Ultimate guide to Account Based Marketing (ABM)

Feel like you’re wasting your resources on unqualified prospects? 😰

In B2B, attracting leads and doing volume en masse isn’t necessarily a good choice. ❌ This may be what happens to you when your campaigns attract lots of leads, but few turn into customers, and even fewer into strategic accounts…

What you really want are solid relationships with high-potential accounts that generate sales and long-term impact. 💥

👉🏼 This is where Account Based Marketing (ABM) comes in, as a targeted, hyper-personalized strategy for engaging the right contacts and maximizing your results.

We show you how to create an ABM strategy and hos to use it to get your business off the ground. 🚀 On the ABM program:

• Definition, benefits and challenges of Account Based Marketing.
• Types of Account Based Marketing strategies.
• How to implement an Account Based Marketing approach.
• ABM with LinkedIn and Waalaxy.

Let’s get started!

What is account based marketing?

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a B2B marketing strategy that involves identifying and focusing marketing efforts on a limited number of high-potential key accounts. 🔑

💎 Basically, with ABM, you play on quality (getting to the point with a limited number of potential or good customers ) rather than quantity – and that makes all the difference.

Rather than targeting a large audience (as in traditional marketing and lead generation strategies), you target only the most important accounts, those that are truly valuable and strategic to your business. 🤑

How does ABM marketing work? 🗣️ Talk directly to the decision-makers of these strategic account to engage them and show them, through hyper-personalization (campaigns, content, messages, actions…), that you understand their needs, their challenges, and that you have exactly what they need to solve them.

📍It’s a strategic approach that :

• Can include personalized content campaigns, marketing actions such as exclusive events or messages directly tailored to prospects’ issues.
• Account Based Marketing requires close collaboration and teamwork: sales and marketing must be perfectly aligned to identify the right accounts, develop a targeted strategy for customer engagement and turn these prospects into loyal customers…

In short, Account Based Marketing is a powerful strategy for maximizing the impact of marketing efforts 💪🏼 and avoiding wasting time chasing after unqualified leads. And that’s not the only advantage!

Benefits of Account-Based Marketing

When it’s done right, Account Based Marketing is indeed a super-powerful B2B strategy, and offers many advantages (some of which have already been mentioned):

1. Relevance of interactions 🤩 : By addressing decision-makers directly and responding to their specific issues, ABM guarantees meaningful, impactful interactions, a far cry from the generic messages often ignored.

2. High conversion rate 🤑: Thanks to hyper-personalization, Account Based Marketing campaigns adapt to the needs of each account, greatly increasing the chances of turning a prospect into a customer (tailored content shows your interest, which prompts them to act).

3. Return on investment (ROI ) 👑: With the effective allocation and management of marketing resources, on a “small” number of strategically high-value accounts, every euro is invested where it really counts and has a measurable impact. The results more than justify the investment, and marketing budgets are optimized.

4. Saves time and resources ✅: By targeting the right decision-makers from the outset, the sales process is shortened and obstacles reduced, speeding up decision-making.

5. Customer relations and loyalty 💕: The ultra-targeted approach creates a sense of trust and recognition, as well as an overall positive customer experience, which encourages loyalty.

These main benefits are undeniable, but there is also a set of obstacles to anticipate when implementing an Account Based Marketing strategy, which must be mastered to maximize its effectiveness.

Challenges of Account Based Marketing

Account Based Marketing is a very demanding strategy that can present its share of challenges (that’s the other side of the coin) 😬 including:

1. Precise targeting 🎯: Identifying the right accounts requires marketing in-depth analysis of data and ideal customer profiles (ICP or Ideal Customer Profile). Without reliable data or clear segmentations, your targeting won’t be precise, and you risk wasting time and resources on irrelevant accounts (negating the benefits mentioned above).

2. Hyper-personalization 🎨: Tailoring each message and content to the specific needs of accounts requires research time and skilled (even specialized) human resources, which can become quite costly.

3. Sales and marketing alignment 🤝: The two teams need to collaborate constantly, sharing information and following a common strategy (sounds simple, but it’s no mean feat). Without this alignment, ABM becomes ineffective, as efforts are not synchronized.

4. Sales effort and sales qualification 💪🏼: Account Based Marketing must rely on sales teams capable of understanding the complex needs of target accounts and interacting effectively with decision-makers (whether by message, e-mail, telephone or in person, depending on the marketing funnel…). A lack of sales effort or training can derail your strategy, even if the targeting and content are perfect.

5. Measuring effectiveness 📊: B2B sales cycles are often long, making ROI measurement complex. B2B companies need to invest in specific account based marketing tools to track accounts engagement and results over shorter sales pipeline and lower volumes, to adjust their ABM campaigns.

In short, successful implementation of your Account Based Marketing approach will require operational rigor and seamless coordination between your teams and your tools.

How to do B2B Account Based Marketing approach?

As you can see, implementing an Account Based Marketing strategy can be a real growth lever. But you still need to know how (we’ve already given you a few clues)! 🤔

👇🏼 Here’s how to set up an Account Based Marketing strategy in 6 steps:

1. Identify your target accounts 🔍: First analyze your customer data to identify high-potential accounts. Prioritize those that align strategic values, specific needs and growth opportunities. The goal is to build a short prospect list qualified, attainable accounts.

2. Understand your targets 🧠: Next, for each account on your list, identify key decision-makers and influencers, challenges, goals and behaviors in order to personalize your Account Based Marketing campaigns.

3. Share resources 📚 (marketing content and lead nurturing): Create personalized/adapted content and messages for each selected account (or set of target accounts), that meet targets’ specific needs.

4. Choose the right marketing channels 📲 – Leverage multiple customer acquisition channels, marketing tactics and effective content types to share resources that engage your targets (adapt according to profile and strategy): personalized campaigns marketing messages on social networks and emailing, videos, guides, events, webinars, paid ads, blog posts, web personalization, demo, gifts and rewards, partnership and co-innovation…

5. Aligning sales and marketing 🤝: As mentioned above, to successfully implement your ABM tactics, you’ll need to ensure perfect coordination between marketing and sales teams work (data sharing and marketing efforts).

6. Measure and optimize ⚙️ : Finally, regularly analyze your KPIs (conversion rate, engagement, ROI…), as this is the basis for adjusting your campaigns and continually improving your results.

Now you know how to set up your Account Based Marketing strategy. As promised, we’ll go into more detail on the 3 types of Account Based Marketing strategies in the next section.

Types of Account-Based marketing strategy

There are three main types of Account Based Marketing (ABM) strategy, which can be adapted to any business context. 🤸🏼‍♂️

💡 You’ll know which Account Based Marketing approach to choose based on your specific objectives, the resources you have available to achieve them and, above all, the number of accounts you need to reach :

	Strategic ABM or One-to-One	ABM by clusters or One-to-Few	Large-scale ABM or One-to-Many
Degree of customization 🌡️	Ultra-customized.	Semi-customized.	Automated personalization.
Types and number of accounts 🔑	Small number of strategic accounts (fewer than 10, or even on a single account).	No more than 100 accounts in total, to be grouped by similarities (sector, size, specific needs) into small clusters of 5 to 15 accounts.	Wide range of accounts (from 100 accounts, up to several hundred) targeted thanks to technology(AI).
Objectives 🎯	Target very high-potential companies or retain existing customers.	Balance personalization and scale, to reach more accounts while optimizing resources.	Reach a wide audience while maintaining a targeted, personalized approach to maximize impact.
Resources to deploy 🤝	Experienced, multidisciplinary team of experts.	Medium-sized team with different specializations.	Small, human-sized team.

In any case, whatever the strategy, it will absolutely ✅ :

• Do in-depth research (REALLY) to understand each account’s needs, challenges and objectives.
• Carry out tailor-made ABM campaigns, with specific messages and content to address the issues of each account or group of accounts.

To take full advantage of Account Based Marketing, we recommend that you combine all 3 types of marketing strategy to suit all your priorities and maximize impact.

That’s it, you’ve got all the info you need to know if you’re embarking on Account Based Marketing: definition, challenges, benefits, types of Account Based Marketing strategy and how to implement…

We’ll now show you how to boost your Account Based Marketing approach with LinkedIn (for better targeting) and with an automation or CRM tool (like Waalaxy 👽) to run several simultaneous campaigns and improve the results of your Account Based Marketing campaigns.

How to use Waalaxy for ABM on LinkedIn?

The channel you absolutely must use in your Account Based Marketing strategy? It’s LinkedIn. 👤

This professional network has the world’s largest free B2B database 🌍, in which it’s possible to do LinkedIn Account Based Marketing :

• Search, identify and precisely target key accounts and their decision-makers thanks to advanced filters.
• In-depth understanding of your targets’ needs, challenges, objectives and behaviors (thanks to profile data, but also in relation to shared content and reactions).
• Contact decision-makers directly to initiate initial contact.

Waalaxy uses LinkedIn and completes this approach by automating 🤖 :

• Importing, cleansing and sorting this data.
• The sending of LinkedIn messages and personalized emails to automatically engage high-value prospects (without repetitive manual effort) with quality content that converts.

💥 In short, using LinkedIn and Waalaxy together in an ABM approach is a strategic choice to maximize the effectiveness of certain stages: marketing targeting, understanding the target, account management, interactions, and finally analyzing and measuring results.

We show you how. 👇🏼

Targeting strategic accounts

To do a good LinkedIn search, and therefore good targeting, it’s not enough to simply use the search bar. 👀

1. Go to LinkedIn and click on “Import from a search” via the Waalaxy extension.

2. You can search and sort by person without typing the keyword in the search bar 😉

3. Access LinkedIn advanced search filters and insert the job title you’re looking for or a keyword to search for in the profile title, enclosing it in quotation marks. 🚨

It’s also possible to refine the search for strategic key accounts, using other filters such as sector, company or location (even more filters available for LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscribers).

4. In the Waalaxy extension, specify the number of prospects you wish to import and create the list. ✅ Then click on validate and the data import will begin.

Tip 🎁 – To import contacts, it’s also possible to make a more precise manual selection and import data from any “unique” profile in your existing lists or campaigns, thanks to the Waalaxy extension (without going through the search method we’ve just shown you).

Once imported, you can retrieve your strategic account data directly from Waalaxy. 👇🏼

Segment and sort list

Despite using LinkedIn filters or LinkedIn Sales Navigator, profile selection errors can creep into your lists. 😬

🧼 We therefore recommend that you clean up, sort and qualify your prospecting files and lists… to make sure that all imported contacts match your target and your Account Based Marketing approach (even if you haven’t used a LinkedIn search).

Second tip, as part of your Account Based Marketing strategy, it’s best to keep a short list of strategic accounts. 🔑 With fewer profiles to manage, you can really :

• Personalize your campaigns, understand the specific needs of each account and engage the right decision-makers.
• Avoid spreading yourself too thin and wasting resources on irrelevant accounts.
• Achieve greater impact and a much higher return on investment.

When your account lists is ready, you can start an Account-based marketing campaign and choose the sequence of automated actions to launch. 🚀

Choose a sequence

Choose the Waalaxy sequence that suits you best from the dozens of campaign templates available in the library 📚, to communicate with your targets (according to your needs and objectives).

For your Account Based Marketing campaigns 📣, we recommend choosing one of the following two sequences (feel free to use the filters to find them):

• LinkedIn: Invitation + 2 Messages + Email Finder
• Multichannel: Visit + Invitation + 2 Messages + Email Finder + 2 Emails

Writing messages and emails

✍🏼 Some of Waalaxy’s features are designed to help you write, optimize and personalize your LinkedIn messages and emails, sent automatically to :

• Connect with selected profiles.
• Distribute and/or repost created content.

Here’s what you can include in your messages and e-mails:

• *️⃣ Personalization variables.
• 🕹️ Call-to-Action (CTA) per link.
• 📸 Visual(s).
• 🔗 Attachment.
• ➡️ Other: GIFs, emojis, voice notes…
• 💾 Recorded message templates to reuse in your next ABM campaign.

Are your messages (and/or e-mails) ready? You can launch the Waalaxy campaign! 🚀

Now all you have to do is wait for the results, to evaluate the success of your Account Based Marketing campaign. In the meantime, Waalaxy works for you. 🔥

Evaluate results and optimize

📊 Here are the KPIs to track to evaluate the success of your ABM campaign (or ABM Kpi’s, not available on Waalaxy or LinkedIn directly):

• Conversion rate (leads to customers),
• Click-through rate (CTR),
• Length of sales cycle,
• Average value of contracts signed,
• Sales generated per targeted account.
• Return on investment.

Waalaxy helps you complete your analysis with detailed indicators and engagement rates (on LinkedIn and by Email) 🫶🏼 :

• Number of active and pending LinkedIn connections,
• Number of profile visits,
• Reach of last publication,
• Number of invitations issued and accepted, with acceptance rate,
• Number and response rate to messages,
• Details in graphical form (downloadable via CSV file). 📑

All these indicators will enable you to measure the direct impact of your campaigns and identify areas for optimization.

So, are you convinced by the Waalaxy/LinkedIn duo for ABM? We think it’s the easiest method to use and the one that will bring you the most results. 💥

Conclusion – Account Based Marketing Examples

ABM is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but it can be adapted to your company and resources (depending on the strategy and tools you choose). 🤸🏼‍♂️

🌟 The key is to put your strategic accounts at the center of your approach, to have teams that collaborate effectively, to do ultra-precise targeting and marketing segmentation, to bank on personalized interactions and content, and finally to measure your results regularly to refine the strategy.

In this way, you’ll manage to capture the attention of many key accounts, create authentic connections and maximize your ROI. 🔥

💭 You can draw inspiration from well-known examples of ultra successful ABM campaigns for strategic accounts:

• BMC (publisher & marketing software), which tripled webinar attendance by offering lunch coupons to attendees: a combination of tangible incentive with a relevant content marketing strategy.
• Salsify (online product experience management) ran an ABM campaign of hyper-personalized e-mails to invite prospects to a roadshow, which significantly increased the participation and engagement rates of targeted accounts.
• GumGum (a contextual intelligence company) wanted to get the attention of T-Mobile CEO John Legere. He loves Batman so they created a personalized comic where he was the superhero. This not only caught his attention, but also led to a fruitful collaboration.

But, also many others that illustrated what a well-thought-out, innovative, personalized Account Based Marketing approach was… And, how it could engage targeted accounts as well as transform marketing efforts into concrete results. 🤑

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

🏁 To conclude, here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions on the subject. 👇🏼

Differences and similarities between ABM and inbound marketing and outbound marketing.

Account Based Marketing (ABM) shares commonalities but also differences with inbound marketing and outbound marketing, which it’s essential to understand before getting started. 🧠

👉🏼 Similarities between :

• ABM & Inbound: Both aim to engage prospects by providing relevant, personalized content. They often use marketing automation tools to track engagement.
• ABM & Outbound: Both require proactive prospecting and targeted efforts to reach specific accounts (varied by channel).

👉🏼 Differences:

• Target 🎯: ABM marketing targets specific accounts, while traditional inbound marketing attracts a wide range of prospects through personalized organic content, and outbound targets an even wider audience without deep personalization.
• Approach 👋🏼: ABM marketing focuses on personalization and adaptation to each account. Inbound marketing strategies relies on continuous passive attraction (SEO, blogging). Outbound uses direct, one-off methods (ads, calls).
• Objective📍: ABM marketing maximizes ROI for a small number of strategic accounts, inbound focuses on lead volume, and outbound marketing focuses on immediate impact.

In short, Account Base Marketing combines the precise targeting of outbound with the personalization and customer experience of inbound.

How much does Account Based Marketing cost?

The cost of Account Based Marketing (ABM) can vary considerably depending on the scale of the strategy, the tools used and the degree of personalization (from a few thousand to tens of thousands of euros for a single account 🤯).

Here are the elements that weigh in the balance ⚖️ :

1. Technology: ABM platforms require monthly subscriptions, often ranging from €1,000 to €5,000/month depending on functionality.
2. Human resources: Internal costs can be very high, as the main ABM-related tasks require time (research, analysis, personalization, collaboration and communication between sales and marketing teams, etc.).
3. Customized content: The creation of campaigns, exclusive events or customized content for each account generates additional costs.
4. Advertising: Hyper-targeted advertising campaigns also add costs (whatever the channel chosen).

But, fortunately, ABM can be adapted to any budget, and there are more accessible solutions that can limit the costs and expenses associated with ABM platforms, while remaining effective. 🤑

The solution is the one we presented to you: choose a good marketing automation platform (like Waalaxy), to set up automated, personalized Account Based Marketing campaigns at lower cost.

What does the future hold for Account Based Marketing?

🔭 The future of Account Based Marketing (ABM) looks promising, thanks to technological advances and the ever-growing need for greater personalization.

🤖 First, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will play a central role, enabling target account to be identified with frightening accuracy, messages to be personalized on a massive scale and campaigns to be optimized in real time (even more and better than current solutions).

Then, hyper-personalization will become even more essential in the future, with a quest for unique experiences tailored to each interaction (for accounts, but also individuals). 🤩

Account Based Marketing approach will also evolve towards truly omnichannel strategies (email, advertising, events and social networks…) to engage targets at different touchpoints.📍

Finally, more powerful analytics tools will make it possible to accurately measure the ROI of Account Based Marketing campaigns and adjust efforts to maximize results.

This is the end of this guide to account-based marketing ! You now know everything there is to know about Account Based Marketing, and can now successfully implement your Account Based Marketing strategy with your eyes closed. 🙈

Now it’s your turn! 🕹️