• by Ray Schultz , January 6, 2023

B2B marketers are planning to invest in account-based marketing (ABM) this year, judging by Elevating ABM: Building Blocks For Long-Term Growth, a study from Momentum ITSMA and the ABM Leadership Alliance.  

Of the companies polled, 71% will increase their ABM spending, with average budget growth of 13.1%. And 50% will allocate more for staff, with an average boost of 9.7%.

But serious challenges remain, including:

• Tracking and measuring ABM results
• Developing campaign assets that are mass customizable to allow a scale
• Personalizing and tailoring marketing to the key contacts at each account
• Educating sales on the process and value of ABM
  
• Getting adequate budget to support programs and resources
  

Asked to rank their ABM objectives on a scale of one to five, they listed:

• Selling to new accounts — 4.0 
• Growing business with existing accounts — 4.0 
• Changing perception/strengthening reputation with targeted accounts — 3.7 
• Supporting specific major opportunities or deals — 3.7
• Entering new markets/selling to new types of buyers — 2.9

The study lists three types of ABM: One to one, one-to-few and one-to-many.  Each is used to some extent by 54%. But only 18% utilize all three types, while 29% deploy two and 53% are limited to one. 

Email newsletters are a mainstay at all three levels. 

They are first in use in one-to-few ‘and one-to-many ABM programs, and third in one-to-one ABM. In the latter, they are topped only by account-specific (bespoke) content and thought leadership, and executive-to-executive relationship programs. 

Few ABM practitioners have complete tech stacks, although more than 60% have CRM, website, email and account insights technology. The top tech investments for 2023 are:

• CRM
• Social 
• Chat 
• Events
• Engagement
• Lead-to-account matching 
• Content activation 

• Expand what we do for accounts currently in our ABM program
• Adopt a blended approach using more than one type of ABM to cover more accounts/clusters/segments. 
• Develop new tools and templates to facilitate reuse and best practice sharing.
• Add more marketing resources to cover more accounts/clusters/segments.
• Add a stronger focus on applying ABM to major defined sales opportunities or deal pursuits.
• Add education and training to increase ABM skills among existing marketers.
• Add technology to automate and create more leverage for existing programs. 

Momentum ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance surveyed 279 ABM heads and practitioners in August 2022.  

The full report can be accessed here.