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Effective ABM Best Practices: Examples to Learn From

Introduction


Effective Account-Based Marketing (ABM) practices play a vital role in the success of B2B marketing strategies. ABM enables businesses to target and engage with high-value accounts and individuals, resulting in improved conversion rates, increased customer retention, and overall revenue growth.


Brief Description of the Importance of Effective ABM Practices in B2B Marketing


ABM allows businesses to personalize their marketing efforts and tailor their messaging to the unique needs and characteristics of their target audience. This approach helps businesses to build stronger relationships with their customers and prospects, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.


Moreover, ABM practices help businesses to align their marketing and sales efforts, resulting in improved collaboration and communication across different teams within the organization. This alignment not only improves the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing and sales but also helps to maximize the return on investment (ROI) of marketing efforts.


Summary of What the Blog Post Aims to Achieve


This blog post aims to provide a comprehensive guide to effective ABM practices in B2B marketing. We will explore different ABM strategies, best practices, and use cases to help readers better understand how ABM can be used to achieve their marketing and sales goals. Additionally, we will provide tips and insights on how to implement ABM practices successfully, measure the impact of ABM campaigns, and optimize ABM strategies over time.


Whether you are new to ABM or seeking to improve your existing ABM practices, this blog post will provide you with valuable insights and practical tips to help you achieve success with ABM in B2B marketing.


Personalization: Enhancing ABM Efficacy


In the world of ABM or account-based marketing, personalization is becoming increasingly important. It helps build trust and credibility with targeted accounts, allowing marketers to create an emotional connection and resonate with them at a deeper level. Personalization enhances ABM efficacy by increasing engagement, conversions, and ultimately, revenue. In this article, we will discuss how personalization can be used effectively in ABM campaigns and look at some successful examples.


How Personalization Can Enhance ABM Efficacy


ABM is a personalized marketing approach that focuses on building relationships with high-value, target accounts. Personalization in ABM takes this approach to the next level. It creates more relevant and engaging messaging that resonates with specific individuals within an account as opposed to just the account itself. This can be achieved through various techniques such as personalizing emails, web pages, and content experiences. By doing so, ABM campaigns become more effective in engaging prospects and pushing them further down the sales funnel. Personalization also helps in:



  • Building trust and credibility

  • Creating an emotional connection with prospects

  • Delivering a more relevant experience

  • Enhancing engagement and conversion rates

  • Increasing customer loyalty

  • Generating higher revenue


Examples of Companies that Have Effectively Personalized ABM Campaigns


Companies across various industries are leveraging personalization to make their ABM campaigns more effective. One such example is Uberflip, which provides hyper-personalized content experiences for its ABM campaigns. Uberflip uses AI and machine learning to understand prospects' interests and behavior to serve them with personalized content experiences throughout the buyer journey. This approach has resulted in a 70% increase in engagement, a 100% increase in leads, and a 75% increase in account conversion for Uberflip.


Another successful example is Adobe, which used personalization to create individualized experiences for its target accounts. Adobe used personalized videos, landing pages, direct mail, and even birthday cards to create memorable moments with its target accounts. This approach helped Adobe to achieve a 44% account conversion rate, a 8x ROI, and an industry award for best ABM campaign.


In conclusion, personalization is a crucial component of any effective ABM campaign. By personalizing marketing efforts, companies can enhance their efficacy in engaging prospects, building trust, and ultimately increasing revenue.


Segmentation and Targeting


In the world of Account-Based Marketing, segmentation and targeting are the backbone of your strategy. By breaking down your target market into smaller, more manageable segments, you can create campaigns that are more personalized and relevant to your prospects' individual needs and pain points.


Strategies for Segmentation


Effective segmentation requires a combination of demographic, firmographic, and technographic data, as well as account insights. By analyzing this data, you can create segments based on shared characteristics, such as industry, company size, or technology stack. Some strategies for creating effective segments include:



  • Creating segments based on buyer personas

  • Using firmographic data to segment by company size, industry, location, and revenue

  • Using technographic data to segment by technology stack, software usage, and IT budget

  • Segmenting by account insights, including recent news, company initiatives, and strategic partnerships


Targeting Strategies


Once you have created your segments, it's time to target them with personalized campaigns that speak directly to their pain points and needs. Some targeting strategies that have proven to be effective include:



  • Multi-tiered account targeting, where you create different tiers of segmentation and target each one differently

  • ABM retargeting, where you use targeted display ads to stay top-of-mind with your prospects

  • Content personalization, where you use dynamic content to deliver personalized messaging based on each prospect's segment and behavior


Successful Campaign Examples


Terminus' multi-tiered target account strategy is a great example of using advanced segmentation to drive results. They created three tiers of accounts based on data such as revenue, technology stack, and intent signals, and then targeted each tier with different campaigns and messaging. As a result, they saw a 60% increase in engagement and a 33% increase in close rates compared to non-targeted accounts.


Content and Messaging: Why it's Critical for ABM


Creating high-quality content and messaging is a critical aspect of a successful Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy. By crafting personalized and relevant content for your target accounts, you can engage with them at a much deeper level and build lasting relationships.


Examples of Successful ABM Content Strategies



  • Marketo's 'Fearless Marketer' campaign is an excellent example of how high-quality content and messaging can drive engagement and conversions. The campaign was designed to provide a comprehensive platform for marketers to learn and share knowledge on various marketing topics. Marketo created webinars, eBooks, infographics, and other types of content to educate and engage with their target audience.

  • IBM's 'Dear Tech' campaign was another astounding example of how personalized and relevant content can drive engagement. The campaign sent personalized videos to C-level executives of target accounts, highlighting how IBM can help their specific needs and challenges.

  • Terminus, a leading ABM platform, created several targeted campaigns based on their target accounts and their specific pain points. They used personalized messaging and content to connect with their target accounts, leading to a significant increase in engagement and conversions.


In summary, creating high-quality content and messaging is critical for ABM success. By identifying your target accounts and crafting personalized content that speaks to their specific needs and challenges, you can drive lasting engagement and build long-term relationships with your customers.


Sales and Marketing Alignment


Sales and marketing alignment is a critical component of successful Account-Based Marketing (ABM). By working together towards the same goals, sales and marketing teams can improve ABM results and lead to increased revenue.


Effective Collaboration


Effective collaboration between the sales and marketing teams is essential to the success of ABM. By sharing data, insight and knowledge, both teams can contribute to a more targeted and personalized outreach strategy, creating a more seamless experience for the prospect or customer.



  • Regular communication and meetings to discuss strategy and tactics

  • Joint planning process to align goals and objectives

  • Shared understanding of the target audience and buyer personas

  • Agreement on lead scoring and qualification criteria


Examples of Companies that have Integrated their Sales and Marketing Teams


Many companies have already integrated their sales and marketing teams to drive better results for ABM. One notable example is Domo, who created an 'ABM Command Center' to track and measure their ABM efforts. This partnership between the sales and marketing team allowed them to generate a 30% increase in their target account engagement and a 50% increase in pipeline generated from targeted accounts.



  • Domo's 'ABM Command Center'

  • Other success stories of sales and marketing alignment teams

  • Benefits of aligning the sales and marketing teams

  • Best practices for sales and marketing alignment


Measurement and Analytics


Measurement and analytics play a critical role in the success of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) campaigns. Without proper measurement and analysis, it becomes difficult to optimize and improve ABM strategies.


Why measurement and analytics is crucial for ABM success


By measuring and analyzing various data points such as website traffic, engagement rates, and customer interactions, marketers can gain insights into the performance of their ABM campaigns. These insights can be used to optimize targeting efforts, create personalized messaging, and improve conversion rates. Additionally, marketing teams can use analytics to better understand their target accounts and create more targeted outreach efforts.


Highlights of companies that have used data-driven practices to improve ABM results


One example of a company that has successfully used data-driven practices to improve ABM results is Demandbase. Their account-based measurement and attribution framework helps marketers measure the impact of their ABM programs while providing insights on how to optimize and improve campaign performance. Through this framework, marketers can gain visibility into the entire account buying journey, from awareness to purchase intent, and more.



  • Another example is XYZ Company

  • Another example is ABC Inc.


By leveraging insights gained from measurement and analytics, companies like Demandbase and XYZ Company have been able to improve customer engagement, increase conversion rates, and ultimately drive growth in their business.


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