8 Inspiring Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Campaign Strategy Examples
- According to SiriusDecisions, 92% of B2B marketers find account-based marketing (or ABM) “extremely important in their overall marketing efforts”.
- According to ITSMA, most of the marketers (85%) who use it find it to have higher returns than any other marketing approach they use … with about half of them reporting “significantly higher” ROI.
- 84% of marketers said ABM offers significant benefits to keeping and expanding existing client relationships (SiriusDecisions).
- Nearly one-third of marketers reported more than 100% greater engagement with C-suite targets when working in an account-based manner (2017 State of ABM study findings).
- ABM reduces up to 50% of wasted sales time on unproductive leads (Marketo).
- According to FlipMyFunnel, companies using ABM generate 200% more revenue for their marketing efforts compared to those that don’t.
Account-based marketing (ABM), is a B2B marketing strategy that concentrates sales and marketing resources on a clearly defined set of target accounts within the addressable market and employs personalised campaigns designed to resonate with each targeted account.
Rather than relying on blanket campaigns that are meant to appeal to an entire market, ABM treats “individual accounts as markets in their own right” (by ITSMA’s definition – the Information Technology Services Marketing Association).
It is one thing to know about Account-Based Marketing and its benefits but it is amazing to see that it actually works. Let’s look at some successful Account-Based Marketing examples. This may inspire you when it’s time to develop and launch your next campaign.
Here are the stories of companies that made ABM work for them.
1. Thomason Reuters – Used 9 ABM tactics to achieve a 95% win
Thomson Reuters is a leading provider of news and information-based tools to professionals.
Challenge:
Their challenge was to drive retention, expansion, and pipeline velocity with their key accounts.
Solution:
Thomson Reuters targeted 500 accounts and divided them in three tiers. They implemented different ABM tactics for the different tiers.
Tier 3: High-Fit, Further Out Renewals, Longer Sales Cycle Accounts
ABM Tactic 1 – “Always on” Digital Marketing. This includes highly personalised programmatic ads.
ABM Tactic 2 – Strategic Field Marketing. The tier 3 accounts are invited number of in-market events that the marketing team strategically plans.
ABM Tactic 3 – Content or Event Opportunities. They provide opportunity of being quoted in a content piece or speaking opportunity at an in-market event.
Tier 2: High-Fit, Active Renewals, and Large Acquisitions in need of air cover.
For these accounts Thomason Reuters actively used the tactics from tier 3 in addition to the ones below:
ABM Tactic 4 – Door Opener Kits. These are very effective for firms that are unresponsive or stuck in sales cycle. A dimensional mailer will often get a faster response.
ABM Tactic 5 – Trial Incentives. To engage the account, depending on the type of product, they may get receive an invitation use the account for free for a limited period of time.
ABM Tactic 6 – High – profile Events. They invite the tier 2 decision makers to a high-profile networking events at the right time.
Tier 1: High Risk Renewals, Largest Acquisitions with Active Sales Cycle
In addition to the benefits of tier 2 and tier3 accounts, the tier 1 account receives custom 1-1 marketing campaigns managed by marketing manager.
ABM Tactic 7 – Dedicated Personnel. They receive programmatic ads, customised to company name, firmographics and stage in buying cycle.
ABM Tactic 8 – Onsite Product Event. To get the target account interested, Thomson Reuters hosts online product demo events in the offices of the prospects. To drive attendance and to reach those who help influence the decision makers they also offer catered lunches, baristas and more.
ABM Tactic 9 – Executive–level Thought Leadership Opportunities. The ABM team works in partnership with the thought leadership group. This ensures that their top law customers have opportunities to speak at industry events and be published in blogs, white papers and more. This makes their customers happy, and helps their sales team be in contact with them and continue good relations.
Thomson Reuters achieved great results by using proven ABM tactics, strategically tiering the accounts by fit, deal size and buying cycle stage.
Results:
- Win rate: 95%
- Shortening of sales cycle: 72%
2. PayScale – Increased target account traffic by 500% with ABM
PayScale is a modern compensation software and data company which helps employers manage employee compensation and employees understand their worth in the job market.
Challenge:
The challenge for them was to deliver relevant ads to different segments and personas. They turned to their digital marketing team to grow their account-based marketing (ABM) program and measure its impact. In seven months they saw the results.
Solution:
Using the ABM strategy, the first thing they did was the sales and marketing teams aligned the targets accounts to go after. The key decision makers are different for different segments. Sales team provided the Salesforce data such as, job title. The marketing team started by setting up campaigns that drove the right account, right people and right personas to their highest-converting and most robust content piece. They immediately started seeing the results.
Results:
- Increase in target account traffic: 500%
- Decrease in time to close for active opportunities: 45%
- ROI in revenue: 6x
3. VersionOne — Driving 2x more sales opportunities with ABM (An early adopter of ABM)
VersionOne a cloud based agile application life-cycle management (ALM) software provider, used AMB to 2x its sales opportunities.
Challenge:
They switched from pursuing inbound marketing to ABM because it couldn’t “outspend” its competitors in the inbound game.
Solution:
By introducing ABM, their challenges with marketing and sales alignment were addressed as they simplified the process through data driven approach and provided service to sales that built trust. Both the teams could monitor VersionOne’s progress with certain account and contacts. There was alignment between sales and marketing that helped focus effort on segmentation, finding the target accounts and personalising their messaging which built the sales and marketing pipeline.
Accounts targeted: 800
Results:
- Account engagement rate: 88%
- % Increase in opportunity size: 45%
- Increase in opportunities: 2X
4. DocuSign — Boosting sales pipeline by 22% with ABM
eSignature transaction management solution provider, DocuSign used ABM to market to targeted accounts across six different industries.
Challenge:
DocuSign wanted to drive more traffic, increase click through rates to form gated content and boost conversation percentage from the accounts most likely to buy.
Solution:
DocuSign executed a display ad campaign to 450+ enterprise accounts, personalising messages to companies in certain buying stages. They integrated content targeting into its web platform to deliver industry specific messages to six target industries that included industry specific images, testimonials and peer logos. They captured detailed company info about visitors while asking fewer questions on the forms. They leveraged web analytics to gain detailed visibility and adjust content offerings.
Accounts targeted: 450+
Results:
- % Increase in sales pipeline across the 6 target industries: 22%
- Engagement rate: 59%
- Boosted page views: over 300%
- Decreased the bounce rate to 13.5% from an average of 39.25%
5. Personify – Increased engaged site visitors by 39x with ABM
Personify is the leading constituent management and engagement (CME) platform.
Challenge:
They needed better insights to their target market, targeting capabilities and impact on pipeline and revenue. They built an ABM program and saw the results in 11 months.
Solution:
They implemented ABM strategy for the first time. The first step was to partner with product marketing and sales to define their ideal customer profile (ICP). This alignment lead them to find a list of top accounts. The account based platform, found the key market segments and personas within target account buying centers. They set up a series of digital ad campaigns that were personalized based on company, sales stage, and persona. They produced creative that would increase brand awareness, increase engagement and nurture opportunities to close.
Results:
- Lift in engaged site visitors: 39x
- ROI on contributed pipeline: 47x
- ROI on contribute revenue: 25x
- ROI on marketing-sourced revenue: 8.5x
6. Snowflake – Increased growth rate over 300% using ABM
Snowflake is a cloud-based data warehouse provider that enables organizations to be data-driven.
Challenge:
They adopted ABM with a goal of getting specific high-priority accounts clicking on their ads.
Solution:
Snowflake built a team of six dedicated account based marketers, responsible for 500 parallel 1-to-1 campaigns. Each campaign was developed in collaboration with sales teams who knew the accounts best. They were built on specific content experiences and personalised messages. Snowflake launched digital marketing ads efficiently to the right audience and the right time in buying lifecycle. These customised contents were gated and not intended towards conversion. Snowflake first built credibility and gained trust of its personas and then used re-targeting tactics with those engaged personas and used weekly demos and free trails for conversion. Account-based marketing is closely integrated with the sales process, the ABM team is a part of Snowflake’s quarterly reviews on sales’ book of business. Within 15 months they got excellent results.
Results:
- Increase in click through rates: nearly 150% on 1:1 ABM ads
- Growth rate: over 300%
- Added sales person to their organisation: 4x
- Raised funds for additional growth and globalisation: $500 million
7. O2 — Winning 325% of the target business with ABM
O2 offers ICT services to large organisations across UK.
Challenge:
O2 knew they had a lot of competition in ICT services. They needed personalised marketing approach. O2 used ABM to boost its brand awareness and break into C-level audiences of its enterprise-level targets.
Solution:
They created an ABM campaign. They targeted more than 2000 employees, as well as CXOs and board members to generate individual reports for each organisation. These extremely personalised reports highlighted how much each organisation could save and how much more revenue they could generate using O2 for their ITC services. After the reports were distributed, sales specialist followed up with each client to encourage face-to-face meeting.
Timeline:
Pilot program (2015): O2 chose just one strategic account and launched a one-to-one ABM campaign.
Expanding the pilot program (2016): O2 rolled out its ABM to 10 strategic accounts.
Full program (2017): O2 launched a full program targeting one-to-few ABM drives.
Results:
- % of target business generated: 325%
- % of target pipeline achieved: 313%
- SQL conversion rate: 67.5%
8. BillingTree — Increased account engagement by 60% using ABM
BillingTree a leader in payment processing, with a focus on technology-driven innovation.
Challenge:
Their challenge was that they could not get a meeting with high value target. Meetings that were scheduled often resulted with those that were unable to make the decision.
Solution:
BillingTree targeted top 100 prospects with high-value deliverable that would capture their attention and leave a lasting brand impression. They designed, manufactured and mailed 100 locking cases, branded to BillingTree, secured with two combination padlocks. There was $100 amazon gift card inside, but the combination was not given. When they opened the case it revealed a fully branded interior with a video player embedded in lid. The video player activates when the lid opens and plays an animated video pitch.
Accounts targeted: 100
Results:
- Account engagement rate: 60%
- converted to opportunity: 15%
- Revenue of closed opportunities: $159,902
- Opportunity worth in pipeline: $200,000
B2B Marketing Challenges can be solved by ABM
We just saw some amazing Account-Based Marketing examples, showcasing how in many ways they can solve organisational challenges by aligning sales and marketing strategies and creating campaigns.
According to ITSMA report, B2B marketers using ABM say, it outperforms any of their other strategies. By focusing on few thing like, keeping your campaigns highly personalised, taking advantage of social media, and even utilising less popular avenues (e.g. direct mail) where applicable, one can boost results gained by ABM campaign.
There are infinite possibilities for new ideas and concepts in account-based marketing. At Grow Digitally, we are top Australian ABM experts for Technology, SaaS, IT and B2B companies and can help build your ABM Strategy from scratch or even further stimulating your ABM Strategy or campaigns. You never know, it could be your company on top of the list when someone is looking for inspiring example of ABM next!.
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