UNSTOPPABLE

ABM
THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO ACCOUNT BASED MARKETING

A Recotap Publication. V.2.0

 20
Preface
The B2B purchase journey is ever changing and
becoming more complex. On an average 7 stakeholders
make purchase decisions for their organisations and
they use upto 6 channels to do their research and
remain anonymous for 57% of their purchase journey.

And yet, B2B marketing continues to perform practices

that are not attuned to the changing market dynamics.
From relying on single channel for lead nurturing to
treating all leads equally to qualifying leads solely using
a single dimensional score, B2B marketing languishes
with inefficiency.

Fortunately, a segment of B2B marketers are

challenging the status-quo and adopting for newer
buying journeys namely the Account-Based
Marketing(ABM). In the ABM approach, instead of going
after individuals as Leads, marketers choose a set of
companies that is most relevant for their businesses,
target and engage the buyers in a personalised
manner until they become a customer.
 30
Unlike traditional demand generation techniques that
are prone to attracting leads that aren’t relevant, ABM is
all about quality, precision and focus. ABM is a
cooperative effort between sales and marketing to
nurture prospects convert into customers.

The eBook will break down the approach

and explain in greater detail to help you
execute a highly successful ABM
campaigns for your organisations.

So, let's get started!

1. ABM
Basics
 50
Fishing with nets
In traditional demand generation approach, marketers create campaigns to attract
leads and carry them over the Awareness, Interest, Consideration, and Action cycle.
The goal is to attract the as many as leads as possible on the Top of the funnel
(TOFL) and push them deeper with the hope of converting as many of them as
possible.

In this approach marketers have a single-minded focus on making their lead fill a
form to capture inquiries, nurture them with via email. When leads reach a defined
activity score, they are marked as an MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) and handed
off to sales, from then on it’s up to sales to generate opportunities and close the
deal.
 50
Fishing with Spears
In the ABM approach though, it’s the opposite. You, first, start by selecting the
best fit accounts that matches to your ICP, by working in close co-ordination
with your sales team.

An ICP or an Ideal Customer Profile is a hypothetical description of the type of

company that would reap the most benefit from your product or solution. These
companies tend to have the quickest, most successful sales cycle, the
greatest customer retention rates and the highest number of evangelists for your
brand.

Once the accounts are in place, you would make a list of buyer group
comprising of buyers and influences for the account. A buyer group is nothing
but a set of key personals that are responsible for make buying decisions for
the account. A typical buyer group of an organisation considering to purchase
a Sales automation tool could be VP of Sales, CFO, Head of IT, Head of
Purchase and so forth.

As you can see rather than narrowing down a prospect through different
stages of qualification like the traditional purchase funnel, the inverted funnel
requires starting with those qualifications and expanding outwards to the next
stage.

Unlike the earlier approach Marketing & Sales work in tandem to engage with
buyers all stages of the purchase journey and take joint responsibility to
close a deal.
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Types of ABM
There are three types of ABM and it's primarily based
on number of Accounts that are being targeted.

1:1 ABM (Strategic ABM)

1:Few ABM (ABM Lite)

1:Many ABM (Programatic ABM)

There is no set number of accounts that determines the

type but in general targeting fewer than 10 accounts
would come under 1:1 ABM and 10-100 fall under ABM
lite and 100 to 1000 accounts will come under the
programatic ABM type.

While strategic ABM is most personalised and

produces more ROI, the investment and effort required
to execute such campaigns are the highest compared
to the other types of ABM. This is not to say one type is
better than the other but it really boils down to the
organisation goals and the company's discretion to
choose the right ABM that they deem fit.
n o it as il a n os re P & t r o f f E
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When to start your
Account Based Marketing
You market and sell to buying group, not just to
one individual.
Your buyer group consists of C-level executives.
You deal sizes are relatively high.
You sell to customer who typically sell to
enterprises.
Your Sales cycles are longer, taking months
instead of days or weeks.
When your sales strategy is land and expand -
start in a single department and expand into
different departments, business units etc.
Growth within the account is a business driver,
such as up-sells, or cross- sells.
Your internal processes are ready for outbound
marketing programs.
You have an established marketing function with
clear goals identified.
Your organisation culture fit allows inter
functional co-ordination.
2. The
Process
 90
ABM Strategy
ABM isn’t simply a marketing initiative: it’s a
company strategy. It needs to be thought of as a strategic
initiative than an yet another tactical program marketing
rolls out. When considering ABM, the size of your company
is irrelevant. Any company can implement an ABM
program if they have a commitment to understand deeply,
the needs of their target accounts and align the
engagement activities around those accounts.

ABM requires sponsorship by the top

management for the program to succeed.
Hence it's ideal to establish a core team that
consists of the Head of Marketing, Sales,
and Customer success. If relevant it could
also include other key customer facing roles
like Head of Support, Professional Services.
The key people in an ABM program are the
ABM marketer and the Account executive.

The core team should decide the number of accounts to be targeted through ABM,
consequently the type of ABM to adopt. They should base their selection on factors
such as company's growth plans, the resource availability, account history etc.

They also decide on the proportion of resources that each account or group of
accounts get. The team also focuses on operations aspects such as cadence of
meetings and the content mapping to accounts. The rigor in which this is
established and managed is integral to driving alignment and collaboration.
 01
Account Selection
The key to execute an ABM strategy successfully starts
with building the named/best-fit/target accounts. The
terms best-fit, named and Target accounts are used
interchangeably and they all mean the same. The ICP is the
basis for creating the target accounts list, the common
attributes of customers who best match the company’s
revenue and business objectives.

Account selection should be a

combined effort of sales and marketing
functions. The success of the ABM
efforts lies in the level of coordination
that these functions are able to achieve
during the account selection process as
well as in the execution of ABM
campaigns.

The account selection could start as a wide list but should be narrowed down by
using questioner driven approach. Some of the questions could be

Does the account in consideration deliver the most value (revenue potential as
well as strategic value)?
Is the account in question engaging with us already?
Is this account a look-alike to another account that has proven to be most
profitable over time?
How close is this account to the ICP?
Are these accounts matching an existing account that have proven to be easier
to sell in the past?
Which accounts do we already have an advantage in?
 11
Account
Selection...Contd
Accounts can also be finalised based on parameters such
as:

FIRMOGRAPHICS:
Account Size, number of employees, revenue, industry
vertical, growth, locations etc.

TECHNOGRAPHICS:
Technology Stack, Targetablity, etc.

PREVIOUS ENGAGEMENT :
CRM data, Campaign data, and sales conversations, Web
visits, Content downloads, event participations,
social media interactions.

Regardless of the selection

process adopted, the right
accounts will lead to maximum
revenue potential and working
with the wrong set means missed
opportunities and wasted
resources.
 21
Data Acquisition
In order to execute an effective ABM strategy a well-
structured and continually refreshed data set that covers
all named accounts and the key contacts within those
accounts is paramount. Data from CRM and other data
sources has to be consolidated and enriched for maximum
impact. In addition Firmographics, Technographics is also
a must.
You should also do an account and contact matching
process to identify the best target channels to reach the
accounts and contacts within this accounts.

The other key data requirement for a high impact ABM

campaigns is what is called the purchase intent data. This
data is highly valuable and can be used for account
selection and in Account targeting.

Intent data is of two types, the 1st party intent can be

deduced from web-visits, chat conversations, social media
interactions, sales conversations and other means by
which a target account is conveying to you directly. The
3rd party intent is are signals that target accounts are
emitting outside your circle of influence. Examples of such
intent include competitor conversations, new job
openings, job changes, company's growth projections,
press releases etc.

A customer who is showing a high purchase intent of a

product or service that you are selling has to be engaged
differently compared to others who are unaware and
needs to be educated of the benefits. Once the intent
data sources are identified it has to be seamlessly
integrated to the ABM workflow to leverage it at various
campaign stages.
 31
Content & Personalisation
Strategy
Now that you’ve determined your target accounts the next
stage is to figure out what content do each of these
accounts require to be effectively targeted and engaged.
In addition figure out what level of personalisation do they
require.

Content personalization strategy is largely dependent on

the target accounts and the ABM type you choose to
engage with them. You can do a 1:1 content
personalisation for key accounts, or do a 1:Few to 1:Many
personalisation based on a segment list and surface
relevant content to multiple accounts who share similar
characteristics. It could be Industry vertical, Geography,
horizontal segmentation such as SAAS.

Based on the targeting strategy adopted, find out the

content requirement for each account or a group of
accounts.

Before going ahead and building fresh content

it is important to do a content audit and create a
database of content that is available and still
relevant to the target accounts/ICP. Once the
audit is done, figure out the gaps in content and
invest resources in building and plugging the
gaps. Video content excels in engagement
compared to any other forms, so it's worthwhile
to invest resources in building such content.
 41
Content & Personalisation
Strategy...Contd.

The key is to focus on tactics and

formats that your account
audience is likely to engage
better. There isn't a type for
content that you need to
specifically create for ABM. All
kinds of content from Emails,
eBooks, webinars, white papers,
web pages, blog posts,
SlideShares, videos, infographics,
podcasts, social media posts,
interactive content, surveys,
quizzes and listicles will be
effective as long as it’s targeted
and personalised.
 51
Multi-Channel Targeting
For ABM programs to be successful, adopting a targeting
strategy based on where and when the buyers are most
likely to engage is a key. Adopt a multi-channel strategy
that targets buyers on the channels where they are most
active with messages and content they expect. Typical
channels that companies adopt for their ABM campaigns
are

EMAIL MARKETING:
Email is still the most used and effective content
distribution method. Adding personalisation to the email
communication becomes a crucial lever for ABM
campaigns to be successful. Emails has to be grouped by
accounts instead of traditional segments. Establish a
campaign flow that's based on recipient action (or
inaction).

Account-based Advertising: Plan account based personalised ad campaigns

targeting buyers. ABA is extremely focused and targeted as you only serve ads to
accounts that match the target list. ABA can amplify your outbound efforts and act
as a tool to build your brand awareness and in brand recall.

If done right it can help in closing sales opportunities faster, nurturing existing
relationships and building evangelism. The key is to show the right message to the
the right people at the right time.

There are multiple techniques that are adopted for executing ABA campaigns.

IP Targeting: This involves matching account and buyers to specific set of IP

addresses and serving digital ads to only those limited set of IP addresses. The
technique ensures it is more targeted than traditional demographic based
targeting. This also means the media spend is optimised and not wasted in
showing ads to non-relevant people.
 61
Multi-Channel
Targeting...contd.
Cookie based Targeting: This approach involves matching
account contacts against a commercial database. This
type of targeting can significantly reduce the waste in your
media budgets as contact's target medium is known.

Social Media Targeting : Social media platforms like

LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are effective mediums to
target Accounts and Contacts using various demographics
including company, professional roles. Compared to other
Ad networks Social media offers better targeting
capabilities albeit with significantly higher cost.

WEB PERSONALISATION

Web personalisation can work in tandem with ABA to

provide a personlised landing page experience to optimise
for conversions. One can identify the visitors' company and
industry and serve content that's applicable to them. Also if
your product or solution is relevant to multiple industry
verticals or geography you can create dynamic home
pages (based on geography and/or vertical) that shows
content that is relevant to the visitor group instead of
serving static content to every visitor
 71
Multi-Channel
Targeting...contd.
DIRECT EMAIL
Personalised emails sent on behalf of Account
Executives or others who have an ongoing
relationship with the buyer results in significantly
better response rates compared to bulk emails. These
emails should be in plain text and should not appear
as marketing emails to the receiver. ABM emails
should be reviewed, and approved by the person who
signs the email to preserve the authenticity his/her
writing style.

Such emails can be triggered on occurrence of

specific event or it can also be a periodical. Direct
emails plays a key part in Sales development efforts as
at this stage buyers expect communications to be
contextual and highly relevant.

EVENT MARKETING

Events still remains as one of the key marketing programs that consumes
companies' most marketing dollars. Customer value and prefer face-to-face
interaction to build and strengthen relationships and fast-track deal closure. An
ABM approach in event marketing is very apt because fundamentally events are
selective, relatively small and personalised. Events can be of 2 types

1. Events organised by your company

2. Events participated by your company

In both the cases the idea is to provide dedicated time and provide differentiated
experience for target buyers.
 81
Goals and Metrics
Create account metrics to measure your ABM
campaigns and is an important step in the ABM
journey. Tracking the ABM performance and
continually tuning the strategy and tactics is a must.
Like any marketing program improving ROI is a key
consideration for ABM as well.

If you are moving to ABM from traditional marketing,

start by establishing benchmarks from the existing
demand-gen campaigns for the account.

Your ABM goals could be one or more of the below:

Leads, Revenue uplift, Cross Sell/Upsell, Pipeline
Acceleration, Engagement.

Like wise the Metrics that you track across channels

may include

Ad
Click through Rate by Accounts
Impressions by Accounts
Account Engagement
Creative

Email
Open Rate by Accounts
Response rate by Accounts
CTR by Accounts

Web
Total & Unique visits by Accounts
Total & Unique visits by Account contacts
Time spent on the site per Account
Best performing page/content
 91
Orchestration Tools
and Technology
Much of what was discussed in earlier sections can be
performed manually or using general purpose marketing
automation tools so long as your account lists does not run
into 10s, 100s & 1000s. At that stage it becomes impossible
to keep track of hundreds of points of interactions and
connect the dots - simply put, your program will suffer and
may lead to abandoning the program all together.

ABM's success hinges on orchestrating and automating

interactions based on various triggers and account actions.
Therefore there is a need for a purpose built tools that can
unify various ABM stages and provide a place to launch
and monitor the campaigns.

ABM is high on personalisation as we have read, and your

ABM tool should provide inbuilt support for programmatic
content personalisation. In absence of it, the operation and
design teams may soon hit a limit when they are expected
to manually create hundreds of pieces of content for your
ABM programs.

Similarly, personalised and programatic advertising is a

prerequisite when running 1:Many ABM type campaigns.
So support for multi-channel ad placements across social
media, 3rd party business websites etc. should also be a
key consideration when choosing ABM tools.

In addition, ABM performance are amplified when there is

access to 3rd party data, mainly intent data, that can be
used for better targeting. So data support is key too.

The larger the organisation, greater the integration

requirement as account data usually resides in multiple
silos. For ABM to be impactful data need to be
consolidated centrally and used for designing and
decision making.
3. The
Conclusion
 02
ABM is rewarding but time taking. You can't expect
results from your ABM Investments overnight simply
because there are far too many moving parts. From
culture to process to practice, several pieces have to
change and come together to be successful.
At the same time, it's not impossible and it doesn't have to be thought as a difficult
practice, with sufficient planning and by taking baby steps you can set your
organisations for success by adopting ABM.

ABM requires a mindset change and it should to be thought of as a long term play that
puts customer advocacy front and centre. It also is not a one time effort and needs
monitoring and tweaking until you get it right.

An important thing to be aware of ABM is that it is not a one style fit all. This means your
ABM program has to be specific to your company, Market, target accounts etc.

We hope you enjoyed reading the book as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
Please share your comments and feedback to contact@recotap.com..
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