Who’s your dream client? What if you could directly market your services to that one client, instead of grouping them in with all the other prospective clients you’re trying to attract? That’s the goal of account based marketing (ABM). It’s a hyper-focused way of targeting high-value clients. ABM is often described as, “fishing with a spear instead of a wide net.” This strategy has become increasingly popular over the last decade, and it might be the right fit for your firm too.

What Is Account Based Marketing

Account based marketing is one alternative to a demand generation strategy. With demand generation, we’re trying to reach a wide audience of possible leads and then gradually converting some of those leads into clients—again, fishing with a wide net. Some of the clients you “catch” with that net will be a great fit for you. Others won’t have the budget for your services or ultimately won’t proceed with you for various reasons. 

Account based marketing starts with identifying the handful of accounts that you most want to secure, then focusing all your marketing efforts on those specific accounts. Instead of crafting a message that might appeal to hundreds of potential clients, account based marketing lets you tailor your message to a group of decision makers at one specific firm. 

Here’s an example of how this might work. Imagine a suburban neighborhood, where a budding young entrepreneur decides to start a leaf raking business. He’ll charge by the minute, so he’ll make the most money raking really leafy yards. 

With a demand generation strategy, he would target a large group of potential customers. He might print out hundreds of fliers and take a few hours to deliver them to every home in a five-block radius. A lot of those houses won’t have any need for his services, and his flier will go right in the trash.

With an account based marketing strategy, he would focus his resources on specific target clients. Maybe he would wait until after a windy storm, then walk around with his rake and knock on doors of houses with the leafiest yards to make a personal pitch. (In 2021, this would probably actually happen over the Internet and with a parent’s close supervision, but you get the idea.) By identifying the houses that are most likely to hire him and be lucrative, he doesn’t waste time marketing his services to people who were never going to use them.  

This strategy can require a lot of upfront research and in-house collaboration, since it only works if you target accounts that might actually buy your services. Account based marketing generally requires a joint approach by a firm’s marketing and sales teams to identify the appropriate accounts and then craft the plans that will (hopefully) convert those prospective clients into real clients. 

Why Consider Account Based Marketing

• ABM has the potential for high ROI. In 2018, ITSMA (the marketing association that first coined the term “account based marketing” back in 2003) surveyed hundreds of member organizations that had enacted ABM programs. Seventy-seven percent of respondents had seen at least a 10 percent return on investment from using ABM compared to more traditional marketing strategies. Nearly half of respondents said that ROI had more than doubled from using this strategy. 

• ABM maximizes your resources. Think again of the neighborhood entrepreneur who spends his limited money and time printing and delivering all those fliers to those hundreds of houses. Every firm, no matter its size, has limited resources. Account based marketing can be used to streamline resource allocation so you’re putting all of your money and effort into high-paying accounts that you know you have a good shot of winning. 

• ABM considers all of an account’s decision makers. More often than not, the decision to move forward with a product or service is made with the input of more than one person within an organization. Because it’s focused on individual businesses, an account based marketing strategy can be tailored to the specific people who have the power to say yes. The initial research phase should yield a list of names and titles, which allows you to customize your approach to appeal to those people directly. You’ll know exactly who you need to impress and can use your network to find out how to do that. If your research reveals the CEO, marketing director and office manager are all part of the decision making process, your account based marketing strategy will include unique messaging and delivery for each of those people within your target organization. 

• Clients appreciate an efficient and personalized experience. Your prospective clients are busy, and they’ve heard a lot of marketing pitches before. An account based marketing strategy can cut through that noise. Personalizing your pitch lets you speak to the client’s specific needs and pain points. You’ll still need to ask a ton of questions, but doing a lot of research in advance means a prospective client won’t have to do all the heavy lifting during that first meeting. 

• ABM provides more insights into your most valued targets. Every account you target acts as a case study that can inform your marketing campaigns going forward. By drilling down on how one high-value account functions and what it takes to earn that business, you may glean a lot about how best to approach other businesses in the same space.

So does account based marketing make sense for you? Maybe, maybe not. ABM isn’t the right strategy for every firm. Let’s talk about what this would look for your firm, and whether it’s something that could help you reach your goals. Contact me today!