Think You’re Ready to Test ABM? Read this first. 

‍First thing’s first: Account-Based Marketing (ABM) isn’t new. 

At its core, ABM is simple: a focused approach to marketing that involves running highly targeted programs against a defined list of accounts.

There are already countless guides, frameworks, and best practices out there. You can read vendor blogs, explore platforms like Demandbase or 6Sense, or even ask ChatGPT or Gemini to generate a playbook for you in seconds. We’ve included some resources at the end of this guide.

So we’re not here to reinvent the wheel. 

But marketers have layered on tools and terminology (as we tend to do!) so it can be hard to know where to start. 

ABM has evolved into:

• A mature B2B marketing strategy
• A full software category (e.g. Demandbase, 6Sense, Terminus)
• Even a rebrand (ABX, or account-based experience)

Underneath it all, ABM is about focus, alignment, and relevance.

We still hear companies say “we want to test ABM.” We’ve witnessed a variety of tactics and approaches to ABM with varying levels of success: some programs completely fail, while others become breakout growth channels. 

More often than not, the difference isn’t the tactics, but the foundations behind them. So what are the foundations of a strong ABM strategy?

Here’s a practical, tactical guide on how to build an ABM strategy from scratch — based on what actually works in the real world.

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In this guide, you’ll learn:

• What account-based marketing is and how it helps
• When ABM makes sense (and when it doesn’t)
• How to create an ABM strategy step-by-step
• Common mistakes that kill ABM programs early

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What is Account-Based Marketing (ABM)?

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a B2B marketing strategy where sales and marketing teams work together to target high-value accounts with personalized campaigns.

Instead of generating a high volume of leads, ABM focuses on:

• Specific companies (target accounts)
• Key decision-makers and stakeholders
• Personalized messaging and experiences

In simple terms: ABM is targeted marketing aligned with sales to win high-value deals.

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Benefits of Account-Based Marketing

When implemented correctly, an ABM strategy can drive:

• Higher deal sizes
• Better win rates
• Shorter sales cycles
• Stronger sales and marketing alignment
• More efficient marketing spend

This combination of highly focused marketing and shared ownership of pipeline and revenue leads to larger contract values, increased conversions, and accelerated decision-making.

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When should you use ABM?

Whether ABM or AI, we see a lot of teams eager to test the latest marketing strategy. We get it, these hype cycles can feel like you’re missing out if you’re not doing it!

But remember: ABM is just an approach to marketing. And that means ABM isn’t for every company.

ABM should be used for higher-value accounts and longer B2B deal cycles — otherwise you’re just doing regular marketing.

You should consider ABM if:

• You sell high-ticket B2B products or services with longer deal cycles
• You’re targeting strategic, enterprise or 6-figure mid-market deals 
• You have a defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

You should NOT use ABM if:

• You rely on high-volume, low-cost conversions
• Your sales and marketing teams are not aligned
• You’re still validating your ICP or positioning

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How to create an ABM strategy: 6 steps

Step 1: Ensure you’re ready for ABM

Before launching an ABM strategy or investing immediately in software, make sure you have the right foundations in place.

Key readiness criteria

1. Budget and expectations

Can you afford to even test ABM? ABM requires more investment and time than traditional demand generation. If you’re targeting six-figure deals, small campaign budgets won’t deliver results. We recommend assigning at least 10% of your budget on ABM motions.

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2. Reporting infrastructure

You’ll need alignment with RevOps and/or Marketing Ops, and executive buy-in for marketing to test ABM.

You should be able to track:

• # of contacts engaged with sales 
• # of net new ICP contacts 
• # of qualified responses 

You’ll also need existing benchmarks on:

• # of opportunities created 
• Deal velocity
• Average deal size/length (pipeline value)
• Average win rate

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‍3. Strong fundamentals

Your ICP, messaging, product-market fit, and sales process must be aligned and clear. This is the top reason for why an ABM strategy does not work. ABM is a team game: you need marketing and sales running like an assembly line and rowing in the same direction, otherwise you’re wasting your budget. 

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4. Content capabilities

One of the most common roadblocks to launching a successful ABM motion is content. Your generic content shouldn’t work because ABM needs to be personalized for the audience you’ve identified. If it’s not, you’re just running a regular marketing campaign. 

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For Enterprise Teams:

With more resources, it’s lower risk to invest in an ABM platform upfront. 

• Start with a basic ABM platform, connecting it to your CRM and marketing automation
• Then, hire a senior marketer with ABM experience so you can hit the ground running
• If done correctly, you can implement the ABM platform and go-to-market with your first program within a quarter — sounds ambitious, but it’s doable!

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Step 2: Align Sales & Marketing

So you’re feeling ready to activate ABM within marketing — but not so fast! Sales and marketing alignment is the foundation of any successful ABM strategy. 

At a minimum, your Director of Demand Generation and Director of Sales should be working as partners, leading their teams in the same direction with a shared plan.

What alignment includes:

• Shared ABM goals and expectations
• Defined roles and responsibilities (RACI model)
• Agreed workflows for outreach and follow-up
• Ongoing communication, feedback, and documentation

In ABM, marketing is an extension of sales, not a separate function. 

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For Enterprise Teams:

Alignment often takes longer in enterprise environments due to added complexity and stakeholders. 

• If sales is leading the initiative, alignment is typically faster, since they’re already invested
• The same applies if the push comes from the CRO or CEO
• If ABM is marketing-led, you’ll need to identify a sales leader who believes in the approach and is willing to champion it internally

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Step 3: Define your ICP and Select Target Accounts

Now that we’re all aligned, it’s time to identify the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and target accounts.

There are many ways to do this, and the resources we’ve shared at the end of this guide have a lot of examples. Here are the basic methods...

Types of ABM:

• 1:1 ABM - highly personalized (best for mature programs)
• 1:few ABM - small groups of similar accounts
• 1:many ABM - scaled personalization

Many teams should start with 1:few or 1:many ABM, depending on your product, ICP, and average deal length. Here are 4 general recommendations when it comes to picking a list:

Ways to segment target accounts:

• By industry (vertical marketing): you have case studies, proof points, the product, and confidence in messaging
• By use case (pain-point driven): you have clear solutions, proven uses cases, and confidence in your sales talk tracks
• By company size: your production/solution varies by company size and can act as separate segments
• By persona (role-based targeting): you have core solutions and messaging that differ by persona — this only works if you have personalized content for each role 

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For Enterprise Teams:

A fifth option is by competitor based on intent data. If you’re using an enterprise ABM platform (e.g. Demandbase, ZoomInfo, 6Sense), you should be able to access intent data and generate competitor-specific campaigns.

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How many accounts should you target?

List sizes depend on your niche, but the sweet spot to test is 100-300 target accounts maximum. Less for 1-Few and 1-1.

This provides enough scale without losing personalization. Make sure to validate the list before you start testing with AI tools or consulting the sales team. 

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Step 4: Map the buying committee and personalize messaging

Now that you have your list, it’s time to map the buying committee and develop the tactics and strategy. ABM can help identify the decision-makers, map out the organization chart with SDRs, and directly go after known contacts.

In B2B ABM, you’re targeting an entire buying group, not a single lead. For ABM campaigns, you must identify which parts of the buying committee you’re trying to influence first.

Key stakeholders may include:

• Decision-makers
• Influencers
• End users
• Procurement and/or Finance

If you don’t know all the parts of the buying committee, ABM can help validate this — sales usually have good hunches that marketers can help validate and expand on.

Make sure you have personalized messaging for each role. This is where product marketing can be a key partner.

Best practices:

• Identify key roles within each account
• Understand their priorities and pain points
• Tailor messaging by persona
• Add a campaign angle

What makes a strong ABM campaign?

Today’s B2B landscape is noisy. SDRs are calling your personal cellphones. Companies are putting webinars in your calendar, hoping you don’t notice. How do you cut through the noise in a way that’s authentic and ethical?

Strong ABM campaigns often include:

• A clear theme or narrative
• A specific problem or use case
• Creative differentiation

Creative differentiation is our personal favorite tactic: surrounding your campaign with a brand message and a unique, catchy idea makes it more memorable and effective. 

This involves honing in on a universal pain point that your ICP is going through — again, it’s back to fundamentals of understanding your prospects, customers, and value proposition.

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For Enterprise Teams:

If you have an enterprise ABM platform, you can build buying groups within the product and it can inform your team on any contact gaps.

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Step 5: Execute Multi-channel Campaigns

A successful ABM strategy requires coordinated execution across multiple channels.

Research shows that B2B deals often require hundreds of touchpoints before closing, and advertising usually accounts for over 50%. 

Core ABM tactics

1. Air cover advertising

Recent research by Demandbase Labs shows that the highest sales conversion rates happen when sales activity is backed by air cover from coordinated advertising. This involves targeted campaigns across platforms like LinkedIn or Meta/Instagram designed to build awareness and engagement across your account list. 

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2. Personalized content

Webinars (ideally with customer speakers), case studies, playbooks, and video content tailored to specific industries, personas, or use cases. 

And remember: this content shouldn’t work for your entire prospect base — otherwise, it’s not an ABM motion. The content should be ultra specific for the identified ICP.

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3. SDR outreach

Direct, personalized outreach aligned with campaign messaging. This ensures consistency across all touchpoints, from direct-response ads to emails to sales conversations. 

Extra tip: Compensate your SDRs appropriately. These are long deals, so opportunities won’t be opening immediately. You need to reward and incentivize SDRs to keep hunting.

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4. Events (virtual and in-person)

High-impact engagement opportunities are a key driver for pipeline creation. Sales and subject matter are in the same room as your prospects having valuable discussions.

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5. Dedicated landing pages

No generic website traffic to your homepage — build personalized experiences for target accounts, focused on their specific challenges, use cases, and solutions. Think of it like a micro-site of interactive content.

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For Enterprise Teams:

Speed is often the killer at enterprise companies: more people, more teams, and more operational processes are required to launch a single new motion and campaign. 

One solution is to create a tiger team for this motion: have an assigned marketing ops or RevOps, marketer, and sales team member responsible for the strategy and execution of this motion. The ops team member will ensure that the program is launched seamlessly and within the right timeframe.

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Step 6: Measure, optimize, and scale

Congrats! Your ABM campaign has gone live — but you’re not done yet. The final step is measuring success, optimizing, and scaling. 

It’s common for mid-market and above revenue teams to struggle with disconnected data and reactive marketing. On top of that, every company will have their own revenue challenges and different funnel metrics that they’re trying to improve. There’s no “one size fits all” solution.

Generally, measuring ABM success requires a mix of metrics:

Account engagement metrics

• Website visits
• Content engagement
• Meetings booked

Coverage metrics

• Number of stakeholders engaged
• Buying group completeness

Pipeline metrics

• Opportunities created
• Pipeline velocity
• Deal progression

Revenue metrics

• Win rate
• Average deal size
• ROI

Make sure to use average benchmarks you’ve collected from earlier to compare before and after. Feedback from sales and those speaking directly to your prospects is also critical.

Don’t forget about qualitative data:

• Are conversations improving?
• Are more prospects educated?
• Are deals progressing faster?
• Has the program revealed new campaign opportunities?

And for accounts that closed-lost with ABM support, what were the reasons? All of this information will reveal valuable competitive intel that will inform product teams on where to improve.

When to scale your ABM strategy

ABM is a long-term investment. Most programs require multiple quarters before scaling due to the nature of the deal length.

The key is not to scale by volume, but by expanding into new segments (verticals, use cases, personas).

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Common ABM mistakes to avoid

• Launching ABM without proper readiness
• Misalignment between sales and marketing
• Targeting too few or too many accounts
• Focusing on vanity metrics
• Expecting immediate results
• Investing in ABM software too early

If you’re curious, we cover more of these learnings in this blog on enterprise ABM lessons from our work with Demandbase.

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Final thoughts: is ABM worth it?

There are no shortcuts to growth. 

ABM is all about playing the long game: it’s a focused, strategic approach to winning high-value deals.

We’ve seen companies fail at ABM due to poor foundations, and turn ABM into their most effective growth channel. The difference comes down to execution and mastering the basics. 

If you’re planning to test ABM:

• Make sure your fundamentals are strong
• Start with a manageable account list
• Align closely with sales
• Focus on meaningful metrics
• Be patient!

Because with ABM works, it can transform your entire go-to-market strategy.

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More ABM Resources

• Demandbase - Mastering Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Best Practices for B2B Success
• Demandbase - Enterprise ABM Strategy: Modern Best Practices for Targeting High-Value Accounts
• Salesforce - What is Account-Based Marketing?
• Vidyard - 7 Effective ABM Tactics to Boost B2B Sales
• ZenABM - B2B ABM Strategy: The Ultimate Guide