Introduction 1
About This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 4
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 5
Part 1: Getting Started with Account-based Marketing 7
Chapter 1: Introducing the Basics of Account-Based Marketing 9
Defining Account-Based Marketing 10
Pouring leads into the funnel 10
Moving away from lead-based marketing 12
Flipping the Funnel 14
Identifying your best-fit contacts 15
Expanding contacts into accounts 16
Engaging accounts on their terms 16
Creating customer advocates 17
Chapter 2: Making the Case for Account-Based Marketing 19
Understanding Why B2B Companies Need Account-Based Marketing 20
Measuring leads is no longer enough 22
Maximizing your marketing efforts 22
Starting the Conversation about ABM 23
Investing your resources the right way 23
Supporting sales productivity 23
Influencing customer sentiment 26
Driving More Revenue from Account-Based Marketing 28
Generating qualified opportunities 29
Closing more new business 29
Preventing customer churn 30
Chapter 3: Aligning Sales and Marketing 31
Setting the Right Marketing Goals 32
Changing the B2B game 33
Creating a message that works for sales 35
Driving Revenue through Teamwork 36
Selling the dream 37
Building your “A” team 38
Renewing the Vows between Marketing and Sales 40
Connecting to marketing 41
Talking to your sales team 41
Setting realistic expectations 42
Playing to your strengths 44
Chapter 4: Selecting Tools 45
Understanding Marketing Technology 46
Determining your MarTech needs 46
Assessing your resources 48
Building a MarTech Stack 48
Defining your digital presence 54
Setting Up Your Platforms 54
Integrating your software 54
Managing ABM tools 56
Tying everything back to an account 57
Types of Marketing Activities 58
Advertising 58
Social 59
Events 59
Direct mail 60
Content 61
Webinars 63
Email 64
Calls 66
Part 2: Identifying Accounts for Marketing 67
Chapter 5: Targeting Your Best-Fit Accounts 69
Focusing on the Right Market 70
Specifying the industry 70
Sizing the company 71
Segmenting by industry and company size 71
Creating an Ideal Customer Profile 72
Determining your ICP 73
Crafting personas 74
Understanding personas’ motivations 75
Making a Value Proposition 76
Differentiating value based on roles 76
Tailoring your message 76
Remembering everyone is different 76
Building Your List of Target Accounts 77
Starting with a tiered list of companies 77
Applying your ICP to the company list 78
Laser-focusing on best-fit 80
Prospecting within accounts 80
Chapter 6: Fueling the Account-Based Marketing Engine 81
Managing Your Existing CRM Data 82
Leveraging your customer data 82
Comparing customers with your ICP 84
Figuring out what you can use 84
Obtaining New Data on Target Accounts 84
Gathering the right data 85
Acquiring correct company information 85
Finding the right people in those companies 87
Utilizing predictive analytics 89
Creating New Accounts 91
Completing a full profile 92
Avoiding duplicate accounts 92
Assigning new accounts to owners 94
Protecting Data Quality 95
Profiling your data records 96
Determining whether your data is bad 97
Updating account information 98
Chapter 7: Qualifying Your Target Accounts 99
Gauging Interest 100
Comparing inbound and outbound activities 100
Discovering BANT 100
Asking the right qualification questions 101
Intending to buy 103
Converting Accounts to Opportunities 104
Nurturing or converting 104
Monitoring activities for buying signals 104
Triggering at the right time 105
Communicating with your accounts 106
Qualifying a Revenue Opportunity 106
Examining the account’s journey 107
Agreeing on sales-ready opportunities 108
Building a full view of an account 109
Finding multiple opportunities within one account 109
Part 3: Expanding Contacts Into Accounts 111
Chapter 8: Reaching the Right People in Target Accounts 113
Preparing Your Account-Specific Plan 114
Finding the right stakeholders 114
Enabling your champion 117
Pointing out potential detractors 118
Discovering your power sponsor 118
Using Tools for Expansion 119
Selecting the right software 119
Avoiding manual data entry 121
Continuing to expand accounts 121
Adding Contacts to an Account 121
Appending more contact data to accounts 122
Writing out your organizational chart 122
Working with new contacts during the sales process 123
Identifying buying centers 123
Chapter 9: Using Marketing Automation for Your Account Strategy 125
Strategizing Your Expansion Tactics 126
Nurturing for inbound vs outbound 126
Monitoring marketing activities 130
Filtering for the right contacts 131
Advancing from initial touch to account nurture 134
Learning the Fundamentals of Scoring and Grading 135
Scoring based on activities 135
Combining scores for a single account 137
Grading based on best fit 137
Flowing Data Back into Your CRM 138
Integrating your platforms 139
Assigning tasks and follow-up 139
Determining the next steps 140
Chapter 10: Distilling the Key Roles of “Smarketing ” 141
Making Sales Your Marketing Team’s Number 1 Customer 142
Reestablishing marketing’s mission 142
Finding urgency among your accounts 143
Providing air cover throughout the sales process 144
Benefitting from “Smarketing” Alignment 146
Going for your goals together 146
Targeting accounts across all stages 148
Lining up your pipeline 150
Banking on Your Strengths 150
Creating a sustainable process 151
Serving and selling 153
Greasing the wheel to revenue 153
Part 4: Engaging Accounts on Their Terms 155
Chapter 11: Generating Velocity for Sales 157
Accelerating Your Pipeline from Click to Close 158
Launching a pipeline acceleration campaign 158
Executing with your sales team 160
Focusing on the right deals 161
Advancing Opportunities to Closed-Won Deals 163
Nurturing throughout the buying process 164
Selling value, not product features 164
Converting opportunities 165
Growing Revenue Using ABM 166
Creating clear metrics 167
Linking your ABM strategy to revenue 167
Turning opportunities into deals: a case study 168
Chapter 12: Personalizing the Buyer’s Channel 171
Mobilizing Your Message 172
Working outside of business hours 172
Networking in-person and online 174
Ensuring your message resonates 176
Advertising on the Right Platforms 177
Building your advertising campaigns 178
Pushing the envelope 181
Changing your message at every stage 183
Automating stage-based advertising for every opportunity 185
Launching form-free 186
Engaging on Social Media 187
Connecting with your contacts 187
Following accounts 189
Sponsoring posts 190
Chapter 13: Developing Content for Campaigns 191
Creating a Content Library 192
Storytelling and its importance 197
Taking an ABM lens to your content 199
Producing content by industry vertical 200
Basing content on personas 201
Humanizing Content 204
Demonstrating thought leadership 205
Addressing wants, needs, and pain points 206
Personalizing your message 207
Developing a brand identity 207
Reaching Through Technology 209
Employing a content strategy 209
Delivering content on the right channel 212
Cross-promoting your content 212
Measuring your content’s effectiveness 213
Chapter 14: Executing ABM: A Playbook 215
Centering a Strategy 216
Listing your accounts 218
Progressing accounts to the next stage 219
Planning your tactics and activities 221
Coordinating Your Efforts 231
Strategizing your content 231
Launching advertising campaigns 232
Assigning “smarketing” tasks 233
Ranking Your “Smarketing” Success 235
Winning with new revenue 235
Learning from mistakes and opportunities 236
Brainstorming new ideas 236
Part 5: Turning Customers Into Advocates 237
Chapter 15: Elevating the Buyer to Customer Journey 239
Prospecting to Contacts 240
Furthering opportunities through the pipeline 241
Closing the deal 241
Establishing a Customer Journey 242
Adopting your technology 242
Engaging end-users 244
Continuing education 245
Selling to Existing Customers 245
Landing and expanding accounts 246
Cross-selling in the account 247
Upselling new or upgraded products 248
Chapter 16: Valuing Customer Advocacy 249
The Rising Influence of the Customer Voice 250
Providing customer joy 250
Surprising your clients 251
Establishing relationships 252
Making Your Customers Your Marketers 254
Getting your customers talking 254
Interviewing your customers 257
Driving referrals and references 259
Reaching new contacts 261
Event marketing with your clients 261
Building buzz 262
Engineering Product Development 263
Reviewing your existing product 263
Asking for input on your product roadmap 264
Factoring in feedback 265
Chapter 17: Aligning Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success 267
Nurturing Never Stops 268
Advertising to your customers 268
Advocating for your users 269
Promoting customer content 270
Collaborating with Customer Success 272
Thinking of customers as prospects 272
Producing effective customer case studies 274
Sharing best practices 276
Planning Your User Conference 276
Picking the right venue 277
Treating your clients like VIPs 277
Programming the best content 279
Partnering with sponsors 279
Announcing new product developments 282
Part 6: Putting It All Together 283
Chapter 18: Measuring the Success of Campaigns 285
Setting Key Performance Indicators 286
Attributing metrics at the account level 287
Comparing cost per click 291
Showing impressions 292
Expanding your audience 293
Engaging accounts 294
Testing Your Campaigns 295
A/B creative testing 295
Trying new content 296
Combining your offers 297
Knowing You Aren’t Wasting Money 297
Budgeting the right amounts 298
Attributing advertising spend to revenue 298
Showing engagement in the buyer journey 299
Chapter 19: Tracking Metrics for Every Account 301
Ongoing Account Maintenance 302
Delivering reports and results 302
Creating a review process 304
Executing on tasks 305
Gauging Potential Opportunities 306
Limiting the margin for error 306
Anticipating future needs 307
Building an engagement report 307
Providing Value Add 308
Living up to expectations 308
Continuing to improve 309
Part 7: The Part of Tens 311
Chapter 20: Ten Reasons B2B Companies Need Account-Based Marketing 313
Doing the Math 314
Needing a Strategy 314
Focusing on Sales Productivity 315
Utilizing Your Technology Stack 315
Prioritizing Tech Investments 315
Building New Skills 316
Leveraging Customer Experience 317
Treating Clients Differently 317
Developing ABM Relationships 318
Measuring More Than Leads 318
Chapter 21: Ten Obstacles Facing Account-Based Marketing 319
Measuring Leads as Success 320
Blasting Emails Too Quickly 320
Expecting to Engage Every Time 320
Relying on Marketing to Do It All 321
Sending All Leads to Sales 321
Asking for More Leads 322
Not Paying Attention to Customer Retention 323
Forgetting About Your Customer Advocates 323
Selling Instead of Serving 323
Changing the C-Suite’s Assumptions 324
Chapter 22: Ten Account-Based Marketing Blogs to Read 325
MarketingProfs 325
ClickZ 326
Funnelholic 326
Business2Community 327
CustomerThink 327
MediaPost 327
Heinz Marketing 328
Chief MarTec 328
MarketingLand 329
MarTech Advisor 329
Chapter 23: Ten ABM Thought Leaders to Follow 331
Jill Rowley 331
David Raab 332
Craig Rosenberg 332
Jon Miller 333
Chris Engman 333
Ann Handley 333
Matt Heinz 334
Megan Heuer 334
Scott Brinker 335
Jim Williams 335
Index 337
