• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 16, 2021

Account-based marketing (ABM) could well be just another buzzword, judging by State of ABM Maturity, a study by MRP and Demand Metric. 

Of the B2B companies polled, only 23% say ABM accounts for 25% or more of their marketing-attributed revenue. In contrast, 38% acknowledge that their ABM programs produce negative, uncertain or unmeasured results. 

And as you might expect, high performers are much more likely than low performers to exhibit maturity in executing ABM. 

Who are the high performers? They make up 23% of the survey sample, based on the fact that they report "significant revenue impact from ABM and benchmarks the specific practices that set these leaders apart from their lower performing peers," the company says. 

Among other things, they are better at identifying the issues that impede ABM results: 

• Measuring ABM programs across channels and platforms — 78%
• Coordinating ABM campaigns with other marketing campaigns — 68%
• Controlling ABM messages across channels and platforms — 68% 
• Identifying or reporting against ABM KPIs — 67% 
• Aligning ABM KPIs to existing funnel metrics — 64%
• Managing ABM programs across multiple product lines, languages/geographies — 63%

Now fess up: Has your company identified and solved these problems?

High performers also use more marketing systems. Of those polled, 84% use three or more to deliver email, digital and display and direct mail. And those that do see more than a 25% increase in revenue. 

While 66% of low performers also use three or more channels. But 16% of those that use only one or two systems realize a strong revenue impact. 

The ability to send email is a key part of the ABM process. 

“High-performing B2B marketers have transitioned from a contact-centric approach to an account-centric one that orchestrates email with other touchpoints in order to reach targets with a consistent message everywhere," says Jennifer Golden, Director of Corporate Marketing at MRP. 

Golden adds that this "can only be achieved through data management technologies that cleanse, map, and append data for deeper insights and more exact reporting. With a single view of each target account across platforms and teams, enterprise marketers can execute strategic ABM programs that deliver personalized email and highly targeted content across channels, and measure program results accurately.”

Meanwhile, 84% of high performers have deep integrations in their tech stack, compared with 30% of low performers.

In addition, 43% of high performers use multiple data sources — i.e., third-party intent data, CRM and MAP data, intent data, and predictive analytics — to create account profiles. Only 18% of low performers do so.  

High performers are also defined by their information-sharing.  

For example, 41% of high performers have a transparent view into each other’s engagement strategies within companies, and they can market collaboratively across a range of products. 

Only 7% of low performers can say the same. And 62% of the high performers have a full view of each target account across all relevant sales, marketing, and ABM platforms, versus 14% of the laggards. 

Only 34% of high performers use only one team to execute ABM across their companies, versus 56% of low performers. 

Then there’s content — 48% of the top performers create a library of content to serve target-account objectives as they evolve during the ABM journey. A mere 15% of low performers do this.  

Also, 46% of the more mature marketers use a system that triggers content across all platforms to meet all needs within a target account. And the low performers? Only 11% have one.

MRP and Demand Metric surveyed 1,275 marketers across four continents between April 8 and May 20, 2021. The analysis is based on the response from 420 marketers. The average time of their ABM use is 2.8 years.