9 Account-Based Marketing Strategies To Target High-Value Businesses

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy where marketing and sales teams work together to target high-value accounts rather than a broad market. Instead of casting a wide net, ABM hyper-focuses on creating personalized campaigns to land large accounts that help a company grow faster.

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, your business must strategically select the best marketing approach to reach your target audience and drive growth. Two powerful strategies—Direct Response Marketing with PPC and Account-Based Marketing (ABM)—offer unique ways to engage your potential customers. Let’s dive into each approach, highlight their differences, and explore how to choose the right fit for your business.

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Direct Response Marketing & PPC: Quick Wins, Broad Reach

Direct response marketing and PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising are designed to generate immediate action for your business. Whether signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource, or purchasing your product or service, the goal is to motivate potential customers to act quickly.

• Audience Targeting: Direct response and PPC focus on a broad audience, using demographic and behavioral data to reach a wide range of potential customers. This strategy prioritizes scale and reach, often casting a wide net to maximize impressions and conversions.
• Speed and Efficiency: PPC ads appear at the top of search (user-intent) results, targeting specific keywords that attract ready-to-buy customers. With PPC, you can quickly generate traffic and conversions, making it ideal for campaigns with immediate goals, like product launches or promotions.
• Performance Metrics: Success in PPC and direct response marketing is typically measured by CTR (Click-Through Rate), CPC (Cost Per Click), conversion rates, and CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). Campaigns are optimized based on these metrics to maximize ROI, often using A/B testing to refine ads and landing pages.

However, while direct response and PPC are excellent for quicker results, they lack the depth to cultivate long-term relationships, particularly with enterprise businesses. That’s where Account-Based Marketing (ABM) comes into play.

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Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Deep Engagement, High-Value Relationships

Account-based marketing takes a different approach, prioritizing quality over quantity. Instead of broad reach, ABM is laser-focused on building meaningful relationships with a select group of high-value accounts.

• Highly Targeted Approach: ABM focuses on specific accounts or companies identified as high-value targets. This approach requires a deep understanding of each account’s needs, challenges, and goals, tailoring content and messaging to address these elements. In essence, ABM treats each account like its own unique market.
• Personalization and Depth: ABM campaigns invest in personalizing outreach to individual stakeholders within a target account, fostering trust and rapport. Content is carefully curated to align with each account’s buyer’s journey, providing value at every interaction.
• Collaboration with Sales Teams: Unlike PPC, which is often marketing-led, ABM requires collaboration between marketing and sales teams. These teams can deliver a consistent experience for the target account by working together with aligned messaging and coordinated efforts.
• Success Metrics: In ABM, success is measured by engagement metrics like account penetration, revenue growth within the account, and long-term relationships. It’s a long-term strategy that values the lifetime value of a client rather than short-term conversions.

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Key Differences at a Glance

Account-based marketing takes a different approach, prioritizing quality over quantity. Instead of broad reach, ABM is laser-focused on building meaningful relationships with a select group of high-value accounts.

• Highly Targeted Approach: ABM focuses on specific accounts or companies identified as high-value targets. This approach requires a deep understanding of each account’s needs, challenges, and goals, tailoring content and messaging to address these elements. In essence, ABM treats each account like its own unique market.
• Personalization and Depth: ABM campaigns invest in personalizing outreach to individual stakeholders within a target account, fostering trust and rapport. Content is carefully curated to align with each account’s buyer’s journey, providing value at every interaction.
• Collaboration with Sales Teams: Unlike PPC, which is often marketing-led, ABM requires collaboration between marketing and sales teams. These teams can deliver a consistent experience for the target account by working together with aligned messaging and coordinated efforts.
• Success Metrics: In ABM, success is measured by engagement metrics like account penetration, revenue growth within the account, and long-term relationships. It’s a long-term strategy that values the lifetime value of a client rather than short-term conversions.

Choosing The Right Approach For Your Business

While ABM is not for every business, Direct Response and PPC marketing is typically appropriate for nearly all businesses, even if ABM also makes sense.

• Use Direct Response Marketing and PPC if your primary goal is to quickly drive immediate sales or capture leads in a competitive market. This approach is ideal for businesses selling lower-cost products or services, those aiming for a high volume of sales, and businesses that require little to no education before the prospect buys. (e.g. Plumbing, Clothes, Hardware)
• Choose ABM if you’re focused on enterprise clients or high-value accounts with longer sales cycles and where a significant amount of education is typically necessary before the prospect signs a contract. ABM is effective for B2B businesses looking to nurture deep, long-term relationships with clients who can deliver substantial revenue over time.

PRO TIP: Deep account research is essential to gain a thorough understanding of each target account’s business model, pain points, industry trends, and decision-makers to tailor your approach.

9 ABM Strategies To Consider For Your Business

1.) Shock & Awe Sales Funnel

I’ve already written a LinkedIn article that comprehensively covers this strategy. However, I engineered this funnel for a few of my B2B clients that (as I’m discussing) only worked with specific industry clients. And to put that in perspective, for one particular client, there aren’t more than 1,500 businesses in the world that they’d work with. So, their need to hyper-target was essential.

You can listen below, or you could click here if you’d rather listen to episode #45 on the Business Growth Show podcast on Spotify.

2.) Personalized Outreach

Craft customized emails and content that address each account's specific needs and challenges, showing that you understand their business.

3.) Multi-Channel Engagement

Reach out through various channels, such as email, LinkedIn, phone calls, and even direct mail, to ensure key stakeholders see and hear your message.

4.) Customized Solutions

Develop tailored proposals or offers that directly address each account's unique needs, demonstrating the value your solution can bring to their business.

5.) Collaborative Approach

Involve critical decision-makers from the target account in co-creating solutions, fostering a sense of partnership and commitment.

6.) Content Mapping

Develop a content strategy that aligns with the buyer’s journey of each account. Provide relevant content at every stage to nurture relationships and move them closer to a decision.

7.) Executive Sponsorship

Engage senior executives from your company to contact their counterparts within the target accounts. This can help build trust and open doors to higher-level discussions.

8.) Webinars & Events

Host exclusive webinars or events tailored to the interests of your target accounts. This provides valuable insights and positions your company as an industry thought leader.

9.) Account-Based Advertising

Use targeted ads on platforms like LinkedIn to reach specific individuals within your target accounts. This keeps your company top-of-mind and reinforces your messaging.

By incorporating these strategies, you could have a robust ABM approach that effectively engages and converts high-value accounts. Think of every strategy you are effectively executing, like adding another propellor or jet engine to the wings of your business, each giving you more thrust and more lift.

Summary

Direct response marketing and PPC are powerful tools for quick wins and immediate impact. However, if your goal is long-term growth with high-value clients, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) offers a strategic path prioritizing quality engagements and meaningful relationships.

The choice ultimately depends on your business goals, client base, and desired outcomes—but blending these two approaches can also bring exceptional results for brands ready to leverage both strengths.

About The Author

Brian Webb is a 23-year entrepreneur, private investor, business & profit growth mentor, a B2B marketer, and the host of the Business Growth Show podcast.

In addition to managing a growing portfolio of businesses, Brian is the CEO of the award-winning marketing and business growth consulting agency in The Woodlands, Texas (Greater Houston Metroplex), Whatbox Digital, LLC.

You can find Brian on Apple, Google, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and Amazon. Brian’s writings have been published and featured on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and MarketWatch, and he has been approved as a Forbes Business Council member and content contributor.

You may also recognize some of Brian’s anchor clients, such as Coca-Cola, Comcast, Coldwell Banker, Entrepreneur’s Organization, Hospital Corp of America, and Karbach Brewing.

Brian has had the opportunity to speak and share the stage with business legends like Daymond John, Suzy Welch, Roland Frasier, Metta World Peace, and Jay Abraham.

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