The 3 Things Top Account-Based Marketers are Doing Right in 2022

Account-based marketing has been picking up speed as a top tactic among B2B, enterprise, and SaaS businesses. And why not? The value is clear when you assess return on investment for ABM, as well as average deal value, and client retention. 

But how can you make ABM work for you?

There’s a lot to learn from high-performing ABM businesses and the things they are doing right to win bigger with account-based marketing. Here are 3 practices to emulate if you want a piece of the pie for your business:

1. They are focusing on key decision-makers.

Who you reach out to makes a huge difference to the success of your approach. Targeting high-value accounts is textbook ABM, but the nuances of initiating and closing those deals emerge in the contact collecting stage of strategic planning. 

It’s a common speed bump for marketers.

The top 3 challenges to ABM’s success, according to respondents to IDG Communication’s ABM Benchmarking Study included:

1. Prioritizing accounts
2. Creating a target account list 
3. Reaching and engaging target accounts

Prosperous ABM strategists are careful to use intent data to determine who is on the hunt for their software or service solutions. It pays off, too, because tech buyers are tired of doing the legwork during their time-consuming search for the right product, as reported by TrustRadius. 

Key decision-makers are looking for personalized buying guidance informed by their business’s background. They also expect you to clearly differentiate your offerings from competitors’ straight away, a feat more easily accomplished when you start conversations with knowledge of their pain points. 

So, who is making the tech buying decisions for your target accounts?

It depends.

In their Engaging the C-Suite sales survey report, ITSMA found that 92% of marketing leaders credited selling at the executive level as a critical part of their sales strategy. Past studies have also suggested that top executives and business owners are the main decision-makers when it’s time to buy new tech, even if they are influenced by the research and opinions of lower-ranking team members. 

Apply This Practice

Do your homework! Use the data available to you to learn more about the accounts you’ve already served successfully and find similarly positioned businesses to target. Look into their social media accounts, connect with decision-makers, and start conversations that show value immediately.

Be sure to make space in your process for the inclusion of multiple stakeholders as well, since there will likely be more than one key decision-maker you interact with along the way.

2. They are funneling resources to proven, high ROI accounts.

Let’s look at ABM success by the numbers. After all, this is the big draw of account-based marketing: purportedly higher return on investment. 

87% of B2B marketers surveyed by ITSMA reported that their ABM initiatives outperform their other marketing investments in terms of ROI. The secret here is strategically utilizing resources to target high-value accounts. When you allocate your top sales people, best tools, and most reliable data to the acquisition of high-probability buyers, you’ve positioned yourself for success. 

To put it into perspective, a SiriusDecisions (now Forrester) study found that 80% of respondents had a higher close rate with ABM accounts. An approach like this is paying dividends for top-performing ABM companies when it comes to order values according to the same SiriusDecisions study, as reported by On 24 as well:

• 91% of companies using ABM increase their average deal size.
• 25% of companies reported substantial average deal size increases of more than 50%. 

Marketers trust account-based marketing because of the results it's achieving for them when done right. As of the 2021 State of ABM Report, survey respondents were feeling optimistic after having their ABM expectations exceeded by what the approach provided. This included:

1. The efficient use of resources
2. A clearer path to ROI
3. More trustworthy results

And that sums it up pretty well. Wasting time on low-quality or unqualified leads is exactly what ABM aims to avoid. Efficiently concentrating resources allows B2B businesses to close higher value deals faster and more often.

Apply This Practice

Focus on what works. The goal of ABM for B2B businesses is to take the stress off of your human and financial resources while getting more bang for your buck. Creating data-driven ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles) is crucial in ensuring you’re putting resources in the right place. Likewise, a thoroughly researched contact list puts you in a position to confidently engage high-value accounts, rather than casting a broad net to industries’ worth of unqualified leads.

3. They are building and nurturing ongoing relationships with higher lifetime values.

Acquiring new accounts that funnel in cash is always exciting, but what about the long-term customers who are thrilled with your offerings and can’t stop singing your praises to anyone who will listen? Strong AMB campaigns lean into the idea that happy customers are repeat customers and repeat customers are organic advocates for your business.

How does it work? Reducing friction. 

ABM is heralded as a great unifier for sales and marketing teams, largely because those outfits need to be on the same page for account-based marketing to work. While it may seem tricky to bring your systems together in a way that eases transitions for new clients, there’s a huge payoff if you get it right.

MarketingProfs reports that customer retention rates are 36% higher at companies where sales and marketing are closely aligned. When those customers are in it for the long haul, their lifetime value for your business jumps up. As many as 80% of B2B companies told Sales Hacker that ABM increased their customer lifetime value.

Not only can a focused, account-centric strategy from the beginning foster strong relationships within singular accounts, but it can set you up to earn more business too. Results speak for themselves, and delighted clients speak on your behalf to give your offerings social proof. Make more customers happy when you give them highly personalized attention and you’ll have long-term advocates bringing in referrals for future business.

Apply This Practice

Lean on the flywheel! As Hubspot Platinum Partners, we’re often caught spreading the gospel of all Hubspot has to offer. We can’t help it! But it’s true: the flywheel approach to sales and marketing has impeccable synergy with account-based marketing because it unifies teams and prioritizes account longevity. 

If you’re not familiar with it, the Hubspot flywheel is an alternative to the funnel model of client acquisition. It shows our relationships with customers as a three-part wheel: Attract, engage, delight. When customers are happy, they keep coming back, which enables you to see increased lifetime value for your accounts. 

Bonus Tip: Tap into the Powerful World of Hubspot for ABM

The right tools make a world of difference in account-based marketing. Instead of scouring different channels for contacts and data, missing deal-closing notes, and chasing your tail trying to go big with ABM, get the all-in-one build you need to succeed with Hubspot. 

And as an added bonus for this bonus, we’ll build it for you.

Start seeing the higher ROI, increased deal magnitude, and account longevity your team’s aiming for - and see it faster using account-based marketing with Hubspot, built by Digital Reach.