Executive Summary

© Madison Logic 2015

If you are a B2B marketer, account-based marketing is everywhere—but what is it and where did it come

from? The concept has been around since the 1990s when marketers began to abandon mass-marketing

for more targeted approaches. Back then, it was called 1:1 marketing, a concept introduced by Don

Peppers and Martha Rogers in their book “The One to One Future.”

Now more than ever, account-based marketing (ABM) is making its mark on the B2B industry. An April

2015 study by Sirius Decisions found that more than 90 percent of B2B marketers believe that ABM is a

must-have.

Despite this clear recognition of ABM’s importance, the same study found that marketing organizations

have struggled with implementing programs themselves, as only 20 percent have had full ABM programs

in place for more than a year. Nonetheless, ABM is moving forward unabated. Fifty-two percent have

their toes in the water and are currently running pilot programs because they have seen the value in the

concept1.

This whitepaper will demonstrate why account-based marketing continues to gain momentum and why

you should consider implementing an intent-driven ABM program in your organization.

1. Marketers Aren’t Taking Advantage of Account-Based Marketing —Yet, Direct Marketing News, April 30, 2015

The Debut of Modern ABMIn 2004, marketing insights firm ITSMA coined

the term account-based marketing. The term itself

started to spread in B2B circles, seizing upon the

understanding that the B2B buying decision is not

the responsibility of a single individual. Instead, it

falls to a group of decision-makers and influencers

that you need to reach and convert. To be successful,

B2B marketers had to consider these accounts as

“markets-of-one.”

2

In the beginning, ABM was a direct marketing

process: marketers identified the accounts they most

wanted to reach and courted them directly, singling

out the executives that were most likely to make the

purchasing decisions and targeting them with cold

calls, emails and even direct mail. Eventually, as

Internet technologies became increasingly robust,

ABM vendors rose to meet the challenge with

varying degrees of accuracy and granularity.

© Madison Logic. 2015

Why Account-Based Marketing (ABM)In today’s busy world, sales and marketing

organizations face serious challenges. Prospects

are overwhelmed with advertising. Only the most

targeted, relevant marketing can spark interest.

When a salesperson makes a call, prospects either

do not pick up the phone or are not ready to make

a decision, and its sales that takes the blame. This

conundrum drives a wedge between marketing and

sales.

Account-based marketing can remove this wedge

and close the gap. Essentially, your prospects

want information that specifically addresses their

current needs. At its core, ABM focuses the bulk of

your resources on getting the right message to the

people who are actively researching products like

yours.

Such a strategy establishes familiarity with your

brand and offerings before a sales representative

ever picks up the phone. In other words, solid ABM

can nurture prospects before you even know who

they are. You have eliminated the need for sales

introductions and have set the stage for a more

personalized buying experience, increasing the

likelihood that a lead will turn into a closed deal.

With marketing and sales working more closely, the

leads become higher quality. This time, when sales

reaches out, a relationship already exists.

• Demographic Targeting – By layering demographic data on IP targeting, you can precisely target audiences at specific job levels, but with limited scale. In reality, the key decision- makers and influencers are spread throughout the office at all functional levels.

• Intent Targeting – Intent is indicated when a prospect interacts with a piece of online content (whitepaper, webinar, video, etc.). As these signals build, they can reveal who is researching what and when. With intent data, you can reach both the accounts you already know plus those that you don’t know yet. This is the Holy Grail: the ability to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.

Clearly, ABM driven by intent provides a distinct advantage.

A savvy, intent data driven-ABM campaign doesn’t just pinpoint target accounts; it finds brand new prospects who are already in-market, making the dollars you spend work harder. In a Forrester Consulting study released in February 2015, nearly eight in 10 senior-level marketers in the U.S. and Western Europe agreed that using intent data for targeting created value, while 67 percent said that using intent data for prospecting and retention would give them an advantage over their competition5.

The Power of ABM and IntentWhen B2B sales and marketing teams align, companies become 67 percent better at closing deals2, generating 208 percent more revenue from their marketing efforts3. The sales process becomes more holistic, targeting the account with customized information as they proceed through the funnel as opposed to going after the individual with generic messaging.

ABM ensures that you are focusing on the right leads from the start, so time and money are not wasted chasing down dead-ends. In an article posted on LinkedIn, Kelly Waffle, Executive VP of Markistry, cites a client who admits that she passes only 40 percent of the leads she generates to sales, leaving the question: “How much did she invest to acquire the other 60 percent?4” Most marketers have likely asked themselves that same question over the course of their careers. With pressure from the C-Suite demanding ROI, it is increasingly important to reduce that second number.

The big question is: what type of account-based marketing program do you start with? There are a few different types of ABM programs in the B2B ecosystem. Let’s take a look at the options and their pros and cons:

• IP Targeting - Some ABM solutions will help you reach your known accounts by targeting their IP addresses. However, this does not allow you to reach the accounts that you do not know. Furthermore, IP targeting gets you everyone within a specific named account, instead of getting you only the decision-makers.

3© Madison Logic. 2015

of senior-level marketers said that using intent data for prospecting and retention would give them an advantage over their competition.

4. Account-Based Marketing or Demand Generation: It’s Not Necessarily One Way or the Other, LinkedIn Pulse, December 3

5. Marketers Value Intent Data, but Struggle with Application, eMarketer, June 16, 2015

2. 50 Statistics About B2B Sales and Marketing (Mis)Alignment, Type A Communications, June 17, 2014

3. Ibid

Reference Statistics to Support ABM Adoption

• 92 percent of B2B marketers worldwide consider ABM “extremely” or “very” important to their overall marketing efforts

• 52 percent of B2B marketers see the value of ABM and currently have pilot programs in place

• 20 percent have had full programs in place for more than one year

• 41 percent of B2B marketers worldwide plan to increase spending on ABM

• Nearly two-thirds of B2B marketers identified engaging key decision- makers as their top challenge

• The average B2B decision-making group includes 5.4 buyers

• 34 percent of marketing organizations practicing ABM say they are tightly aligned with sales

• 41percent of B2B marketers worldwide said they would increase spending on ABM.

4© Madison Logic. 2015

Conclusion

Content, Content, Content

As we have seen, ABM is becoming far more than

a nice-to-have solution for B2B marketers. It has

become an indispensable part of the marketing

toolbox; a crucial part of smart demand generation

initiatives that reduces waste and increases the

effectiveness of demand gen and content marketing

campaigns.

5

At the heart of any good ABM campaign is content.

As marketers we often play a guessing game with

our prospects, developing content we think they

can use, not necessarily the content they can use.

A study conducted by DemandMetric

revealed another significant content

problem: the lowest performing ABM

practitioners use the same content for

every account.

What’s more, marketers often

develop content that positions their

products at the heart of the story

when they should be creating content

that is responsive to the problems and

challenges their prospects are facing.

Clearly, instead of a guessing game, marketers

should be playing a listening game. If you use

data to understand what topics your prospects are

researching, you will be better equipped to create

customized content that can actually answer the

unique questions they are asking.

© Madison Logic. 2015

If you have any questions, please contact:

Kevin Mulrane

646.937.5851

kmulrane@madisonlogic.com

http://blog.madisonlogic.com/intent-driven-account-based-marketing/

The Right Message for the Right ProspectData-driven content marketing can exist without

ABM, but without it, you are depending on your

understanding of Google’s algorithm. Account-

based marketing is a surefire way to get your

content in front of prospects who are actively

researching your products.

Today, a B2B prospect seldom picks up the phone

until they are quite close to making a purchase.

An intelligently run ABM program is key to

nurturing prospects before you even know who

they are. By providing them with the content they

need to better do their jobs, they will be far more

likely to bypass your competitors and call you.

Watch Our Activate ABM™ Video: