14 Benefits Of Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing (ABM) is making a comeback. With its personalized approach and attention to detail, consumers are benefiting from messages that are tailored just for them. As much as 70% of a B2B marketer’s budget went to ABM in 2016, and this number is expected to grow exponentially this year, according to research conducted by SiriusDecisions.

With ABM anticipated to be a major part of many companies’ marketing strategies this year, several members of Forbes Agency Council weighed in on the advantages of using this marketing approach.

All photos courtesy of individual Forbes Agency Council members.

Account-based marketing, or ABM, is growing in popularity. 

1. Improved Customer Acquisition Process

ABM is a shiny, new name for an age-old practice: personalization and nurturing of key customers and prospects. ABM lets marketing teams eliminate the poor leads that go nowhere and frustrate their sales colleagues. It also shines a greater spotlight on the process of customer acquisition, making marketing teams stronger in the long run. - Cathy Atkins, Metis Communications

2. An Opportunity To Get Personal

ABM gives marketers the opportunity to create more personalized messaging for specific groups of individuals, as opposed to creating blanket messaging for a large population. When approaching a specific account, it's important to spend as much time and effort creating relevant content which provides value for your prospective customer. - Chris Carter, Rep Interactive

3. Faster Sales Process

Multiple stakeholders are involved in making a final purchase decision. This can often slow down your typical sales and marketing process, but account based marketing allows you to leverage it. ABM is unique in that it gives you the opportunity to specifically nurture your primary decision maker, along with all relevant prospects, in order to facilitate and expedite the sales process. - Caleb Edwards, GreenHouse Agency

4. Clearer Path To ROI

ABM is precise, targeted, personalized and measurable. It provides the highest ROI among B2B marketing tactics and strategies while providing less waste and risk. The approach makes it easier to align sales with marketing for consistent marketing that grows accounts. - Daniel B. Laws, Jr, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC

5. Cost Efficiency

Marketing directly to accounts your business has targeted as prospects can be extremely cost-efficient. This is particularly true if you are using some of the newer social platforms' tools that enable targeting to specific companies or organizations. For those businesses that know precisely who their most attractive targets are, ABM makes a tremendous amount of sense from a budget perspective. - Diana Wolff, LRG Marketing

6. Efficient Use Of Marketing Resources

ABM structures your marketing efforts on key accounts to drive the most revenue. With such a narrow focus, these initiatives optimize your most valuable resources: time and money. By integrating your sales and marketing efforts, you can focus your marketing team on working directly with sales to target and develop content for key accounts and build a successful communication channel with sales. - Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions

7. Shorter Sales Cycles

Through the use of account-based marketing, companies can enjoy a shorter sales cycle. By eliminating unqualified prospects early in the game, company-wide resources are preserved. Sales and marketing teams can focus their energies solely on the accounts that are most likely to convert and provide more specialized/personalized services to those prospects and accounts. - Goran Paunovic, ArtVersion Interactive Agency

8. Sales-Marketing Effort Synchronization

Account-based marketing provides for a more targeted and purposeful marketing initiative directly aligned with those of sales. In doing so, both departments keep the other accountable on their specific goals while identifying purpose-driven activities that directly address the unique needs of each account. This is an effective way to ensure that both time and dollars are spent wisely. - Ilissa Miller, IMiller Public Relations

9. Trust-Based Relationships

While clients are looking online for answers to solve a problem or reach a goal, ABM allows you to actively communicate how you can help them by providing quality information online via blogs, whitepapers, videos and social media. Clients are drawn to you for answers and when they find them, they learn to trust you. Once trust is built, a relationship is formed, and this, in turn, leads to sales. - Jessika Phillips, NOW Marketing Group, Inc.

10. Greater Opportunity To Be The Expert

ABM challenges you to think on a more personalized level and get to know your audience, rather than have a broad understanding of a market. By familiarizing yourself with a set audience and their intent, as well as conversion behaviors, you’re building an expertise that may not have existed otherwise. - Preethy Vaidyanathan, Tapad

11. A Way To Stand Out From The Crowd

Viewing each account as a user group of one enables extensive customization of a marketing approach. This customization enables any company selling a commoditized product or service to differentiate their work in a manner that can't be mimicked by competitors. ABM enables companies to create a direct dialogue around an offer that inherently excludes the rest of the selling competition. - Robbie Wright, Wellington Group Marketing & PR

12. Better Reporting

Although account-based marketing costs more to implement, the main advantage of using ABM is that there are far fewer metrics you’re keeping track of. This makes goal setting and analyzing reports a breeze in comparison to looking at a larger set of data pulling from all different types of accounts. ABM is the way to go when you’re sure of your target audience. - Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS

13. Data-Driven Decisions To Align Sales And Marketing

There’s a lot to like about account-based marketing; it improves communication between sales and marketing teams. Marketing traditionally plays a numbers game while sales just wants a handful of qualified leads they believe will close. ABM provides the framework for sales and marketing to shorten sales cycles and maximize upsell/cross-selling opportunities by identifying key B2B stakeholders. - Jody Resnick, Trighton Interactive

14. The Right Target, The Right Leads

ABM is a revolutionary marketing methodology with a focus on scoring the right leads as opposed to many leads. Why spend half of your team's energy on low-level, low-profit clients, when even one deal with the right kind of lead can account for half your revenue? ABM targets only the accounts most likely to close, therefore the right leads generate more revenue that hundreds of the wrong leads combined. - Tami Joy Schlichter, Ajax Union

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Account-based marketing (ABM) is making a comeback. With its personalized approach and attention to detail, consumers are benefiting from messages that are tailored just for them. As much as 70% of a B2B marketer’s budget went to ABM in 2016, and this number is expected to grow exponentially this year, according to research conducted by SiriusDecisions.

With ABM anticipated to be a major part of many companies’ marketing strategies this year, several members of Forbes Agency Council weighed in on the advantages of using this marketing approach.

All photos courtesy of individual Forbes Agency Council members.

Account-based marketing, or ABM, is growing in popularity. 

1. Improved Customer Acquisition Process

ABM is a shiny, new name for an age-old practice: personalization and nurturing of key customers and prospects. ABM lets marketing teams eliminate the poor leads that go nowhere and frustrate their sales colleagues. It also shines a greater spotlight on the process of customer acquisition, making marketing teams stronger in the long run. - Cathy Atkins, Metis Communications

2. An Opportunity To Get Personal

ABM gives marketers the opportunity to create more personalized messaging for specific groups of individuals, as opposed to creating blanket messaging for a large population. When approaching a specific account, it's important to spend as much time and effort creating relevant content which provides value for your prospective customer. - Chris Carter, Rep Interactive

3. Faster Sales Process

Multiple stakeholders are involved in making a final purchase decision. This can often slow down your typical sales and marketing process, but account based marketing allows you to leverage it. ABM is unique in that it gives you the opportunity to specifically nurture your primary decision maker, along with all relevant prospects, in order to facilitate and expedite the sales process. - Caleb Edwards, GreenHouse Agency

4. Clearer Path To ROI

ABM is precise, targeted, personalized and measurable. It provides the highest ROI among B2B marketing tactics and strategies while providing less waste and risk. The approach makes it easier to align sales with marketing for consistent marketing that grows accounts. - Daniel B. Laws, Jr, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC

5. Cost Efficiency

Marketing directly to accounts your business has targeted as prospects can be extremely cost-efficient. This is particularly true if you are using some of the newer social platforms' tools that enable targeting to specific companies or organizations. For those businesses that know precisely who their most attractive targets are, ABM makes a tremendous amount of sense from a budget perspective. - Diana Wolff, LRG Marketing

6. Efficient Use Of Marketing Resources

ABM structures your marketing efforts on key accounts to drive the most revenue. With such a narrow focus, these initiatives optimize your most valuable resources: time and money. By integrating your sales and marketing efforts, you can focus your marketing team on working directly with sales to target and develop content for key accounts and build a successful communication channel with sales. - Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions

7. Shorter Sales Cycles

Through the use of account-based marketing, companies can enjoy a shorter sales cycle. By eliminating unqualified prospects early in the game, company-wide resources are preserved. Sales and marketing teams can focus their energies solely on the accounts that are most likely to convert and provide more specialized/personalized services to those prospects and accounts. - Goran Paunovic, ArtVersion Interactive Agency

8. Sales-Marketing Effort Synchronization

Account-based marketing provides for a more targeted and purposeful marketing initiative directly aligned with those of sales. In doing so, both departments keep the other accountable on their specific goals while identifying purpose-driven activities that directly address the unique needs of each account. This is an effective way to ensure that both time and dollars are spent wisely. - Ilissa Miller, IMiller Public Relations

9. Trust-Based Relationships

While clients are looking online for answers to solve a problem or reach a goal, ABM allows you to actively communicate how you can help them by providing quality information online via blogs, whitepapers, videos and social media. Clients are drawn to you for answers and when they find them, they learn to trust you. Once trust is built, a relationship is formed, and this, in turn, leads to sales. - Jessika Phillips, NOW Marketing Group, Inc.

10. Greater Opportunity To Be The Expert

ABM challenges you to think on a more personalized level and get to know your audience, rather than have a broad understanding of a market. By familiarizing yourself with a set audience and their intent, as well as conversion behaviors, you’re building an expertise that may not have existed otherwise. - Preethy Vaidyanathan, Tapad

11. A Way To Stand Out From The Crowd

Viewing each account as a user group of one enables extensive customization of a marketing approach. This customization enables any company selling a commoditized product or service to differentiate their work in a manner that can't be mimicked by competitors. ABM enables companies to create a direct dialogue around an offer that inherently excludes the rest of the selling competition. - Robbie Wright, Wellington Group Marketing & PR

12. Better Reporting

Although account-based marketing costs more to implement, the main advantage of using ABM is that there are far fewer metrics you’re keeping track of. This makes goal setting and analyzing reports a breeze in comparison to looking at a larger set of data pulling from all different types of accounts. ABM is the way to go when you’re sure of your target audience. - Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS

13. Data-Driven Decisions To Align Sales And Marketing

There’s a lot to like about account-based marketing; it improves communication between sales and marketing teams. Marketing traditionally plays a numbers game while sales just wants a handful of qualified leads they believe will close. ABM provides the framework for sales and marketing to shorten sales cycles and maximize upsell/cross-selling opportunities by identifying key B2B stakeholders. - Jody Resnick, Trighton Interactive

14. The Right Target, The Right Leads

ABM is a revolutionary marketing methodology with a focus on scoring the right leads as opposed to many leads. Why spend half of your team's energy on low-level, low-profit clients, when even one deal with the right kind of lead can account for half your revenue? ABM targets only the accounts most likely to close, therefore the right leads generate more revenue that hundreds of the wrong leads combined. - Tami Joy Schlichter, Ajax Union

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/09/25/14-benefits-of-account-based-marketing/