What is Account Based Marketing (ABM)?

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a focused B2B growth strategy in which marketing and sales collaborate to identify a specific list of target companies — the ones most likely to become high-value customers — and create personalized campaigns designed to win them over.

With ABM, you're not marketing to the masses. You’re choosing a handful of companies that fit your ideal customer profile, learning who the key decision-makers are inside those companies, and tailoring your content, messaging, and outreach directly to them.

You’re not just trying to get clicks or collect leads. You’re working toward closing deals that have real business impact.

And this approach works. A 2019 research report found that 92% of companies with mature ABM programs say it delivers higher ROI than any other marketing tactic. Another study by Demand Metric revealed that 19% of companies saw a 30% revenue boost within a year of adopting ABM.

All of this shows that when ABM is done right, it’s not just a “nice-to-have” — it’s a serious growth lever. Let’s start by exploring its benefits in detail.

Here’s what makes ABM so effective:

1. Stronger Alignment Between Sales and Marketing: ABM forces both teams to focus on the same accounts, work from the same data, and chase the same goals. It eliminates the usual friction between sales and marketing. Instead of sales complaining about “bad leads” and marketing complaining about “no follow-up,” everyone is aligned on closing the right deals.

2. Higher ROI: ABM targets only the most valuable accounts, which means less wasted budget and better results. According to ITSMA, 87% of marketers with mature ABM programs say it delivers better ROI than any other marketing strategy.

3. Shorter Sales Cycles: Traditional marketing often starts at the bottom, working with junior contacts and trying to build momentum. ABM goes straight to decision-makers and key influencers, which helps remove bottlenecks and move deals faster.

4. Better Customer Experience: ABM campaigns are built on personalization. Instead of sending out generic content, you’re speaking directly to each company’s specific needs and challenges. This kind of relevance makes prospects more likely to engage.

5. Bigger Deals, Higher Close Rates: ABM focuses on quality, not quantity. By concentrating on the accounts that matter most, companies often see larger deal sizes, better win rates, and stronger long-term partnerships.

6. Less Waste, More Focus: Instead of spreading your budget and team across hundreds of random leads, ABM lets you focus on a small group of high-potential accounts. That means more impact, less busywork, and better use of your resources.

ABM isn’t just another campaign — it’s a focused process that combines research, personalization, and real teamwork between marketing and sales. Here’s how it actually plays out:

1. Identify High-Value Target Accounts

It starts with figuring out who’s worth your time. That means defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) — the type of company that’s a great fit for your product, can afford it, and has a real reason to buy it.

Let’s say you sell a compliance platform for fintech companies. You’re not going to waste time chasing every startup on the planet. You’re going to look for mid-market to enterprise fintechs, in regulated regions, with a legal or risk team in place. That’s your ICP.

From there, build a list of companies that match. These are the accounts your sales and marketing teams will go after together.

2. Map the Key People Inside Each Account

In any B2B deal, it’s rarely just one person making the call. You need to identify who’s involved in the buying process. That could be a head of compliance, a CTO, a procurement officer, or even the CEO — depending on the size of the deal.

If you skip this step, you’ll waste weeks talking to someone with zero influence. Good ABM means knowing who the decision-makers are, who’s likely to block things, and who might champion your solution internally.

3. Do Your Research

Now that you know who you’re targeting, get to know them properly. What’s going on in their business? What problems are they trying to solve? What’s keeping them from moving faster?

For example, if you’re targeting a VP of Sales at a growing SaaS company, dig into their hiring trends, revenue goals, and recent announcements. If they just raised funding, they’re likely under pressure to scale fast — that’s a perfect angle for a sales enablement tool.

The deeper your research, the easier it is to speak their language and show up with something useful.

4. Create Personalized Campaigns

This is where ABM gets powerful. You’re not blasting the same eBook to 5,000 people. You’re building content and messaging that speaks directly to your target account — or even to a specific person within that account.

Example: If you’re trying to win over a healthcare company, and you know their CTO recently talked about scaling secure patient data access, your outreach might include a short video demo showing exactly how your product handles HIPAA compliance at scale.

Personalization doesn’t mean putting their name in the subject line. It means showing that you understand their world — and that you’ve got something relevant to offer.

5. Choose the Right Channels

Don’t assume your message will land just because it’s good. You have to show up in the places your targets actually spend time.

If your audience lives on LinkedIn, paid ads and InMail make sense. If you’re dealing with C-level execs, a well-timed direct mail piece — like a handwritten note or a custom report — can cut through the noise. For mid-level contacts, a personalized email with useful insights usually works better than a cold call.

One team I worked with sent out personalized coffee kits to key accounts ahead of a virtual roundtable. Everyone showed up, stayed engaged, and they closed three deals from that one session. Right people, right message, right delivery.

6. Launch and Stay Aligned

Sales and marketing have to move together here. If marketing runs a great campaign but sales isn’t in the loop — or worse, says something completely different in a follow-up call — the whole thing falls flat.

The best ABM teams I’ve seen hold weekly check-ins. They review what’s working, swap intel, adjust messaging, and move together as a true account team. It’s not about marketing doing one part and sales doing another — it’s about shared ownership of results.

7. Track and Measure at the Account Level

You’re not just tracking clicks or downloads. You’re looking at account-level activity — things like:

• Are the right people from the account engaging?

• Are sales getting meetings?

• Are deals progressing faster?

• Are you influencing pipeline and revenue?

This is where ABM separates itself from traditional marketing. You’re measuring what actually matters to the business, not just vanity metrics.

You don’t need a dozen tools to run ABM, but you do need a few that help you target the right accounts, personalize at scale, and track progress properly. It starts with a reliable CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce. This is where both marketing and sales can see what’s happening with each account — who’s engaged, what stage they’re in, and what actions have been taken. Without a shared view, ABM turns into a guessing game.

For finding the right accounts and knowing when to act, intent data platforms like 6sense, Demandbase , or ZoomInfo are powerful. They show which companies are actively researching solutions like yours, so you’re not just guessing who’s in-market.

Then there’s account-based advertising — tools like LinkedIn Ads or RollWorks let you show targeted ads only to people at your named accounts. This way, your budget goes toward real prospects, not random traffic.

If you want to take it a step further, website personalization tools like Mutiny can tailor your site content based on who’s visiting. A fintech company sees fintech content. A healthcare visitor sees healthcare messaging — all without creating separate pages.

And on the sales side, platforms like Outreach or Salesloft help reps manage consistent, personalized outreach across contacts in a single account. That’s key when you’re working with buying committees, not just individual leads. You don’t need all of these to get started. But the right mix will help you run smarter campaigns, stay aligned, and focus your energy where it counts.

Account-based marketing isn’t a quick hack — it’s a shift in how you approach growth. Instead of chasing every possible lead, you focus on the ones that actually matter. With the right accounts, the right tools , and tight alignment between sales and marketing, ABM helps you close bigger deals, faster, and with less wasted effort.

If you’re just getting started, don’t overthink it. Pick a small list of high-potential accounts, personalize your outreach, and build from there. The goal is progress, not perfection.