Account-Based Marketing Campaigns: Types, Tactics & Examples

Account-based marketing campaigns dedicate sales and marketing resources to nurturing and converting specific high-value accounts. They use personalized content to connect and engage with key decision makers via tailored buying experiences.

Successful ABM campaigns create multiple touchpoints, establishing strong relationships and producing valuable sales opportunities. The result? Shorter sales cycles, better pipeline quality, and higher ROI.

So, how can your sales and marketing teams leverage ABM? In this article, we'll cover everything you need to get started—including ABM campaign types, best practices, and examples of account-based marketing tactics we use at Livestorm.

Types of account-based marketing campaigns

While all ABM campaigns follow the same basic concept, there are three main ways to structure your account-based marketing strategy. However, you don't have to commit to just one of these three options.

Many companies develop an approach that blends two or three types of ABM campaigns. It results in a B2B marketing strategy that targets critical opportunities while maximizing both reach and high-value touchpoints.

Strategic ABM

Strategic ABM uses a one-to-one approach that targets a certain company. A dedicated team researches the account, develops a series of touchpoints, and creates personalized content for decision makers.

Because it typically focuses on a single account and requires such in-depth research, strategic ABM can be incredibly resource-intensive. However, the payoff tends to be substantial, given the value of the account.

Due to the required resources, B2B companies typically avoid using strategic ABM at scale. Instead, they often use it to target their most critical accounts. Then, they scale with one of the other two ABM types.

ABM lite

Known as a one-to-few approach, ABM lite targets a small group of accounts. These accounts share the same goals, pain points, and industry or vertical. And the campaigns use a shared set of marketing materials.

ABM lite strikes a balance between personalization and scale. It's ideal for teams that aim to convert a valuable segment yet can't allocate resources to create a completely custom buying experience for each one.

Programmatic ABM

With its one-to-many approach, programmatic ABM personalizes the buying experience at scale. Like ABM lite, it focuses on a group of accounts. However, programmatic ABM generally targets much larger segments.

To engage hundreds or thousands of target accounts at scale, programmatic ABM uses marketing automation. It works best for teams that need to optimize resources to develop relevant content for key segments.

Tactics to use in ABM campaigns

ABM campaigns use a range of tactics to connect with target accounts. Use these ideas as a guide to develop your account-based marketing strategy.

Customize website content

When decision makers from your target accounts visit your company's website, don't show them the same content that the average visitor sees. Instead, show them custom content that speaks to their needs.

Livestorm uses Mutiny to personalize website content for visitors in certain industries. For example, visitors who work in healthcare see a version of our website with healthcare logos, creating a more relevant experience.

Host educational webinars

Webinars are a popular demand generation tactic that marketing teams often use to engage prospects at scale. However, ABM teams can also customize webinars for specific accounts or segments.

Livestorm regularly hosts webinars for our target accounts, where we engage with decision makers in real time. Later, we often make the content available as automated webinars to provide value to a wider audience.

Organize or sponsor events

Hosting events allows marketing and sales teams to develop tailored guest lists and create opportunities to interact with decision makers. Whether you organize or sponsor these events, they can be incredibly valuable.

Livestorm often hosts co-marketing events with partner brands. These live events typically use a webinar format and aim to educate the audience, leading to awareness and acquisition.

We also participate in field marketing events, such as sponsoring conferences or dinners where we can engage target accounts. Plus, we invite customers to owned events to create community and improve retention.

Target key accounts with personalized ads

Display and social ads use paid channels to get personalized content in front of key decision makers. These ads often include the name of the company or the industry in the ad copy or creative.

They typically link to personalized landing pages that speak directly to the account or segment. For example,Livestorm uses paid ABM tactics like LinkedIn ads to drive enterprise leads to a dedicated landing page.

Send customized email outreach

Outbound teams that use ABM send personalized email outreach to decision makers. Sales reps customize each message based on the recipient's role, the company's pain points, and the prospect's intent.

In many cases, these sales emails include links to custom content. For example, Livestorm tailors sales landing pages to the prospect and mentions the sales rep by name in the CTA.

How to run successful ABM campaigns

Keep these best practices in mind as you build your ABM program.

Get marketing and sales teams aligned

ABM isn't just a strategy for marketing teams. Instead, ABM requires sales and marketing alignment. Together, sales and marketing should:

• Agree on OKRs and revenue goals to ensure everyone works toward the same objective
• Establish an SLA on accounts and leads, including a scoring model to prioritize leads
• Create a strong feedback loop to keep everyone on the same page and celebrate wins

Target accounts that fit your ICP

An effective ABM program should always target accounts that match your ideal customer profile (ICP). Once you've clarified your ICP, use intent data and a lead scoring model to decide which accounts to prioritize.

• For strategic ABM, identify the highest value account to prioritize.
• For ABM lite, decide on a small group of high-value accounts.
• For programmatic ABM, choose a valuable segment to target.

Develop personalized content for each account

Research your target accounts to understand their pain points, objectives, and use cases for your solution. Then, use this research to develop personalized marketing and sales content that speaks to each account and decision maker.

Use the tactics covered above to guide you. For example, you can implement ABM content like:

• Website copy tailored to your target accounts
• Highly personalized sales outreach and landing pages
• Custom social and display ads
• Personalized webinars
• Unique events for your top accounts

Connect with decision makers across channels

ABM is about creating as many relevant touchpoints as possible so you can build relationships with key decision makers at your target accounts and convert them into sales opportunities.

A typical ABM program includes multiple channels to maximize touchpoints. For example, you can use ad networks to show personalized ads, email campaigns to connect directly with decision makers, and your website to show dynamic content.

Measure ABM metrics

To gauge the success of your ABM campaigns, monitor the results closely. Measure metrics like:

• Page views to see how many times prospects have viewed your custom content
• Webinar signups to see how many prospects have expressed interest in your events
• Sales demos to see how many prospects have expressed purchase intent
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) to calculate the cost of converting each account
• ROI to compare the cost of acquisition to the total revenue generated

Optimize and iterate on ABM campaigns

Use these metrics to confirm which channels and campaigns are working—and which aren't. Then, use the data to optimize your ABM campaigns.

Which touchpoints perform worst? Consider eliminating them or testing new content or messaging to replace them.

Which touchpoints perform best? Iterate on them to continue to improve performance and drive revenue growth more efficiently.

3 Account-based marketing examples

Use these examples of successful ABM campaigns to inspire your own approach.

Livestorm's custom content for enterprise prospects

Livestorm offers webinar software that works for small businesses and large companies alike. However, enterprise customers often have much bigger needs that our entry-level plans can't meet.

To prevent this mismatch, we use ABM to customize website content for enterprise teams. When enterprise prospects visit our site, they see dynamic content that speaks directly to them and their needs.

It encourages enterprise teams to talk with sales and develop a custom plan rather than signing up for a self-serve plan. The result? This ABM campaign generated 205% more enterprise leads and 27% more demos.

Livestorm's healthcare ABM campaign

From tech to finance to education, our webinar software is a good fit for customers in a range of industries. However, each industry has different use cases and requirements.

That's why we use ABM to show custom content to healthcare teams. For example, prospects in the healthcare industry see ads and website popups leading to a personalized toolkit with webinar best practices for healthcare.

Plus, our website includes both dedicated content for healthcare teams and sub-industry pages that speak to more specific needs for pharma and biotech customers.

Demandbase's video-first approach to ABM

When targeting key accounts, Demandbase prioritizes video. In ABM campaigns, Demandbase's sales team often adds personalized videos on one-to-one landing pages, ad campaigns, and sales outreach.

In this Livestorm webinar, ABM specialist Leanne Chescoe, EMEA Marketing Director at Demandbase, discusses how her team develops personalized content for key accounts. As she explains, it's critical for ABM content to speak not just to the account but also to the right stage of the buyer's journey.

Livestorm for account-based marketing campaigns

When you want to use live events and on-demand webinars in your ABM strategy, Livestorm can help. With our webinar and video conferencing software, you can:

• Create custom video content for target accounts
• Develop custom landing pages for each virtual event
• Send personalized webinar follow-up emails
• Integrate Livestorm with your sales and marketing tech stack

Ready to see how our software works for your sales and marketing team? Sign up for Livestorm and try it for free.