The Only 3 ABM Strategies You'll Ever Need To Know

Few legal dramas stand in the same league as Suits, a Netflix TV series focused on the lives of lawyers at a fictional corporate law firm. One of the standout characters was Jessica Pearson, the managing partner of the law firm Pearson Hardman.

Her shrewd and strategic moves made her a successful leader – till rival Daniel Hardman showed up to usurp the role of managing partner. The way she approached each senior partner to secure votes for herself highlights an important marketing principle.

Instead of using a one-size-fits-all strategy, she tailors her approach to each senior partner’s unique interests, pain points and concerns. Knowing that Paul Porter was a golf enthusiast, she set him up to meet former World No. 1 golfer Fred Couples. She casually highlighted her impressive track record in litigation with one senior partner; and for another, she mentioned how the firm had increased the senior partner bonuses under her leadership.

Well, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) works the same way!

Instead of sending generic messages to everyone, you channel your inner Jessica Pearson and target businesses or individuals with highly personalized marketing campaigns that make them feel valued.

With an ABM strategy, you can address the unique needs, challenges and preferences of each potential client or account to build stronger, more meaningful relationships. Essentially, you plan your marketing strategies exclusively for that particular account. Yet, a question arises: can everyone adopt an ABM approach?

YES – but just like the concept of ABM, there is no one-size-fits-all ABM strategy.

This is why we decided to break down ABM into three key types to help marketers identify which approach can streamline their operations, cater to high-value accounts and push their lead-generation strategies in the right direction.

So, are you ready to focus on high-value leads and eliminate irrelevant prospects from your sales funnel? If you said, “Hell yeah!” then keep reading!

Why Does Account-Based Marketing Matter?

Well, in a nutshell, ABM is just a smarter way of marketing!

It is an approach to B2B marketing that increases the penetration rate for key accounts by promoting personalized interactions, messaging and offerings based on an in-depth understanding of the account.

A major advantage of an Account-Based Marketing technique is that the return on investment is significantly greater than traditional "mass" marketing techniques. Most marketers and B2B companies cast a wide net to reach as many potential prospects as possible. Yet, ABM lets marketers focus on a group of high-value accounts and tailor their marketing efforts to address their unique needs and challenges.

So, how should you approach ABM?

Well, read on and discover the only 3 ABM strategies you’ll need to choose from!

The Only 3 ABM Strategies You Need To Know

Understanding how to correctly leverage Account-based Marketing strategies is imperative to convert high-value prospects into customers. While ABM can be implemented easily by businesses of all sizes, there is a prerequisite for identifying which ABM approach best aligns with your B2B marketing needs, right?

This entails understanding your target audience, evaluating the skills of your sales and marketing teams, assessing your marketing technology stack, fixing a marketing budget and aligning marketing outcomes with your overall business goals. Sounds challenging?

We bet by the end of this blog you’ll have a crystal-clear idea of which ABM strategy to adopt for best results.

With that in mind, here are the only 3 ABM strategies you need to know to succeed:

#1: Strategic ABM

TechDogs-"An Image Describing Strategic ABM As The King Of Personalized ABM Campaigns"

Let’s start with the simplest one: Strategic Account-Based Marketing. This refers to a marketing approach that unifies sales and marketing efforts to deliver highly customized ABM campaigns that are tailored to specific high-value accounts.

The goal is to provide your most valuable accounts with a unique, tailor-made experience that fits their exact wants and needs. Hence, Strategic Account-Based Marketing can be considered the most customized form of ABM. It is highly effective at nurturing strong relationships with individual clients to drive increased revenue and loyalty.

The most common techniques in Strategic ABM include personalized account-specific content, multi-touch marketing campaigns, unified sales and marketing efforts and in-depth account research. This approach leads to deep connections with target accounts, boosting the customer lifetime value and account engagement. With a focus on high-value accounts, it also achieves higher returns on investment than mass marketing.

However, as this approach requires seamless collaboration between sales and marketing teams, it entails meticulous account research and planning. On the other hand, the lead quality provided by Strategic ABM compensates for the intensive effort, making it a popular approach for many marketing organizations today.

Quick Takeaways:

One-to-One tactics like personalized videos, direct messages and in-person visits.
Highly-personalized marketing approach
In-depth account knowledge and planning required
Preferred for <50 high-value accounts

#2: ABM Lite

TechDogs-"An Image Describing ABM Lite As The King Of Balanced ABM Strategies"

The next strategy you must know is Account-Based Marketing Lite, or ABM Lite. This ABM approach targets a broader range of key accounts with similar traits, allowing marketers to develop semi-customized campaigns. ABM Lite campaigns address shared pain points, challenges or preferences of a select group of high-value accounts.

The goal of ABM Lite is to allow marketers to deliver marketing experiences that are not fully customized but still make an impact by focusing on a cluster of similar accounts. By grouping accounts based on industry niche, growth challenges or company size, ABM Lite offers a cost-effective approach that balances personalization with scalability. Hence, this Account-Based Marketing approach is a cost-efficient way to address the needs of a larger group than Strategic ABM does, while still providing tailored interactions.

The most effective tactics to target accounts with shared characteristics include using automated email campaigns, leveraging semi-customized messaging, monitoring social media engagement as well as deploying content marketing tailored to each group of accounts. This ensures marketing resources are allocated effectively to each group of accounts, leading to better lead nurturing, personalization and conversion rates.

Yet, ABM Lite has its own set of complexities, primarily finding the right balance between personalizing the message and scaling up clusters. Furthermore, grouping key accounts together demands in-depth knowledge of the target market and expertise to identify the common issues among your key accounts.

Quick Takeaways:

Balance between personalization and scale using industry-specific content, cluster-based messaging, social media monitoring, automated emails, etc.
Semi-personalized marketing approach
In-depth account knowledge needed for clustering similar accounts
Preferred for <100 similar high-value accounts

#3: Programmatic ABM

TechDogs-"An Image Describing Programmatic ABM As The King Of High-volume ABM Campaigns"

Lastly, we have Programmatic Account-Based Marketing (ABM). This is a data-driven approach to ABM that relies on data analytics and automation to identify, target and convert high-value accounts at scale. This ABM strategy leverages the principles of programmatic advertising (the concept of automating digital ads) to deliver personalized content and interactions to a wide range of diverse accounts.

The goal of Programmatic ABM is to scale ABM efforts using programmatic technologies, such as marketing automation and AI. By deploying cutting-edge tools to automate and optimize Account-Based Marketing campaigns, marketers can target very large audiences while maintaining a degree of customization.

Programmatic ABM relies on data analysis and real-time performance tracking to drive informed decision-making. The most effective tactic for this ABM approach is cross-channel campaign orchestration that spans emails, social media, digital advertising, etc. to create a scalable yet tailored experience for hundreds of target accounts.

Other key techniques include using automated ad targeting, dynamic website content, data-driven customer analysis, cross-channel marketing and AI-driven predictive lead scoring.

While Programmatic ABM boasts data-driven precision and personalization at scale, its conversion rate and ROI are unpredictable. Additionally, a significant amount of effort and oversight is necessary to ensure the expensive programmatic tools are leveraged properly.

Quick Takeaways:

Combines data-driven insights with personalization at scale via automated ads, social listening, cross-channel orchestration, etc.
Personalized marketing approach
High initial investment and expertise needed for programmatic tools
Preferred for 100-1000 high-value accounts

Conclusion

Choosing an ABM strategy doesn’t have to feel overwhelming!

To get started, evaluate your marketing and sales teams’ alignment, quality of marketing resources, size of target accounts, marketing technology stack and overall B2B marketing strategy. We hope that, armed with these insights, you’ll be fully equipped for success no matter which ABM approach you go for!

Remember, no two organizations are the same. So, your Account-Based Marketing approach should be uniquely tailored to meet your needs, limitations and preferences.

Whether it’s Strategic ABM, ABM Lite or Programmatic ABM, adopting the most suitable approach will surely lead you to ABM – and by that we mean, Achievement of Breakthrough Marketing!

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ABM Strategy ABM Account-based Marketing ABM Implementation ABM Strategy Implementation

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