**What's in a name?**
ABM playbook An orchestrated set of strategies and tactics to target each Target Account. A typical playbook would include the value proposition, messaging, content, creatives, and media channels used to target the relevant account(s).
ABM program There are generally three accepted types of ABM program: One-to-one (also referred to as Strategic ABM), One-to-few (also referred to as ABM Lite), and One-to-many (also known as Programmatic ABM).
Account awareness Account awareness of your organization is a key indicator to determine MQA readiness. Branded web traffic and engagement interactions (such as email open rates, percentage of content consumed, engagement, etc.) are key indicators of awareness.
Account engagement How much time has a good-fit account spent engaging with your organization? Time spent reading your content, browsing your site, opening your emails, or speaking with representatives or chatbots are all actions to monitor to determine account engagement - and MQA readiness.
Account insight Account insights provide the data and intelligence to show which accounts are showing a higher propensity to purchase and are actively in a buying journey.
Account lifecycle This is the ABM version of the Buyer’s journey. While the well-accepted stages of Awareness, Consideration, and Decision are valid for an individual they are not valid for an Account. Account lifecycles must include the Buying Committee and typically includes Acquisition, Acceleration, and Expansion.
Account tiering This is the process of ranking each Target Account based on how close it matches your ICP. We tier Accounts as Tier 1, 2, and 3 which dictates the type of ABM program they receive (and the level of investment and resources).
Account-based Marketing (ABM) Account-based Marketing (ABM) is a strategy that treats an account (or cluster of accounts) as a marketing of one. ABM is highly personalized and harnesses technology, data, insights, and creativity to develop relationships, build reputation, and drive revenue in your most important accounts.
Cluster This term is associated with One-to-few ABM programs where you are targeting a subset of your Target Accounts List. A One-to-few program typically targets a small group of accounts that share similar business characteristics, challenges, or business drivers, e.g. Fintech companies operating in the USA. We recommend a maximum of 15 accounts per quarter should be enrolled in a One-to-few program.
Decision-Making Unit (DMU) B2B buying decisions are rarely made by one individual which now requires marketers to influence a wide group of stakeholders. Each member of the Decision-Making Unit plays a significant role in the B2B buying decision, regardless of seniority.
Firmographic data We’re all familiar with demographics (people). Firmographics is the same but in this case for companies. It allows you to segment them by unique identifiers, e.g. size, industry, turnover, no. of employees, etc.
First-party data This is your data in your CRM. In ABM we refer to ‘first-party intent data’ - this is insight via tracking visitors to your website with automation tools such as HubSpot or other website analytics tools. This insight is called engagement data and can be a strong indicator of intent.
Ideal customer profile (ICP) This is produced via an intensive market study that incorporates firmographic and technographic data as well as information specific to your business, your current customers, and market. The ultimate output is a profile that you can apply to Account Selection.
Intent data Intent data is information about a company’s digital activity, to provide insight into their purchase intent and online research behavior. Using insights from a range of third party data sources, over time and mapped to the buyer’s journey, this insight allows sales and marketing teams to build a clear view of a target’s challenges and buying motives, topic searches, intent velocity (how active they are around that topic), and other account intelligence.
Lifetime value (LTV) This is commonly used in ABM to understand the value of each account (typically calculated as annual expected revenue multiplied by average customer lifetime). ABM is best suited to accounts with the highest LTV.
Marketing Qualified Account (MQA) Describes the entire high propensity account/decision-making unit (rather than one individual person within that account) who, following your ABM activities, are showing a degree of sales-readiness. This metric (and ABM as a strategic approach) is more aligned to how sales are focused on winning accounts as opposed to winning leads).
One-to-few One-to-few is deployed when you can segment target accounts into small clusters of 15 to 20 accounts where they have something in common, be it they belong to the same industry, the same sector, they share a common challenge, a similar business driver, et cetera. You are now increasing the level of customization and personalization with additional resources and investment required.
One-to-many The new ‘kid’ on the block. One-to-many ABM has exploded in recent years largely down to technology. One-to-many is used to target hundreds to thousands of accounts as part of an ‘Always-on’ strategy to generate awareness and engagement.
One-to-one The most personalized form of ABM, usually only reserved for your Tier 1 accounts - be they existing clients that you wish to grow/retain or new logos that you are looking to acquire. Highly customized programs with deep-dive account research and high use of data-inspired creativity to create an emotional connection with the relevant personas within the account.
Pipeline acceleration Pipeline acceleration is the strategy of increasing the speed that accounts go through the sales process with the ultimate goal of increasing revenue. It requires sales and marketing teams to work together to create an acceleration campaign.
Programmatic advertising Programmatic advertising has revolutionized ABM allowing you to target specific accounts, and the people within those accounts, with adverts that align with the buyer’s journey, e.g. awareness-type, followed by more product-specific through to more bottom of the funnel.
Psychographic data We’re all familiar with demographics (age, gender, etc.). Psychographics looks at ‘soft data’ such as personality, attitudes, and lifestyles. This combined with demographic data can help you better understand your Target account audience and adjust your messaging and content accordingly.
Sales and Marketing alignment The objective of sales and marketing alignment is for both teams to work together to hit the same ‘North Star’. This alignment sees the two teams sharing goals, revenue targets, technologies, and processes - essential for ABM to be successful.
Sales enablement The process of providing the collateral, content, data, insights, tools, and technology that your Sales teams need to work seamlessly, delivering the best prospect and customer engagement experience. Sales enablement also looks at optimizing the entire prospect and customer engagement process to provide the least possible friction in the buyer journey.
Target Account List (TAL) Once you have your TAM and your ICP, you can now create your Target Account List (TAL). These are the Accounts that you will target during a specific period, e,g. the next quarter or longer. Typically, you will tier your Accounts (we use 1, 2, or 3) to denote those that are of more or less importance (and priority).
Technographic data Tecnographics is all about understanding a target account’s technology stack to understand what hardware and software they use, which tools and applications, etc. Much like demographics, firmographics, and psychographics, technographic profiling is of paramount importance for SaaS companies looking to understand the market and their competitors.
Third-party data This is information collected by third-party providers (typically via cookies, and at the IP level) and enables insight into intent across sites that are not your own. This provides a wider view into an account’s interest and intent across the web and can highlight intent on particular topics and sites relevant to your campaign focus.
Total Addressable Market (TAM) Your Total Addressable Market (TAM) is the maximum potential revenue you could generate from the market in which you operate.
Value proposition Many an ABM program will succeed or fail based on the alignment of your value proposition to your target accounts’ pain. The value proposition is the “why” and differentiator that feeds into your entire messaging strategy.