Build an account-based marketing strategy

Based on The Ultimate Guide to a Successful Account-Based Marketing Strategy by @guy_yalif

Business benefits

Encourage higher engagement, higher quality sales opportunities, and more revenue.

Ensure that Sales and Marketing teams agree on the vision and goals for account-based marketing (ABM), and work in sync with each other.

Have team leaders or project managers:

  • Hold regular meetings with a clear agenda.
  • Nail down strategy and tactics and then revisit these regularly.
  • Keep team members accountable for their individual tasks and goals.

Aligned sales and marketing teams see 38% higher sales win rates from their ABM efforts. Sales and marketing leaders being in lockstep every day is the key to maintaining alignment in your organization and moving your ABM program forward.

Look at current customers who have had the most success with your product and record attributes that they have in common.

Use your customer attribute list to make an ideal customer profile (ICP) that includes specific industries, company sizes, and job titles that are the best fit for your solution.

An ICP could look something like this:

  • Company industry: B2B SaaS
  • Company annual revenue: $50M+
  • Job level: Manager+
  • Job area: Marketing that impacts revenue
  • Job title: CMO, VP Marketing, Director of Marketing, Demand Generation Manager, Digital Marketing Manager

Segment target accounts based on how well they fit the ICP, their level of intent, and prior engagement level.

Accounts with higher intent and engagement that are the best fit for your solution will be your top tier accounts.

Identify key decision-makers within each account.

These are the prospects that you will pursue once the ABM campaign is underway.

Develop buyer personas that include who the person is, their goals, challenges, needs, influences, and any other defining qualities that will help your marketing and sales teams understand them better.

Detailed personas help you think about the best ways to form compelling messaging and ultimately engage your key contacts.

A buyer persona could look something like this:

  • John Smith, VP Marketing, 15+ years of experience in SaaS marketing
  • Goals: Generate more marketing-driven pipeline
  • Challenges: Securing enough budget to hit targets, proving marketing program ROI
  • Needs: More accurate and automated measurement and attribution
  • Influences: CFO, the competition, case studies from trusted brands

Craft bespoke cross-channel content for target accounts and their key contacts. Speak to relevant needs and pain points that concern prospects at their current stage of the customer journey with you.

For example, industry or job-specific case studies or webinars.

Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) so you can capture the data needed to make ongoing iterations to your ABM efforts.

Some common KPIs you might measure include engagement with your personalized content, leads and sales opportunities generated, conversion rates between sales stages, and closed or won sales deals.

It’s important to note that this phase is ongoing once a campaign is underway and continues even after the campaign has ended — measuring data from one ABM initiative can help to inform the next.

Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-01-15T23:19:29Z