Accenture Song: Growth Through Relevance

By engaging all of them with tailored outreach, you can build consensus faster. So what exactly is account-based advertising, and how can you use it to turbocharge your ABM programs in 2025? In fact, research from ITSMA shows that account-based advertising delivers an average 171% increase in annual contract values compared to non-targeted advertising. Account-based marketing (ABM) has emerged as the go-to strategy for B2B companies looking to land and expand their most valuable accounts. "The most effective ABM programs do not necessarily have more tools and technology, but they do get better use out of what they have." In the past five years or so, he said, companies have been able to take things a step further with systems that collect purchase-intent data, which tracks people's online activity to determine their interest in researching a purchase.

ABM works largely because of the combined power of marketing and sales hyper-focused on the accounts with the highest potential. Your first step is identifying those who can wield influence on the final buying decision. In any B2B deal involving a significant purchase, your marketing and sales teams will need to help drive consensus among the key stakeholders. A valuable by-product is that ABM enriches the marketing team with a much deeper understanding of the company’s overall target audience. That well-considered approach matters at a time when buyers are increasingly insistent on outreach tailored to their business and even their personal interests within the business.

ABM tools and software empower sales and marketing teams to collaborate seamlessly and execute personalized campaigns tailored to individual accounts. Make sure that both marketing and sales teams continue to collaborate on providing meaningful engagement to high-value accounts, no matter where they are in their customer journeys. Technology tools like marketing automation and artificial intelligence can help you automate many ABM processes, including identifying accounts and engaging buyers. As ABM focuses on the accounts that will give you the most returns, you need to start by identifying exactly which accounts they are.

Marketing and Sales Team Collaboration by Salsify

Salsify's marketing team engaged potential attendees through social media platforms, creating buzz and interest around the roadshow. Auth0 launched a pilot program where account executives targeted dormant accounts and identified key buying signals to influence the sales pipeline. Caroo is a corporate gifting platform that specializes in delivering curated snack boxes and wellness products to companies. They also used web analytics to track user behavior, adjusting content in real-time based on visitor interactions.

The world’s largest tech-powered creative group

Wingrove said, “As a result of creating this custom content for ABM accounts, we could just templatize this and produce more content for that space. Wingrove and Davidson told me these kinds of landing pages are account-based advertising the secret weapon for creating a message that sticks. If you're not sure how to figure out all stakeholders or map specific roles, start with communication tracking. Once you know the key stakeholders within each target account, map their roles, responsibilities, and influence.

The roles of sales and marketing teams

Be sure to highlight how your product or service addresses those specific challenges. This message should clearly articulate the value your product or service brings to the organization and its impact on their specific pain points. Top-of-funnel marketing strategies are broad and brand-focused. Be sure to develop valuable materials to reinforce messaging. Forging strong relationships with the account’s buying committee requires you to be a little creative.

Foster Trusting Relationships With Prospects

This helps determine whether an account based marketing strategy makes sense for your business today. One of the biggest benefits of account based marketing is higher ROI. Most effective programs start with a narrow operational layer — a small set of accounts, limited workflows, and tightly aligned teams.

How to Align Sales and Marketing Around an ABM Strategy

The inbound marketing concept, which advocates attracting customers with valuable content rather than interrupting them with ads, became the foundation for everything HubSpot does. HubSpot did not just run a marketing campaign — they created an entire marketing methodology and built a company around it. The platform also offers a collision detection feature to avoid multiple agents working on the same issue, thereby reducing response overlap. Vainu is a sales intelligence platform that provides real-time company data, enabling B2B sales and marketing teams to improve their outreach and close more deals.

• Also, the companies getting better results from ABM compared to traditional demand generation had marketing and sales staff who spent at least half their time using ABM methods.
• Warmly is particularly useful for identifying high-intent website visitors and engaging them before they leave your site.
• At ITSMA, Burgess and colleagues codified ABM as a framework for treating key accounts as individual markets and for integrating tailored marketing with coordinated sales engagement.
• Tier your TAL based on revenue potential, propensity to buy, influence in the market, and relationship.
• LinkedIn provides collaboration features that allow sales teams to share insights, notes, and updates about target accounts.

As a marketer in 2024, account-based advertising should be a core part of your ABM strategy and B2B marketing approach. Imagine giving a key decision maker a virtual tour of your product or guiding them through an interactive case study. When evaluating technology, consider how it will integrate with the rest of your ABM and sales tech stack.

Strategies augmented by AI are built specifically around your ICP, product maturity, and category dynamics. Our work spans product marketing, industry marketing, digital marketing, event marketing, account-based marketing, analyst relations, developer engagement, and marketing technology. LinkedIn targeting gave Genesys marketing and sales teams the structure needed to pursue accounts in a strategic way. Each landing page matched the visitor’s industry, company size, and maturity level — with tailored product messaging, relevant customer proof, and industry-specific use cases. Instead, they built a word-of-mouth engine by encouraging employees and power users to share authentic stories about how they used the product. It proved that B2B products can be marketed with the same creative ambition as consumer brands.

This trend highlights the importance of creating content that caters to the on-demand preferences of modern buyers. Additionally, the compatibility of technology stacks plays a crucial role in ensuring a smooth transition and adoption of new solutions. Consequently, the ability to seamlessly integrate new solutions with existing technology stacks has become a critical consideration for B2B buyers. These individuals should have a strong online presence, a loyal following, and a reputation for providing valuable insights. This highlights the importance of working with influential voices within your industry to build credibility and trust with potential customers. According to our first-party research, 75% of buyers trust brands more if they are affiliated with industry experts or influencers.

You can run campaigns that reach the CFO, VP of Operations, and IT Director at the same company with messaging tailored to each role. It targets real buyers inside the right accounts and delivers messaging built to move them. With account-based advertising, that alignment shows up in the data. ABM only works if sales and marketing are locked in on the same accounts.

You need to not only ensure that your product is a good fit for the potential customer, but also that they are a good fit for your business. Any ABM strategy begins with identifying the accounts you want to target. With both teams focused on the same handful of accounts, it becomes imperative that they agree on which accounts to target and work together closely throughout the sales cycle.