Account-based marketing strategies for your B2B sales cycle

Account-based marketing strategies are the coordinated tactics B2B teams use to win high-value target accounts with personalized content, sales outreach, and account-level measurement. They work best after you define your ABM campaign architecture, target accounts, and buying committee priorities.

For a definition-first introduction, start with our pillar guide to what an ABM campaign is. This article focuses on specific ABM strategies you can implement yourself.

What we’ll cover in this guide

• What goes into an account-based marketing strategy
• How ABM differs from traditional marketing strategies
• Account-based marketing tactics to increase B2B conversions
• A solution that should be a part of your ABM marketing strategy

Understanding account-based marketing

A lot goes into account-based marketing, which is why we maintain a definition-first guide to what an ABM campaign is. If you need a basic walkthrough before choosing tactics, start there. If you are ready to compare strategy options, keep reading.

Account-based marketing is all about customization, specificity, and a reverse funnel approach where you start with just one or a few key targets in mind before going broad. This kind of approach can mean everything from more efficient teams to increased revenue streams! So, what does an ABM strategy look like?

What goes into account-based marketing (ABM) strategy?

Account-based marketing strategies should focus on some of the key pillars of ABM, including:

• Identifying and researching key accounts: Develop a plan of attack for finding and learning about your targets. This can include things like creating an ICP, marketplace analysis, and more.
• Developing personalized marketing content: Customization is key with ABM strategies, so you’ll want to create content experiences that speak to your target accounts. Don’t worry if broader audiences won’t be interested—the point is to focus solely on your targets!
• Alignment of sales and marketing teams: Communication between your teams is crucial to overall success. You’ll need to plan how your teams will share important information and how leadership can facilitate a more collaborative environment.
• Analyzing results and refining strategies: ABM strategies can help you collect a lot of information, so having systems in place to help you organize and analyze it is important. You’ll need to dedicate time to understanding this data in the wider context of your business so you can learn how to proceed.

It might seem a bit overwhelming, but there are steps you can take to get started, like having a great content-creation and analysis platform like Zoomforth for your teams to use.

If your ABM strategy depends on personalized content for named accounts, Zoomforth lets teams build secure account microsites that sales can update, share, and measure. Explore Zoomforth for ABM or request a demo.

ABM vs. traditional marketing strategy

Account-based marketing techniques aren’t necessarily meant to replace traditional marketing, but there are key differences between the two that you need to understand. Let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest ones.

Audience targeting

Traditional marketing uses the typical sales funnel, where the idea is to reach as many of the people in your targeted segment as possible. Account-based marketing inverts the funnel, reaching out to a more specific target that can be as small as a single person or company.

Communication style

With traditional marketing, the style of communication is all about cutting through the noise and capturing people’s attention long enough that they’ll absorb the message. It also tends to be completely one-sided: the company shares a message, and the target takes it in. ABM marketers however, aim to create customized content for their targets in order to promote an open dialogue.

Measurement of success

Traditional marketing looks at stats such as reach, impressions, and clicks. These metrics are focused on discerning how many people are interested from a larger group. ABM instead focuses on engagement, pipeline impact, and revenue generation. These metrics are focused on how specific accounts are interacting with your outreach.

Account-based marketing tactics to increase B2B conversions

With a deeper understanding of account-based marketing tactics and the way they differ from traditional marketing as well as the unique advantages they offer, it’s clear why they’re worth implementing. Now, it’s time to consider just how to get started. Take a look at a few of our thought-starters for some inspiration!

Personalize ABM content for every target account

ABM tactics require a lot of effort, but that effort won’t help much if you don’t customize your content, so why not go all-in? Making custom long-form content like blogs and case studies might feel like a no-brainer, but go a step or two further. You can also customize everything from email campaigns to landing pages and microsites to direct mail!

Remember: you’re not speaking “to the masses,” you’re speaking directly to targets you’ve researched whose concerns you understand. If you can dive headfirst into creating the content they really want to see, you’re giving yourself the best chance to stick in their minds.

Assign reps to one-to-one ABM outreach

One-to-one sales outreach is the most time-intensive and intense form of ABM. It means that for every one to five accounts, there’s a single dedicated rep handling them. It’s a strategy for the accounts with the highest potential ROI so you can give them the best and most customized experience possible. That means it’s crucial to directly assign which reps handle which accounts.

Doing so will give them the opportunity to deepen and enrich their relationships with the specific accounts they tackle. It also means the targets will be able to rely on a consistent line of communication with you and your brand, which can also help build up trust.

Make sure that when you select your sales reps, you’re taking into account their sales background, how their personality meshes with the target account, and other indicators of success.

Reach target accounts on the right social channels

While traditional marketing might blast all social media channels in the hopes of success, a great ABM strategy is to be a bit more thoughtful. Consider who your key targets are and look at their specific activity on social media. Where are they not only present but specifically active and engaged?

If you see what kinds of posts they typically engage with, make note of what they seem to have in common. Furthermore, don’t just use socials as a place to post your own content in the hopes they see it. It’s up to you to engage with them and their content as well. It’s another part of the way you can open up a dialogue between you and your targets.

Refine your ABM strategy with engagement data

Your ABM efforts have the potential to produce a wealth of data for you, and gathering data from multiple sources is a great way to get a more complete picture of their customers or target audiences. It also means the information you collect, if correctly organized and interpreted, can help you understand how to pivot, grow, and ultimately improve your results.

Just because you originally suspect your target will behave one way doesn’t mean they necessarily will! Take what you learn and put it to good use to move your overall campaign forward.

Make Zoomforth a part of your account-based marketing strategy

Microsite hosting, customized content experiences, and real-time data analytics are all parts of your strategy that Zoomforth can help you with! It’s a microsite creation and hosting platform that’s easy and user-friendly. Its interface makes building sites a breeze, and even better? Zoomforth’s microsites give you access to real-time analytics, meaning you can have prospect data right at your fingertips.

The right sales enablement tools amplify every ABM tactic — from tracking which named accounts engage with your microsites to automating follow-up based on buyer behavior.

If you’re interested in implementing account-based marketing or learning more about the ways microsites can boost your marketing strategy, check out what Zoomforth can offer your company or request a demo today!