The main feature that differentiates ABM from other marketing strategies is that it only targets highly converting profiles, sending them highly personalized messages that address the unique needs of each account.
This is profitable for accounts that will individually generate significant benefits for the company, allowing for investment in hyper-personalized, less mass-marketing.
In this sense, within ABM, we can find both highly personalized, individual strategies (known as one-to-one ABM) and campaigns aimed at small groups with similar specific database characteristics and larger groups. The choice of one or the other will depend on available resources and business objectives.
Close collaboration between marketing and sales
In Account Based Marketing strategies, marketing and sales teams work closely together, as success depends on both teams providing consistent experiences for target accounts.
Because ABM is a highly personalized strategy, coordination errors between both teams can have much more negative consequences than with other types of strategies.
Advanced account segmentation
As one of the foundations of Account-Based Marketing strategies is personalization, contacts are divided into highly targeted groups. In this regard, factors such as the structural characteristics of the companies to be reached, the type of technology they use and their level of digitalization, previous purchasing patterns, and their level of engagement with the brand based on previous interactions, among others, are taken into account.
Account-Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing: What's the Difference?
If we compare Account-Based Marketing vs. Inbound Marketing, we'll realize that they are actually completely different strategies used in quite different situations. However, it's important to make the distinction because companies that would benefit from implementing account-based marketing often opt for Inbound Marketing due to its greater popularity and because they don't know what Account-Based Marketing is.
On the one hand, ABM is based on attracting key and valuable accounts through the creation of highly personalized content that addresses very specific needs. Its main objective is to increase ROI and expand the product or service within the company (since it's perfect for B2B companies). This is why performance metrics related to sales cycle speed and target account engagement are taken into account when measuring performance.
On the other hand, inbound marketing is used to try to attract the largest possible audience by generating valuable, organic content that responds to the market's needs in a general way. To measure the success of this strategy, metrics such as web traffic, conversion rate, and lead generation are taken into account.
However, the two strategies are not mutually exclusive . In fact, many B2B companies use inbound marketing to engage a broad audience and educate them about their products or services, along with an ABM strategy to implement it in the most likely accounts within the generic audience they've reached.
How an ABM strategy works step by step
The first step in implementing an account-based marketing strategy is to select the criteria accounts must meet to be considered potential customers and then create ideal customer profiles based on these criteria.
A marketing and sales strategy is then designed for each of these clients, and the accounts acquired are segmented into groups based on these previously identified ideal profiles.
The actions within each strategy will be customized according to the needs of each segment. In this sense, it is necessary to identify the most appropriate type of content for each segment and the channels on which the strategy will be developed. Typically, case studies, white papers (documents that delve into a specific topic), and webinars provide the best results in these types of strategies.
Benefits of ABM in B2B companies
Shortened sales cycle : By focusing on accounts with a higher propensity to convert, sales cycles in ABM strategies are shortened compared to other marketing strategies. Furthermore, since communication with accounts is highly personalized and the needs of each lead are addressed more directly and accurately, decision-making by prospects is also streamlined. Finally, the well-coordinated work between marketing and sales also contributes to this, eliminating redundancies and speeding up the entire sales process.
Strengthening customer relationships : The high level of personalization of account-based marketing fosters stronger, and therefore more lasting, brand-customer relationships. This, in turn, translates into high loyalty and trust rates, which can lead to additional sales opportunities.
ROI Optimization : Marketing resources are used more efficiently in Account-Based Marketing due to the implementation of hyper-segmentation and the high level of personalization of actions. In this way, the costs associated with unqualified prospects are minimized. In fact, most B2B marketing experts believe that a key account-based marketing strategy provides a higher ROI than others.
Ease of measurement : By focusing on specific accounts, an ABM strategy makes it easier to measure key indicators such as conversion rate, customer value, or ROI. This also helps improve efficiency in refining actions.
