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Account-based marketing (ABM) is a highly-effective approach to driving revenues that focuses marketing and sales resources (budget, people, technology, etc.) around a pre-defined set of target accounts. While ABM has clearly been shown to boost return-on-investment  and revenues, doing ABM “right” requires significant maturity in your marketing operations, especially around data management. Many organizations struggle with where to begin implementing ABM. It starts with analyzing your existing tech stack, your existing accounts, evaluating the skillsets/capabilities of your team, and then working to (1) understand and (2) close your existing gaps, especially around data management capabilities. Setting up the right infrastructure to support ABM is challenging, but once you do it ABM can deliver increasing levels of ROI and revenues. “ABM programs have been shown to result in significant improvements in pipeline growth,” says Todd Berkowitz, Practice Vice President at Gartner , “[and] If economic uncertainty continues, these programs should remain a core element of marketing strategy.” To get a better sense of the state of ABM in 2020, Demandbase  conducted a survey of 900 companies. The survey and resulting 44-page report, called 2020 ABM Market Research Study  (free download with registration), is a comprehensive look at the state of play for ABM right now. Let’s explore the report’s many findings. Who is doing ABM? More than 6 in 10 companies surveyed (61%) had a full ABM program in place or were in the midst of a pilot program. Among the remaining 39% of companies without existing ABM programs, most were thinking about starting an ABM pilot within the next 6 months. That leaves only a small sliver of “ABM laggards” who aren’t either doing ABM now or thinking about doing it soon (only about 10% of surveyed companies are such “ABM laggards”). Large and mid-sized companies are leading the march to ABM. Doing ABM right takes marketing ops maturity and a supportive data infrastructure. Companies making the fastest progress with ABM programs are those with over 1,000 employees, with nearly 3 out of 4 (71%) of them having either a full or pilot ABM program in place. The top industries that reported full ABM programs were: (1) computer software, (2) IT and services, and (3) marketing and advertising. The #1 Challenge to ABM, by far . . . The top challenge reported for every stage of ABM, whether a full program, a pilot, or in the consideration phase, is data quality and data management. The key success factor in nearly all approaches to marketing, but especially with ABM, is (1) knowing your customer(s) and (2) leveraging what you know (i.e., data) in order to send relevant messaging that facilitates the buying journey. Your CRM is necessary, of course, but doing ABM right requires accessing and leveraging even more customer data, having the capacity to transform data into actionable business intelligence, and then acting upon that relevant data in a timely manner that enables conversion and supports the buying journey. Like all marketing, ABM must be fueled by the right data, the right metrics, the right reporting, and the right technology/automation to fuel the whole program. 7 major trends in ABM The Demandbase report lays out 10 major trends in ABM. Let’s examine some of these trends in-depth: ABM budgets are rising. As companies see strong results from either full programs or pilots, more investments are being made into ABM. Investments increased by an impressive 40% year-over-year, from 2019 to 2020. That momentum will only grow as more ABM programs get off the ground and show positive results, attracting even more investment. ABM measurement remains problematic. The report shows that companies are strongest in driving marketing-sales alignment to support ABM, but weakest in ABM measurement. Obviously, measuring ABM performance is key for driving success and going to bat for more ABM budget, but data management and attribution (i.e., connecting ABM activities to revenues) remains problematic for most companies now “doing” ABM. Traditional lead-based habits remain an obstacle, making ABM measurement harder. Measuring ABM ROI is proving difficult because so many organizations maintain a historic overreliance on lead-based metrics that don’t fit their new ABM models. ABM programs need ABM-appropriate metrics, which seems obvious enough until you realize that only 29% of companies that use ABM are measuring Marketing Qualified Accounts (MQA), according to the report. Measurement matters, but isn’t being done well enough. What was the #1 content topic requested by respondents to the ABM survey? You guessed it: content about ABM measurement. More budget for content and account selection.  In an era of social distancing and everyone working from home, more marketing budget is going towards ABM-related digital content and away from live events and live meetings. More money is also going towards better selection of accounts for ABM programs, as a way to optimize targeting and resource allocation. If done badly, account selection can sink an ABM program faster than almost anything. ABM revenue growth is coming from existing accounts and net-new accounts.  Great news here: the ABM survey shows that a focus on strengthening existing account relationships is a great revenue-booster. The surveyed companies seeing the highest returns from ABM programs “expect their revenues to come equally from net-new logos and existing customer expansion,” says the report. So whether the account is brand new or as old as the hills, ABM works to boost revenues. Poor data quality is limiting ABM efforts.  “Account data quality is an issue that has plagued the success of [ABM], and it remains a constant focus for our survey respondents,” says the report. “Data quality issues were named the #1 challenge for executing ABM in 2020 while improving data quality landed in the top three list of priorities” for next year. Data is what fuels ABM effectiveness, at both the account level and the individual/stakeholder level . Putting “garbage data in” your ABM program means getting “garbage results out.”  Quality data and data management maturity remain, by far, the single biggest drivers of ABM success. The tools for ABM success: CRM, MAP, and Martech . When the survey asked “what tools B2B companies can’t do ABM without,” respondents led with CRM (83%) and Marketing Automation (73%). Any martech tool or app that enhances data quality, helping transform data into real-time, actionable business intelligence, is also a must-have for ABM success. Want to learn even more about setting up an effective ABM program, especially getting your data management maturity right for ABM? Reach out to us here .

As a global telecommunications company based in the UK, O2  is in the business of communication. But the company’s marketing team found itself experiencing problems around its data quality and lack of alignment between marketing and sales. Some six years ago, O2 decided to make a change, working with Sojourn Solutions to enhance its data management processes and drive better internal alignment around lead management. At a recent Virtual Eloqua User Group meeting hosted by Sojourn’s Karin Pindle, O2’s Louise Winch  (Head of Data and Lead Generation) described exactly what O2 did in order to transform its marketing — and detailed the great results the telecommunications company achieved. The formula Winch described may be simple to state, but took time and effort (and budget) to ultimately achieve: better data quality + better campaign management processes = stronger sales-marketing alignment + increased marketing ROI. Technology helps, but an integrated approach is needed Winch began by describing how O2 used its tech platforms, including Salesforce and Eloqua, to improve data quality and better deploy its data for marketing purposes. O2 began “by taking our data management back in-house, meaning we were able to connect things up better internally” and drive alignment, says Winch. Winch also explained that O2 had to “change its communications strategy. We moved to an always-on strategy where we had a full, end-to-end view” of the customer journey. O2 also needed to enhance the skillsets of its team members, turning them into an in-house agency with all the necessary expertise in tech and processes. Sojourn helped the entire way. O2 also implemented a contact washing machine (CWM) to ensure and maintain data quality as data came in, moved through, and got deployed via O2’s Salesforce and Eloqua platforms. Quality data, which O2 now had more control over internally, became “the fuel for our marketing programs” and led to higher-quality leads getting sent on to sales (who converted them into more revenues). Working with Sojourn to drive benefits O2’s improved data quality brought multiple benefits for marketing and sales. Marketing was able to “increase the number of its campaigns while also gaining more efficiency in campaign delivery,” said Winch. She noted that “a blast campaign that used to take us 6 weeks to conduct now takes us just 6 minutes.” Improved data also enabled O2 to segment its customer base and drive engagement/ROI through better targeting of content. O2 worked closely with Sojourn to implement better lead management and lead scoring, as well as better email processes like send time optimization (STO), which led to higher email open rates. Using its contact washing machine, O2 achieved a data completeness rate of nearly 100%, which led to better targeting and improved lead quality. The result of these initiatives? “We’ve now got well-established alignment and trust between sales and marketing, which is a byproduct of having such good data,” says Winch. O2 is on pace for a 62% year-over-year “increase in opportunities handed over to sales in 2020,” says Winch. As Sojourn’s Charlotte Currie, who’s worked closely with Winch and O2 on their transformation efforts, says: “the contact washing machine has taken out a lot of the manual work of ensuring data quality and also helps O2 classify its leads by relevant customer attributes like job function and job title.” Winch summarized O2’s results: “if you have good data, you improve performance.” O2’s lessons learned   Winch shared several key lessons learned along O2’s journey to better data, better lead generations, and tighter marketing-sales alignment. Here’s a few highlights: “Set the bar high, but remain realistic. If you want world-class data, it won’t happen overnight.” “Document your processes” to support scaling and sharing of best practices. “Evangelize the benefits of great data to all involved. Keep communicating.” “Automate where you can.” “Continually review results and share insights with the team.” “Look at what content is getting engagement and consider using it for future campaigns.” As a rule, do more of what’s working and less of what’s not. “Change as you go and remain flexible.” The takeaway from Winch’s presentation is clear: O2’s commitment and hard work in driving data quality (and improved data management) increased its ability to  deliver better marketing results through its Salesforce and Eloqua platforms, while also driving internal alignment and more leads that were also higher-quality leads. Perhaps the best result of all for O2 is the increased trust and better collaboration between marketing and sales in closing the loop on leads, converting them into more revenue via a more targeted, data-driven approach to customer engagement.  O2’s impressive results go far beyond simply leveraging technology: O2 has empowered its people and unleashed its processes to work better within a larger, always-on demand generation ecosystem that continues to drive improved performance and revenues. Want help in improving your data quality and transforming your lead generation? Let’s talk !

See post 4 in our MOPs Maturity Benchmarking series:  Improving processes for data and lead management: Post 4 (of 6) . Account-based marketing focuses marketing resources (people, processes, and technology) onto a limited number of key accounts, and it may be the hottest trend in B2B marketing over the past few years. Matt Senatore, Service Director of ABM, SiriusDecisions , explains that ABM programs are gaining traction because they boost marketing return on investment (ROI), “achieving 19% faster revenue growth and 15% higher profitability compared to non-ABM programs.”  This fifth post in our 6-post MOPs Maturity Benchmarking Series will explore the opportunities and challenges of ABM: when implemented properly, ABM programs achieve amazing results  and ROI, but proper ABM implementation is often quite difficult or impossible for too many B2B companies right now. We’ll describe the key obstacles to getting ABM right, and offer suggestions for overcoming them. ABM works, but is woefully underutilized According to our 2019 Marketing Operations Maturity Benchmarking Report , less than 1 in 5 (18%) of mainstream companies have an ABM program in place. This woeful number doesn’t reflect the clear effectiveness of ABM (when done right) in generating revenues, but instead shows a lack of MOPs maturity.  Even among the top-performing B2B companies we surveyed, those with higher levels of MOPs maturity, less than half are using ABM. But those that do have ABM programs are seeing strong positive impacts on revenues. The average increase in customer engagement with ABM programs, compared to non-ABM, was an impressive plus 20%, according to SiriusDecisions. ABM programs “result in higher ROI, bigger deals, and increased win rates,” compared to non-ABM approaches, says Matt Senatore. Obstacles to implementing ABM While we know that ABM programs work, a big question looms: why aren’t more companies launching them? As Dan Vawter , managing director of Sojourn Solutions, explains, “setting up an effective ABM program takes maturity in selecting the right accounts, getting the right people involved, pulling the right systems together, deciding how to message those key accounts, and through which channels, and then being able to measure results. ABM isn’t just about marketing, but requires aligning and coordinating people and systems from sales, IT, and other departments.” Among the biggest obstacles for B2B companies in implementing ABM, beyond integrating technology and systems across departments, is coordinating people who don’t traditionally work together: “that’s a key reason why so few companies do ABM,” says Vawter, “because it requires people to actually talk to each other who aren’t in the same departments, and they’re all using different systems, and all that coordination is very hard to pull off inside a big company.” ABM is NOT a technology, but a marketing approach that requires focusing often-disjointed resources onto a few key accounts. “It makes complete sense to talk to a handful of accounts about what’s super-relevant to them,” Vawter says, “but it’s also very difficult for B2B companies to do ABM well. There are platforms out there today that help, but companies need to customize their own ABM programs, coordinating their people, processes, and technology around the chosen accounts. They aren’t usually set up to do this ‘ABM groundwork’ well.” Understanding what is working or not is critical in ABM programs where lots of funds are being spent on a small number of accounts. ABM requires a more holistic approach To get ABM right, B2B companies must effectively coordinate cross-channel and interdepartmental communications to deploy their resources and messaging within fewer accounts. Among the biggest hurdles to ABM is enabling personalization through the full buyer journey. Getting the relevant message to each contact within an account to help them decide to purchase your product is quite difficult but essential for ABM success.“ Most companies don’t have the ability to look at all of those different account touchpoints holistically,” explains Vawter. “If they have a marketing automation platform, maybe they can look at the email channel in a silo, and maybe they can look at their web traffic in a silo. Maybe they can look at offline separately. Maybe they can look at their sales activity, separately. But they’re not looking at everything in one place, which ABM demands.” According to our MOPs Maturity Benchmarking report, a mere 14% of mainstream companies can gain insights from data in order to help them drive ABM program effectiveness. That’s a massive visibility problem that can render ABM programs a no-go from the beginning. “If you don’t look at account data holistically,” says Vawter, “then you’re going to  make mistakes because you’re looking with tunnel vision at this very narrow piece of the entire customer journey that includes all of those different contacts across that account. You won’t be able to accurately measure and attribute results to specific marketing actions.”  Without this necessary visibility into the customer journey on each account, an ABM program becomes a useless game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, leading B2B marketers nowhere as they flail around to connect their many actions to specific outcomes. You can’t “do” ABM wearing a blindfold. Measurement matters too While setting up an ABM program is difficult, compelling you to resolve challenges around disjointed systems and departments, another big obstacle is gaining visibility into your customer’s journey and measuring results. If you can’t track key ABM metrics, ABM becomes impossible to scale, which is likely why most companies simply don’t launch or scale up ABM programs.  A lack of capacity to measure ABM effectiveness damages you in two existential ways: first, you won’t be able to drive ABM improvement or optimization if you don’t have visibility into what’s working or not, and second, you can’t make a business case for expanding your ABM program if you have no relevant metrics/results to show your C-suite leadership team. You might be driving success with a small-scale, pilot ABM program, but you won’t be able to explain why it’s working — which is frankly embarrassing and makes it impossible to gain leadership buy-in for scaling up ABM success. Getting help from outside advisors with experience implementing ABM (and measuring its success) can be a key step in overcoming challenges, especially around coordinating your people and processes, as well as enhancing your data capabilities to support ABM. “It takes a lot of MOPs maturity to do ABM well,” notes Vawter, “but the B2B companies that are mature enough to do ABM are seeing superior results in accelerating their revenues.” Gaining sufficient MOPs maturity to implement ABM may be the fastest way available to achieve competitive advantage. Many of our customers struggle with where to begin in regards to ABM. Analyzing your existing tech stack and understanding your gaps – especially around data – are both critical to success. We can help –  contact us  to get the conversation started. To learn more about how to take your MOPs maturity to the next level, download our  2019 Marketing Operations Maturity Benchmarking Report . Note: The next and final post  (of six) in our MOPs Maturity Benchmarking series will focus on why it’s important for B2B companies and MOPs to have processes in place for: (1) identifying technology gaps (2) choosing the right martech for their needs (3) getting the “right” people to support the tech and (4) knowing HOW to work effectively with vendors.

Account Based Marketing, or ABM, is a B2B marketing strategy that concentrates sales and marketing resources onto a defined set of target accounts and leverages personalized campaigns designed to resonate with each account. ABM is one of the biggest marketing trends of the last few years, leveraging strategic focus and personalization to drive marketing ROI. SiriusDecisions  explained the what, why, and how of ABM in a recent webinar, “The State of ABM 2019,” which provided insights and tips based on SiriusDecisions own research. Matt Senatore , Service Director of ABM, SiriusDecisions, began “The State of ABM 2019” by explaining the positive impacts ABM has on revenues: it achieved 19% faster revenue growth and 15% higher profitability compared to non-ABM marketing efforts. Nicky Briggs , Research Director of ABM, SiriusDecisions, added that “ABM is an accelerator because it yields better results and facilitates alignment” of marketing, sales, and other business areas. Setting up an ABM program: 5 key factors Senatore and Briggs explored 5 key factors related to setting up and effectively running an ABM program, including: (1) defining program strategy, goals, and alignment; (2) program planning and execution; (3) measuring results; (4) ABM team design and skill development; (5) infrastructure (including technology). There’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to ABM, and “organizations deploy multiple ABM models, including large-account marketing, named-account marketing, and industry ABM,” said Senator. In addition, an organization’s access to data and its existing systems/tech stack may impact what it can do in terms of ABM strategy and execution. Many organizations will run ABM pilots at small scale, and then take “lessons learned” and enhanced capabilities to implement scaled-up ABM programs down the road. What content and channels drive ABM effectiveness? Briggs cited research showing that the most effective and widely-used content types for ABM programs are: (1) case studies; (2) whitepapers; (3) sales presentations; (4) webinars; and (5) video. So it appears that the best ABM content educates your prospects and provides them with information they can use to drive their internal buying process. In terms of the most effective sales/marketing channels, Senatore noted that face-to-face appeals were most effective in influencing buying decisions, including executive briefings, in-person selling, and live events hosted by the organization applying an ABM approach. ABM programs “need to incorporate relevance and personalization in order to drive effectiveness,” said Senatore. “When you’re able to do high-touch or face-to-face engagement, it has profound impacts on the buyer.” Of course, every ABM program needs to evaluate content and channel effectiveness through analyzing its own data. “Use your ABM wins and losses to evaluate what works best for you,” suggests Senatore, and then do more of what’s working based on ongoing, data-enabled measurement. Measurement matters a lot, but isn’t done enough Perhaps the most eye-opening insight revealed by the SiriusDecisions research relates to the importance of measuring ABM effectiveness, and the widespread failure of organizations to actually do it. As Briggs noted, “between 40 and 60% of companies are not tracking critical ABM metrics.” This damages your program, notes Briggs, in two big ways: first, you won’t be able to drive improvement/optimization if you don’t know what’s working or not, and second, you can’t make a business case for expanding your ABM program if you have no relevant metrics/results to show your C-suite leadership team. “The future of ABM depends upon accurate measurement of results,” said Senatore. “If you can’t show ROI, you can’t gain buy-in from leadership and your own marketing career may be in trouble.” That’s the bad news, but there’s a lot of ABM-related good news. Turns out that organizations that can  measure their ABM-related metrics see terrific results. The average increase in customer engagement with ABM programs, compared to non-ABM efforts, was an impressive plus 20%. Senatore referenced “higher ROI, bigger deals, and increased win rates” for ABM programs. Compared to non-ABM programs, ABM programs “won 13% more deals and those deals were also 21% larger in size,” said Senatore. “So when you do actually measure ABM metrics, you can prove better results for ABM compared to non-ABM.” Here’s what doesn’t work, according to Senatore: a marketing manager telling the C-suite, “we think, based on anecdotal evidence and good guesses, that our ABM program is working.” You need to prove ROI. ABM goes way beyond martech Setting up an effective ABM program will require integrating your systems and smashing data silos. As Briggs puts it, “you’ll need to begin by analyzing your existing tech stack and understanding your gaps to setting up an ABM roadmap. ABM is a strategy, not a technology.” Getting help from outside can be a key step in understanding your gaps, especially around your data capabilities, and improving your readiness to implement ABM. “Once you know your gaps, go out and talk with potential vendors about available technology, training your people, and driving ABM adoption,” Briggs noted. Another key component of ABM, designing and developing your team, will also take time and effort. And the leaders of those ABM teams need a strong skill set that includes strategic thinking, knowledge of marketing and sales practices, reporting and analytics capabilities, and understanding of technology. As Senatore explains, ABM managers “should be developing themselves while encouraging their team members to pursue skills development.” ABM takes infrastructure and alignment, especially with sales, but it’s also a skill set and a mindset change for all involved. Conclusion: ABM works, more measurement needed The key takeaway from the SiriusDecisions research is clear: ABM works to boost marketing ROI, but too many organizations are setting up programs without being able to measure results/KPIs. Because of this failure to measure, they’re not optimizing what they’re doing through ABM nor convincing leadership to scale up ABM programs through higher budgets. ABM’s effectiveness is loud-and-clear when it’s measured, but if you can’t measure ABM results, you’re asking leadership to take your word for it (which they won’t do for long). “Trust me” might work initially, but “show me the ROI” works best in a business world where ROI rules. Many of our customers struggle with where to begin in regards to ABM. As the SiriusDecisions research states, analyzing your existing tech stack and understanding your gaps – especially around data – are both critical to success. We can help with you both and more!  Contact us  to get the conversation started.   P.S. The SiriusDecisions Summit 2019  is May 5-8 in Austin, Texas! If you’re attending, please visit us at booth K25 to learn more about how we can help you and your marketing organization to run at peak performance.