• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 28, 2021

Email specialists in big B2B companies better keep their eyes open — they could be called on to ramp up their account-based marketing (ABM) efforts, judging by The State of ABM 2-21, a study that MRP Prelytix conducted in partnership with Demand Metric. 

On the positive side (for vendors, anyway) is the fact that 81% plan to increase their ABM investment this year. Only 1.5% expect a reduction, and the remainder will stay where they are. 

But 96% also say that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the way they market and sell products, with 49% saying it has caused dramatic disruption.

The impact has been greater on enterprise firms — those with revenue of $150 million or more — where 48.9% say it has dramatically changed processes, and 48.3% report it has somewhat disrupted them.

That may be why 80% of enterprise companies expect to increase their ABM spend, versus only 66.9% of SMBs — companies below that $150 million threshold. (For the record, we hardly think of a business with $149.5 million as a SMB).  

In general, 77% also report that the pace of marketing is faster than was it a year ago — a number that rises to 83% for enterprise brands. 

And businesses report these changes:

• Our account profiles have changed (e.g., identify decision makers, buying procedures and media preferences — 39.4% 
• The channels we use to reach targets are changing — 27.5% 
• Sales cycles are longer — 8.5%
• Direct mail is not reaching targets — 1.3%
• Other — 1.3%

Drilling down, 42.9% say their account profiles have changed, and 29.8% say they are using different channels to reach targets. It’s not clear whether email is losing volume as a result of this. 

Meanwhile, 35.1% of SMBs report their profiles are changing, and 24.6% say their channels are. 

“Looking forward, the key to ABM success is to continue to advance the use of global data, predictive models, and robust collaboration innovated in the pandemic to improve outcomes and drive new value and success,” states Jennifer Golden, director of corporate marketing, MRP. 

MRP Prelytix and Demand Metric surveyed 411 marketing leaders in April and May 2021, with 85% of these in North America.