The document discusses the evolution and benefits of account-based marketing (ABM) in B2B contexts, emphasizing the shift from traditional marketing methods to more targeted, account-focused strategies. It highlights the increasing effectiveness of ABM in improving key metrics such as customer retention rates, contract values, and sales alignment, while also addressing common challenges such as sales and marketing misalignment. Key takeaways include the importance of establishing an ABM leadership team, building and iterating target account lists, and focusing on quality over quantity in measurement and execution.

1. Account-Based Marketing: From
Strategy and Plans to Execution and
Insights
HEIDI BULLOCK, CMO, ENGAGIO
@HeidiBullock
JOHN DERING, DIRECTOR ABM TECH & STRATEGY, DEMANDBASE
@D_Rang

2. B2B MARKETING IS TOUGH
2
Not enough –
of the right
types of leads
Poor quality –
many leads
never convert
to Sales
Sales alignment
- Poor efficiency
Issues with
churn and
retention
Missed
Targets

3. EXAMINE YOUR CURRENT ACQUISITION STRATEGY
3
Broad-based
Mostly inbound
Lead-centric
Goal is volume

4. A MARKETERS’S PLIGHT
- Miller Pierce, 2014 VOC Study
50%
of marketing generated leads are
never followed
up by sales.

5. THE GREAT SALES & MARKETING DIVIDE
Leads
Personas
Quantity
Individuals
Opportunities
Buyers/Influencers
Quality
Accounts
MARKETING SALES

6. THE OLD MODEL OF THE SALES FUNNEL
MARKETING SALES
MQL
IDENTIFIFY
CLOSE

7. THE NEW MODEL OF THE SALES FUNNEL
CLOSE
IDENTIFIFY
MARKETING
SALES

8. EVOLUTION OF ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING
1995- 2005 2005-2012 2012>>>
• Limited in scale
(25-50 accounts)
• Field Mktg centric
• Analog in approach
• Improved scale
• Email centric
• Industry focused
• Post hand raise
• Reactive
• Fully scalable
(5000+ accounts)
• Full funnel
• Multiple targeting
options
• Pre hand raise
• Proactive

9. THE RISE OF ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING
ABM
in 2015
SiriusDecisions: State of ABM 2015
of B2B companies have
ABM program older
than 1 year
20%
of B2B companies have
a skills gap for ABM
47%

10. THE RISE OF ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING
ABM
in 2016
SiriusDecisions: State of ABM 2015
of B2B companies have
ABM program older
than 1 year
41%
of B2B companies have
staff partially or fully
dedicated to for ABM
70%

11. THE IMPACT OF ABM
ABM OUTPERFORMS
TRADITIONAL
METHODS
B2B Marketers Are
Realizing Greater
Benefits From ABM
Across Multiple Areas
TOPO: ABM State of the Market
ABM provides much
greater benefit than
traditional approach
ABM and
traditional
are same
Traditional
approach benefit
is much greater
3.98
4.00
4.02
4.14
4.20
4.31
4.64
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Customer Retention Rate
Initial Contract Value
Close Rate
Return on Sales &
Mktg. Investment
Upsell/Cross-sell
Overall LTV
Alignment Between
Sales & Marketing

12. THE IMPACT OF ABM
ABM BENEFITS
INCREASE OVER TIME
The Benefits Of ABM vs.
Traditional Marketing are
more Pronounced as you
Scale your Efforts
TOPO: ABM State of the Market
3.89
3.81
4.12
4.15
3.70
4.23
4.44
4.17
4.18
4.30
4.32
4.38
4.39
4.87
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Customer Retention Rate
Initial Contract Value
Close Rate
Return on Sales &
Mktg. Investment
Upsell/Cross-sell
Overall LTV
Alignment Between
Sales & Marketing
1 yr+ <1yr

13. THE IMPACT OF ABM
ABM DEDICATION
INCREASES BOOKINGS
TOPO: ABM State of the Market
A Main Driver for Adopting
ABM is Increasing ACV $71,941
$195,294
$0
$50,000
$100,000
$150,000
$200,000
$250,000
Pre-ABM ACV Post ABM ACV
ACV: Before & After ABM
171%

14. BUDGETS FOR ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING IN 2017
ABM
success is driving
demand for increased
investment
SiriusDecisions: State of ABM 2015
of marketing budget
dedicated to ABM
26%
of companies planned
to increase their ABM
budget in FY2017
72%

15. ABM LEADERSHIP TEAM

16. ESTABLISHED ABM LEADERSHIP TEAM
Finance
 VP of Finance
 Finance Director
Operations
 Sales Operations
 Marketing Operation
Marketing
 CMO
 Director, Integrated Marketing
 Director, Demand Generation
 Director, Field Marketing
Sales
 CRO
 VP of Sales
 Enterprise Director
 Mid Market Director
 VP, Customer Success
 Director, Inside Sales

17. LEADERSHIP TEAM RESPONSIBILITIES
Communicate Objectives
Reset Expectations
Ensure Compliance
Reinforce the Target
Account List
Collaborate Regularly

18. OperationsSales Marketing
Knowing Makes Alignment Easier to Execute
HOW WILL THIS IMPACT THE ORGANIZATION?
Prioritize outreach/follow
up on Target Accounts
Follow up on signals, with key
contacts
Rework focus: Inbound vs
outbound; sales territories
Collaborate with marketing on
programs
Evaluate programs on
the Target Account List
Hand over intelligence,
not just leads
Re-focus budget
Connect impact to Revenue –
KPIs/MBOs
Evaluate and implement new
technologies
Alter the use of
current technologies
Build models and reporting to focus
on target accounts and key
business objectives

19. SELECTING TARGET ACCOUNTS

20. BUILD AND BRAND YOUR TARGET ACCOUNT LIST
These are the companies that
are most likely to buy from
you, due to characteristics
that set them up for success.
Shares Focus
Aligns Resources
Facilitates Compliance
Role of the List:

21. TARGET ACCOUNT LIST
It’s a collaborative process
Build an initial list
Secure agreement from ABM Leadership Team
Verify and iterate with field sales
Update at regular intervals
1
2
3
4

22. WAYS TO APPROACH LIST BUILDING
Target your most
successful segments
Select accounts
with a predictive tool
Use an account
identification solution
Combine approaches
and iterate

23. SEGMENT YOUR LIST
Segments you select must
have discrete business
objectives that marketing
can build programs to
support

24. Understand that only a
portion of your revenue will
come from this list
- it may be a majority or minority
depending on your business model

25. GROW YOUR LIST (CAREFULLY) OVER TIME
37%
57%
68%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2014 2015 2016
% of Revenue from Target Accounts
DB3k Non-DB3k
2014: Lookalike model
1,500 Accounts
22 Reps
2015: Predictive Model
3,000 Accounts,
35 Reps
2016: AI Model
3,500 Accounts
39 Reps

26. ANONYMOUS BUYING SIGNALS

27. MARKETING INTEGRAL TO SALES PROCESS
- SiriusDecisions, 2013
67%
Of the buyer’s journey is
Now done digitally.

28. TODAY’S ANONYMOUS BUYERS JOURNEY
SALES
CALL
LEAD
SOCIAL
MEDIA
WEBSITE
VISIT
SEARCH
DETERMINE
PROBLEM
WEBSITE
VISIT
WEB
RESEARCH
FRIENDS &
COLLEAGUES
INTEREST
Marketers miss out on the
buying signals that occur
pre hand raise…
…and the signals that occur once
a prospect is in a sales cycle.

29. CONSISTENCY IS KEY TO B2B ADVERTISING SUCCESS
Always-on advertising see better results than discrete campaigns
29% increase in
companies lifted
127% more website
engagement
WEBSITE ACTIVITY BY COMPANY EXAMPLE DISCRETE CAMPAIGN
CAMPAIGN
AVG. DROPOFF
-90%
target account traffic
*DemandGen Report
70%
of buyers indicated
that the vendor’s
website was most
influential in their
purchase*

30. PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCES ACROSS THE JOURNEY
Personalize by industry, company, or custom attributes
AD CREATIVE WEBSITE
Creative developed for demonstration purposes; not reallcreative

31. HARDER TO OPTIMIZE AT SCALE
15
INDUSTRIES
10
PERSONAS
3
CUSTOMER
TYPES
6
BUYER STAGES
1000
WEB PAGES
4000
TARGET
ACCOUNTS
5
COMPANY SIZE
BANDS
8
PRODUCTS
Billions of possible combinations to evaluate, personalize, test, and optimize.
RESULT:
Example inputs for a typical B2B website to analyze:

32. Predicts future behavior
on the website
Calculate all the possible
paths to your goals
Proposes content that
speeds the visitor towards
those goals
And away from
undesired pages
OPTIMIZATION FOR UNIQUE VISITOR PATHS

33. DESIGNING ABM PROGRAMS

34. TIER 1: 5-50 accounts (“tens”)
Rich account plans
Every touch personalized
TIER 2: 50-1,000 accounts (“hundreds”)
Light research + data build out
Personalized touches to key personas
TIER 3: 1,000+ accounts (“thousands”)
Automated touches OK
Industry and persona customization
One-to-Many
ABM
One-to-Few
ABM
One-to-One
ABM
TIER YOUR ACCOUNTS

35. ASSIGN PROGRAM ENTITLEMENT
Type of Program Accounts
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
Direct Mail High value Post card – lower value Post-card lower value
Field Events Lunch and learn + dinners +
on-sites, custom workshops
Lunch and learn Lunch and learn (resources
permitting)
Tradeshows Special dinner
Playmaker sends Yes Yes Yes
Database sends In some cases OK Yes Yes
Targeted Ads Yes + tailored content + logo Yes + industry Yes – industry
Content Syndication Yes – verticals and key
companies
Yes – verticals Yes -verticals
Sales outreach Yes (calling campaigns, drive
attendance)
Yes (calling campaigns, drive
attendance)
No
Appt Setting Yes Yes No
Contact Discovery Yes Yes No
Customer content
Custom streams (nurture)
Yes (tier 1 and 2)

36. BE HONEST…
• What can Sales realistically support?
• What can Marketing support?
–Resources
–Budget
36

37. What do we
want to
say?
(offers)
Who should
we say it to?
(segments)
Who are
we trying to
reach?
(accounts)
What
should we
say?
(message)
Where
should we
say it?
(channels)
Where
should we
say it?
(channels)
DemandGen
Account
Based
MarketingDEVELOP ABM PROGRAM FRAMEWORK

38. #1 - DEFINE “WHO” IN THE ACCOUNT (BUYING CENTER)

39. #2 - DEFINE THE “WHAT” KEY PERSONAS CARE ABOUT

40. MAP CONTENT FOR KEY STAGES
PERSONA – A BUYER’S JOURNEY
STAGE GOAL AWARENESS CONSIDERATION PURCHASE ADOPTION X-SELL/UP-
SELL
ADVOCACY
BUYER GOAL I think I have a
problem
How do I fix my
problem and why
you?
What do I need
to buy?
I can I get
going fast and
be successful
with the
product?
I like product x, I
would like more
seats, or I am
interested in
product y.
I love the
products – I am
happy to
recommend to
others!
CONTENT Targeted ads,
blog posts,
ebooks, events,
webinars
Video testimonials,
field events, case
studies, analyst
reports
Product video,
on-site
workshops,
demos
Workshops
Online tutorials
Product
webinars, video
testimonials,
case studies
Early access to
new features

41. Source: ITSMA
WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT WORKS?

42. RIGHT SIZE CONTENT FOR TARGET ACCOUNTS
ABM
One-to-One
ABM
One-to-Few
ABM
One-to-Many

43. CONTENT EXAMPLES
Targeted Ads Personalized eBook Personalized Video

44. IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING TODAY...
Random acts of kindness = good Random acts of marketing = bad

45. #3 - DEFINE THE “WHERE” – BUT HAVE A BASELINE FIRST
WEB
PERSONALIZATION
DIRECT
MAIL
TARGET
ACCOUNT
FIELD
EVENTS
PERSONALIZED
EMAILS
CUSTOM
WORKSHOPS
TARGETED
ADVERTISING

46. WHERE DO YOU HAVE COVERAGE?
Do you have sufficient data, opt-in contacts, and account plans for each target
account?

47. WHERE DO YOU NEED TO DRIVE AWARENESS?
Which target accounts have any awareness of us? Are they visiting the website?

48. NOW FIGURE OUT YOUR PROGRAM STRATEGY
48
Goal: Awareness
Is the account aware of your
products / services?
Goal: Engagement
Are the right people in the
account engaged?
Goal: Action
Do the right people have what
is required to make a
decision?
Ask: What set of tactics make sense for these objectives?

50. 1. Multi-Channel Prospecting
2. MQA Follow-Up
3. Sales Cycle Acceleration
4. Deal Nurture
5. Live Event Invite
6. Field Marketing
7. Upsell/Cross-Sell
8. Customer Advocacy
EXAMPLE OF PLAYS FOR THE ACCOUNT LIFECYCLE

51. Targeted ads
entire account
Email
T: Head of Sales
F: ADR
Direct Mail
Key
personas
Email
T: Head of Marketing
F: ADR
Checklist
Package received?
Phone
T: Head of Sales
F: ADR
GOAL: EARLY STAGE – PENETRATE NEW ACCOUNTS

52. 52
GOAL: LATE STAGE – ACCELERATE DEAL CYCLE

53. 205 193 113 45 24 1Mtgs Opps Deal
(so far)
EngdPkgs Resp
22%
Meeting Rates
Books only: 25%
Kindle only: 21%
Ads and Kindle: 21%
Ads and Books: 13%
Web Traffic Visitors
Ads +43% +47%
No Ads +22% +8%
Directionally meaningful but not significant
34.2x pipeline to spend
Tip 1 - TESTING IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT

54. 54
Tip 2 - MAKE IT PERSONAL TO DRIVE RESULTS
3% response
rate
43% response
rate

55. 55
Tip 3 - SUPPORT SALES TO HELP THEM ACT IN A TIMELY WAY

56. ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING METRICS

57. Don’t count the
people you reach;
reach the
people that count.
– David Ogilvy

58. Challenge: Account Based Analytics are different
2002 2017

59. 59
MARKETING QUALIFIED ACCOUNTS (MQAs)

60.  Focus on quality not quantity
 Track accounts not leads (MQAs not MQLs)
 Time spent (engagement minutes)
 Track impact and influence more than try to apportion ‘credit’
(team effort)
 Measure long-term success – pipeline and revenue
60
ACCOUNT BASED METRICS ARE DIFFERENT

61. 61
Do you have
sufficient
data,
contacts, and
account
plans for
each target
account?
Are the target
accounts
aware of your
company?
Are the right
people at the
account
spending time
with your
company? Is
that
engagement
going up over
time?
Are
marketing
programs
reaching
target
accounts?
Are ABM
activities
improving
key sales
outcomes?
COVERAGE AWARENESS ENGAGEMENT REACH IMPACT
WHAT TO MEASURE

62. 62
THE BUING CYCLE FOR B2B HAS GOTTEN LONGER
•52% of respondents said the number of buying group members had increased significantly.
•77% agreed that they conduct a more detailed ROI analysis before making a purchase decision.
•78% agreed that they “spend more time researching purchases”.
•75% agreed that they “use more sources to research and evaluate purchases”.
Source: Demand Gen Report 2017 B2B Buyers Survey Report
“You can’t wait a year to see results [in ABM].”
Megan Heuer, SiriusDecisions

63. 63
Early Stage Metrics Later Stage Metrics
1
• Coverage
2
• Awareness
3
• Engagement with key programs
4
• Meetings
1
• MQAs
2
• Opportunities in target accounts
3
• Pipeline
4
• Impact/ ROI
Tip 1 - MEASURE AT DIFFERENT TIME POINTS

64. Tip 2 - MEASURE FROM DAY ONE – HAVE BASELINES!
64

65. Tip 3 - UNDERSTAND WHICH CHANNELS AND PROGRAMS
ARE EFFECTIVE AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF AN ACCOUNT
JOURNEY

66. Tier
# of
Accounts
Awareness MQA
Sales
Appt
Opps
Pipeline
ACV
Conversion
to Opp
C/W Deals
C/W
ACV
Conversion to
C/W
Tier 1 # # # # # $ % # $ %
Tier 2 # # # # # $ % # $ %
Tier 3 # # # # # $ % # $ %
Courtesy of VersionOne
Tip 4 - HAVE A DASHBOARD FOR REPORTING

67. KEY TAKE-AWAYS

68. 1. ABM’s impact is real.
2. Establish an ABM Leadership Team.
3. Build a target account list.
4. Have a diligent approach program entitlement.
5. Understand where your accounts are before
executing programs.
6. Measurement is different with ABM – it’s about
quality not quantity.
7. You can start small – just START.
68
KEY TAKE-AWAYS