/advanced stage (refer above), use Magento or Demandware platforms, and are willing to spend at least $10,000 for an eCommerce platform

The outcome of Step 2 should be selecting Top X accounts. Let’s say Top 100 accounts.

Also, it is important to build contact details for decision-makers and influencer personas for the Top X accounts. You not only need the decision maker’s professional email ID but also their personal email ID and contact number.

Why do you need personal email IDs? Let us discuss it in the next step.

Step 3: The 1-to-many framework to engage Top X accounts

Once you have identified the Top X accounts for your company, the objective is to create awareness for your brand.

This is a step where you do a targeted outreach for all the folks in the Top X accounts.

LinkedIn and Google Display Network allow you to target users based on email IDs. You can upload the list of professional and personal email IDs that you built in Step 2. The match rate for the personal email IDs is far higher on LinkedIn and Google Display Network.

So, what kinds of content (stories is a fancy word :)) can you build?

Story segments across buying stages

Once you have targeted content for the ICP, the next step is to run “contact list/company targeted campaigns” on LinkedIn and Google Display Network.

The result: Specific personas in Top X accounts will have exposure to your brand and some of them will start engaging with your brand (website visits, signups, watching a video, reading an article).

Step 4: 1:1 framework for content creation

Out of the Top X accounts, you will select a handful of accounts where you do 1:1 marketing.

Case in Point: For the eCommerce platform example, GAP is one of the target accounts. Let us decode the framework using GAP (a top apparel brand) example.

The idea is to build insights for the region, firmographics, technographics, and individuals (per person).

After the insights are built, the next step is to convert these insights into different content pieces.

LinkedIn Ad copies

Here is an example of ABM Linkedin ad copy for GAP.

Introductory email for John Strain (GAP)

Less than 200 words, all text, and NO images email

Hi <Name>, Hope I’ve caught you at a good time. Congratulations on winning the Chief Digital Officer Award for 2011. That’s really big! Apparel digital commerce in the United States is growing at a breakneck speed with >30% of Americans have bought apparel online at least once. With 2000+ stores in the US alone, 15 Million plus loyal GAP customers, you can unlock $500 Million more revenues using a well-thought-out omnichannel commerce plan. I wanted to schedule a meeting with you to discuss how we can help achieve >10% digital commerce penetration in GAP. Here is a glimpse of how we can help: ● Blazing fast user experience across any channel — app, web, WhatsApp, chatbot ●Omni-channel commerce platform to manage catalog, promotions, user experience in one place We work with the likes of Zara, and we are recognized by Gartner. Would you be interested in exploring any of these avenues? If so, please let me know if you’d be available sometime this week or next Tuesday for a brief call. You can also pick a time that works best for you here. Regards,

{{sender signature}}

— —

Breakup email for John Strain (More on this in next section) Subject: John, is this too much? Hi John, Hope you’re in good spirits. I’ve been reaching out to you over the last few weeks about increasing omnichannel sales for GAP. Apologies if my persistence has become annoying, please let me know if you’d like me to stop reaching out. However, if you’re looking to exceed some of your digital sales this year, I’d be happy to help. Would you be available this Thursday or next Tuesday for a brief call? Please do reply to this email with your availability. You can also schedule a call with me through this link. Regards, {{sender signature}}

Step 5: 1:1 campaign orchestration

Once you have the personalized content for a specific account and all the decision-makers and influencers, it’s time to launch the omnichannel campaign.

Build a personalized landing page for the target account (Case in point: GAP) where you will talk about the digital commerce roadmap for GAP.

Use email, LinkedIn, and phone calls as channels for reaching out to the key stakeholders.

Start with an email 1 / intro email (refer to the example). If the prospect doesn’t respond, send a follow-up email (in the same thread). After a follow-up email and no response, try with a different message in email 2.

The breakup email is a nice way to “make the prospect feel obligated” to say yes/no (refer to the above example).

The time gap between different touchpoints can be 3–5 business days.

If there is NO response after the breakup email, give the contact a cooling-off period of 45 days and add the contact to a nurture email cycle where you will send them the education content for a specific industry and persona.

Step 6: Metrics that matter (for marketing)

The North Star Metric for Account-Based Marketing is “Named Accounts/Top Account Pipeline”.

How much pipeline have you generated from named accounts?

The funnel metrics are also a useful measure of progress, as it will help you understand what stage of the sales funnel each target account is in — awareness, consideration, or decision stage — and this will guide you to implement a 1:1 strategy.

Another interesting strategy you can use is comparing ABM accounts with non-ABM accounts — Is the lead-to-closure time shorter for an ABM account versus a non-ABM account? Is the deal size larger? Is the cost of customer acquisition benefit better for an ABM account or for a non-ABM account?

ABM cadence and best practices

Create an Account SWAT team for every account that has a representative each from your marketing, sales, and business development team. This will help you to allocate specific bandwidth of people for Top/Named accounts. The business development representative will usually be in charge of pursuing the account — unless the sales representative has a past relationship with the account, in which case it might yield better results for them to lead. It is important to collaborate with and involve the sales representative at each stage of interaction with the account, assign responsibilities, and hold them accountable to the SWAT team.

that has a representative each from your marketing, sales, and business development team. This will help you to allocate specific bandwidth of people for Top/Named accounts. The business development representative will usually be in charge of pursuing the account — unless the sales representative has a past relationship with the account, in which case it might yield better results for them to lead. It is important to collaborate with and involve the sales representative at each stage of interaction with the account, assign responsibilities, and hold them accountable to the SWAT team. If it is possible to work with a coach who knows the account well and can get you detailed insights about what stage of the buying journey they are on, it would provide a lot of valuable information that could make or break a sale. They might even be able to alert you to the challenges that the prospective client is facing in advance, so that you can be proactive.

about what stage of the buying journey they are on, it would provide a lot of valuable information that could make or break a sale. They might even be able to alert you to the challenges that the prospective client is facing in advance, so that you can be proactive. Consult other people in your firm and use any relevant contacts they might have in an account. For instance, do your research and find out whether a senior person in your organization, say, the CXO has a connection in the target company that you might be able to leverage in pursuit of this account.

ABM Standup: The SWAT team has to stay focused on the question of “What can we do to send the right message to the right person at the right time and convert them?” Engagement metrics such as LinkedIn CTR and email open/click rate should be an anchor for all the conversations, alongside the field intelligence gathered by the sales rep.

Enterprise marketers were always plagued with the challenges of the “Spray and Pray” strategy. Account-Based Marketing seems to be the answer. While a lot has been spoken and very little has been implemented in the world of ABM.

The above framework uses first-principles thinking and it doesn’t involve millions of $ investment into the ABM platform.

The best way to learn about ABM is to implement it.

Wishing you the best in your ABM journey.