Account-Based Marketing: Know-How, When, and Why ABM Emerged

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has grown in popularity as a marketing technique. Many people believe that ABM is a modern idea, however, to everyone’s surprise, it is not. ABM has been in use for a much longer time than most people believe. B2B firms have long targeted account lists of their best prospects and paid extra attention to them in sales and marketing. Before it was called Account-Based Marketing, this strategy was known as ‘integrated marketing.’

B2B businesses had to replicate B2C companies when they first appeared, somewhere in the 1990s, because they were giving compelling and tailored brand experiences to their audiences. Although ITSMA invented the term “integrated marketing” in 2004, it took nearly a decade for this concept to become mainstream. Account-based marketing acquired enough worldwide search traffic to appear on Google Trends in 2014, while global search traffic for lead generation reached an all-time low in 2015. Technology has enabled B2B marketers by delivering targeted campaigns to the proper audiences. Soon, the word ‘ABM’ became associated with B2B marketing, much as ‘digital marketing has now become synonymous with normal marketing.

COVID-19 brought new problems and possibilities for marketing, while the finance department had to learn how to accomplish more with less. This is when ABM came into play, assisting businesses and marketers in becoming smarter and more focused in their efforts to attract new or existing clients. Now that the world has fully adopted and embraced account-based marketing approaches, CROs are acquiring more ABM tools to assist sales teams.

There is a significant difference between ABM and “inbound marketing,” which was the conventional B2B marketing approach until the 2010s. ABM, unlike inbound marketing, is not a method for generating leads. The emphasis is very different. As a byproduct, it does create some leads. However, at its foundation, ABM is about raising targeted awareness and engagement with a certain demographic of prospective consumers, as well as collaborating closely with sales teams to generate prospects.

Account-based marketing has always been focused on the accounts that are the best match for your company. These methods have traditionally focused on efficient revenue development, with the majority of marketing efforts directed at the best-fit accounts. The bulk of ABM activities are centered on account interaction and developing opportunities with the target accounts, hence lead generation is a component of ABM.

Every year, we observe the same pattern: when account-based programs get more firmly integrated into a company’s sales and marketing strategy, they become the primary source of income. The outcomes were as clear as day, in 2020. ABM contributed to 78 percent of organizations’ demand-generation resources. And the returns are worth the effort: these programs generate over 80% of new possibilities, and ABM accounts for 73% of total income. ‘Early ABM’ firms are even experiencing a significant impact, with account-based programs accounting for around one-third of their income.