ABM is rapidly maturing as a practice, not a moment too soon. Competition for attention and engagement is fierce. Amidst thousands of digital messages bombarding your buyers daily, you must demonstrate an understanding of their needs more granularly than ever. You need to earn their attention and engagement.
Here’s the opportunity to seize, based upon actual research:
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The percentage of companies considering their ABM programs fully adopted versus experimental has grown to 45% – up a third compared with 2020, according to DemandGen Report’s new report, “2022 State of ABM: Account-Based Strategies Continue Experiential Evolution.”
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But even as ABM programs mature, the headwinds of change are accelerating. More than three-quarters of marketers report the pace of their campaigns has intensified over the past year. That percentage is higher still, 83%, at enterprise companies with high levels of complexity on a global scale.
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Four in 10 marketers report that changing account profiles pose a challenge, as do the emergence of new channels and demand for new content formats, according to research from MRP and Demand Metric cited in the new report.
To make meaningful connections with prospects and customers amidst these changes, ABM programs that shift their initiatives to focus on highly personalized experiences tailored to the account level, individual locations, and buyer roles are driving revenue impact.
“Demonstrating relevance at this depth, at scale, and globally is a steep challenge – but not impossible. A series of proven best practices underpin success for ABM leaders, who orchestrate data and teams to a high degree,” says MRP’s Mark Ogne, a contributor to the report.
Labeling these initiatives “ABX” doesn’t make them easier to execute successfully – but it’s crucial to undertake if companies are to succeed. According to this research, less than a quarter of ABM marketers report that their initiative drives significant revenue impact.
“High-performing ABM has always been about the audience, their needs, and their experiences,” Ogne says. “It’s personalized based on the audience’s needs, not the marketer, and adapts messaging to fit changing concerns during lengthy buying processes.”
Increasingly, ABM leaders employ principles and processes consistent from company to company – giving others a blueprint for success, Ogne says.
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Nine in 10 top performers report close, cross-functional collaboration between marketing and sales. The new trend toward “ABX” can hinder these cooperative efforts by creating new organizational silos along with the new label, Ogne notes.
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Not only are ABM leaders’ teams highly integrated, but so is their data. Eight in 10 (80%) top performers use data from three or more systems to inform their ABM practice, and even more, 84%, say their tech stack is wholly or significantly integrated – more than double the percentage (30%) of those with negative or unmeasured ABM impact.
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Almost half of leading ABM practitioners, 46%, go beyond personalizing messages by industry to adapt their messaging to the recipient’s role and stage of the customer lifecycle.
