A STRATEGIC GUIDE TO

ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING
How to Build, Manage & Grow a High-ROI ABM Engine
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
5 Introduction
7 Chaper 1: The Evolution of ABM
7 Why Modern B2B Companies Need ABM
8 ABM & Digital Marketing: Why You Need Both
10 Chapter 2: Creating a Best-in-Class ABM Strategy
10 Define Your Goals, Objectives & Metrics
13 The Three Types of ABM
14 Get Buy-in From Sales & Your Company
17 Select Your Target Accounts
18 Build Your In-House ABM Team
23 The Recap
24 Chapter 3: Running a Successful Multi-Channel ABM Campaign
24 What Makes an ABM Campaign “Great”?
25 Choose Your ABM Channels & Offers
28 Align with Sales & Develop Follow-up SLAs
33 Pick the Right Tools to Help You Scale
34 Track the ROI of ABM & Marketing Activities
36 The Recap
37 Chapter 5: Personalizing & Optimizing Your Digital Experience
for ABM
37 The Three Data Tenants of Personalization
38 How to Personalize ABM Plays
48 How to Improve Engagement with Target Accounts
49 The Recap
51 Final Thoughts

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Introduction

INTRODUCTION
Account-based marketing (ABM) isn’t a new concept in B2B. So
why are marketers still debating the ABCs of ABM?

There are two main reasons:

1. No two ABM programs look alike. ABM is a targeted approach to B2B

marketing and sales, meaning most programs are highly customized.

2. We’re always tinkering. ABM isn’t a “one-and-done” B2B marketing and

sales strategy. It requires constant experimentation and upkeep around target
lists, outreach, messaging, and more.

Click to Tweet

For both these reasons, the hunger for quality, best-practice ABM content hasn’t
died down. And it probably never will.
That’s what brought you here. You want to understand what it takes to build,
maintain, and grow a successful ABM program.
In this guide, you’ll find the tactical steps for doing just that. To start, we’ll look
at how ABM rose to popularity and why ABM programs should run in unison with
your other digital marketing efforts.
After that, we’ll dive into everything you need to know to build and run a
successful ABM campaign, provide examples of ABM plays we love, and then show
you how to personalize your own digital experience for ABM.

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 The Evolution of ABM

CHAPTER 1

THE EVOLUTION
OF ABM
ABM has adapted and changed based on two key shifts: emerging
technologies and buyer behavior.

Marketers would cast wide nets As a result, the ABM of even just five years ago does not look the same as the ABM
you know and love today.
to capture as many leads as Learn what’s changed, where ABM is going, and why ABM – on its own –
isn’t enough
possible. As far as marketers were
Why Modern B2B Companies Need ABM
concerned, the more traffic they
Account-based marketing came into its own over the last decade.
could send to their sites – the more In the early 2000s, companies saw inbound marketing as the be-all-end-all

leads they could generate – the for demand generation. Marketers would cast wide nets to capture as many leads
as possible. As far as marketers were concerned, the more traffic they could send

better. But there are three major to their sites – the more leads they could generate – the better. But there are
three major problems with this “inbound-only approach”:
problems with this “inbound-only 1. It isn’t targeted
approach.” It isn’t targeted. It isn’t The broad, wait-and-see aspect of inbound doesn’t consistently attract the
right ideal customer profiles (ICP), meaning lead quality can suffer in the
sales-friendly. It doesn’t match pursuit of lead volume.

buyers expectations. 2. It isn’t sales-friendly

You could write a whole book on the issues blocking marketing and sales
alignment (in fact, we did). One answer you’ll get is lead quality. Inbound is
open to all, meaning marketers need finely-tuned lead scoring and routing to
make sure the right leads get to the right reps.

3. It doesn’t match buyer expectations

A “one-size-fits-all” approach to marketing isn’t as successful as it used
to be. Buyers no longer distinguish between their highly customized B2C
experiences and their B2B vendor relationships.

For all these reasons, many marketing teams have pivoted to an account-based
marketing strategy.

7
 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing The Evolution of ABM

ABM is B2B’s answer to inbound, in that it addresses the multiple stakeholders The account-based funnel is made up of:
and people who make up a client account.
ABM also flips traditional inbound marketing on its head, using a spear vs. a net • ABM target accounts: Accounts identified within our ICP as the most likely
approach to marketing – from the tactics you use to the content you create. to benefit from Drift/your company.
• White glove accounts: A further segmented list of high-value target accounts.
Traditional Marketing vs ABM
The volume funnel is the always-on digital marketing funnel focused on everything else.

Attract people to your site & get Identify target

them to fill out forms companies
Account
Based Target
Accounts
Engaged
Accounts
Nurture them with Nurture them with
automated emails automated emails
SDR-QL Opportunity Closed-Won

Leads Engaged

Identify target Attract people to your site & get

Volume Leads

companies them to fill out forms

Based on #FlipMyFunnel model for ABM by Sangram Vajre Source: TOPO

With ABM you’re identifying opportunities right from the beginning, and going Now, this doesn’t mean we aren’t using digital marketing tactics as part of our
after target companies with personalized content and messaging. ABM program. The volume funnel is the air coverage running in the background,
But here’s the catch: Marketers are still responsible for lead volume, and introducing a steady flow of net new leads. We’re still nurturing those leads so they
making sure there’s a steady flow of leads in their funnel. Inbound and digital become opportunities.
marketing are still an important part of generating lead volume. Inbound should
still be used as well to feed your ABM funnel. Because if an inbound lead ends up Volume Accounts
being part of a target account, ABM can pick up right where inbound leaves off. Always-on
Target Accounts
So while ABM is a fantastic answer for high-quality lead generation, it isn’t enough. Campaigns

That might seem crazy to read in a book about ABM, but it’s true – and it’s
important in understanding how you should approach ABM in the first place. White Glove
Accounts
Targeted
Campaigns

ABM & Digital Marketing: Why You Need Both Highly Targeted
ABM (1:few)

ABM is no longer an either/or decision. For modern B2B marketing and sales
teams to succeed, they need an all-encompassing approach to their demand gen
funnel. One that addresses both quality and volume. For your company to scale and grow, implementing an approach like this becomes
ABM solves for quality. To solve for volume, marketers need a digital necessary for supporting that growth. You can give more energy to ABM when you
marketing strategy that runs on top of targeted ABM campaigns. still have other campaigns running to support lead volume.
That’s why we use a double funnel approach at Drift. Originally developed by For the remainder of this book, we’ll cover the fundamentals and best practices
TOPO, the double funnel splits the marketing funnel into account-based and for running the ABM part of this double funnel. We’ll also include steps for
volume-based. optimizing your funnel and personalizing digital experiences for ABM.

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Creating a Best-in-Class ABM Strategy

CHAPTER 2 If you’re launching or relaunching an internal ABM program, the first thing you

CREATING A need to do is agree on the goals and objectives of your ABM program with stakeholders.
You can start with an overarching objective, and then include a number of KPIs/

BEST-IN-CLASS
benchmarks to measure your success against.
Let’s look at an example

ABM STRATEGY ABM Program Objective

Increase engagement and pipeline in our targeted, white-glove accounts by
partnering with sales and delivering high-value campaigns to the segment
ABM is a major change management exercise. Approaching it as most likely to close.
anything but a robust change management exercise is a quick path Once your objectives are nailed down, create a list of KPIs you plan to track
to failure. and the goals for those KPIs.

KPI Goal Actual % to Goal

If you’re reading this, you’re most likely either:
Increase contacts added to accounts X X X%
1. Launching an ABM program for the first time
Schedule X meetings X Meetings X Meetings X%
2. Trying to improve the ABM program you already have
Hold X meetings X Meetings X Meetings X%
In both cases, this chapter will teach you how to create a best-in-class ABM
program for your company. Specifically, you’ll learn how to: Convert x% of meetings into opportunities X Opps X Opps X%

• Define your program’s goals and objectives Generate $X of pipeline $ Pipeline $ Pipeline X%
• Choose what type of ABM is right for you Generated Generated
• Develop a partnership with sales leaders, and get buy-in from key influencers $ Business $ Business
Close $X revenue X%
• Identify target accounts and personas Closed Closed
• Build a high-performance ABM team
This will also help you determine which metrics to keep tabs on. These
Define Your Goals, Objectives & Metrics metrics include:

Marketing, in order to be successful, needs to continuously reaffirm its goals 1. Marketing Qualified Accounts (MQAs) by month
and value.
As one of the largest expenditures in a business, marketing teams are under 2. High intent MQAs by month
ever-increasing scrutiny to prove ROI. And there’s no question: ABM comes at an
expense. An expense in time, resources, headcount, and budget. 3. Secondary metrics:
Drift, alongside other companies, partnered with Engagio for its 2020 Account- • Increase in senior executive engagement
Based Engagement Market Research Study. This research found that ABM program • Increase account engagement (MQAs)
budgets have increased by 40% year-over-year. Meaning companies are seeing • Increase in average deal size
the benefits and impact ABM is having on their bottom line. On the flip side, it • Reduce the length of the sales cycle
puts greater pressure on ABM marketers to make the most of this investment.

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Creating a Best-in-Class ABM Strategy

Engagio’s Account-Based Engagement Market Research Study found that The Three Types of ABM
measuring ABM ROI remains one of the greatest challenges for marketers. MQLs
were the second most commonly tracked metric. But only 29% of companies were ITSMA, a well-known thought leader in the ABM world, wanted to help
able to measure MQAs. What’s worse? 57% of those surveyed haven’t been able to marketers find a better way to define the scope and scale of their ABM programs.
measure the impact of their ABM program They landed on three distinct types of ABM. Each takes a different approach
Being able to tie your ABM program back to revenue is the single most to the coverage and activities for new and existing accounts, and each requires a
important factor to ensure long-term buy-in. To do this, you need to be able to certain level of investment
track your campaign effectiveness. We’ll dig into this a bit later.
Once you’ve identified your goals and objectives, you’ll want to cozy up to sales. One-to-One One-to-Few One-to-Many
Tactics: 57% online, 43% offline Tactics: 68% online, 32% offline Tactics: 81% online, 19% offline

ABM Metrics & Terms to Master • Account-specific customer • In-person events • Email marketing/e-newsletters
content & thought leadership • Email marketing/e-newsletters • Account-specific (custom/
Marketers love their acronyms and terms. Let’s quickly review some key terms • Executive-to-executive • Account-specific (custom/ bespoke) content and thought
you should know and master as an ABM marketer. This list is by no means relationship program bespoke) content and thought leadership
exhaustive, but it does hit on the essentials: • In-person events leadership • Paid social media
• Direct mail • Paid social media • Reverse IP/targeted digital ads/
• Paid social media • Executive-to-executive retargeting
1. Key accounts: Key accounts are customer accounts crucial to a company’s • Email marketing/e-newsletters relationship program • Webinars and virtual events
success. One common definition we’ve seen: Key accounts are the 20% of • Reverse IP/targeted digital • In-person events
ads/retargeting
customers who make up 80% of a company’s overall business.
Source: ITSMA, Third Annual ABM Benchmark Study: Moving To ABM Maturity
2. Marketing-qualified account (MQA): This is the ABM equivalent of a
marketing-qualified lead (MQL). An MQA is a sales-ready target account.
They earned that status through a certain amount of engagement which This image gives you a sense of the types of tactics, channels, and offers under
increased their account score. these ABM approaches.
Here’s a breakdown of what these entail:
3. Account scoring: Account scoring uses data like intent data, third-party
data, firmographic, lead activity, and more to score accounts. • One-to-One ABM: This ABM strategy is as granular as it gets. Marketing
and sales use highly customized campaigns for a small number of individual
4. Coverage: Coverage refers to how much you know about a given account. For accounts. According to ITSMA’s recent benchmark report, the mean
example, how many relevant contacts have you identified from that account? account coverage at this level is around 15.
How much relevant information have you gathered? Coverage measures the • One-to-Few ABM: At this level, marketing works with sales to focus on
completeness of the research you’ve done. account clusters that have similar “attributes” like industries, pain points,
etc. The mean account coverage here is around 36.
5. Ideal customer profile (ICP): We suspect you’re already familiar with this • One-to-Many ABM: This has the largest scope of all (a mean of 900
term. So here’s a quick refresher: ICP defines the characteristics of an ideal accounts). With this approach, marketing and sales create larger account lists
customer account (those most likely to buy), using firmographic data, and scale their campaigns using martech to personalize outreach.
technographic data, and sometimes predictive analytics.
As more marketers rely on digital to break through the noise, personalized ABM
6. Land and expand: A customer relationship doesn’t end after the initial sale. becomes even more important. So personalization should play a role in each ABM
While traditionally sales teams have been laser-focused on generating new approach – regardless of the size and scope.
business, the land and expand model places a stronger emphasis on upselling Emma Chalwin, Salesforce’s SVP of American Marketing, shared this insight into
and cross-selling existing accounts. the current state of demand generation in an interview with DemandGen Report:

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing

“I think about demand gen marketing in categories: 1:Many, 1:Few and 1:1. Each
of them requires elevated levels of personalization, but as you narrow down your
audiences and clusters to even smaller groups with 1:Few and 1:1 ABM, you have to
take that personalization to the next level. For us, this meant a strategy shift to create a
dedicated ABM team. Backed by data science, strong alignment to sales and manpower
to go deep on account discovery, we build custom journeys across all channels with
pain-point and account-specific messages that demonstrate our knowledge about that
account, which puts the customer at the center.”
Which approach you choose depends on your available resources. You can also
employ multiple approaches for larger target account lists (one-to-many) and
more white-glove target accounts (one-to-few). A more layered approach like
this is ideal if you’re trying to break into the enterprise, but still actively selling to I think about demand gen
SMB accounts.
marketing in categories: 1:Many,
Get Buy-in From Sales & Your Company 1:Few and 1:1. Each of them
It might be called “account-based marketing” but ABM is really an account-
based strategy. And that strategy hinges on aligning and partnering with sales.
requires elevated levels of
Sales and sales development reps (SDRs) are key players in the campaigns you
run. When launching an ABM campaign, you should work with sales to determine:
personalization, but as you narrow
• Who: How many personas sales should reach out to for each account
down your audiences and clusters
• How: The messaging for the personas in these accounts to even smaller groups with 1:Few
• When: When sales should reach out
and 1:1 ABM, you have to take that
To do this, you’ll want to take the steps to partner with your company’s sales
leaders. You’re much more likely to get company buy-in when you stand side- personalization to the next level.
by-side with sales.
For us, this meant a strategy shift
Click to Tweet to create a dedicated ABM team.
While the roles of each team differ, their goal is ultimately the same in the eyes of
the c-suite: to generate revenue. – Emma Chalwin, Salesforce’s SVP of American Marketing
Once you get buy-in from the sales team, start identifying the leaders,
executive sponsors, and stakeholders you need to get the company on board with
ABM. Engagio’s ABM benchmark report found that the three top challenges for
companies in the early stages of ABM maturity include:

1. Budget restrictions

2. Lack of ability to execute

3. Lack of appropriate tech or tools

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Creating a Best-in-Class ABM Strategy

The stakeholders you want buy-in from are your “ABM gatekeepers.” They Select Your Target Accounts
impact the budget, operations, and logistics of your ABM program. They may not
make up your “core ABM team” (more on that next), but they will help ensure the Engagio’s research found that companies with the highest ABM ROI had
program’s success. Beyond your Head of ABM, these roles include: around 11-50 target accounts assigned to each rep. This is a good reference when
identifying and segmenting your own target accounts. Though the exact number
• C-Suite or executive sponsor: You should have someone at the top will depend on the size and scope of your sales/SDR team.
championing your program. Preferably this sponsor is familiar with ABM and
offers guidance on how to best execute your strategy. Sales will have insight into the past history of some target accounts and should
• CMO/Head of Marketing: If you’re not the top marketing leader at your provide suggestions on which accounts to include.
company, be sure whoever is has sign-off beforehand. This person should Here are some factors to consider when choosing your target accounts:
be separate from the other c-suite/executive gatekeeper. You don’t want the
program launch to live in a marketing echo chamber. • ICP: Even if you’re just starting out in ABM, you’ll most likely have some
• Marketing/sales ops leaders: Repeat after us “ABM must be embedded ideal customer profile (ICP) in place. ICP becomes even more important when
into the martech strategy.” Say it. Meditate on it. Live it. Okay, joking aside, talking about ABM, as you want to give sales the accounts that are the most
marketing operations and sales operations are key players in making your likely to close.
ABM dreams a reality. They’ll help identify and implement the best tech to run • Product fit: Outside of traditional ICP, you can also look at companies that
ABM and help choose the ideal target accounts – based on data not opinions. are a good fit for your solution. It’s possible these companies fall outside the
• Sales leaders: At this point, you should have a strong partnership with sales. industries you’d normally entertain. But if the sale is a no-brainer and the
In an even more perfect world, sales should be up there presenting with you. business case is strong, there’s good reason to include them on your list.
• SDR leaders: Depending on the structure of your company, SDRs may sit • Data-driven: Data is your best friend when considering which accounts to
in marketing OR sales. If they sit in marketing, this person is probably a target. And there are a few types of data you should look at:
VP of Demand Gen or a dedicated SDR leader. SDRs are critical to ABM’s
success. The leader you bring to this meeting should be able to comfortably • RM data: Take a look at the historical data within accounts in your CRM.
communicate outcomes to their team. Which companies did you have deals with in the past? Is now a better
time to engage with them? What amount of insight do you have that can
streamline the sales process now?
• Engagement data: If you find contacts under good-fit accounts with
high engagement, there’s a good chance these accounts will respond
well to personalized ABM.
• Third-party intent data: To paint a broad-strokes picture of an account,
it’s helpful to look into third-party intent data. This is any data from
C-suite/ CMO/Head Marketing/Sales Sales Leaders SDR Leaders sources outside your company channels.
Executive of Marketing Ops Leaders
• Deal size/Big names: Who are your bucket list accounts? What accounts
introduce large deal sizes into the mix?
Once you’ve identified these gatekeepers, you’ll want to get them together and
present your ABM strategy. In this meeting, you should discuss: Once you have your target accounts in place, consider how to segment this list and
make it more manageable when you roll it out to sales. We already mentioned that
• Program objectives and roadmaps for success creating a tiered target account list is a good practice for adding a more white-
• Goals and KPIs your program will be measured on glove service and segmented approach to ABM.
• Initial campaigns you’ll be running Depending on the makeup of your sales teams (i.e., if they are organized by territory,
• People involved in running your ABM campaigns product, business unit, etc.), there are a few different ways you could look at segmenting.
• Expected investments Other ways to segment include industry, sales stage, territory, revenue range, etc.

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Creating a Best-in-Class ABM Strategy

Go Further Head of Account-Based Marketing

If you’re looking for more tactical guidance and systems insight into how to
best segment your target account list, check out The Guide to Conversational Companies with the strongest ABM ROI are three times more likely
ABM from Drift and Demandbase. to have a dedicated head of ABM, according to Engagio's 2020
Account-Based Engagement Market Research Study.
Check it out Ultimately, depending on the size of your organization and marketing team, this
might not be possible right away. However, once you reach a certain size, 20-50
marketers, we highly suggest including a dedicated role.
What’s important now is that there’s a clear, directly responsible individual
Build Your In-House ABM Team (DRI) overseeing your ABM program and reporting on the results to leadership.
Here are the responsibilities of the ABM program leader:
ABM is a company-wide effort. Marketing, sales, and operations all play a big role
in its success. And given many ABM campaigns are multi-channel, you’ll also • Helps to manage the demand generation funnel and pipeline goals
need to coordinate with different channel owners. • Spearheads all initiatives for the ABM program
What your ABM team looks like may not mirror the examples we use here. That • Tracks performance/metrics to communicate wins and misses
said, as your program grows, have these roles in the back of your mind for the future. • Works with operations to ensure technology infrastructure is optimized
Here we see an example ABM team. At the center, we have our Head of ABM. • Works with sales to communicate the message and focus on target accounts
• Works with other marketing leaders to embed ABM across channels

Integrated Campaigns Manager

“Integrated campaigns combine multiple channels such as content, email,

display advertising and social media in order to promote a consistent
Marketing Operations Field Marketers
message to a specific audience.” - Campaign Monitor
Integrated marketing campaigns are crucial to modern marketing
departments looking to integrate all their teams' efforts towards the same
shared activities. Integrated marketing campaigns are made up of quarter-long
programs, with individual campaigns and offers under each.

Content Creators/ SDRs

Managers Head of ABM
Campaign

Program Program Program

Digital Marketing Integrated Campaign

Manager Manager Offer Offer Offer Offer Offer Offer Offer Offer Offer Offer Offer Offer

Not all of these titles necessarily live in marketing. But, to have a truly multi- Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel
channel campaign, you need people who can own both online and offline
channels.
Let’s dive into each of these roles

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 Creating a Best-in-Class ABM Strategy

An integrated campaign manager helps run the quarterly campaigns and ABM
components of a marketing team. They work across marketing, sales, creative, and
operations to ensure all offers and channels are aligned, analyzed, and optimized.
Here are the responsibilities that fall under this role:

• Plans and manages quarterly campaigns and ABM elements

• Coordinates with members of the marketing and sales team
• Supports ABM initiatives across email and other digital channels
• Enables the sales team with marketing content and messaging
• Analyzes campaign results in detail, draws insights, and makes data-based
adjustments to improve performance and key learnings

Integrated campaigns Head of Digital/Digital Marketing Manager

combine multiple channels Given the number of channels marketers have at their disposal, the
role of the digital marketer becomes even more crucial.
Besides running the volume side of the double funnel, a digital
such as content, email, marketer’s responsibilities often overlap with the needs of an ABM program.
Digital marketers are responsible for paid and organic traffic. Aligning your
display advertising and social ABM and digital marketing strategy is how companies can tactically approach
both online and offline ABM activities. That’s what makes this role so valuable.

media in order to promote Here are the responsibilities that fall under this role:

a consistent message to a •
•
Runs the predictable volume funnel and digital marketing efforts
Helps to manage the demand generation funnel and pipeline goals

specific audience. • Responsible for overall web experience and best practice use of
marketing channels
• Leads digital advertising initiatives to support integrated marketing campaigns
• Identifies channel opportunities and offer performance within those channels
– Campaign Monitor
SDRs

In an ABM benchmark report from TOPO, 88% of survey respondents

said SDR outreach was the most important ABM channel they have.
In some cases, SDRs might sit in a marketing department, often
managed by a demand generation leader or dedicated SDR manager. Regardless
of whether or not this is the case, SDRs are star players on any ABM team.
SDRs help support campaigns with personalized and specific outreach to
contacts in target accounts. They also lead campaign follow-up and connect
account executives (AEs) with target accounts.
Here are the responsibilities that fall under this role:

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Creating a Best-in-Class ABM Strategy

• Qualifies leads in marketing campaigns as sales opportunities A good martech stack is essential to a well-oiled marketing machine. Meaning
• Manages post-ABM campaign follow-up activities there’s a greater demand for technical expertise than ever before. Marketing
• Conducts outreach to target accounts through cold calls and emails operations links together the systems and people that make your ABM campaign tick.
• Sources new contacts under target accounts Here are the responsibilities that fall under this role in an ABM program:
• Identifies buyers needs and pain points and offers solutions
• Sets up meetings or calls between buyers and AEs • Sets up the account scoring and routing rules
• Tags target accounts in your CRM
Field Marketers • Enrolls contacts from target accounts into campaigns
• Helps report on campaign performance
When it comes to events, field marketers can be a real gamechanger.
While 2020 dealt a blow to conventional conferences and in-person The Recap
events, field marketers proved their value, no matter the circumstance,
with virtual events. Too many ABM programs fail to launch because of poor change management at
Here are the responsibilities that fall under this role: the top. Don’t let that happen to you.
Before we dive into the steps for running a multi-channel ABM campaign, here
• Identifies event opportunities frequented by target accounts are some best practices to keep in mind:
• Executes third-party events and campaigns, giving brands greater visibility
• Creates ancillary and unique event experiences for white-glove ABM accounts 1. There are three types of ABM. The approach you choose indicates the level
• Manage operations on the ground between potential customers and of personalization and channels you’ll be using. Make sure you pick an option
salespeople that is scalable for your team.
• Supports pre-event strategy and roll-out
• Boosts event engagement to facilitate more sales conversations 2. ABM is a major change management exercise that involves multiple
• Runs a post-event follow-up strategy alongside marketing and sales stakeholders. Understand what those stakeholders want and be able to
measure and track the success of your program.
Content Creators/Managers
3. Choosing target accounts isn’t all about ICP. Consider factors like product
Having a content machine in place to support ABM is important to fit, deal size, as well as engagement data. And, of course, get sales’ opinion.
delivering collateral at scale. Luckily, even small marketing teams
often have content marketers in some capacity on their staff. 4. Sales is integral to ABM’s success. Since that’s the case, you must consider
The challenge with ABM content comes down to the amount of personalization them equal partners in your program.
involved in an offer. Outside of larger offers, content managers play more of a
consultative role on messaging and collateral for ABM campaigns. 5. Once you have a partnership with sales, you need to sell ABM internally.
Here are the responsibilities that fall under this role: Set up a meeting with decision-makers. Communicate what you’re trying to
accomplish and what, if anything, you need from the people attending.
• Creates large content offers that support ABM and integrated marketing campaigns
• Develops content strategies for campaigns 6. No one ABM team looks the same. But there are some key roles you might
• Consults on campaign offers including email, direct mail, event collateral, consider adding over time. This chapter offered a roadmap of what those roles
and more could look like.

Marketing Operations

Want to track the ROI of your ABM campaign? Need systems in place to
ensure the right accounts are distributed to the right reps? Then you need ops.

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Running a Successful Multi-Channel ABM Campaign

CHAPTER 3 Meaning great ABM campaigns should be:

RUNNING A • Highly personalized to the contacts under an account

SUCCESSFUL
• Considerate of the buyer’s journey including engagement and intent
• Hyper-focused on a buyer’s pain points
• Actionable and valuable to the buyer

MULTI-CHANNEL •
•
A conversation starter – i.e., provoke some kind of response
A seamless experience from start to finish

ABM CAMPAIGN In the remainder of this chapter, you’ll learn what it takes to ensure your ABM
campaigns check all the boxes.

You have your gameplan and your team in place. Choose Your ABM Channels & Offers
It’s now time to start designing what your campaigns will actually look like – i.e., the
Now you need to piece together what your ABM campaigns will look like – from offers and channels you’ll be using to reach and engage with your target audience.
your preferred ABM approach to the channels and offers in your campaigns. Earlier we shared a breakdown of the three ABM approaches, with a snapshot of
To help, in this chapter, we’ll walk through how to: some channels and content that would fall under each. The image below takes this
one step further. This time we’ve also included a column for “volume.” As a reminder,
• Determine the channels and potential offers to support your campaigns you should be running always-on campaigns alongside your ABM program.
• Align with sales and develop follow-up SLAs To the right of Volume column, we’ve split ABM campaigns into two: a one-
• Pick the right tools to support your ABM efforts to-many approach for most of the selected target accounts, and a one-to-one
• Track the ROI of your ABM and marketing activities approach for the top white-glove accounts

But, before we get into all that, let’s define what a great ABM campaign actually
looks like. Content/Channels Volume Target Accounts White-Glove
Accounts (1:1)
Webinar outreach
What Makes an ABM Campaign “Great”?
Content syndication
The answer to this question appears, at first, annoyingly simple: The best ABM
campaigns are the ones that close business. Paid social
But if you approach your ABM campaign with this mentality in mind, you aren’t
Paid advertising
likely to get the results you’re looking for.
At Drift, we rely on our leadership principles to help us make decisions. One of Trade shows
those principles is “put the customer at the center of everything you do.”
Drift playbooks
Great ABM campaigns follow the same idea.
Display ads
Click to Tweet Web personalization

Dinners/Regional events

Campaign mailers

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing

Content/Channels Volume Target Accounts White-Glove

Accounts (1:1)
Personalized direct mail

Dedicated persona campaigns

Technology insights to sales

Customized content

Available 1:1 marketing support

Outbound SDR focus

The purpose of adding the Volume column is to show how the level of
personalized content increases with ABM. It also shows that you don’t need to
create ABM content from scratch.
A survey from DemandGen Report found that 48% of buyers engage with
three to five pieces of content before talking with a salesperson. So it’s not
65% of B2B buyers prefer
realistic for you to create new content for each campaign.
The best ABM content marketing approach leans on existing content first and
to conduct their purchase
adds personalization on top of it. For example, you take a book that already exists
and customize it for target accounts research online rather than
work with a salesperson.
– Forrester

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Running a Successful Multi-Channel ABM Campaign

To assess what content you’ll need to create for each campaign, follow these steps: To embed ABM more into the marketing and sales routine, we highly suggest
tying ABM communication to your sales and marketing meetings that already
1. Do a full content audit. This audit looks for topics and messaging most exist. Most likely both departments have weekly stand-ups, as well as quarterly
relevant to the personas in the target account. Content isn’t just blogs and brainstorming, already in place. Work with executive sponsors to add ABM
eBooks. Take a look at landing pages, decks, videos, past webinars, and strategy discussions into these meetings.
email nurture tracks too.
• Weekly Check-Ins
2. Identify topical gaps with sales. Once you’ve laid out the content, come up Invite members from both marketing and sales involved in the current
with two to three new offers to support any topical or persona gaps. ABM program. Use this time to update sales on upcoming ABM offers, and
brainstorm strategies for follow-up across both teams.
3. Map how and where the content will be used. Get a good idea where in the • Monthly Updates
buyer's journey this content fits (awareness, consideration, decision), how End-of-month meetings should be about results and progress. These meetings
you’ll deliver this content, and what level of personalization you’ll use. should have at least one key stakeholder. Use this time to discuss what did or
didn’t work on the marketing and sales sides. Communicate any wins.
Certain channels may also be reserved solely for top tier accounts. Like, for • Quarterly Campaign Reviews
example, outbound or direct mail campaigns. We run quarterly integrated marketing campaigns at Drift. Towards the end
You should try a mix of channels for each campaign offer, focusing on the of the quarter, we meet and strategize for the next. Take the same approach
channels most relevant to your target buyers. That said, trends have shown that with your ABM program. Invite the stakeholders who may be needed to
digital is your best and most direct line to customers. According to Forrester, approve budget and resources. Take a deep look at the activities in each
“65% of B2B buyers prefer to conduct their purchase research online rather than account. Revisit personas and target accounts.
work with a salesperson” in their journey.
Again, this shows just how important personalizing your ABM campaigns is to
closing pipeline.
We’ll walk through how you can create a highly personalized digital experience
for your ABM campaigns in the last chapter of this book.

Align with Sales & Develop Follow-up SLAs

Once you know which channels and offers to use, you’ll want to align with sales
to ensure everyone agrees on campaign activities, performance tracking, and
desired outcomes. To streamline campaign alignment:

• Create a communication strategy that embeds ABM into meeting cadence

• Keep activities and messaging transparent
• Identify and establish clear SLAs
Keep Activities & Messaging Transparent
The next few sections will dig into each of these strategies further
In addition to partnering on strategy and communication, technology can also
Create a Communication Strategy bring more visibility to both teams. Marketers should be able to see the different
activities sales are taking in your respective CRM – chat, calls, etc. Sales should
To keep both teams on the same page, start by establishing a communication also be able to see the activities (direct mail, email, etc.) marketing is using via
strategy that includes weekly, monthly, and quarterly check-ins and reviews. your marketing automation platform.

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Running a Successful Multi-Channel ABM Campaign

Each team should also agree on the messaging and scope of these activities. Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5
In any campaign, it’s important to understand how marketing and sales
messaging works together. Both marketing and sales should be promoting the
same value proposition. However, the messaging should be different: Assign
packages to
MQA Create a task for the SDR to
confirm the address and write
SDR completes
the task
Add to direct mail
SFDC campaign
SFDC campaign a personalized note

• Marketing campaign message: The messaging marketing shares should be Step 8 Step 7 Step 6
broad and work as air coverage for sales.
• Sales campaign message: Sales’ messaging should be detailed and intimate.
It should focus on the pain points and lead with the shared value proposition SDR sends a SDR is notified Package goes out
follow-up email when the package
as a solution. is delivered

Source: Engagio Can be accomplished with automations

Establish Clear SLAs
Direct mail campaigns are a staple in many ABM programs because they are
Next, you’ll need to establish clear SLAs between both teams. To avoid highly personalized and break through the noise of digital channels.
misalignment, establish a few key responsibilities: Learn more best practices from Sandra and Drift’s Head of ABM, in the
full webinar.
• KPIs: Agree on which KPIs marketing or sales is responsible for both tracking,
reporting on, and improving.
Watch the Webinar
• Deliverables: Determine what type of content or messaging each team is
delivering. What sales activities should happen within these campaigns? What
should those activities look like?
• Timetable: The best way to ensure people are meeting their SLA is to set up If you do find that sales aren’t meeting their SLA, Adam Goyette, VP of
some automated reporting and notifications for your sales team during an Marketing at Help Scout, suggests being open to feedback and checking the
ABM campaign. Go into Salesforce, or whatever CRM you use, and implement quality of the chosen accounts:
a few simple changes: “A lot of marketing teams struggle to establish realistic SLAs with their sales and
• Add a system date stamp on MQAs. SDR teams. In a perfect world, the leads marketing sends to sales should be better than
• Add a picklist option so sales can update the status of their interaction those sourced from pure cold calling or cold email outreach. If you find that sales
with a contact in an account. For example, change the status to isn’t following up with these leads, then there’s probably a larger lead quality issue.
“Working” or “Disqualified.” Now, this is where things can get contentious between both teams. And like any
• Send automated alerts if the contact status has not changed within 48 kind of situation where there’s bound to be disagreements, you need to approach the
hours. opposite party with respect. Be very open to feedback about why sales is saying they
• Set up a weekly automated report on overdue SLAs. don’t want to follow up.”
– Adam Goyette, VP of Marketing at Help Scout, A New Decade for a New Funnel
Again, the best way to run an ABM program is to see sales as a partner. If sales
Build an Account-Based Marketing Campaign Roadmap knows they are an equal partner in the success of the ABM program, they’ll be
It helps visualize what the roadmap of your ABM campaign will look like, and more invested in helping to ensure that success. Plus, any ABM program without
the activities and responsibilities of both marketing and sales. them isn’t going to get far.
Here we’ve included a direct mail example from Engagio. Engagio’s VP of
ABM, Sandra Freeman, shared what different ABM campaign journeys look
like during Drift’s All About ABM webinar series.
This direct mail example shows not only how sales and marketing can work
together in an ABM campaign, but what aspects of the campaign should be
automated to help you scale.

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 Running a Successful Multi-Channel ABM Campaign

Pick the Right Tools to Help You Scale

As part of their benchmark report, Engagio asked marketers which tools they
absolutely cannot live without – especially when it comes to ABM – to be
successful. Their top three should come as no surprise:

• CRM (83%)
A lot of marketing teams •
•
Marketing automation (73%)
LinkedIn (60%)

struggle to establish realistic We’ve already mentioned CRM and marketing automation a number of times in

SLAs with their sales and SDR this book. Most modern marketing teams can’t function or scale without them.
CRMs, like Salesforce, are the database and, oftentimes, the reporting hub for

teams. In a perfect world, your ABM activities.

Marketing automation software players, like Marketo, are equally necessary

the leads marketing sends to for executing account-based marketing – especially on the digital experience side.
Marketers can use automation software like Marketo to create account lists, build
sophisticated account lead scoring, and more. Marketo also includes Bizable which
sales should be better than gives marketers a better way to attribute and report on ABM success across channels.
In fact, Engagio’s report found that of the companies with the highest ABM
those sourced from pure cold ROI, 50% were Marketo users.
LinkedIn has also become a key sales channel for ABM outreach and research.

calling or cold email outreach. It’s a more direct, intimate line to stakeholders than an email inbox.

If you find that sales isn’t Level-Up LinkedIn Social Selling

People buy from people. That’s a big reason why social selling has gained

following up with these leads, popularity over the last few years – particularly on LinkedIn.
But how can you ensure your salespeople are putting their best face forward?

then there’s probably a larger Bridget Poetker, Senior Content Marketing Manager at G2, shared some best
practices you can follow to elevate your profile and close business on LinkedIn:

lead quality issue. 1.

2.
Use a professional photo
Optimize your headline
3. Sell in summary
– Adam Goyette, VP of Marketing at Help Scout 4. Stay active with your network
5. Write detailed job descriptions
6. Ask for endorsements and recommendations
7. Add all accomplishments

Read her strategies for tackling each of these on the Drift blog

Read the Blog

33
 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Running a Successful Multi-Channel ABM Campaign

In addition to these ABM tools, you have other key technology players for UTM tracking helps identify the effectiveness of your ABM strategy when it comes
engagement, automation, data enrichment, gifting, etc. to channels, messaging, and offers
Below is a snapshot of different tools you could add to your ABM tech stack. This
is by no means exhaustive, but it is a nice overview of the software categories to
Marketing Channel Bucket
explore as your program grows. Blog
Direct
Direct Mail
Content Email Marketing
Account-Based Marketing Tech Stack Example Email Referral
Events

Lead Source (LC)

CQL Organic Search
Marketing & Sales All-Around Account-Based Marketing Social Other
Intelligence
Paid Search
Events Paid Social
Sales Quality Activities
CRM Marketing Social Media
Automation Test Drive Syndication
Web Referral
Widget Referral
ABM ENGINE Webinar
Digital Advertising Reporting/Attibution Web Experience/ Content/Sales
Personalization Enablement
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Record Count
Events Conversational ABM Giving (Physical/
Virtual)
It’s also important to track the effectiveness of your website experience. After all,
you’re spending and time running ABM campaigns. If your digital experience
doesn’t cut it, it’s all for nothing.
If you want to learn more about some of the companies mentioned here or other We use Drift Audiences to optimize our website and convert more site traffic.
ABM tools to look into, check out our dedicated all-about-ABM page here. Drift Audiences identifies which site visitors are coming from a specific ABM
campaign or channel. You can use this information to deliver hyper-targeted
Track the ROI of ABM & Marketing Activities experiences for buyers and get more out of your marketing spend.

Earlier we mentioned that 57% of ABM marketers couldn’t effectively measure

the ROI of their ABM program. That’s troubling, especially given the scrutiny
on marketing teams to prove ROI.
There are plenty of tools out there to help you track ROI and marketing
performance. But there are also steps you can take to develop better performance
tracking habits.
First, repeat after me: UTMs are your friends. Not using UTMs in, for example,
marketing emails, is like flying blind. You need to understand attribution in your
ABM program if you want to grow and improve.

Click to Tweet

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Personalizing & Optimizing Your Digital Experience for ABM

The Recap CHAPTER 4

A great ABM campaign is highly personalized and centered around the buyer. In PERSONALIZING &
OPTIMIZING YOUR
the next chapter, we’ll dive into techniques for optimizing and personalizing the
digital ABM experience.
Before that, let’s recap what we learned about running a multi-channel
ABM campaign:
DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
FOR ABM
1. Don’t create ABM content from scratch. Do an audit of what’s in play and see
if you can add a layer of personalization.

2. Before you launch your campaign, be sure to align with sales on their
role and expected SLAs. Don’t leave any questions unanswered or left for In this final chapter, we’ll discuss how to optimize your digital
interpretation. ABM experience using personalization, data, and conversational
marketing best practices.
3. Identify what tools you need to help scale and execute your ABM strategy.
Remember to focus on the tools that will provide more value to buyers. Specifically, you’ll learn:

4. You must use campaign performance tracking to understand the impact of your • What data matters and how to use it to create a frictionless buyer experience
ABM campaigns. You can do this by using UTM parameters religiously and • Examples of how to personalize different ABM plays
onboarding tools like Drift Audiences to make the most of your web traffic. • Steps to improve engagement with target accounts on your website

The Three Data Tenants of Personalization

We all understand the value of personalization. B2C companies made
personalization the cornerstone of a great customer experience – from the
recommended shows in your Netflix to the birthday coupons in your inbox.
Now B2B companies want in.
A report from Gartner found that more than 50% of B2B marketing leaders
want one-to-one personalization in their marketing strategy.
But despite these best wishes, many B2B companies struggle with
implementing an effective personalization strategy. Here’s why

• Poor strategy: Companies either don’t have a clear strategy or aren’t seeing
the impact of personalization on their bottom line (60%+ of companies
surveyed by Gartner found their strategy to be ineffective). However,
personalization has proven results. In a study from Monetate, companies
saw a 2x (1.7% to 3.4%) increase in conversions for visitors who viewed three
pages of personalized content.
• Data privacy & poor data use: Companies struggle to balance a
personalized customer experience while also maintaining privacy standards.
And if buyers aren’t seeing the benefits of data collection, they feel their
privacy is being invaded. Rightly so.

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Personalizing & Optimizing Your Digital Experience for ABM

Luckily, there’s a solution to these problems. Well, three. When trying to

determine what data you need to personalize your digital ABM campaigns, keep
these three tenants in mind: Consumer

Personalized Message
1. Data must be used to deliver nothing less than a VIP experience.

2. Data must be used to engage with target accounts.

“Recognition” “Help me through the buying journey”
3. Data must be used to action marketing & sales to drive pipeline.
• Who I Am: The message mentioned my • Make it Easy: The message made is easier to get
For any data that stray outside these parameters, stop collecting it. Remember personal information. through the purchase.
• What I've Done: The message used information • Reassure Me: The message made me less
ABM is about putting the customer at the center of your decision-making. about my past purchases from this brand. anxious about making the wrong decision.
Your process and methods should never get in the way of that. • What's Important to Me: The message reflected • Teach Me Something New: The message gave
That said, collecting the right data in a responsible and frictionless way can my personal values. me a better idea of how I could use the
• Tailored to Me: I can tell this message looks product/service.
seem daunting. First, you need to consider the barriers to that data (i.e., silos). different for me than it does for other customers. • Direct Me: The message guided me to a product/
Then, identify how you’ll use personalization in your ABM plays and program. service that would solve a problem for me.
Finally, you must ensure the experience is worth it for your buyers and customers. • Reward Me: The message provided me with
exclusive benefits.
We had this same conversation at Drift when launching our own ABM program.
Source: Gartner, Maximize the Impact of Personalization
How do we strike the right balance? What do we need to make this happen?
When we realized there was no silver bullet, we decided to build a better
solution. Our customers are using both conversational marketing best practices Chatbot
Chelsea Ward
and Drift Audiences to bridge the gap and deliver personalized ABM at scale. Online Now

Hey Whitewhale!
How to Personalize ABM Plays
Chatbot
Are you ready to start getting more out of your
Looking to accelerate your digital
existing customers? If so, book time below transformation at your company? You’ve
In Gartner’s Maximize the Impact of Personalization report, they identified come to the right place!
two categories of personalization most valuable to buyers
On one side is the “recognition of the person.” This shows buyers that you know Book a Meeting Now
comes to digital transformation. What are
who they are, where they’re from, how they got there, and potentially what they you interested in learning more about?
care about.
Everything digital transformation
The second is the “recognition of their journey.” Today, helping is the new
selling. This category is about making it easier for your buyers to answer their Tell me more about your AI tool
own questions and find value.
Tell me how to improve my digital ROI
Both are important, and both acknowledge the fact that buyers are conducting
their own research. Can I talk with a human?

Chatbots are great for delivering personalization in both these categories – at

scale. That’s why more and more companies are using conversational marketing
as part of their ABM strategy. Conversational marketing offers a frictionless Choose an option above…
Chat by Drift
buying and selling experience, making it easier to connect people in real-time.
In this section, you’ll see three ABM plays that demonstrate how
personalization and conversational marketing can level up your ABM.

38 39
 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Personalizing & Optimizing Your Digital Experience for ABM

The Direct Mail & Digital ABM Play For this campaign, we shipped a postcard offering a free print copy of our
Conversational Marketing book.
Direct mail is a well-known ABM tactic for breaking through the noise and Here’s a roadmap of the campaign journey:
engaging with target accounts. Long ago, it was enough to send a simple gift and
do a follow-up phone call a week or two later. But modern buyers expect greater Direct Mail Campaign Roadmap
immediacy in their experience.
Today, the most successful ABM direct mail campaigns combine both a physical
and digital experience to better engage with buyers.
To show you this play in action, let’s walk through an example direct mail
campaign we ran at Drift Postcard Buyer visits URL Buyer can Sales is alerted
campaign Postcard request physical when buyer is on
Email sent arrives & is greeted by a
created retargeting bot book or explore the page
No Form Postcard Campaign
Campaign Sales sends Buyer receives Buyer lands Buyers can click The assign AE is
is created in email asking the postcard. on page and is the CTA for the sent a notification
SFDC and them to keep greeted with a book, engage that the buyer is
Goals of this campaign target accounts an eye out. personalized with the bot, or on the page so
are added. message. explore the page. they can engage
in real-time.
• Break into ABM target accounts that we haven’t engaged with
• Connect on a personal level with something that is relevant to the buyer
• Showcase the concept of no forms and the importance of personalization The postcard included a URL where recipients could request a copy of the book
and learn more about conversational marketing. The URL would then take them to
a personalized page and a dedicated bot that would greet them by name
This postcard campaign was part of a larger marketing initiative we called
#NoForms. The idea? Forms are as antiquated as the rotary phone – and it’s time
to make an upgrade. Enter conversational marketing.

This campaign had an incredible influence on our pipeline. The mix of physical
and digital made the process easy and engaging for buyers. It was also more cost-
effective than if we had just directly shipped the books without an initial touchpoint.

40 41
 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing

Get More Direct Mail Campaign Strategies – Straight From

the Experts
Looking for more direct mail inspiration? Drift hosted a webinar with PFL,
a leader in tactile and direct mail marketing. You can access the webinar
recording on Drift Insider.

Watch the Webinar

The PPC ABM Play

Digital advertising now accounts for more than 60% of all ad spend. By 2023,
that spending will reach $517.51 billion (up from $384.96 billion this year).
9 times out of 10, the dropoff
Meaning marketers are spending an incredible amount of money driving buyers
to their websites. Unfortunately, conversion rates are historically low on average
happens post-click, when
– and haven’t budged much over the years.
9 times out of 10, the dropoff happens post-click, when buyers arrive on your
buyers arrive on your landing
landing page. Often, these pages aren’t personalized to their unique buyer journey
and require them to fill out long forms – and then wait a few hours to a few
page. Often, these pages aren’t
days to get a reply.
Is that really the experience you want for your VIP accounts? No. Of course not. personalized to their unique
You want to roll out the red carpet. You want to greet them like an old friend.
Well, to do that we need to throw away some old processes: buyer journey and require
Traditional B2B Ad Flow for Demo Request them to fill out long forms –
and then wait a few hours to a
Advertisement Form CRM routing few days to get a reply.
Sales rep
follow-up

Landing page Thank you Twiddling of

email thumbs

Conversational Marketing Advertisement Demo Flow

Advertisement Landing page Conversation

42
 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Personalizing & Optimizing Your Digital Experience for ABM

Building a comprehensive digital advertising strategy is all about

experimentation. Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn have made it easier to
determine and understand the intent of your buyers.
Once you’ve created the offers on these platforms, you need to deliver a great
experience for them on the other end.
Here’s how one of our customers ran their own PPC campaigns to drive
engagement with interested buyers

WebPT’s Paid Search Campaign

Goals of this campaign

• Create a more personalized experience for targeted buyers Using Unbounce they created different landing page variations also with UTM
• Boost the ROI of paid search campaigns and generate more business parameters to customize the experience even further.
• Create a better user experience on WebPT’s website

WebPT, a software provider for outpatient rehab therapy services, is in a niche

market. Josh Golden, their digital marketing expert, was tasked with making the
most of the company’s online investments.
To do this, he used Drift and Unbounce to create a more personalized landing
page experience for paid search campaigns.
Here’s a roadmap of the campaign journey:

WebPT Campaign Roadmap

Ads launched Buyer clicks on ad Buyer sees custom Buyer engages with Sales is alerted
across multiple from one of these bot & landing page the landing page when buyer is on Using this strategy WebPT was able to provide personalized messaging via Drift
platforms platforms the page
and experiment with landing page copy and design via Unbounce. The Driftbot
WebPT launches Buyer is greeted This page is Sales sent a also served as a “second net” next to their forms. A second net bot gives your
ads for Google, by personalized customized using notification that the
Facebook, Bing, and Driftbot. Unbounce and buyer is on the page buyers more options when reaching out to you.
Capterra. UTM parameters. so they can engage WebPT has since tripled its chat-based leads as well as the MRR of their Google
in real-time.
and Bing ad-sourced leads.

In this journey, targeted buyers would click on an ad and be taken to a custom Check Out WebPT’s Full Story
landing page with a bot. Interested in learning more about WebPT’s digital advertising strategy? Get
WebPT ran different personalized chat messages depending on the UTM source of all the details, plus additional personalization best practices on the Drift blog.
the targeted buyer, including playbooks for Google, Facebook, Bing, and Capterra.

Read Their Story

44 45
 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Personalizing & Optimizing Your Digital Experience for ABM

The Event ABM Play Similar to how we use Drift for webinar registration, our event registrations
run through a registration playbook. We then use a bot on our landing pages to
Events are an ideal channel for ABM. They provide an intimate, one-on-one space prompt people to register:
to engage with buyers.
2020 rocked the events world in more ways than one. But it also made
marketers rethink how they approached event promotion. We had to do our own
pivot at Drift when it came to events. The result – RevGrowth 2020. At first a
standalone event, now a series of virtual events we’re adding to our strategy.
In this section, we’ll share how we used chat, conversational marketing, and
our virtual event to engage with target accounts.

RevGrowth ABM Campaign

Goals of this campaign

• Drive more target accounts to RevGrowth 2020

• Book more meetings between AEs and target accounts
• Share thought leadership around marketing & sales and show Drift as a
leader in both This bot is triggered via a Driftlink. This is great because we can drop the link
anywhere on the landing page to prompt the Driftbot to appear – whether it was a
Our first RevGrowth Virtual Summit drove more than 8,500 registrants and link behind a Register Now button or hyperlinked text.
was planned in less than six weeks. So it was important that we optimize the After entering their email and agreeing to terms, RevGrowth registrants were
registration process as much as possible. then given Google calendar links for the event directly in the chat. They were also
Here’s a roadmap of this campaign in action sent this same content via email, post-registration.
As a second step, we used retargeting to entice people who had been to the
Event Campaign Roadmap event page, but didn’t register. We used retargeting in two ways:

• Retargeting ads: Part of our promotion plan was setting up retargeting ads
for people who came to the event landing page but didn’t register.
Buyer is Buyer is
Buyer abandons retargeted on retargeted with
page social media bot on Drift’s site
Drift launches If buyer returns to website they
paid retargeting are retargeted on Drift site and
ads on social. offered more info on the event.

Email or social
post to the Buyer navigates Buyer registers Buyer gets Reminder email Sales engages
event launched to landing page for event follow-up email sent

Buyer is sent an Upon arriving they They are sent a Sales sends a Sales is notified
email or clicks are personally follow-up email second email to on event day
social post. Buyer greeted and with attendance remind target that buyers are
is directed to the directed to register details. account of the in attendance
event page. via the Driftbot. upcoming event and use breaks
and to engage to message and
with them further. engage throughout
the day.

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Personalizing & Optimizing Your Digital Experience for ABM

• Retargeting bot: With this bot, return visitors were greeted knowingly Being able to see information like this helps identify which areas of your
and pointed back to the event landing page. AEs were also notified if certain website to personalize more for buyers.
visitors were on the site to encourage attendance as well. This made aligning With Drift Audiences, you can better understand the coverage on your website
with sales on the event THAT much easier and create more personalized playbooks to engage with your target accounts.
As they say, knowing is only half the battle. After you’ve implemented these
playbooks on your site, it’s important sales are primed to respond.
In our earlier Event play example, we showed how to use Drift notifications to
inform reps when target accounts are on a website. This feature allows sales to
respond in real-time to their VIP accounts.
Here’s that feature again as part of a playbook workflow
The Ultimate Guide to Running a Virtual Event
Running an event is not for the faint of heart. That’s why we called on our
Director of Events and VP of Content & Community to share their expertise for
running a great virtual event. Check out their best practices on Drift Insider.

Get the Insights

Now that you have some example plays for personalizing ABM, we’ll end by 1. Use an ABM playbook to 2. Buyer starts a conversation 3. Account owner is notified
introducing some techniques for optimizing your program. welcome target accounts with the account owner and routed into conversation

How to Improve Engagement with Target Accounts In summary, to improve engagement with target accounts, focus on:
There’s nothing worse than seeing a key contact under a target account come to
your website and know you missed an opportunity to engage with them. • Improving site coverage for high-traffic or high-intent pages
You hear a lot about account coverage in the customer experience and customer • Investing in personalization to greet target accounts and provide a VIP
success world. CSMs must pay close attention to the key players on their accounts. experience
Coverage from the retention and customer side indicates the portion of revenue • Visibility for reps when target accounts visit the site so they can respond ASAP
you’re engaging within your customer base.
The same can be said about your website coverage for ABM target accounts. The Recap
How many contacts from those accounts are you actually engaging with when
they come to your site? As shown in this example, 20% of target accounts have not As you can see, the data you use in your ABM program should always be in service
encountered a personalized offer or bot on the website. And that’s not uncommon. to your buyers. Not only does this help you create “wow” moments for these
target accounts, but it improves the ROI and cost-effectiveness of your ABM.
To recap, in this chapter we discussed how to better personalize ABM at scale.
We included examples you can use in your own program from both Drift and our
customers. Finally, we briefly introduced the concepts of conversational ABM
and Drift Audiences as a way to further optimize ABM.
That was a lot. So we’ll leave you with just a few final thoughts.

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 The Art of ABM: A Strategic Guide to Account-Based Marketing Final Thoughts

FINAL THOUGHTS
Congrats, you’ve mastered the fundamentals of how to run a
best-in-class ABM program.

From getting company buy-in for your program to building your ABM team to
optimizing your campaigns, you’ve covered it all.
As your ABM program grows, return to this resource as a guide.
Now that you have the basics down, you, my friend are ready for the big leagues.
But where do you even start?
We reached out to our friends at Demandbase to help you turn methods into
real campaigns. Together, we created The Guide to Conversational ABM. In
As they say, knowing is that book, you’ll find more advanced steps for taking your ABM to the next level.

only half the battle. After

you’ve implemented these
playbooks on your site, it’s
important sales are primed
to respond.

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