/ 01 – Account-Based Marketing
Reach impresses. Precision wins customers.
Why targeted accounts deliver more in B2B than broad campaigns.
Run broad campaigns or focus on individual accounts? Account-Based Marketing has become one of the most effective strategies for reaching exactly the decision-makers who matter in the complex B2B environment.
/ 02 – Focus
01
Focus instead of wasted reach
Unlike classic campaigns, ABM doesn’t target the broad masses but clearly defined target accounts. Instead of wasted reach, relevance is what counts: the right accounts, the right contacts, the right message.
The reason for turning the direction around is that the decisive work happens in a phase in which you have no contact and measure nothing. In 6sense’s 2025 survey of more than 4,000 buyers, the great majority of buying groups had already settled on a preferred vendor before they made first contact, and mostly bought from that vendor. A report that begins with the first enquiry therefore shows you the end of a process whose outcome was largely decided beforehand.
94% of buying groups have ranked a preferred vendor before they make first contact, and 77% buy from that vendor.
6sense, 2025 Buyer Experience Report, more than 4,000 buyers surveyed. The publisher sells software in this field.
Focus over reach
Not the broad masses, but defined target accounts.
Personalization with data
Content tailored to the pain points of real decision-makers.
Marketing and sales united
Delivering campaigns, building relationships: hand in hand.
Three ABM principles
What Account-Based Marketing is fundamentally about.
01
Target accounts instead of the broad masses
02
Buying center instead of a single contact
03
Content per account instead of a mass email
/ 03 – Approach
02
How to set up an ABM program
It starts with account selection. Instead of a long list, you define a manageable number of companies where deal value, fit, and access all come together. This selection determines the success of the program, not the tool you use.
Next, the buying center is broken down for each account: who decides, who evaluates technically, who holds the budget, who can block the deal. Only then is content created, and it differs by role. The technical department needs different arguments than the executive board.
What that content is tailored to matters more than how finely it is tailored. Gartner surveyed 632 B2B buyers in 2024 and found that content aimed at the buying group or at the situation of the company improves agreement within the group by 20%, while content aimed at the individual person and their private preferences makes it worse by 59%. For a marketing team of two, that is good news: the work you couldn’t do anyway is the work you shouldn’t do.
The effort per account is significantly higher than with a broad campaign. ForgeX puts the most intensive form at three to six accounts per person, with a programme runtime of 9 to 18 months (2025). That’s why ABM only pays off where individual deals are large enough to justify that effort. For small deal values and high volume, the broad campaign remains the more economical choice.
Tools for sharp buyer personas
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- HubSpot
- SE Ranking
/ 04 – FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Mirrors the real prompts from Google AI and ChatGPT around Account-Based Marketing in B2B.
What is Account-Based Marketing?
ABM aligns marketing and sales specifically toward clearly defined target accounts instead of the broad masses.
When does ABM pay off in B2B?
Whenever you have a manageable number of high-value target accounts and want to avoid wasted reach.
What tools does ABM need?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator, HubSpot, and SE Ranking help sharpen buyer personas.
What measurable results does ABM bring?
There is no independent measurement of impact. The widely quoted figures, such as the claim that around three quarters of users report a higher return, come from surveys of ABM managers whose client is an alliance of ABM software vendors. Those are self-assessments by people rating their own programme, and anyone who abandoned theirs isn’t in the sample. We therefore don’t use such figures. The more solid number from the same survey series is the uncomfortable one: after six years, only 17% of programmes were anchored in the organisation (Momentum ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance, 2022 data, 279 respondents). How much ABM delivers for you depends mainly on the deal value per account.
Account-Based Marketing isn’t a trend — it’s a must for companies with clearly defined target accounts. It saves resources, reduces wasted reach, and accelerates the sales cycle. Precision beats reach.
Keep reading: Why many B2B websites don’t generate leads · Buying groups in B2B
/ 05 – Who it’s for
Built for companies whose offering needs explaining.
IT & software service providers
With explanation-heavy services and few, high-value customers.
Manufacturing industry & mechanical engineering
Selling complex technology to a small number of major decision-makers.
Startups & scale-ups
Companies that want to become visible quickly and credibly.
