2. 01
ABM: WHAT YOU
NEED TO KNOW
Intro to ABM
Our Point of View
ABM Benefits
Customer Buying
Journey
ABM Methodology
02
SIX STEPS TO
IMPLEMENTATION
Define
Identify
Personalize
Activate
Validate
Optimize
03 ABM IN ACTION
Methodology
Two Key Plays
Use Cases
Next Steps
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
3. ABM: WHAT YOU
NEED TO KNOW
• Intro to ABM
• Our Point of View
• ABM Benefits
• Customer Buying Journey
• ABM Methodology
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
4. However, in B2B
marketers’ haste to
implement ABM, three
essential foundational
elements are often
overlooked, causing
significant delays in
results. The trifecta are
required to set ABM up for
success. You must
construct a rock solid
foundation before
execution. And you must
go broad before you go
narrow.
The Catch
Revenue Marketing,
Catalyzed with ABM.
ABM, or Account Based Marketing,
is red hot. Why? Because a paltry
1% of B2B prospects ever convert to
revenue. (Forrester). And ABM
catalyzes revenue growth through
data-driven targeting, precision and
personalization. But, there’s a catch.
All marketing, whether its
branding, social media,
TV, trade shows, etc. has
the same business goal: to
reach, engage, and close
a customer. Whereas
some marketing efforts are
conducted in order to
reach unknown or identify
customers, ABM identifies
the customers first then
utilizes marketing to reach
and engage with them.
Why ABM?
“Account Based
Marketing (ABM) is a
strategic approach to
designing and executing
highly targeted,
personalized marketing
programs and initiatives
to drive business growth
and impact with specific,
named accounts.”
(ITSMA & ABM Leadership
Alliance)
What is ABM?
72% of B2B marketers
plan to increase ABM
spending. (ITSMA)
INTRO TO ABM
5. Do not launch an
ABM campaign
until…
…You have set up a way to track and measure ABM impact to revenue all the way through your
pipeline. Your marketing technology stack needs to be “in order”. This is imperative to prove your
marketing dollars are generating meaningful, measurable results.
Measure
… You have leveraged existing 1st and 3rd party data to determine which account types you are
most likely to win. The formula: Total Addressable Market + Ideal Customer Profile + ABM Targeting
helps you find and scale your best customer profile to capture net new revenue.
Target
…You have chosen targets and the accounts you want to reach. Many ABM programs start with a
scope of targeted, named accounts, but lack intent data. That is a limited strategy. We advocate
selecting a comprehensive target list then use predictive modeling to narrow segments to the
specific accounts that are ready to buy. Apply your ABM resources there first. This predictive,
prescriptive approach produces greater revenue results and optimizes ROI.
Predict
Construct this
foundation and your
marketing takes less
time, dollars, energy
and drives more
revenue….and
accelerates ROI
(BusinessOnline)
OUR POINT OF VIEW: ABM DONE RIGHT
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
6. By identifying target accounts first marketing efforts can benefit from the following:
Deliver ROI
Nearly 85% of marketers that measure ROI say that ABM initiatives outperform other marketing
investments – and 50% of those say the difference is significant. (ITSMA)
Improve Marketing and Sales alignment
Wasted marketing efforts due to misalignment between marketing and sales costs $1 trillion a year.
(HubSpot); (i.e. unproductive prospecting and sales ignoring marketing leads)
Target and nurture multiple influencers at a company
In 2017, there are now on average 6.8 people in the sales process compared to 5.4 in 2016
(Harvard Business Review, 2017)
Provide a better opportunity for personalization
74% saw an improvement in the number of relationships across accounts (ITSMA and ABM)
Track success in unique, strategically chosen accounts
69% saw an improvement in annual revenue per account. (ITSMA and ABM)
BENFITS OF ABM
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
7. PURCHASE. Remove risk with social
proof, testimonials, case studies, and
personalized account communication
EXPERIENCE. Create loyal
advocates that help tell your story,
leading to referrals and trust with
more accounts.
EVALUATE. Reach accounts when
they are in market by serving content
mapped to intent signals. After you have
differentiated your brand and product by
empowering your target audience with
relevant thought leadership (Awareness
Play), you can begin to nurture them into
better understanding your solution with
deeper engagement; demos features, +
interaction with BDRs, etc.
Nurture
Capture
Retain
+
Create
ABM CUSTOMER BUYING JOURNEY:
CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
EXPLORE: Build awareness of your brand and product
by surfacing a unique insight or POV that will differentiate and
get the full attention of your target audience. Position this
content as thought leadership, building trust and confidence.
Do NOT position features & benefits.
Give first, before you get.
8. Ideal Customer Profile
what do they need and timing of CBJ
Ideas & Content
What ideas, experience & content will
break through
Connection
What channels will deliver the greatest
outcome
CUSTOMER >
NURTURE
CAPTURE
CREATED
CBJ
CTO CTO
GM BU
CTO
CFO
GM BU
Insight and Thought
Leadership Builds Trust
Align Thought leadership to
Differentiation
Influence New Key
Decision Makers
Social Proof; Persuasion;
Sharing
Create Demand w/Media Capture existing Demand Nurture & Convert to Sale Amplify Custer WOM
PPC
Paid Social
Display (Programmatic)
CPL
SEO
CRO
PPC
Email
Remarketing
Marketing Automation (Scoring)
Social
Marketing Automation
Social
Video
Infographic
Blog/Text
WP
White Paper
Video
Testimonials
Case Studies
Infographic
Blog/Text
Blog/Text
ABM CUSTOMER BUYING JOURNEY:
MARKETING PERSPECTIVE
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
Understand the needs of your CUSTOMERS throughout the Customer Buying Journey
Create CONTENT & MESSAGING to solve customer’s specific needs
CONNECT your customers with that content & experience
9. Sales & Marketing teams work together to refine Total Addressable Market into ABM
segments. Segmentation of account level data:
• Large: limited number of high profile accounts
• Named: pre-defined company accounts
• Industry: vertical segmentation
• Criteria: specific use of technology, recent funding, etc.
Identify when companies are in market for products and services through predictive
analytics data
Select appropriate targeting method for each segment
• one-to-one communication
• one-to few
• one-to-many
Create assets mapped to each segment, targeting method, and buying journey phase.
Utilize campaign-based execution, across channels and tracked to unique account
engagement + pipeline data
Key Tenets of The Methodology
Use a data-driven approach to drive account
based marketing success, by powering
meaningful target account engagements at
scale
LARGE NAMED INDUSTRY CRITERIA
Predictive
Analytics
One-to-One
One-to-Few
One-to-Many
SALES & MARKETING ALIGNMENT
ABM METHODOLOGY
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
10. Marketing should support
Sales Enablement by
providing insight into
overarching strategies and
playing an active role in
assisting and influencing
engagements with target
accounts
There should be complete
alignment between
marketing and sales
outreach to ensure efforts
aren’t duplicated, and a
consistent presence is
maintained across the
company
If necessary, internal SLAs
can be used to validate
that the sales team is
adequately following up
with hot prospects, and
that marketing is
delivering any and all
required information to
help sales sell
To help with iterations and
optimizations, an open
feedback loop should be
used to gather information
about lead quality, most
effective tactics, and
insights gleaned from
conversations with potential
customers
SALES & MARKETING
ALIGNMENT
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
11. #1 INCREASE
AWARENESS
ABM : THE PLAY
Increase Brand Awareness, Coverage &
Engagement from your Target Account
List: Large, Named, Industry, Criteria, +…
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
12. Our approach is
broken out into six
clearly defined steps,
which help ensure a
proper foundation is in
place to execute your
account based
marketing strategy
Define – clearly and
collaboratively define
KPI success metrics
1 Identify – conduct market
research, select and
segment target accounts
2
Personalize –
customize messaging,
content, & creative
3 Activate – execute on
multi-channel ABM strategy
4
Validate – measure
and report on
previously defined
success metrics
5
SIX STEPS
TO ABM
IMPLEMENTATION
Optimize – nurture via
refinements and iterations
on execution strategies
6
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
13. DEFINE
Did we accomplish
what we set out to
accomplish?
Clearly setting
expectations with sales
& execs that an
awareness campaign
is meant to surface the
brand as a trusted
partner vs. leads
generation.
DEFINE KPI’s: Key Measures of Success
S T E P 1
1. Key Vanity Metrics: Target Account List (TAL)
Primary Metrics:
• % Reach: 85% Impressions served to TAL
• % CTR: 2% by TAL, does message & content resonate
(too salesy, too early?)
• % Engagement Lift: 60% increase in Sessions w/
content from TAL
Secondary Metrics :
• $6 TAL CPC
• 5 TAL key page views
• 3 min TAL Average Time
on Site
• Comparing these metrics
to “all sources” will help to
surface meaningful insights
Recommended Value Metrics:
• Cost + Number of Leads:
• MQL > SAL > SQL > Closed Won
• ROI:
• $120 Cost per Customer Acquisition
Marketing ROI to Pipeline
• Marketing ROI to Sales
2. Value Metrics: connected to + measured w/future “Plays”
Vanity Metrics are
important directional
indicators of success.
Awareness campaigns are
engineered to measure reach
& engagement and will not
directly correlate to revenue,
as a first “play”.
Value Metrics are defined
as concrete metrics that
better gauge overall
performance and directly
impact revenue. Awareness
campaigns are the first step
in generating business
outcomes, connected to
future plays like engagement
or lead generation
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
14. THE ABM PLAYBOOK
IDENTIFICATION PROCESS: Market Research (add external data)
S T E P 2
IDENTIFY
What do external indicators
reveal about your target
industries? Growth?
Decline? Competitive
Landscape?
Target industries need to be
assessed using both internal CRM
data and external data. This will
ensure that an objective, strategic
snapshot is created for proper
prioritization in this important and
foundational step of your ABM
execution.
Hone your ICP based on market insights and competitive analysis
Target Accounts Profile Detail:
What is the size and forecasted growth for your target industries identified in Step 1?
• Annual Growth 13-18: 5.2% to $11.6 billion, marginal growth to $11.8 billion (0.3%) to
2023
What is your market share in the industry?
• Below 5%
How concentrated is the industry?
• Low concentration, high competition and expected to rise (price, value)
Are new companies entering the industry?
• Less frequent but barrier to entry is low
What are the key trends, opportunities and threats in the industry?
• Key Trend/Opportunity: Rise of smartphones will continue to pose a significant threat
as their embedded technology evolves to perform more complex tasks. Large
opportunity to insert Arm’s value prop and market dominance in mobile.
Which industry trends and opportunities fit your service offering and value prop?
• Computer manufacturers that can quickly incorporate new technologies from their
chip suppliers have a leg up on their competition, particularly in the enthusiast and
server markets. Arm’s chips represent cutting edge tech.
Which industry threat is your biggest vulnerability? Your biggest industry weakness?
• Also vulnerable to new highly cyclical nature of technology (Semiconductor companies
release new tech on average every 6 months), price competition due to product
similarity and lack of differentiation and enthusiasts building their own machines
What is your level of market awareness and thought leadership in the industry?
• Low for PC market, high for mobile
Do you have key customer testimonials and proof points from this industry?
Do you have a publishable proof point from a market leader or industry influencer?
Key Trend/Opportunity:
Rise of smartphones will
continue to pose a
significant threat as their
embedded technology
evolves to perform more
complex tasks. Large
opportunity to insert
Arm’s value prop and
market dominance in
mobile to the personal
computing space.
15. IDENTIFICATION PROCESS: CRM Analysis (your data)
S T E P 2
IDENTIFY
Identifying “winnable”
target accounts creates
exponentially better results.
Choose wrong and even
the best campaigns,
content, media & products
will fail.
Large: limited number of high
profile accounts
Named: pre-defined company
accounts
Industry: vertical segmentation
Criteria: specific use of technology,
recent funding, etc.
LARGE NAMED INDUSTRY CRITERIA
SALES & MARKETING
ALIGNMENT
Based on your past success (CRM), market forces (research), what is
your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)?
Describe your customer base / target customers:
Your “best” deals: Which types of deals closed in the last five years?
• Industry Consumer Electronics
• Company size (revenue, employees) $500m+
• Company type (public, private, etc.) Public
• Company criteria (maturity, tech savvy, etc.) Mature, Industry Leaders
• Deal size $1M - $10M
• Length of sales cycle 6-12 months
List your target industries. Which produced the highest growth in the last five years?
Mobile >> Own 95% of market share
Consumer Electronics >> Personal Computers, Gaming Devices
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
16. IDENTIFICATION PROCESS: Data Enrichment (what’s missing)
S T E P 2
IDENTIFY
How complete and
accurate is your data?
Is it good enough?
Should you invest to
enrich your data?
Fill in Data Gaps
Most companies have incomplete or unreliable data caused by outdated legacy systems, lack of
integration between marketing platforms and manual input prone to error. The result? Missed
opportunities, wasted spend and potential missteps in content and communications. Enriching
your data can help to optimize your ABM Play and increase the likelihood of successful outcomes.
Data Gap Examples:
• Industry SIC Code
• Company size
• Revenue
• Share of Wallet (Potential vs. Actual Revenue)
• Profitability
• Clean data (remove duplicate records, correct inaccuracies)
Leverage tools like Synthio and Dun & Bradstreet to increase the volume and quality of potential
account data, and ask questions such as:
- Can enriching the data to help with identifying trends in closed-won accounts for future
ABM campaigns
- Can additional work be done to append or help identify new buyer roles or contacts at
the account level for developing ICP insights
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
17. IDENTIFICATION PROCESS: Audience Intelligence
S T E P 2
IDENTIFY
Are particular accounts
raising their hands?
What signals can we
leverage to show that?
Layer In Audience Intel
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
Communities
Email
B2B Publishing
Digital Events
Corp Website
Digital Ads
Search
Buyers are leaving
behind a digital
footprint of exactly
what they want and
need
3rd Party
Intent
TAL Lookalike
Modeling
IP Lookups
Behavior
Modeling
18. IDENTIFICATION PROCESS: Hone to a Defined ICP
S T E P 2 | P A R T 1
Your ICP
Honing your ICP will
translate data into specific,
actionable insights.
The outcome will be:
• Top Industry Segments
• Target Companies
• Key Personas
Create an ICP based on your data
Add missing data to create your ICP
Let’s be real. Most companies don’t have enough data (or the data is not reliable enough) to answer these questions
adequately. Challenges like incomplete or unreliable data and lack of integration between marketing platforms and manual
input systems thwart progress. BOL works with leading data vendors (DSPs) to enrich data from incomplete CRM records,
allowing data gaps to be closed and forward momentum to resume.
Add context to and narrow down your ICP
Once your ICP is created, you can hone in on more granular details, such as your top 3-5 industry
segments and the key target companies and personas within those industries:
• Which industry segments have a positive growth forecast? Which industry segments, prominent within
our client base, have a negative growth forecast ahead?
• What are relevant trends within each growth industry that align to our capabilities and could be
leveraged to capture new customers?
• What is the typical consumer journey and what are the relevant touch points within that journey?
• What are the different needs and wants of each consumer persona?
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
19. IDENTIFICATION PROCESS: ICP +
S T E P 2 | P A R T 1
CRM ANALYSIS
Your ICP
(Ideal Customer Profile)
Top Segments
Target Companies
ICP
Segment Approach
1. OEMs (Lenovo Alcatel)
2. SiPs (HiSilicon) – only build out the example for OEMs
Target Companies by Segment
1.1 HP 2.1 HiSilicon
1.2 Asus 2.2 MTK
1.3 Samsung 2.3 Qualcomm
1.4 Allview 2.4 Spreadtrum
1.5 Archos 2.5 Xiaomi
ICP (and their pain points)
1A Principal Engineer
- Ability to update and refresh PC features inline with mobile lifecycles
- Consumers demanding mobile experiences on PC/laptops
- Poor energy efficiency and performance density in other GPU’s
1B Software Engineering Manager
- Etc.
- Etc.
- Etc.
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
20. PERSONALIZE
What message &
content will
resonate, educate &
ultimately empower.
PERSONALIZE: Content
S T E P 3
You have identified your TAL + ICP, great.
Now, how do we get the attention of our busy, time starved with severe attention
deficit disorder prospects? Give something of great value, first.
Use targeted messaging along with compelling creative content that is relevant to the ICP
and buyer profiles, that carries a unique & differentiated POV and perspective.
This will eventually create significant sales velocity. Get this wrong, and your pipeline will clog, and you
won’t know why you are not closing the business you should be.
Awareness Content: Empowers & Educates (DOES NOT SELL, NO FEATURES OR FUNCTIONS)
Content Examples:
• The Future of Mobile is Here Blog
• Product Launch/Wrap-up Blog w/video
• Research Guide w/credible 3rd party (Shrout)**
• New Zoo (E-Sport & VR)
• Mali G-73, Cortex-A76, Mali V-72 Technical Blogs
Content Mediums
• White Paper (PDF)
• Text (Blog)
• Video
Media Assets
• Display: banner/tower
• Text Ads
• Other
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
21. PERSONALIZE
Ensure content
efforts tie back to
TAL and ICP
PERSONALIZE: Content
S T E P 3
Map out your content plan not just to a campaign segments, but also to
ideal customer profile, buyer groups, relevant job titles, and buyer intent
stage. This process will gauge your readiness to be able to align relevant
content to specific buyer profiles and target accounts or identify if there are
specific needs around creating new personalized content.
Segment Target Companies ICP Content Asset Campaign
High Tech: OEMs HP Principal Engineer Shrout Research: Always On, Always
Connected
Always On Whitepaper, gated media
Software Engineering
Manager
Blog: The Future of Mobile is Here Awareness – blog post, ungated
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
22. ACTIVATE
What are the most
efficient and cost
effective channels to
engage our ICP?
ACTIVATE: Channels
S T E P 4
Create demand by using an integrated channel approach with target accounts
Remember you will also need to capture demand by leveraging content syndication programs and paid search
Create awareness with the most cost effective channels that perform.
Key Channels:
• ABM Display (DemandBase/Terminus/6sense layer in intent and personalization)
• Paid Social (LinkedIn ABM capabilities w/ company and contact targeting)
• Paid Search w/ Customer Match (high-intent, verticalized keywords)
• Content Syndication (Integrate offers ABM programs to align against target accounts)
• Industry Events (Scan badges and allow for physical email collection at booths)
• VIP Seminar/Experiential Events
• Direct Mail / Video
Ensure tagging is in place to measure KPIs (step 1)
• Tag Management or Analytics configuration
• 3rd Party tools to understand account penetration
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
23. VALIDATE
Did we hit our goals?
What did we learn?
How can we digest
the info into key
salient insights for
optimization.
VALIDATE: Reports & Insights
S T E P 5
Did you meet your KPIs in Step 1?
Are you set up to connect the results of this campaign to future Plays (Campaigns), to provide additional nurturing
efforts and ultimately convert target accounts into sales?
What happened?
We hit our target number of impressions but missed a CTR goal of 2%.
Why did it happen? Insights into why results were good/bad
Potential misalignment with campaign messaging and/or offered content as relative to target
ICP’s primary pain points.
What will happen next? If we did nothing?
CTR will continue to remain below target - impacting the overall goal of increased account
engagement and ultimately COA goals.
What action should we take? (Step 6, next slide)
Revisit target ICP pain points (consider stakeholder interviews). Revise and test new campaign
messaging. Produce additional or refine content.
What is the expected outcome of that action? Less cost, > results?
Improved CTR and engagement metrics and a lower COA.
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
24. OPTIMIZE
Leveraging the
insights extracted,
what specific actions
can we take to drive
greater outcomes?
OPTIMIZE: How do you continuously learn, test and improve?
S T E P 6
Customer: Target Account List? Update the target account list and create greater
opportunities for success? How does sales feel about the list we are reaching?
Can we modify our target list?
Answer:
Content: messaging + key assets. What is resonating, what is worth testing,
what do we keep?
Answer:
Channels: what’s producing, what’s not? Why? Introduce a new channel?
Answer:
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
26. Customer Buying Journey - ABM Digital Marketing Integration
STAGE OBJECTIVE ABM STRATEGY CHANNELS CONTENT
Explore
Identifying that a
need exists
Inform target accounts a
need exists. Use thought
leadership and content
ABM display ad targeting –
upload custom lists, expand
with firmographic and
behavioral targeting
Briefs, tip sheets, and how to
guides meant to introduce
users to general topics
Evaluate
Education on
possible solutions
Identify companies that
are in market by their
online behavior
Predictive analytics combined
with display, remarketing,
nurturing
Whitepapers and technical
content connecting general
topics to products and services
Purchase Price, validation,
contract
Increase pipeline velocity
and close
Email nurturing with fully
personalized experiences
Demos, trials, and case studies
providing final validation
Experience
Spread current
customers
experiences to
others
Identify similar companies to
existing clients and promote
specific testimonials and
case studies
Social media, account
segment targeted display ads,
post-purchase nurturing
Tutorials, implementation guides,
and upsell options to increase
adoption and potential for growth
ABM is not a channel. It is a strategy for targeting specific accounts across multiple influencers throughout all stages of the buying journey.
Channels become the vehicle for executing the ABM strategy.
THE ABM PLAYBOOK
ABM AND THE CUSTOMER BUYING JOURNEY
