• by Jess Nelson , June 9, 2017

Salesforce announced a new B2B marketing solution on Thursday built with Einstein, the company's artificial intelligence (AI) technology. 

Salesforce’s new Einstein Account Based Marketing (ABM) adds a predictive and targeted account-based marketing solution to Salesforce’s cloud ecosystem. Users can also choose to extend the ABM functionality through Salesforce’s AppExchange. 

Built on Salesforce’s CRM platform, Einstein ABM aims to help marketing and sales teams prioritize resources on leads that are most likely to convert, as well as send more personalized communication that steers prospects down the sales funnel.

“There has been a big shift for companies moving from traditional broad-based marketing to account-based marketing,” says Michael Kostow, GM at Salesforce Pardot.

Kostow says account-based marketing allows marketers to focus their efforts -- and ad dollars -- on high-value targets. 

With many influencers and buyers in a single account, Kostow says, personalized content must be delivered across both sales and marketing channels, and context is key. Salesforce is tackling this challenge with the help of Einstein ABM, a solution set that encompasses a portfolio of both new and existing Salesforce applications. The nexus of Einstein ABM enables marketers to focus their ad dollars on the people that matter, while maintaining their other accounts. 

Marketers can identify their most engaged account prospects with Einstein Lead Scoring, and identify lookalike audiences across marketing and sales channels with Advertising Studio. Einstein Opportunity Insights evaluates how a deal is progressing by analyzing customer sentiment, competitor involvement, and lead engagement, while B2B Marketing and Sales Analytics provides a wide variety of metrics that can be used to evaluate campaign success. 

Marketers can improve account engagement with Salesforce’s Engagement Studio, a “lead nurturing solution that enables marketers and sales reps to send personalized emails based on real-time buyer behavior or qualifying values, such as when a lead engages with a specific piece of content or if they have significant influence on a buying decision,” says Kostow. 

Einstein ABM includes applications from the Sales Cloud Enterprise Edition, including Einstein Lead Scoring, Einstein Account Insights and Einstein Opportunity Insights. B2B Marketing Analytics and Sales Analytics are two different applications with varying subscription costs, and the Advertising Studio is an add-on cost. Salesforce Engage is generally available with any Salesforce Pardot edition, while Engagement Studio is generally available with any Pardot B2B Marketing edition. 

Salesforce is also introducing an entirely new product to Einstein ABM that is currently in pilot, Multi-Touch Campaign Insights. The solution will identify what marketing and sales channels are most impactful for a brand, illustrating where prospects are engaging the most at various touchpoints throughout the customer lifecycle.

“AI is really helping sales reps and marketers be more productive by telling them in real-time what’s going in their accounts, allowing them to prioritize work and go after the leads that matter,” says Kostow.