Want to make your ABM strategy stronger? Use video 

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a hyper-targeted approach to B2B marketing that focuses on key accounts rather than market segments. 

ABM of the past involved businesses selecting a small list of target prospective customers and catering much of their marketing and customer success resources to closing deals. But tactics often involved data scraping, expensive, experiential events for small groups, and cold sales outreach. These weren’t always effective.

Today, ABM is a more allied Sales-plus-Marketing approach to attracting customers. This is an important distinction as companies are moving away from the stereotype that B2B Sales and Marketing usually had a more antagonistic relationship. 

ABM—when executed well—helps both Marketing and Sales teams align on key target customers and win new business.

This guide unpacks what ABM is and how to leverage video in your account-based marketing campaigns—including personalized outreach, ABM videos, and more.

What is account-based marketing? 

To recap, account-based marketing (ABM) is a methodology in which an organization tailors its marketing efforts to target specific accounts rather than pursuing a more generalized approach.

With ABM, it’s essential to have a deep understanding of your ideal customer. This way, you can develop targeted campaigns more likely to resonate with the decision-makers at your target accounts.

“How does account-based marketing differ from traditional marketing,” you ask? 

With traditional marketing methods, the focus is typically on generating as many leads as possible. With ABM, the focus is on quality over quantity. That means that instead of trying to reach as many people as possible, you’re targeting key decision-makers within specific accounts more likely to convert.

It’s also important to note that ABM is a team effort. To be successful with ABM, Sales and Marketing need to be aligned in their actions and goals. 

This alignment is essential to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal: generating quality leads that convert into customers.

A day in the life of account-based marketers

On a day-to-day basis, here’s what account-based marketers do: 

• They create and target specific customer profiles. 
• From there, they develop personalized campaigns and content specifically for these target audiences and companies. 
• In collaboration with Sales, ABM teams publish and promote these campaign materials on various channels (depending on targeted accounts). 
• Lastly, they track, measure, and optimize campaign results to iterate on and refine and improve their ABM strategy over time. 

So…why prioritize account-based marketing? 

There are a few key reasons why ABM should be a priority at your company.

Firstly, by tailoring your marketing efforts specifically for each account, you can create custom content and experiences that are much more likely to resonate with your audience. As a result, you can build deeper relationships with your target accounts, close more deals, and increase retention. 

With ABM, you can focus your efforts on accounts that are more likely to convert, meaning a higher return on investment for your company.

Secondly, ABM aligns Sales and Marketing. With traditional marketing techniques, there can be a disconnect between what Sales wants and what Marketing is doing. But with ABM, both departments work towards closing deals with specific accounts. 

This alignment enables better communication and collaboration between Sales and Marketing, even for teams distributed around the globe.

Thirdly, today’s buyers—B2B and B2C—are more informed and sophisticated than ever. They’re not going to respond well to generic messages or one-size-fits-all campaigns. With ABM, you can tailor your message and approach to specific companies and individuals. This personalized approach is much more likely to resonate with today’s buyers and result in closed deals. 

Lastly, ABM is trackable, arguably more so than traditional marketing and advertising. Since ABM focuses on quality over quantity, you can measure the results of your efforts and determine whether or not they’re paying off. This level of transparency is critical to gaining buy-in from leadership, refining your approach, and winning more customers over time. 

The ABCs of ABM: Core elements of a winning ABM strategy 

With ABM, you treat each account as its own market.

To sustainably scale your business, you need an airtight account-based marketing (ABM) strategy. Here are the core elements to keep in mind if you’re thinking about developing an ABM strategy for your business.

1. Segmentation

The first step in developing an ABM strategy is identifying and segmenting your target accounts. To do this, you need to clearly understand your ideal customer profile (ICP). 

Your ICP should include both demographic information (e.g., job title, company size, location) and psychographic information (e.g., pain points, motivations, buying influences). 

To gather this data, you can conduct primary research through surveys and interviews with current and former customers. You can supplement your persona with secondary research from reliable sources like industry trade publications.

Once you have a solid grasp of your ideal company/customer profile, you can start manually developing a list of target accounts. You can also use market intelligence tools to generate a list of companies that match your criteria.

Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to segment your accounts into different personas. This will help you refine your messaging and ensure you’re targeting the right people within each account. For example, you might have a persona for decision-makers, one for influencers, and one for end users.

Tip: A recent study found that the more targeted your accounts are, the more budget your business is likely to allocate for your team. Consider this when planning for next year and looking for buy-in from your leadership team.

Bombora State of ABM 2022 Report

2. Personalized messaging and outreach

Once you’ve identified your target accounts and personas, the next step is to develop personalized messaging and content for each one. Remember, with ABM, you’re treating each account as its own market, so it’s important to tailor your content accordingly. 

If you try to use the same generic messaging and content for all your target accounts, you won’t get the results you want. You need to create customized messages relevant to each account on your list. This can be a challenge and heavy lift across teams, but it’s well worth the effort—personalized messages produce significantly higher response rates than generic messages.

It’s also important to align your go-to-market (GTM) strategy with your ABM strategy. This includes personalized messaging and using the right mix of channels to reach your buyers where they’re already spending their time online. For example, LinkedIn would be a good channel to focus on if you’re targeting senior executives at large enterprises. 

Personalized messages help you build relationships with your target accounts. In today’s world, people do business with people they know, like, and trust. By sending personalized messages on relevant channels, you can build those relationships with your target accounts, making them more likely to do business with you when they’re ready to make a purchase. 

3. Alignment between marketing and sales

Another important element of a successful ABM strategy is building cross-functional teams. This means creating teams that include members from different departments within your company, such as Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success. A recent study by Bombora found that businesses, on average, have five teams dedicated to ABM.

These teams aim to align everyone within the organization around the common goal of winning the business of your target accounts.

4. Customer lifecycle marketing

An important and often overlooked element of a winning ABM strategy is customer lifecycle marketing. This is about nurturing your relationships with key contacts at your target accounts. This can be done in several ways, such as sending personalized emails, giving them a call on their birthday, or sending over some helpful resources. Whatever you do, make sure you’re adding value and remaining top-of-mind.

Chances are, you’ll need more than one person at a target account to sell your product or service to just one person at a target account. You’ll most likely need to engage multiple organizational stakeholders to move a deal forward. This is why creating targeted content can be used at various points in the buyer’s journey and customer lifecycle is important. 

By having a mix of top-of-the-funnel (TOFU), middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU), and bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content available, you’ll be able to engage prospects at every stage of the sales process — and post-purchase.

5. ABM software 

One of the most important aspects of any ABM strategy is having the right software in place. ABM software helps B2B marketers manage and automate their account-based marketing activities. Popular platforms include HubSpot Sales, Terminus, Pardot, and Marketo.

ABM software can help you track and measure account engagement, a key metric in any ABM program (as we’ll discuss next). You can adjust your ABM strategy accordingly by understanding which accounts are engaging with your brand and how. This leads to improved account engagement over time, which can result in more closed deals and increased revenue.

ABM software can also help you automate repetitive tasks so that you can focus on more strategic ABM tactics. Automation can also help you execute targeted campaigns more effectively by ensuring that all the right contacts receive the right messages at the right time. This makes your ABM program more efficient and cost-effective over time.

Finally, ABM software can help you improve your overall return on investment (ROI). You can ultimately drive more revenue for your business by improving account engagement and campaign effectiveness. This means that your ABM program will have a higher ROI, which is good for your bottom line. 

6. Performance measurement

Last but not least, you need to measure your results. As with any other marketing initiative, it’s essential to track the progress of your ABM campaigns. To do this effectively, identify and monitor the data that tells you how every touchpoint in your campaign performed with each decision-maker within each target account.

You can get a good sense of whether or not your ABM strategy is working for your business by tracking key metrics such as:

• Website traffic from targeted accounts
• The conversion rate from MQL to SQL
• The number of meetings set by Sales
• The number of new opportunities created
• Deal size
• Customer lifetime value (CLV)

What not to do in your account-based marketing strategy

We’ve discussed some core elements of a successful ABM strategy. Now, we’ll unpack a handful of ABM mistakes to avoid as you get started.

Don’t employ scary, spammy ABM tactics 

Spammy ABM tactics like buying data for cold calls and cold emails are surefire ways to fail at account-based marketing. If your cold outreach isn’t personalized or doesn’t demonstrate value (e.g., providing helpful content or event invitations), it’s unlikely your recipients will reply or book a meeting. 

Studies show that cold outreach can work…if done correctly. If you choose to do cold outreach as part of your ABM strategy, encourage your team to follow best practices:

• Identify themselves—79% of unidentified calls go unanswered
• Use “we” statements—Successful cold calls include 65% more “we” statements
• Personalize the content to each recipient—57% of C-level buyers prefer to be contacted by phone

Don’t rely heavily on scraped data 

Account-based marketers need data to build their ideal customer or company profiles. But relying on purchased or scraped data can result in ill-informed ICPs. Moreover, it can lead to your team contacting prospects without their consent, which is bad for brand image and can cause prospects to unsubscribe or report your messages as spam.

We recommend crafting your ICPs through primary research like surveys and customer interviews. If you need, supplement your personas with secondary research from reliable sources like industry trade publications or tools like Sparktoro.

Don’t forget ROI 

Measuring the return on your ABM investment should be straightforward, especially if you focus on the abovementioned metrics and employ an ABM software to help.

While some ABM tactics (like events) can be more nebulous when measuring ROI, there’s no excuse for choosing these tactics when there’s no proof they’ll move the needle or close deals. 

Don’t make the mistake of hosting large, expensive experiential events or spending money on swag for “brand awareness” without determining how these investments tie back to your main KPIs and goals.

Don’t ignoring bad-fit accounts

Just because an account isn’t a good fit for your product or service doesn’t mean you should ignore it completely. Even if an account doesn’t result in a sale, there could be other benefits, such as publicity or valuable insights gained from interactions with them. 

The key is not to focus on short-term results and instead keep an eye on the long game of ABM.

How to customize ABM campaigns for your top-tier clients

While ABM can be very effective, it’s also important to remember that not all accounts are created equal. Your top-tier clients—the ones who represent the biggest revenue potential for your business—deserve special attention. 

When selecting the right accounts, it’s important to focus your efforts on a group of high-value accounts offering the greatest growth opportunity. 

Your top-tier clients are used to getting the best of the best, so your content and experiences must reflect that standard. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to break the bank—but it does mean taking the time to create high-quality, engaging content that will capture attention and deliver results. 

Here are a few ways to customize your ABM campaigns for your top-tier clients. (Hint: They include video!)

Account-based marketing videos 

Account-based marketing videos tell your brand’s story in a relatable and engaging way—more so than a text-based marketing message. Video is an excellent way to showcase your product or service in action and give potential customers a better sense of its features and benefits.

Moreover, an account-based marketing video is highly shareable, making it easier for its recipient to share it with their colleagues and managers. 

What do these look like in practice? When you’re first trying to break into a new account, it can be helpful to introduce your team with a short video. This gives the decision-makers at the company a chance to put a face to a name and begin building a relationship with your team. 

Your video doesn’t need to be fancy—a quick tour of your office and introductions from each team member will suffice. Just make sure it’s clear, professional, and highlights why your team is the best possible choice for the account.

Alternatively, you might create a series of short “explainer” videos showing what your product or service looks like in action. Another great option is to create customer testimonial videos that showcase the success others have had with your company. These videos can be particularly helpful in late-stage ABM processes when trying to close deals with key accounts. 

Personalized screen recordings 

Today’s sales teams often sell remotely, which can be difficult when attempting to demonstrate a digital product. Screen recordings mitigate this gap, but generalized recordings and demos won’t always grab a buyer’s attention.

Increase both engagement and sales by creating personalized screen recordings. Instead of sending a customer-agnostic recording, take the time to record a tailored product demo with your ICP’s pain points and company information in mind. 

Watching a custom recording is an easy way to delight your prospect. By increasing the end user’s experience, you build trust and increase the likelihood of them moving further down the funnel.

Video campaigns via email 

Use account-based marketing videos in your email nurture campaigns. Rather than sending yet another generic “Look what we can do for you!” message, try personalizing your emails with a short video relevant to the recipient’s needs. 

Videos that highlight the pain points of your target company and explain exactly how your product or services solve prospective customers’ problems will resonate more deeply.

This will help you stand out from the competition and show that you’re willing to go the extra mile to provide value. High-quality video campaigns via email can move prospects further down the funnel and encourage them to book time with your sales team.

Virtual events 

Today’s buyers are different—they do business with people they know, like, and trust. One way to build camaraderie and trust with your target accounts is through curated virtual events. An example of this is a virtual VIP workshop or experience for executives. 

Avoid creating cookie-cutter experiences for your top clients—take the time to get to know their specific needs and pain points so you can develop tailored virtual events that provide relevant solutions and networking connections. 

By putting in the extra effort upfront, you’ll be able to position yourself as a trusted partner who’s invested in helping their business succeed long term. 

Churn-reducing programs

ABM doesn’t stop after you make the sale. Considering your ICPs are your “perfect” customers, it’s wise to continue to engage them after purchase. 

Encourage Customer Success to touch base with your target accounts quarterly or bi-annually to confirm their experience is positive. Open feedback loops to gain valuable input and understand how they use the product. You can even request they participate in beta testing groups for new features or consulting-type roles with your Product team.

Treating your target accounts as valuable customers can decrease churn and increase retention and customer LTV.

Closing ideas 

A successful account-based marketing approach requires careful planning and execution across multiple dimensions and teams. 

By taking the time to understand your ideal customer and developing targeted campaigns and custom video content, you can build deeper relationships and close more deals. 

And since ABM is trackable, you can always measure the results of your efforts and map back new customers to your custom, creative marketing efforts.

Explore what video can do for your next ABM campaign.