Marketing has always been about scale. Marketers have used a combination of print, radio, television, email, search, and social to reach prospects at scale.

Account based marketing (ABM) shies away from mass marketing techniques for a more targeted approach. ABM helps sales and marketing teams focus on the highest value accounts for increased revenues and greater customer satisfaction. Research from SiriusDecisions shows that 92% of B2B marketers believe ABM is extremely or very important to their overall marketing efforts.

92% of #B2B marketers consider account-based marketing (#ABM) “very” important. https://t.co/7ioEuBWxsT pic.twitter.com/5GWdcrlc6r

— Kate Senie (@SenieKate) March 7, 2016

Definition. SiriusDecisions defines account based marketing as “the strategic approach marketers use to support a defined universe of accounts, including strategic accounts and named accounts.” ABM offers a structured approach for identifying accounts, developing offers, and personalizing target experience.

Good #ABM post by @sangramvajre on flipping the #B2B Funnel upside down as #MarTech advances https://t.co/NXiC0INZOe pic.twitter.com/3QeCyW57hm

— Gregory Rosa (@grosa64) March 4, 2016

Why This Matters. According to the CEB, the number of decision makers in enterprise B2B sales is 5.4. How do marketers align with sales teams to navigate complex buying landscapes? Account based marketing focuses on selling to individual accounts or a group of named accounts. Marketers can deliver compelling and relevant messages for increasing engagement rates and better returns. According to ITSMA, <>a href=”http://www.itsma.com/abm/professional-development/”>84 percent of marketers consider ABM as delivering a higher ROI than any other marketing approach. Alterra Group’s survey found that ABM provides significant benefits for retaining existing clients (84%) and attracting new ones (65%).

Great @McKinsey @davidedelman quote. #flipmyfunnel #ABM #Vendemore Why use ABM? https://t.co/Gl28GeHmwm pic.twitter.com/TWzkv7IUG8

— Christopher Engman (@chrisengman) March 2, 2016

What To Look For. When you are interacting with account based marketing vendors, here are questions to keep in mind:

• Does the tool allow sales and marketing teams to collaborate on a list of target accounts?
• Can you incorporate market intelligence and research around each account for personalized messaging?
• Can you deliver messages that are relevant to your account? Are you able to track interactions across the customer lifecycle?
• Can you assign and track metrics for each stage of the buyer journey?

Sponsors. You can talk to the following account based marketing vendors at MarTech:

Demandbase enables B2B companies to identify and target the accounts they value most, and then market to them across the entire funnel.

Terminus enables B2B marketers to target accounts, engage decision-makers, and accelerate marketing and sales pipeline velocity at scale.

YesPath helps build account relationships by tracking engagement, predicting intent, and personalizing content.