A Practical Breakdown of Account-Based Marketing Strategies and Tools

Account-Based Marketing (or ABM) at its core is a tight alignment between sales and marketing in order to make sure both teams are targeting the same accounts with their efforts. It's a prominent strategy in B2B sales and marketing, especially if you are selling high-value goods or services to big accounts - those who are in mid-market or enterprise.

The idea is that by concentrating on a select few accounts instead of casting a broad net, the buying experience can be personalized, leading to shorter sales cycles. In addition, there's the benefit of wasting fewer resources, as target accounts are typically selected based on who's more likely to buy or expand, which translates to a higher ROI. 

That said, a successful ABM strategy is typically fairly expensive, because it requires specialized tooling to pull off at every step of the way.

The Three Types of Account-Based Marketing

Traditionally, ABM is categorized into three tiers, depending on the costs per account and the expected ROI. The further down we go, the more personalized the approach becomes based on the amount of tailored messaging and touchpoints required by your entire GTM team.

These are: