The Past, Present and Future of Account-Based Marketing

To say Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has come a long way would be an understatement. From its humble beginnings as an analog tactic to its swift ascendance into B2B celebrity, the strategy is transforming the way B2B marketing and sales is done. But to understand where the strategy is headed in the next few years, we have to first spend some time understanding its past.

The Past

While it may seem as though ABM is a new idea, many companies have actually been doing ABM in one form or another since the 1990s and early 2000s.

My first encounter with ABM dates back over a decade when I was running Worldwide Field Marketing at Adobe. I was reporting into our Head of Worldwide Sales at the time and like most B2B marketers today, my life was filled with arguments with our sales team about the quantity and quality of the leads we were delivering. But at the time, the sales team was implementing TAS, or Targeted Account Selling. So our field teams, particularly in North America, started executing the marketing equivalent of this, TAM, or Targeting Account Marketing. We had a list of 700 strategic accounts, and we started creating account plans for as many of them as we could, which involved developing detailed overviews of our target companies, complete with org charts and reviews of their annual reports. These account plans were, by far, the best collaborations we had with the sales team. They couldn’t get enough of them. The problem was, we could only do, at most, a couple of dozen. There was just no way to scale it beyond that. Even targeting those 25 accounts nearly killed my team.

The Present

Flash forward to 2018, scaling your ABM efforts from 25 to 500 (or even 5,000) has become easier and more manageable. The advent of new technologies introduced by Demandbase and others span every stage of the strategy, from account selection, audience management engagement and personalization to intent data and sales insights. We can now easily scale ABM and find new ways to drive revenue for our companies.

The present era is marked by this ease of use. Not only is it easier to scale your efforts, but as ABM has become more relevant (SiriusDecisions reports that 92% of companies realize the value in ABM, going as far as calling it a B2B must-have), it’s become easier to get started with ABM. This widespread adoption has resulted in greater resources—both in terms of best practices and technology—and allowed more and more B2B marketers to make the leap from “why ABM?” to “how do I drive success with ABM?”

Thankfully, the learning curve with ABM is actually pretty short. I compare the learning curve to the one a friend used when teaching me the fundamental strategies of Texas Hold’em. He told me that you can learn 50% of what you need to know in 30 minutes. Adding the next 25% can take a couple of weeks. Adding the next 15% can take a couple of years. And getting that final 10% of expertise can take several years. Similarly, you can learn the fundamentals of ABM fairly quickly. In fact, most B2B marketers have the basic knowledge to get started immediately and get positive results. Too often, marketers are scared off by consultants telling them that they need six months to undergo a change management exercise, or need an army of contractors to fill out templates and map processes. Blah, blah, blah! Get started quickly, get some quick wins and learn as you go!

The Future

The future of ABM will build upon this ease of use and continue to use technology to make ABM more efficient and effective. We’ll also see ABM impact a greater portion of the B2B budget, as marketers move beyond website analytics and website personalization and start using the strategy for other areas of their marketing mix, including SEO and SEM.

With SEO and SEM, ABM-specific Artificial Intelligence technology will be able to surface relevant keywords outside of the ones you’re currently searching, which will enable marketers to bid based on what their target accounts are searching for, while advertisers will be able to run their efforts against those keywords. Events will become more strategic as marketers target conferences and trade shows based on the interests and needs of their target accounts. And when it comes to PR, B2B marketers will be able to understand what types of publications and content their accounts are reading, and their PR teams can then target the right reporters with relevant content to better reach their accounts.

The Future’s Future

ABM is having its moment, but the next few years will be when it actually shines brightest. As the story goes with most celebrities, eventually, the buzz around ABM will fade, because it will simply become how B2B businesses run their marketing and sales efforts. But for now, it’s fun to watch the business strategy bask in the spotlight.