What Is ABM In Marketing And What Are The Different Types? |

This is the first blog in our ABM series explaining what ABM in marketing is and the three different types of ABM – one to one, one to few, one to many.

If you already have knowledge and experience of ABM, you’d be better skipping to the next blog – Why Account Based Marketing isn’t delivering the customer growth you need. In this second blog we discuss the six issues with traditional ABM, the goals of ABM and how you can increase customer growth and CLTV.

What is ABM (Account Based Marketing)?

In simple terms, ABM is an aligned marketing and sales strategy that targets a specific set of ‘right fit’ and high-value accounts. The objective is usually to increase revenue or accelerate the route to revenue.

72% of marketers say account-based marketing (ABM) outperforms all other marketing investments, which explains why 71% of companies plan to increase ABM spend in 2023.
CIM

What are the different types of ABM in marketing?

The different types of ABM strategies relate to who you are targeting, the associated value or return of these accounts, and how you then engage and reach them.

ABM is typically split into three types:

One to one ABM (sometimes called strategic ABM)
One to few ABM (ABM lite)
One to many (Programmatic ABM)

What is one to one ABM?

One to one ABM would usually be reserved for existing customer accounts where there is potential for growth either by cross-sell/upsell, expanding relationships or changing perceptions. It can also be used when a tender/RFP is coming up to ensure continuation of services. One to one usually includes:

Programme is highly customised per account
Investment is high for each account (therefore a higher risk of low ROI)
Content is highly personalised
Each account treated as a market
Typical accounts targeted 1-4

What is one to few ABM?

One to few ABM is typically when you choose to target a specific set of accounts that have similar characteristics or can be splits into a few ‘clusters’ that do. For example, you may target a set of accounts in a specific sector like Transport and Logistics, or you may target retail and have sub-clusters for Convenience, FMCG and Luxury.

Programme may be a consistent strategy with cluster level customisation
Investment is much lower for each account
Content is highly personalised at a cluster level e.g. for the sector
Each set or cluster of account treated as a mini market
Typical accounts targeted 15-50

What is one to many ABM?

One to many generally brings more scale and reaches a much higher number of accounts, in my opinion it’s much closer to demand or lead gen activity. Ultimately, if you’ve invested significant resources producing content for a one to few campaign – for example Transport and Logistics specific content and digital assets – it makes sense to utilise this in a broader campaign that reaches all potential accounts in that sector. In other examples, one to many programmes use Martech to reach accounts at scale based on intent.

Programme targets accounts at scale
Investment is significantly lower per account, often action or intent based
Content is rarely personalised and often repurposed
Accounts aren’t treated as a market, much broader
Typical accounts targeted 100-1000s

ABM is useful to address the complex decision-making unit in B2B sales

We all know it’s critical to provide the right messaging when speaking to either an existing or potential customer. The fact a typical buying group for a complex B2B solutions consists of 6-10 decision makers and 30 influencers means consistent and relevant messaging at every potential touchpoint is also key.¹

This is especially true when we know customers ‘loop’ and revisit the different buying tasks constantly, in fact 80% revisit each of the six buying ‘jobs’ at least once.*²

*Six buyer jobs: 1) Problem identification > 2) Solution exploration > 3) Requirements building > 4) Supplier selection > 5) Validation > 6) Consensus creation.

This is an example structure for the B2B buyer journey from Gartner: