ABM: Food 4 Thought An Introduction to Account Based Marketing

August 23, 2023 Stan

Are you familiar with the term ABM but not sure what it means? Then keep reading for this is a quick primer on Account Based Marketing (ABM). Let’s start with something familiar that we all know and love – food (you might want to grab a quick snack).

Food is more than sustenance. It’s central to our traditions and events. From Thanksgiving and street fairs to rites of passage including births and weddings, food is an experience as well as a basic need. There are myriad ways for when, how, and where we share food. Consider the two scenarios for eating meals below.

Food is served at the small neighborhood restaurant with a menu of “mom’s favorites” to entice hungry customers to come in. It offers a variety of appetizers and entrees, a children’s menu, and specialty desserts to appeal to those looking for a home-cooked meal. There is quiet jazz on the speakers and candles flickering on the tables. It is a meal wrapped in a positive, consistent experience.

The second meal example is a smaller more intimate gathering. A list is made of friends and family to invite, a shopping list is prepared and a backyard barbecue is planned. The food and activities are specific to who is coming and what they need:

For Paisley, the vegan neighbor, a big bowl of hummus with carrots and eggplant
For Wyatt, Riley, and Bodhi, the young nieces and nephews, a kiddie pool and chalk to keep them entertained
For Grandpa Shrivats, the storyteller, a chair saved for him under the shade of an umbrella with a bottomless glass of lemonade
For Malik and Noah, teen-age neighbor boys, two hamburgers each, plus a brat

What is ABM?

So let’s get to the meat of it. What is ABM and how does it fit into all of this food talk? ABM is generally used in B2B marketing. It starts with identifying high-value accounts or companies that are critical to the organization’s success. Using multiple touchpoints across channels provides a unique experience for the decision-makers of those accounts. ABM usually comes into play if there is a lengthy sales cycle and numerous decision-makers.

In food terms. The restaurant experience described earlier is akin to traditional demand generation marketing where the focus is driving a large number of leads to the sales team. Our restaurant is hoping to generate a large volume of foot traffic by offering a menu that entices individuals and satisfies their hunger.

With ABM the focus shifts to specific accounts. The objective becomes quality accounts over quantity of leads. The backyard barbeque is our ABM strategy. We invite a targeted list, of our family and friends, for a specific experience using our knowledge about them to create a meaningful event that deepens the existing relationship.

While ABM targets a smaller audience, the outcome of successful initiatives has been larger deals that are closer and faster.

Let’s Keep Eating Reading

While ABM strategy shifts the focus of your marketing strategy, at the end of the day you are still marketing to people and will continue to use traditional marketing and tactics. For example, keep the demand channels and programs that are working for you at the top of the funnel to continually bring in new leads. Continue to grow the pipeline – We are not insular, if Paisley brings a plus one, we welcome a new friend to the festivities. However, incorporating ABM requires a more targeted approach to engage those leads once they’ve entered the funnel.

ABM requires a deeper alignment between sales and marketing, a greater use of personalization, and a shift in focus for reporting.

Marketing and Sales Alignment

Like the process of developing personas for traditional marketing, ABM requires defining the characteristics of the best-fit organizations, or your Ideal Account Profile (IAP). From there you select the companies you wish to target and the decision-makers within those accounts. To be successful, marketing and sales must work closely together to define your Target Account List (TAL) and the individuals within those accounts.

And then build from there, where do we meet those individuals and what experiences do you deliver at each step of the journey? Remember, for the barbeque, once we knew who was coming, we selected the food and activities for the individuals.

Personalized Experiences

Personalization and customization are not unique to ABM, however, it is a critical tenant.

You don’t need to start with an empty canvas. Audit your existing content and infrastructure and build upon that. Identify the channels and messaging based on what you know about the accounts. Organizations often create ABM campaigns based on verticals or products, and then further personalize messaging based on specific titles or pain points. The content, images, and journey should reflect that you know who your target audience is, where they came from, and what they need.

Reporting Success and Incorporating Learnings

ABM as a successful marketing strategy should result in a shorter sales cycle and increased revenue, but the proof is in the pudding. Be sure to set up reporting that can prove your efforts and provide actionable metrics to gain insight into which channels are performing well and what needs to be adjusted, added, or eliminated.

Setting up successful reporting for ABM is no different than any other marketing program. You want to be able to share your wins with what is driving revenue from best-performing channels to understanding the effectiveness of individual campaigns.

Define reporting expectations early including who is responsible for what metrics and measurements, and what tools will be used. Be sure you can answer the questions related to your goals and the influence of the ABM tactics to determine success including:

What are your specific goals around metrics for engagement?
Can you measure engagement?
What are you measuring against? What are your benchmarks?
How will you know if you targeted the right accounts and people?
Did you shorten the sales cycle and increase revenue?
Did you influence the pipeline? How will you attribute closed deals for target audiences back to a specific marketing effort?

Soft Launch with a Pilot Program

Plan to pilot your ABM program before the global rollout. Pilots can be a critical method to set your program live. It can provide the emotional freedom needed to know you will make mistakes and take opportunities to improve. If you wait to execute until every “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed, you may get stuck grasping for perfection and never move forward. A pilot is for testing, learning, and improving.

Restaurants have a friends-and-family soft launch before they open the doors to the general public. I wouldn’t cook my very first burger for the neighborhood event. A new sales and marketing initiative is no different. Run a pilot program before you launch ABM.

Monitoring, measuring, and improving is a constant in any campaign and is required long after the pilot is over. For ABM, plan to review your target list yearly to add or remove accounts that no longer fit your ideal profile. Keep the campaign fresh to reflect the changes in the market, your audience, and the organization’s go-to-market strategies.

Turns out, nobody likes the pineapple topping on burgers, but the fried green tomatoes and avocado toppings – keep them coming.

Hungry for more information about ABM? Reach out, we’re here to help. You can also check out additional ABM blogs:

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