Looking to take your ABM game to the next level? At B2BMX’s recent “Next-Level ABM” virtual event, Meredith Fuller, Managing Director of Demand Strategy at Quarry, provided 8 guiding principles on becoming next-level account-based marketers. And as a bonus, she shares her predictions for what’s ahead for ABM in 2024.

Each of the 8 tenets of next-level ABM serve as critical underpinnings of successful ABM, and each requires thought, time and attention to do well. With each tenet, Meredith provides real-life examples from successful, award-winning ABM campaigns.

You can watch the entire video below with the highlights of the 8 tenets to follow.

Tenet #1: Smart account selection

What it means: Honing in on those accounts you are most likely to win is the critical first step of ABM. Next-level ABM goes a little bit further to identify ideal accounts. Leveraging the right MarTech can help take your account selection from good, to great, to smart.

IRL: (1:50) For leading employee recognition software and services provider O.C. Tanner, Quarry completed a comprehensive Fit, Intent and Engagement Analysis to prioritize the right accounts to target.

The team developed a predictive model within Alteryx for this assessment. Using Demandbase, we layered in intent that was informed by keyword search via SEMrush, which was then overlaid with first-party engagement data via Eloqua.

This evaluation resulted in prioritization of 294 accounts for the ABM program out of the initial 2,150 accounts that were originally identified.

Tenet #2: Robust contact coverage

What it means: Focusing on the gaps in contact assessment is key. Whether you backfill those gaps through contact acquisition software or take advantage of inbound channels such as content syndication or LinkedIn lead gen forms, really rounding out that buying group coverage is paramount to successful ABM.

IRL: For a visual breakdown of two examples of successful and robust contact coverage assessments done with past clients, head to (5:57).

Tenet #3: Multi-channel multi-touch orchestration

What it means: Whether it’s 1:1, 1:Few or 1:Many, highly orchestrated multi-channel and multi-touch programs will propel your buyers along their journey. A comprehensive, integrated campaign gives the buyer a seamless experience.

IRL: For a look into one of our most robust, multi-channel, multi-touch ABM campaigns ever, check out this ZS work story here or at (7:55).

Tenet #4: Compelling creative & content experiences

What it means: So you’ve identified the accounts that could really benefit from your solutions but how do you get these folks to sit up and take notice of your outreach from the get go?

Compelling, creative content that’s rooted in buyer insight will set your ABM campaign apart. When content is relevant and resonant, audiences lean into the experience you deliver.

IRL:

(11:45) For Quarry and Windstream Enterprise, one highly targeted campaign (called “Gaps”) was particularly successful because not only did the creative concept speak to the target audience, but the content employed in the campaign was equally tailored at every step of the buyer journey.

(12:37) Another example comes from Quarry’s partnership with FIS, a global FinTech leader. The “More Than” creative concept was perfect for raising awareness, grabbing the attention of the audience and giving them a truly compelling experience. Get the full picture of this campaign here.

Tenet #5: Personalization that matters

What it means: [Insert name here], are you ready to move beyond table stakes personalization? Relevancy and pervasiveness when it comes to personalization is what it takes to make every touch feel as though it was designed solely for the recipient.

IRL:

(14:56) The 2023 award-winning ABM campaign Quarry rolled out with Bitrise, a leading mobile DevOps platform provider, is a great example of tailored, personalized content. Check out the full work story on Bitrise here.

(16:12) At Quarry, we take our own account-based advice, too. Our own ABM campaign focused on implementing our best strategies for targeting accounts with tailored content (and even a personalized vinyl record!) that sparked interest in accounts we wanted to work with.

Tenet #6: MarTech that scales

What it means: ABM presents a fantastic opportunity to take your MarTech to the next level. And smart evaluation of your entire stack in the planning stage of your campaign can mean the opportunity to employ new approaches to your ABM game.

IRL: (17:34) “Thrive On”, a 1:Market ABM campaign for Windstream Enterprise, brought together multiple technologies to deliver both scale and automation. We were able to accomplish the campaign goals by leveraging their stack in ways they never thought possible. Check out the full work story here.

Tenet #7: Timely measurement & reporting

What it means: Measurement and reporting is imperative to successful ABM. If teams need to go searching across multiple reports in various systems and across different platforms, the likelihood of performance being closely monitored decreases significantly. And when performance can be clearly monitored, it can be tweaked and optimized throughout the campaign.

IRL: (19:51) Bringing it back to the ZS work story,the entire campaign’s performance was tracked via a consolidated report dashboard that Quarry built leveraging Alteryx and Google Campaign Studio, which allowed both the Quarry team as well as the ZS marketing team to consolidate and visualize data from multiple sources.

Tenet #8: True Marketing & Sales alignment

What it means: When Marketing and Sales teams are working harmoniously, that’s when ABM greatness happens. Clearly articulating the purpose of the play, the roles and responsibilities of both Marketing and Sales, and its execution in an easy to comprehend manner are critical to Sales support and adoption. Making it simple for Sales to lean in means that the performance of your program will be that much better.

IRL: The Quarry team designed a series of integrated ABM programs targeting various funnel stages for a large travel expense and invoice management platform provider. And while the design of the program was from Marketing, the execution of it was in Sales’ hands. See the two working harmoniously at (21:03).

(21:52) Another example of taking alignment and integration to the next level, Windstream Enterprise and Quarry collaborated to develop a series of Sales rep-activated ABM campaigns that were designed to make it easy for Sales to opt customers into multi-channel programs that would resonate with their needs and buying stage.

What’s next for ABM?

(22:37) Artificial Intelligence. We will see AI continue to pervade marketing activities from research, to content creation, to synthesis, to analysis. At Quarry, we’ve recently used AI in times when it was difficult to find accounts for a target list using traditional methods (due to a niche product) and through the use of AI, we were given a great starting list that we were able to manually verify. It allowed us to get to a list much more quickly than all of the typical or more traditional manners.

(24:23) Sales Advocacy. Sales is going to become a stronger and more vocal advocate for ABM. Sales’ attention and attraction to ABM shouldn’t be a surprise given it improves sales outcomes in terms of pipeline creation, sales, velocity, win rates, etc.

(25:27) More integrated campaigns across ABM tiers. For example, programs where engaged accounts from a 1:Many program automatically get dropped into a higher-touch 1:Few program because of their behavior. These multi-threaded ABM programs are the way of the future and will do a great job of progressing and prioritizing accounts.

Want to go deeper into next-level ABM? Learn more about what we do or connect with us here.