Last updated
February 3, 2024

The Ultimate Guide To Account Based Marketing (ABM), Plus, Top Vendors In This Category

Account based marketing also known as ABM, seem like the new buzzword when it comes to marketing, and more specifically, enterprise marketing, but, the truth is the ABM has always been existed, it’s just that nowadays, you can deliver ABM campaigns with complete ease since thankfully, we got the right technology to support your efforts when looking to target your desired accounts through various marketing channels.

Today we’ll explore why Account Based Marketing (ABM) is booming nowadays and being adopted across many B2B SaaS software companies who are looking to win high value accounts (enterprise-grade) to grow faster and better, and what marketing automation has to do with the success of your ABM campaigns.

Moreover, we’ll showcase the top vendors in this category, so when you’re about to get your next ABM tool, you’ll have all the information in hand to make the right and most educated decision for your business.

What is Account Based Marketing (ABM)?

In its simplest form, Account-based marketing (ABM) technology gives marketers the ability to craft and build scalable, personalized marketing campaigns, measure their results against a set of KPIs, and prove revenue contribution in the most updated form there is.

The core of the ABM methodology and technology facilitates the harmony and the perfect alignment between the different marketing & sales departments and allows creating personalized buying journeys, when targeting prospects with the right message based on the point they are at in their journey.

A successful account based marketing strategy, entails an effective and well structured inbound framework. By having a laser-focused targeted audience, marketing teams can better segment and evaluate leads and move them further along the sales process. It also allows content marketers to create content that speaks to the specific pain points of the right target accounts.

While meeting the different prospects in the different points in they’re buying journey seems like a tedious task, ABM software makes it super easy for marketers to deliver the best possible experience for their targeted accounts.
Moreover, the limitless integrations the ABM software entails are absolutely important since it can easily integrate with all the major CRM software and all the information will be seamlessly updated and will be visible for your entire company.

The Benefits of adopting an Account Based Marketing (ABM) approach

While ABM is a must have marketing strategy when going after enterprise level accounts, here are some of the really IMPORTANT benefits you gain by implementing the right ABM software:

Cost effective

There’s no doubt that ABM is one of the most cost effective marketing strategies out there, and for a good reason. Imagine that you’re no longer running traditional ads to anyone who look like your ideal customer profile, you actually, carefully pick only the accounts you want to go after, and then you tailor the best experience based on your research, you upload their contact information to the ABM software and then you start targeting them using different initiatives. You don’t need to wait for someone to raise their hand and show interest, instead you go directly to the account list you created based on your goals and different use cases you can promote and target them until they actually got engaged with your content or your helping hand SDR’s.

Personalization at its best

ABM is all about personalization. How? You meet potential buyers within your targeted accounts and you strategically plan the different stages the ICP (ideal customer profile) within the account has to go through.

There’s a huge meaning to deliver the right message at the right time to the appropriate person within the account since these are mainly C-level executives we’re talking about who gets around 50 messages like yours every single day, and that’s exactly why doing the research and being personal is highly important, especially in such a competitive landscape.

Cross departmental alignment

Everyone often talks about how ABM contributes to the alignment between marketing and sales, and for a good reason. Sales and marketing alignment is often considered as a collaborative communication platform, strategy, and goals that enable marketing and sales to operate as a unified division. By working in harmony and achieving this complete alignment, marketing and sales teams can deliver high-impact marketing activities, boost sales effectiveness, and grow bottom line revenue especially when building your demand engine for your SaaS company.

By adopting a cohesive ABM approach, both marketing and sales can come up with a strategy that is aligned to a specific account. Therefore, Marketing can create a personalized approach, driven by content marketing and marketing design elements. And then make the sales outreach messaging, using the right sales software to be equally personalized, meaning prospects are getting a more relevant sales outreach.

Pipeline velocity

This one is a no brainer. A recent study showed that companies who adopted ABM approach as their leading marketing strategy within their organization have experienced a pipeline velocity, and a shorter buying cycle dropped by 30%!
By having the right tools to support your outreach strategies powered by the right message, you ultimately close more deals and in a shorter time thanks to the endless engagement opportunities marketers can create for their prospects within the targeted accounts.

Top vendors in the Account Based Marketing (ABM) space

Now that we have an idea of what ABM is all about, rightfully, there are various players within this space which provide a top-notch software solution to help you meet your company’s goals. Here are some of the world’s top ABM software companies:

Terminus

Founded in 2014, Terminus is the industry’s first account based marketing platform that enables B2B marketers to target companies, engage decision-makers, and accelerate sales pipeline velocity at scale. Terminus lets you deliver personalized messages to the right audiences at the right time through various channels. Orchestrate consistent experiences across display and social advertising, chat, email, and web personalization.

RollWorks

RollWorks is an Account Based Marketing Platform that helps B2B companies to perfectly align marketing and sales. The platform uses an AI engine to identify target accounts and key buyers, reaches those accounts across multiple channels, and measures program effectiveness in systems-of-record.

Demandbase

The Demandbase Engagement Platform is a great solution for revenue-driven teams who are looking to align around one set of data, one sales and marketing motion, one buyer’s journey, and one comprehensive view of the customer — from accounts to people to buying centers.

Widely used, Demandbase is often considered as a targeting and personalization platform that help marketing and sales teams to reach their different audiences based on intent data and their ideal customer profiles.

6Sense

6sense is a comprehensive account based sales and marketing platform that helps B2B organizations achieve predictable revenue growth by putting the power of AI, big data, and machine learning behind every member of the revenue team.
6sense uncovers anonymous buying behavior, prioritizes accounts for sales and marketing teams, and enables them to engage resistant buying teams with personalized, multi-channel, and multi-touch campaigns.

Metadata.io

Metadata.io is considered by many the new generation ABM platform for teams of all sizes, and that’s the main reason it is widely being adopted by startups who are looking to scale their ABM and revenue operations.
Metadata.io claims to be the very first demand generation platform for B2B marketers who need to get closer to revenue.

Vainu

Another new age, ABM solution that helps your teams identify and segment your best-fit accounts for each campaign based on hundreds of company filters. You can target your ABM efforts on those with relevant buying signals, such as expansions or a change in leadership.

HubSpot ABM

Yes, HubSpot does it all! From CRM, to customer service and sales, HubSpot ABM is the perfect solution for anyone who uses HubSpot for their other operations.
With the majority of new ABM tools shared between Marketing Hub and Sales Hub, it’s easier than ever for teams to work better together.

Things to consider before buying your next ABM software

So, now that you fully aware of what ABM is all about, and which are the best vendors to support you while implementing this revenue-driven marketing and sales approach, let’s see what things you must consider before getting your new ABM software, Here are a few important things to look at:

Assemble your teams

First thing to keep in mind when you begin Sales and Marketing alignment is to keep your teams small and agile. Smaller teams ensure that there is agreement and healthy collaboration. It also guards against an overwhelming amount of dissenting opinions on the direction your ABM strategy should go.

Brainstorming different ideas while combining both head of departments or any other marketing and sales leaders and building a joint strategy on which account your company must go after is a must have before even starting and evaluating new ABM software solutions.

Website personalization

One of the important features in a successful ABM software is the fact that you can customize your website based on the visitor’s industry.
Imagine yourself having the ability to show a version of your website personalized for Healthcare professionals? Or only for people who work in the Banking sector? The benefit you gain from this is HUGE. It makes them believe that your company solely specializes in their domain and that you are the niche authority who has the solutions for their problems.
Not all platforms are supporting this incredible feature, so make sure to ask the vendors if they support this or not.

Account engagement alerts

All ABM platforms support this highly important feature, the questions you must ask is, how do they support this? And how will the SDR team be informed of an account engagement activity, and when?

Some will provide daily emails once in every 24 hours delivered directly to the SDR’s email, others will provide in-app notifications for account engagement, while other vendors will take between 24-48 hours to report on account engagement spikes.
Make sure to ask these vital questions so you won’t be surprised on why your SDR team is notified in different ways in terms of account activities.

Integrations and customizations

How well will this new ABM software will sing with your current tech stack? Will the integrations require any client side effort? What if the new ABM software doesn’t have any CRM integration, or a project management software in place? – Making sure that your current tech stack tools are integrating with your new ABM software is vital before looking to buy a new ABM software.
Additional aspect to look at is what are the different customization options the new ABM solution is offering, as businesses grow so do the needs and wants therefore, having the option to customize different integrations is a must have for you.

Summing up

Account based marketing (ABM) has proven to be highly efficient in delivering consistent, healthy growth, when done right. The ABM software you will finally end up with will play a critical role in your marketing and sales alignment success. It has to balance functionality and usability so that your teams can do their job best way possible, and be robust enough to satisfy your business needs.

It may take you a few tries to find the right tool, but when leveraged properly it will make a significant difference to your marketing and sales efforts and be a boost to your company’s bottom line revenue driven goals.