6 Advanced ABM Strategies and Tactics to Drive Growth with Casper Rouchman

Did you know that just 5.8 percent of B2B organizations don't have an active account-based marketing strategy?

Most B2B businesses are using ABM (account-based marketing) — but are they seeing results? 

They might not be. The same survey from Terminus found more than half of ABM programs are in "early" or "pilot" stages, which means they’re still figuring out how to make it work for their organization. 

There's a lot of 'basic' ABM advice out there (we've even published newbie account-based marketing advice ourselves.)

But there's not much advice past the "evaluate your ICP, create a campaign, then test." If you're looking for actionable account-based marketing tactics and strategies to take your campaigns to the next level, you're in the right spot. 

Recently, Casper Rouchmann partnered with Leadfeeder to share how he creates and launches successful ABM campaigns as the Head of Marketing at United Fintech.

Want to watch the entire webinar? We got you. 📺

Below, we'll go through six advanced account-based marketing strategies.

Note: Leadfeeder is a behavioral intent tool that identifies and tracks companies that visit your website. Sign up for free and see how we can help your ABM strategy succeed. 

ABM strategy 1: Does account-based marketing really make sense for your business?

Most B2B companies are using ABM — but does that mean you should, too? 

Just because all the cool kids are doing it doesn't make it right for your business. Before diving in, consider if your organization will actually benefit from the strategy. 

ABM might be the right strategy for you if: 

• You work with B2B

• You have a high life-time value (LTV)

• Your sales cycle is sophisticated and longer than average (not a definitive must)

• You have a solid idea of your ideal customer profile (ICP)

• You have a solid sales team — and you like working with them 😅

Account-based marketing is a significant investment — not just in time but also in resources and lost opportunities. Make sure it's a good fit before going all in. 

ABM strategy 2: ICP isn't just company size and revenue 

The first step in account-based marketing is usually identifying your ideal customer profile. 

The problem? Most organizations only look at a few factors like location, industry, company size, and revenue. 

While those factors are important, they aren't the only ones to consider.  

When you're looking to create a truly personalized website experience, you need to know more about your targets. 

When developing your ICP, Casper also recommends including: 

• Sample customers: What are examples of customers that fit your ICP? 

• Company size: How many employees? 

• Company revenue: How much does the company generate? 

• Customer's goals and characteristics: why do they want your product? What can you solve? 

• How do they use your data/solution? 

• Personas: Who are you selling the product to? 

• Key stakeholders: Who makes buying decisions. 

• TAM: total adjustable marketing 

• Value proposition: What is the value prop you should use? 

• New product or replacing: Are you replacing a solution or offering a new one? 

• Estimated current value: What is the average value of a new customer? 

• Disrupted value: Can you take over from other solutions? Slightly different than your TAM, essentially a subset of TAM. 

• Where to find them: What channels are these customers using? 

Creating a spreadsheet with all this data will help you dive deeper into your ICP. (Casper shared a version you can copy.) 

Remember, you may need to make several lists, especially if you offer more than one product or target several markets. 

ABM strategy 3: Use intent data to whittle down your TAM

Once you've identified the segments, it's time to determine what exact companies you should target. 

Generally, you'll use a good data provider, like ZoomInfo, Clearbit, Cognism, Datanyze, etc. These will help you identify the names of companies that fit your ICP. 

Now you've got a huge list. Yay? 

A long target list isn't conducive to ABM.  

Instead of starting off with a massive TAM list, Casper recommends leveraging intent data from tools like Leadfeeder and LinkedIn to whittle your list down. 

Start by heading to LinkedIn, setting your Insight Tag then looking at your website demographics, including people who look at who looks at specific pages — maybe your product pages or pages for specific vertices. 

Then, compare that data with Leadfeeder to really see what pages specific users are looking at, how long they are spending on each page, and even how many times each company visits your site. 

This data can then be fed back into your ads or content strategy to create custom campaigns for specific companies. 

ABM strategy 4: Use Google alerts to catch compelling events and use them as an "in"

Now it's time for the how — how do you create campaigns that grab your targets' attention? 

Casper recommends setting up Google Alerts so you can spot compelling events you can then use to customize your campaigns or tell you when to reach out. 

Examples of "compelling events" might include: 

• Fusions 

• Rebranding 

• Forbes reports 

• Closing a round of funding

• Industry awards 

 Then you can plan your outreach, whether that's paid ads like this one: 

<insert ABM strategies Templfy paid ad example>

Or you direct outreach strategies, like outreach videos or personalized content. 

ABM strategy 5: Help align sales and marketing by limiting reporting tools

Your sales team is hitting a specific batch of people. 

And your marketing team is hitting a specific batch of people. 

But, you’re not always entirely sure they’re focusing on the same data streams or even the same metrics. 

So what's the solution? Limit your data reporting tools where possible. This ensures both teams look at the same data and don't have overlapping efforts. 

For example, pull all your data into Data Studio or your CRM. You can also get insights from Hotjar, then use Leadfeeder to pull out specific information and send it to your CRM. 

If your tools don't work together out of the box, use Zapier to tie them together. 

That way, everyone is on the same page. 

ABM strategy 6: To succeed with ABM, start small 

Everybody wants to close the BIGGEST companies in the world. We've all been there. 

And sure, Disney, Microsoft, and Apple have bigger budgets, but not every organization can land them. Even more importantly, not every organization should try to land them. 

Instead, start smaller and be specific. It’s better to start small, and then expand than the other way around.

Finally, really make sure accounts are in the right segment for you before going all in. Over time, you'll figure out which strategies are more effective and can expand your target list. 

Note: Leadfeeder's buyer intent data can power your ABM efforts. Sign up for free and see who is visiting your company's website — and what they do when they get there.