Account-Based Marketing or ABM, can be a significant investment, especially for startups and small businesses. For example, one ABM company quoted me $60,000 annually upfront, plus a monthly fee, just to have an access to their platform. However, by understanding how account-based marketing works, you can create an effective strategy in-house using more affordable alternatives and tools you already have.

What is Account-Based Marketing or ABM?

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is like personalized marketing, instead of casting a wide net and reaching out to everyone, ABM focuses on a small number of key accounts (companies or individuals) that are a perfect fit for your business. It’s about tailoring your marketing efforts to speak directly to these specific companies and people, understanding their needs, and delivering personalized messages. It’s all about quality over quantity and making each prospect and customer feel valued.

Essential Tools for Building Successful In-House ABM Strategy

Here is recommended list of software, tools, and marketing programs, many of which you probably already have for your regular marketing campaigns, to build an effective in-house Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy:

• Email list or contact database
• Salesforce or other CRM
• Landing pages and your top content
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC), remarketing, social, and programmatic advertising platforms
• Email or marketing automation software
• Linkedin Sales Navigator with InMail
• Social media automation software
• Lead capturing tools
• Reverse IP-tracking software
• Online Reputation management (ORM) programs

Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing Account-Based Marketing (ABM) In-House Without an Agency

Follow these steps below to create in-house demand generation strategy that can work. Additionally, discover the advantages and disadvantages of implementing ABM in-house.

Create a List of Target Companies and Contacts

Identify all the companies you want to target and compile a list of the decision-makers with their job titles. I recommend using your own contact database you already have plus enrich it with additional data from popular databases such as D&B, ZoomInfo, or Discover.org for this task.

When building your target list, think outside the box. For example, if you are targeting marketing professionals to buy your software, consider who will ultimately approve the purchase, who has this power. You should include Founders, Owners, CEOs, Presidents, COOs, CFOs, VPs of Operations and Finance, and Controllers, especially when targeting small SMB and/or mid-sized companies.

Don’t forget about the end-users, people who will actually use your product or software for work. For example, you might target top executives at a transportation company, but the fleet managers in the field are the ones who will use the product daily. End-users often influence decision-makers since their feedback is crucial for company’s operations.

Here’s an example from my own experience. My previous company was about to sign two deals, each with a unique situation. In one case, the top executives were enthusiastic about the software, but the employees resisted change and preferred their old software. In the other case, the CEO was hesitant, but the employees were advocating for our product, because they didn’t like to use one in place and were convinced ours was what they needed.

Alternative Methods to Enrich Your B2B Contact Lists

Enrich your prospect contact list using legal scraping tools like eGrabber or Scrapp.io, these tools can help you get contact information for professionals from LinkedIn and other professional or social networks.

Avoid purchasing email lists from unreliable data providers and unknown vendors. Be carefull of cold calls and spam emails, often from sources offering millions of emails at extremely low prices. The risk is too high, your emails might end up in junk or spam folders, wasting your efforts and affecting marketing operations.

Leveraging Top Content to Engage and Influence Decision-Makers and End-Users

When writing content for your account-based marketing (ABM), carefully choose what you want to present. Case studies, eBooks, white papers, and videos are ideal for ABM outreach. Why? Unlike outbound marketing such as PPC campaigns, where every click aims for immediate conversion on landing pages, ABM targets the entire organization. The goal of ABM is to engage, “warm up”, and nurture all key prospects such as employees and decision-makers through multiple touchpoints.

Build Paid Advertising Campaigns. Use PPC, Display, Remarketing, Social Media, and Programmatic Ads

I often point out that account-based marketing (ABM) revolves around targeting specific industries, companies, and job titles. Everything else serves as supporting tools to refine your target audience and identify the right individuals to engage. Paid advertising represents the biggest investment in ABM strategy, some B2B clicks can cost from $20 to $100 (per click) and even more, and your success (ROI) depends on executing digital ad delivery effectively.

When you have your list and content prepared, activate advertising campaigns on platforms that offer options for list matching and targeting by job title and company. Use audience matching capabilities on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Quora, which allow you to upload lists of companies, domains, and emails to match with real people for targeted ad delivery.

Programmatic advertising networks and demand-side platforms (DSPs) use IP-matching technologies to serve display or banner ads directly to your prospects.

Also, remarketing should be a top priority in any ABM campaign. Your display and social content should follow website visitors to influence their decision-making process. A common and rewarding feedback I receive during the final stages of sales is prospects saying, “Your company is everywhere I look online, you must be the best choice!”

Develop Effective Email Nurturing Campaigns for Your Contacts

Use your marketing automation platform to build targeted email nurturing campaigns for all your prospects and ABM targets. Ensure your contact list consists only of opted-in contacts for account-based marketing and verify emails using tools like Kickbox to avoid spam filters.

Integrate your email outreach with other digital marketing channels, such as social media. Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook offer audience matching features. Upload your recipient list to these networks before sending emails and create sponsored updates with consistent integrated messaging.

From my experience, combining social media with email campaigns increases open rates because receivers are more likely to engage with emails from familiar companies and brands. Some may recall encountering your brand through sponsored updates or remarketing display campaigns, enhancing brand recognition and trust.

Expand Your Contact List by Sending Personalized Messages Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator and InMail

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a valuable tool for broadening your network and acquiring new contacts when running account-based marketing. Especially, InMail within Sales Navigator can be highly effective for introducing your company and arranging meetings.

From my experience, InMail proves most effective when targeting professionals who actively engage on LinkedIn as part of their daily roles (such as sales, marketers, HR, operations, and C-level executives). While some industries and professionals re not very engaging, for instance, I once sent 50 InMail messages to warehouse managers, but after a month, only 2 had been opened. It’s worth noting that LinkedIn limits users to 50 InMail messages per month, so it’s crucial not to waste this resource.

Effective Lead Capture Strategies for Account-Based Marketing

In account-based marketing (ABM), leveraging lead capture tools is critical for getting leads and optimizing cost-per-acquisition (CPA).

Ensure you implement all possible lead capture tools on your website, including:

• Landing Pages – pages designed to convert visitors into leads.
• Calls to Action (CTAs) – messages guiding visitors towards conversion.
• Web Forms – for collecting visitor information.
• Pop-up Messages and Forms – messages and forms to capture attention and leads.
• Surveys – to gather additional insights and contact details.
• Freemiums – offers like free trials or samples to attract potential leads.
• Gated Content – exclusive content requiring user information to access.

These tools are essential for effectively capturing leads from your website.

Create Social Media Automation Campaigns

Automating your social media outreach using tools like HubSpot, Sprinklr, or Hootsuite can significantly simplify your marketing and ABM efforts. These platforms allow you to schedule daily posts, ensuring consistent visibility of your evergreen content.

Maintaining active social media accounts is crucial because inactive profiles can deter potential customers during their research about your company. Regularly scheduled posts not only keep your target audience engaged but also establish credibility. Also, automation tools enable you to monitor and respond to any interactions promptly.

Monitoring Website Visitors. Using Reverse IP Tools to Track Visiting Companies

Tools like LeadForensics, CrazyEgg, or LeadLander offer insights by tracking which companies visit your website. This capability is essential for account-based marketing (ABM), when activity is detected from a company on your ABM list, you can alert your sales team or follow-up via email, LinkedIn InMail, or even a phone call. In addition, these tools are effective for identifying new companies to incorporate to your current ABM efforts.

For example, with LeadForensics, by providing insights into the anonymous website visitors from your target ABM accounts, Lead Forensics makes ABM operations easier by uncovering data about the web behavior of your target accounts, it helps you to personalize your outreach, engage with the right people, and drive higher conversions and revenue from your account-based marketing campaigns.

Integrating ABM Strategy with Salesforce or Other CRMs

Integrating Salesforce with your marketing automation and tracking tools provides more capabilities, often comparable to professional ABM software.

Firstly, by centralizing lead records in CRM, tools like LeadForensics or marketing automation platforms can update lead actions like activities on your site and what pages your leads or ABM prospects visit.

Secondly, CRMs have features like automatic notifications to assigned personnel for timely follow-up on leads or accounts.

Adding Data Enrichment Tools

And last, there are many plugins that can enrich lead data in Salesforce and other CRMs, offering insights such as company industry, size, revenue, assets, and office locations. These integrations enhance your ability to tailor and optimize your ABM efforts effectively.

Ensuring a Positive Online Reputation for Successful Account-Based Marketing Campaigns

An important aspect of account-based marketing (ABM) is nurturing prospects while maintaining a strong online presence. Prospective clients interact with your content, visit your website, and research your company across various online platforms such as social media, press releases, and online review networks. These platforms often host feedback from past customers and clients, influencing 90% of consumers and 70% of B2B buyers who research companies and products before making decision.

Maintaining an outstanding online reputation with positive reviews is critical for ABM success. Negative reviews, complaints, and low star ratings can significantly undermine all your ABM efforts. Regularly monitor your online visibility and reviews and address any negative feedback that comes.

When looking at past bad reviews and complaints, consider resolving issues “offline” privately with dissatisfied customers to potentially remove negative content. Ask satisfied clients to share their positive experiences through reviews, it can mitigate the impact of past negative feedback.

If you encounter reviews that violate platform rules, like such as being inappropriate, offensive, irrelevant, or fake, you should take action by flagging and reporting them. Most networks have clear policies for handling such issues. Alternatively, consider enlisting the help of an online reputation management company or review removal service to manage and improve your online presence effectively.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Implementing In-House Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Implementing account-based marketing (ABM) in-house offers many advantages over relying on agencies, external providers, or “one-size-fits-all” technologies in the market. Many companies, including traditional agencies and lead generators, claim to offer ABM services, but understanding their offerings and differentiation can be challenging. Often a technology or agency offers traditional digital marketing but advertise it as ABM because market demand and popular “buzzword”.

Choosing and integrating different tools allows marketers and sales professionals to maintain full control over their ABM. This approach ensures alignment with specific customer insights and business goals, enable tailored campaigns, and keeps the cost low.

However, in-house ABM implementation also come with challenges. Not all marketing platforms integrate with each other, requiring significant manual effort for data transfer and coordination between platforms and departments. These limitations can impact efficiency and scalability.

Should You Invest in a Professional ABM Platform? Understanding the Benefits

Investing in a full-service account-based marketing (ABM) platform like DemandBase or 6Sense can be highly advantageous if your budget allows. As mentioned before, platforms like this can easily scale into 6 figure additional marketing cost. But with all the cost, such platforms eliminate the complexities of managing an ABM strategy in-house and consolidating multiple tools.

In my experience, managing targeted accounts manually involves extensive hours sifting through excel spreadsheets and data points. Platforms like DemandBase or 6Sense simplify this process by centralizing all necessary information in one place. You can select target companies, track their activities, automate tasks, and receive insights that help and guide both marketing and sales efforts effectively. However, there is a learning curve involved when you use those platforms, some features can be challenging to use.

Conclusion. Creating Successful Account-Based Marketing (ABM) In-House

Implementing an effective account-based marketing (ABM) strategy requires in-house capabilities and external technology and resources. While investing in a professional ABM platform like DemandBase or 6Sense can improve and simplify operations and enhance efficiency, it comes at high cost and could be out of reach for smaller companies and startups.

Alternatively, building an ABM strategy in-house offers advantages, specifically in taking control over cost, customization and specific marketing goals. By using existing tools and integrating them effectively, marketers can create campaigns to resonate and engage with target audiences. However, this approach requires a lot of planning, integration efforts, data management, and manual work.

Whether opting for a professional ABM platform or developing capabilities internally, the key lies in chosen strategy with organizational goals and customer insights. Regular monitoring of online reputation, proactive engagement with prospects, running marketing campaigns (PPC, social, display etc) and using different tools for data driven decision-making are essential for success in ABM.

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Reputation Management and Digital Marketing by RetainTrust

RetainTrust specializes in comprehensive digital marketing services, including online reputation management, negative review removal, and advanced strategies such as account-based marketing (ABM). With a proven track record, we have empowered numerous businesses to enhance their online presence, acquire leads, and achieve sustainable growth. Contact us today to discuss your needs and request a quote, and discover how we can support your success online.