How to Use Account Based Marketing to Win High-Value Deals

Account-based marketing (ABM) allows you to focus your sales and marketing efforts on a small number of high-value prospects and boost your ROI.

This leads to increased business growth, with 74% of account-based marketing programs reporting revenue growth, according to a 2023 benchmark study by Momentum ITSMA. 

Learn how you can use account-based marketing strategies to zero in on your most valuable clients, personalize at scale with video marketing tools, and increase your revenue—without spreading yourself thin.

Similar to account-based sales, account-based marketing is a strategy that focuses on targeting and engaging a specific group of high-value customer accounts rather than casting a wide net with your marketing efforts. 

Because it’s a targeted approach, ABM requires you to personalize your marketing campaigns. ABM differs from traditional lead generation strategies in several ways:

Targets: 

• ABM targets high-value key accounts

• Traditional lead generation targets a variety of potential clients

Personalization:

• ABM uses data to tailor campaigns to each account

• Traditional lead generation crafts more generalized messaging to target a wider audience

Quality vs. Quantity: 

• ABM prioritizes high-quality leads

• Traditional lead generation tries to gather a larger quantity of leads

Strategy:

• ABM is more proactive and focused

• Traditional lead generation tends to be more reactive and passive

Because of its narrow focus, ABM can be an effective way for small businesses with a defined set of high-value target accounts and a longer sales cycle to increase sales revenue.

Along with improved ROI, many ABM programs report benefits like:

1. Personalization at scale

The holy grail of marketing, personalization can increase your success rate—but it often demands lots of resources. How can you possibly tailor your campaigns to the right accounts without overloading your team?

An ABM approach focuses on your most promising clients. This lets you deliver a personalized approach to a few rather than many. Now your marketing team is less overwhelmed and has more resources and data to craft engaging content for these target accounts.

2. Increased ROI

Thanks to a focus on accounts that are more likely to convert, ABM programs are known to improve your ROI across a number of objectives. A 2022 Gartner survey found that ABM programs improved the following five areas the most:

1. Account engagement (28%)

2. Marketing qualified lead (MQL) to sales accepted lead (SAL) conversion rates (25%)

3. Pipeline opportunity value (23%)

4. MQLs (20%)

5. Ad click rates (20%)

Additionally, an ABM strategy that considers existing customers can positively impact your upsell and cross-sell rates.

3. Accelerated sales cycles

ABM speeds up your sales cycle by targeting decision-makers with personalized content earlier in the sales process. This focused approach offers a few solid benefits:

• Reduces time wasted on unqualified leads

• Uses data to nail your sales cadence and deliver the right message to the right people at the right time

• Engages prospects with consistent messages across multiple marketing channels

Aligned marketing and sales teams also contribute to this accelerated sales cycle. Alignment means less wasted time and content, better data analysis and lead identification, and smoother hand-offs.

4. Improved customer retention and experience

ABM replaces traditional one-size-fits-all strategies with a marketing approach focused on high-value target companies. This lets you become a true partner to your clients—resulting in compounding benefits.

Forrester’s 2024 State of Customer Obsession Survey found that customer-obsessed companies report a 43% increase in customer retention.

ABM’s focus on personalized experiences adds increased customer satisfaction and engagement to the list of benefits. McKinsey found that providing exceptional customer experiences resulted in up to 30% higher customer satisfaction and engagement and up to 25% increased cross-sells.

5. Better sales and marketing alignment

The targeted approach used by ABM requires your sales and marketing teams to collaborate and align on goals, resource allocation, and processes. 

Without alignment, your marketing team may waste time creating content that your sales team doesn’t use. Or your sales team may spend resources trying to move a deal with an unqualified lead forward. A 2023 survey by Gartner found that a poor sales and marketing relationship mainly affects lead generation (44%) and sales cycle duration (37%).

Putting their heads together lets sales and marketing create more effective strategies for engaging customers across the entire buyer’s journey—even if market conditions or client needs change.

Here are five steps to create an ABM strategy that makes the most of your sales and marketing resources.

Step 1: Identify your target accounts

Identifying your target accounts lets you take your total addressable market (TAM) and narrow it down to the accounts that intend to buy and also fit your ideal customer profile (ICP).

Start by identifying your ICP, or the accounts you’d like to win, using firmographic data like:

• Company size

• Industry

• Revenue potential

Then, take a look at your TAM’s intent data to pinpoint accounts that are ready to buy. Accounts with intent to buy and accounts that match your ICP are where you should focus your ABM efforts. While assessing your target accounts, don’t overlook existing accounts that might be interested in cross-sell and up-sell conversations—especially those you acquired through inbound sales.

You should also try to rebalance your target accounts and ABM efforts over time. Forrester found that many small businesses need to widen their definition of a target account to attract new customers.

Step 2: Align your sales and marketing teams

Aligning sales and marketing departments is essential for creating cohesive campaigns covering the entire buyer’s journey. But, a majority of businesses (33%) rated their sales and marketing teams’ alignment as “fair,” highlighting a need for intervention.

Along with fostering effective communication in the workplace, you can encourage alignment through shared definitions and processes like these: 

• Shared ICP

• Unified target account list

• Aligned metrics and goals

• Lead scoring model

• Feedback loops

• Collaborative video marketing strategy

You should also equip both teams with sales tools like customer relationship management and data enrichment software. A study by the Revenue Marketing Alliance found that 78% of sales and marketing teams used integrated tools to improve their alignment.

Step 3: Create personalized messaging and content

Once sales and marketing are aligned, they should collaborate on content that’s personalized to each target account’s needs and pain points. This is where providing value can help your ABM efforts stand out. 

For example, Intercom used Loom to send prospecting videos that quickly showed its value to potential customers. Each video included a short message from a sales rep that highlighted the offer and how Intercom could uniquely benefit the prospect’s company. This boosted Intercom’s cold email reply rate by 19%.

Of course, personalization requires data. At a minimum, you need insights about each target account’s industry, challenges, and goals, plus who the key decision-makers are at each company. Social media listening can also uncover opportunities to reach out with a personalized message.

Step 4: Implement multi-channel outreach

An omnichannel approach reaches potential customers in the way they prefer to learn about new brands. McKinsey found that B2B customers use an even mix of traditional, remote, and self-service channels to inform purchase decisions, making it essential to include multiple touchpoints in your campaigns.

For businesses with limited resources, a multi-channel approach can easily tax your team. Start small and focus on a few key channels while maintaining a coordinated approach across sales and marketing. Consistent messaging across every channel reinforces your value to potential clients and improves brand awareness.

Step 5: Continuously optimize and iterate

Measuring success is the top challenge for 35% of ABM programs, according to a 2023 survey by Foundry. But tracking performance is important for strengthening future initiatives. 

Not sure what to measure besides revenue? ITSMA found that the top ABM metrics include:

• Pipeline growth

• Account engagement

• Account team satisfaction

• Win rate or deals closed

You can also assess the impact of your strategy by checking in with other teams. For example, review metrics with your customer success manager to understand how your ABM efforts impact customer lifetime value and churn rate.

Personalize your outreach and client communications with these five practices.

1. Send personalized video messages

Remove bottlenecks in your sales process with video messaging. Record customized videos that directly address decision-makers and express how your product or service meets their needs. 

This personalized approach works at any point during the buyer’s journey—and even strengthens existing customer relationships. Real-time survey software doopoll found that a personalized video message increased conversions from free to paid accounts by 2%.

Video doesn’t have to be a time-consuming part of your ABM strategy. Video marketing platforms like Loom let you quickly record and easily edit custom product demos, follow-ups, and sales presentations in just a few minutes. You don’t even need experience in video production to create professional-looking video content.

2. Build custom microsites and landing pages

Building landing pages or microsites is one way to create a digital experience that delivers value to high-value accounts. Personalize them with the company’s logo, relevant content, and custom recommendations, or take a simple approach by changing your website’s hero image based on the use case a visitor chooses.

3. Offer personalized product demos

Creating custom product demonstrations puts control back in the buyer’s hands, allowing them to review your product on their own time. Demos that focus on personalized education also speed up your sales cycle. 

Describe how your brand solves the target audience’s challenges and add opportunities to dive into additional educational content. Now, when they reach out to your sales team, they’re more likely to be ready to buy.

4. Tailor your email campaigns

Decision-makers at target accounts likely have the same problem we all do: overflowing email inboxes. A 2023 survey found that 79% of consumers ignore or delete emails from brands they love at least half the time. 

One way to stand out is by sending video emails. Email marketing software GetResponse found that average click-through and click-to-open rates skyrocketed when senders included video content. 

Use dynamic content variables and email triggers to further personalize your messaging and timing.

Personalize your Loom videos: Record a single Loom video and use variables to personalize the title for multiple recipients. 

5. Invite clients to co-create content

Collaborate with existing accounts that match your ICP to create content. This can include white papers, webinars, and case studies that demonstrate how your brand helped them solve their unique challenges.

This is likely because these types of content, especially when created with data and input from current clients, adds value and acts as a testimonial for your brand. Video testimonial app Vocal Video found that 88% of marketing teams saw about a 10% increase in conversions when their campaigns included testimonial videos. The Content Marketing Institute found that 53% of B2B marketers said case studies earned the best results, while white papers (51%) and research reports (43%) were also effective. 

Alongside CRMs, these video marketing software and data enrichment tools contribute to better team alignment and personalization.

• Loom screen recorder: Loom includes easy-to-use editing tools and personalization features for creating high-quality videos with custom messaging for target accounts. Loom AI automatically removes filler words and silences, plus it auto-embeds a CTA link into your videos. Loom also integrates with Salesforce and Zendesk.

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Ideal for B2B prospecting, this tool helps you identify, gather data on, and reach out to decision-makers at target accounts.

• Terminus: A full ABM suite, Terminus offers data insights on target accounts and multi-channel campaign analytics.

• HubSpot: A comprehensive CRM, HubSpot also offers ABM software with workflows for identifying ICPs and target accounts, a dashboard for viewing pipeline progress, and account-level targeting.

• Albacross: Albacross helps you identify B2B companies that visit your website and get insight into their purchase intent. Once you identify a new prospect, Albacross sends the info to your CRM.

• Insider: Automate your personalized, multi-channel ABM campaigns across social media, email, SMS, apps, and more. This marketing automation tool uses data and AI to predict customer behavior and personalize your content.

There are many more tools available to enhance your ABM strategy, but be cautious about tech bloat. Choose only the tools that work with your current tech stack and offer features that improve efficiency and impact.

Win more deals by using personalized communication strategies to connect with high-value accounts. Using tools like Loom lets you tailor your messaging for specific accounts and decision-makers, showing them the value your brand provides while also demonstrating how you can solve their unique challenges.

Loom videos are an engaging way to convey your value proposition, explain complex product or service features, and add a human touch that strengthens client relationships. Find out how Loom can improve your sales and account-based marketing efforts today.