Account-based marketing

In a nutshell, account-based marketing (ABM) is a set of coordinated activities aimed at developing a company's reputation, relationships and revenue within a focused set of priority accounts.

ABM is particularly well-suited to companies with complex, high-value offerings that want to generate sales opportunities from a defined list of ideal customers.

Below, we outline the key steps that we take alongside our clients when conducting an ABM initiative

Step 1: Account selection

When selecting accounts to include in an account-based marketing initiative, it’s crucial to balance idealism and pragmatism.

ABM is an opportunity to be bold and ambitious. It’s worth including some dream (and even seemingly unobtainable) accounts. It’s also sensible to include some that you feel have the highest propensity to become customers. The idea is to create space for some groundbreaking deals, while at the same time maximising the likelihood of generating a good return on investment in the ABM programme.

We also advise clients to be “approximately right, not precisely wrong” when selecting accounts for ABM. When starting out, it’s especially important to ensure there is a degree of variety within the selected accounts, to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.

Good account selection balances data, instinct and experience, and it’s 50% of the equation for ABM success.

Step 2: Creating a suite of compelling, interesting, and fun "offers" for the selected accounts

Example "offers" would include:

  • Creating content together with the selected ABM accounts. For example, through a podcast, or through co-writing a blog or thought-leadership piece together, or recording a video interview.

  • Inviting your dream accounts to attend and participate in virtual and in-person events.

  • Conducting research that involves interviewing and surveying ideal accounts, with a detailed report as the output.

In addition to the above, it's also sensible to directly propose introductory meetings and demos, as that will often be the simplest and most effective way to generate traction and sales. However, our experience suggests that having at least one other "softer" and more value-led offer is important when it comes to engaging with your selected strategic accounts.

Step 3: Communicating this suite of offers to the target accounts

There are varying levels of "done with you" and "done for you" approaches that we take with clients when it comes to communicating with the selected ABM accounts.

We usually take a hybrid approach where Casla works to support and enable our clients' internal teams to make some of the actual contact with their target accounts, as well as doing some of the outreach ourselves. The choice here depends on the context and each client's preferences.