For all the hype, few companies have a well-oiled account-based marketing (ABM) machine.
A mere 22% say they have a measurable strategy in place, according to Account-Based Marketing
Approach, a study by Ascend2.
Another 14% are rolling out a pilot program, and 34% are planning for ABM in the future. Still, 30% have no such plans.
Moreover, while 65%
of those embracing ABM are somewhat successful at it, only 22% are best in class. And 13% are failing at it.
The main obstacles are:
- Lack of budget/resources —
37%
- Marketing and sales alignment — 32%
- Lack of quality data — 29%
- Lack of technology — 25%
- Lack of a unified strategy —
24%
- Marketing attribution — 23%
- Inability to measure or prove ROI — 23%
- Lack of quality content — 19%
- Lack of commitment by management —
17%
Ascend2 and Research Partners surveyed 261 marketers, 40% B2B, 31% B2C and 29% a combination of both.
The researchers found 62% of ABM users spend less than 25%
of their marketing budgets on ABM, and 25% spend from 25% to 49%. Another 30% allocate 50% to 74% and only 3% more than 75%.
Email remains a prime medium for ABM, the most effective
channels being listed as:
- Social media — 50%
- Email — 45%
- Content/resource — 42%
- Website personalization —
33%
- Paid advertising — 33%
- Webinar/virtual events — 29%
- Print/direct mail — 13%
Companies use a variety of metrics to
measure ABM success:
- Target account revenue generate — 44%
- Target account engagement — 42%
- Marketing Qualified Leads
(MQLs) — 31%
- Win rate — 28%
- Average contact value — 27%
- Penetration within target accounts — 26%
- Target account
pipeline — 23%
- Meetings set — 19%
- Pipeline created — 15%
The most vital account data being collected:
- Lifetime customer value
— 41%
- Financial information — 41%
- Engagement history — 40%
- Current or planned projects/initiatives — 38%
- Decision-maker
profiles — 35%
- Strategic partnerships — 27%
- Technology stack architecture — 12%
Of the outfits polled, 54% are finding and
attracting new contacts, 27 are focused on existing contacts and 19% are nurturing and cross-marketing to those existing contacts.