One of the hottest new movements in the martech community today is Account Based Marketing, known affectionately as ABM. But should companies creating new categories of products and services adopt ABM tactics into their marketing approach?

1. Account Based Marketing for New Categories
April 2016
Anthony Kennada
VP Marketing

2. Agenda
Lessons from building the Customer Success category
Account Based Marketing for New Categories
Q&A
1
2
3
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4. @akennada

5. What do you mean by new categories?
Companies today are building businesses at the heart of
process reinvention where incumbent technologies do not
exist.
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6. No great (corporate) examples of
category creation.
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7. The Age of the Disruptors
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8. Star Wars: The
Force Awakens
(2015)
Jurassic World
(2015)
Marvel’s The
Avengers (2012)
Avengers: Age of
Ultron (2015)
Iron Man 3 (2013) Harry Potter & the
Deathly Hallows Pt 2
(2011)
The Dark Knight
Rises (2012)
The Dark Knight
(2008)
The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire (2013)
The Hunger Games
(2012)
Spider-Man 3 (2007) Fast and The
Furious 7 (2015)
The Twilight Saga:
New Moon (2009)
The Twilight Saga:
Breaking Dawn Pt 2
(2012)
The Twilight Saga:
Breaking Dawn Pt 1
(2011)
Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead
Man’s Chest (2016)
Deadpool (2016) Iron Man 2 (2010)
All Time Box Office Opening Weekend Records
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9. ©2015 Gainsight. All Rights
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“Category Kings are dominating the entire technology industry,
since as a group [they] are capturing around 76 percent of
the total value of all VC funded companies since 2000.”
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Customer
Support
CRM
Account
Management
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Reserved.

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Reserved.
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Facilitate the exchange of industry best practices.
Create networking opportunities.
Celebrate being pioneers.
Create community.
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15. ©2015 Gainsight. All Rights
Reserved.
"You need to find a demographic and a
customer that no other software company is
paying attention to in a modern way, and help
them realize their ultimate ambition. Your
software comes way down the road -- your job
is to make them be heroes.
Make them feel like they are transforming their
business in the role that they have,
internalizing that there is a company out there
that cares about me, cares about my role.”

16. ©2015 Gainsight. All Rights
Reserved.
@akennada

18. Customer Success Community

19. 0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
2013 2014 2015 2016E

20. PULSE LOCAL
Customer Success Communities

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Reserved.
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Content + Community

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Reserved.
Account
Based
Marketing

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Reserved.

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Reserved.

25. Why is ABM resonating with marketers?
Pure outbound cold calling is dead.
Data is more available and more actionable.
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26. Should companies building new categories embrace
Account Based Marketing?
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27. @akennada
Product Market Fit
No Yes
• <$1M ARR
• ICP Not Validated
• Culture of Experimentation
• $1M+ ARR
• Well Defined Buyer
• Culture of Scale

28. What’s the benefit of ABM, specifically, to new category
creators?
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29. You’ve already embraced
content marketing.

30. Building a new category is expensive,
ABM is a better way to scale
marketing spend.

31. You need tight cross-functional
alignment when building a
category…
…ABM is a great forcing
function for collaboration.

32. You're developing two brands, one for your industry
and one for your company.
@akennada

33. 4 Reasons New Category Marketers Need to Care
About ABM.
You’ve already embraced content marketing.
Building a new category is expensive, ABM is a better way to scale marketing spend.
You need tight cross-functional alignment when building a category, ABM is a forcing function for collab.
You're developing two brands, one for your industry and one for your company.
@akennada

34. @akennada
www.categorydev.com