Account based marketing

Account based marketing, usually shortened to ABM, is B2B marketing that starts with a named list of companies you want as customers and treats each one, or each small group, as its own market. Instead of attracting anyone who might buy, marketing and sales agree on the target accounts, map the people in each buying group, and reach them with research, personalized pages, LinkedIn ads, display, direct mail and well timed sales outreach. It suits B2B firms with high value deals, a clear picture of their ideal customer and a sales team willing to work alongside marketing. Canada Create is a Toronto agency serving businesses across Canada, and this page explains how an ABM program is built, what you receive and what to expect from it.

Contents

• What account based marketing is and when it fits
• Choosing target accounts with sales
• Mapping the buying group in each account
• One to one, one to few and one to many
• Personalization that is actually useful
• Reaching the buying group with LinkedIn, display and remarketing
• Direct mail, gifts and event invitations
• Timing marketing and sales outreach together
• Account level reporting and CRM views
• Rules and privacy to plan for
• How we run an ABM program
• What account based marketing costs
• How to choose an ABM partner
• Your next step

What account based marketing is and when it fits

Traditional B2B marketing casts a wide net and sorts the catch: lots of contacts come in, and sales picks the ones worth calling. ABM turns that around. Sales and marketing first decide which companies are worth winning, then concentrate every activity on the people inside those companies. A firm selling warehouse automation might pick forty distributors with the right floor size and growth plans, rather than chasing every logistics manager who downloads a guide.

How ABM works in plain steps

Pick the accounts. Learn who decides inside each one. Find out what each person cares about. Reach them with messages and content that speak to that, on the channels they use. Time sales outreach to the moments when they are paying attention. Then measure progress account by account, not contact by contact.

When ABM is the right choice

ABM fits when deal values are high enough to justify research on each account, when the number of good fit companies is limited and knowable, when several people are involved in each purchase, and when sales cycles are long. It is a poor fit for low price products, for markets where almost any company could buy, or for a sales team that does not want to share account plans with marketing.

ABM next to other approaches

Broad demand building and ABM work well together: one makes the whole market familiar with your ideas, the other concentrates on the accounts you most want. A separate Demand generation page covers the broad side. Collecting enquiries from anyone in market is lead generation, described on our lead generation service page. ABM sits within our wider B2B marketing services.

Choosing target accounts with sales

The target account list is the most important decision in ABM, and it is a sales decision as much as a marketing one. A list chosen by marketing alone tends to be ignored by sales; a list chosen by sales alone tends to be the accounts they already know.

Fit criteria

We start with your current customers and recent wins: which ones were profitable, stayed with you, bought more over the years and were pleasant to serve? What do they have in common? Typical criteria include company size by staff or locations, the specific trade or segment, the systems they already run, the region they operate in, regulatory pressures that make your offer more urgent, and recent changes such as new facilities or new leadership.

Signs of timing

Fit tells you who could buy; timing tells you who might buy soon. Public signals include hiring for roles connected to your product, expansion announcements, new locations, leadership changes, published tenders and visits to your website from a known company. Signals are reasons to raise an account’s priority, never a certainty.

How many accounts

The right number depends on your sales team’s capacity and deal size. A firm with two salespeople and very large deals might work twenty accounts deeply; a firm with a larger team and mid-sized deals might work a few hundred in lighter tiers. The final list is written down, signed off by the sales lead and reviewed each quarter, with accounts moved in or out for stated reasons.

Mapping the buying group in each account

A business purchase involves a group, and each member has a different job in the decision. ABM plans a message for each role rather than one message for “the company”.

The usual roles

• Users who live with the problem every day and will use what you sell.
• Champions who believe in the change and will argue for it internally.
• Finance, who need to see cost, payback and how the spend fits the budget year.
• IT, who care about security, integration and support load.
• Procurement, who run the vendor process, the RFP or the tender, and check insurance, references and compliance.
• The executive sponsor, who signs and wants the change to support a bigger goal.

Finding the gaps

For each target account we map who you already know, who you have met only once, and which roles are empty. A deal where sales has a strong champion but nobody in finance or IT is a deal at risk of stalling late. The map shows marketing where to aim.

Account research

For higher tier accounts, a short written brief pulls together what is publicly known: the company’s own words about its priorities, recent news, annual reports where they exist, job postings, the people in relevant roles and their public posts, and what your team already knows from past conversations. The brief gives sales an informed opening and gives marketing the themes for that account’s content. Research uses public business information and your own records only.

One to one, one to few and one to many

Not every account deserves the same effort. ABM programs usually work in three tiers, and the written plan says which accounts sit in which tier.

One to one

A handful of the most valuable accounts, each with its own plan, its own research brief, content and pages written for that company, and a close weekly rhythm between the salesperson and marketing. This tier is expensive per account and reserved for deals that justify it, such as a multi site rollout for a national retailer or a manufacturer’s largest distributor.

One to few

Small clusters of similar accounts, for example eight regional credit unions or a dozen food processors facing the same new requirement. Each cluster shares a set of pages, content and ads written for its specific situation, with light personalization per account.

One to many

A larger list of good fit accounts reached with segment level messages, targeted ads and timely sales outreach when an account shows interest. It looks like focused B2B marketing, with the difference that everything is measured at account level and aimed at a named list.

Personalization that is actually useful

Personalization in ABM means making the content relevant to the account’s situation, not putting the prospect’s logo on a web page and calling it done.

Pages per segment or account

For a one to few cluster, a landing page might speak directly to regional credit unions: the regulatory reporting they face, the integration with core banking systems, a short example of how a similar institution approached the change, and a contact person by name. For a one to one account, the page can address that company’s published goals. We build these pages as part of the program; our landing page service describes the build in more detail.

Content each role can use

The champion needs something to forward to finance: a one page cost and payback summary written for that kind of company. IT needs a plain security and integration overview. Procurement needs vendor details ready in advance. Producing these before they are asked for shortens the time a deal sits waiting. Our graphic design team lays out one page summaries and sales decks so they look considered.

Where personalization goes wrong

Mentioning a prospect’s personal details, quoting private conversations, or showing that you have tracked an individual’s every click feels intrusive and damages trust. Useful personalization refers to the company’s public situation and the role’s known concerns. If a message would make the recipient uncomfortable to read aloud in a meeting, it is too much.

Reaching the buying group with LinkedIn, display and remarketing

ABM advertising does not aim at a broad audience. It aims at the people inside your named accounts, so the buying group sees a consistent story wherever they spend time.

LinkedIn ads to the buying group

LinkedIn allows advertisers to target lists of companies and then narrow by job function and seniority, which suits ABM well. A campaign might show finance roles at target accounts a cost summary, while IT roles at the same accounts see the integration overview. Our social media ads team builds and manages these campaigns, with ad spend paid to the platform.

Account based display and remarketing

Display ads and remarketing keep your message visible to people from target accounts who have visited your site, and to wider audiences built around them. Frequency limits matter: a buying group should see you regularly, not constantly. See our page on display and remarketing ads for how these campaigns are set up.

Email to known contacts

Where you have consent or a documented business relationship, short, specific emails from the salesperson or a senior person often suit ABM better than designed newsletters, because they read like a real note. Our email marketing service handles list care and the sending side when you need it.

Direct mail, gifts and event invitations

Physical touches stand out precisely because most B2B marketing is now on a screen. In ABM they are used sparingly and with a purpose.

Direct mail that earns a reply

A printed report written for the account’s segment, a handwritten note from your founder, or a practical object connected to the conversation, such as a site survey kit for a facilities lead, sent to a confirmed business address. Each piece invites a specific next step, like a short call to walk through findings.

Gifts and corporate policies

Many organizations, especially public bodies, health systems and larger corporations, have strict rules on what staff may accept from vendors. Check before sending anything of value; a well meant gift can put a champion in an awkward position.

Event invitations

Small round tables, site visits, a seat at an industry dinner or a private session with your engineer give target accounts a reason to spend time with you. Invitations go to named people with a clear agenda, and follow up is planned before the event, not after.

Timing marketing and sales outreach together

The point of ABM is that sales and marketing move as one. That only happens with a shared calendar and agreed plays.

Plays

A play is a short, written sequence for a situation. For example: when two or more people from a target account visit the pricing page in the same week, the salesperson receives an alert, sends a personal note referring to the topic they read, and marketing switches that account’s ads to the relevant case for change. Another play might follow a trade show where the champion stopped by your booth.

Outreach windows

Some accounts plan purchases around budget cycles, fiscal year ends or seasonal shutdowns. A school board, a construction firm and a retailer all have predictable quiet and busy periods. Timing outreach to when decisions are being made, and not to when buyers are buried, is basic respect and good sense.

A weekly account meeting

For one to one and one to few tiers, a short weekly meeting between sales and marketing reviews which accounts are warming, which have gone quiet, and what each side will do next. A fractional marketing lead can run this rhythm inside the business; see our fractional CMO and marketing strategy service.

Account level reporting and CRM views

ABM is measured by account, because a single enthusiastic contact means little if the rest of the buying group has never heard of you.

What we report

• Coverage: how many roles in each account’s buying group you have reached.
• Engagement: which accounts are visiting the site, opening email, attending events and seeing ads, shown as a trend.
• Meetings: first meetings and multi person meetings with target accounts.
• Pipeline: opportunities with target accounts and their stage, as you define them.

We report what happened in each tier; we never promise a number of meetings, opportunities or revenue.

Account views in the CRM

Sales needs to see, on one screen, every person at an account, what each has engaged with and what the next action is. We set up and connect CS+, our CRM, or connect the program to the CRM your team already uses, so contacts are grouped by company and activity is visible at account level. Our CRM setup service page has more on that side.

Rules and privacy to plan for

ABM uses contact data about named people at named companies, so Canadian privacy and anti spam rules matter. CASL applies to B2B email: you need consent or a documented business relationship, clear identification of the sender, and a working unsubscribe in every commercial message. A business card handed over at an event or an address found on a website does not always amount to permission. PIPEDA sets general expectations for how contact data is collected, used, stored and protected, which applies to account research and CRM records. The Competition Act expects marketing claims to be truthful and supportable, so payback summaries and comparisons in personalized content need real numbers behind them. This is a marketing observation, not legal advice.

In practice

Research briefs use public business information. Contact records note how and when consent or the business relationship arose. Payback summaries show their assumptions. And individual tracking is used to decide timing, never quoted back to the prospect.

How we run an ABM program

1. Free review. We meet with you and your sales lead to talk through your strongest customers, your deal size, your current account list and how sales and marketing work today.
2. Written plan and proposal. You receive the fit criteria, a draft target list for sales to approve, the tier structure, the buying group map for top accounts, the channels and plays, the reporting and the fees, all quoted in writing.
3. Launch. Account briefs, personalized pages and content, ad campaigns, direct mail and plays, each approved by you, with sales briefed before anything goes out.
4. Monthly reporting and quarterly list review. Account level reports each month, and a quarterly review of the target list with sales.

Ad accounts, the CRM, the target list, the account briefs and every piece of content stay in your company’s name.

What account based marketing costs

ABM is quoted in writing after the free review. What drives the cost is the depth of work per account, not the size of the list alone.

• How many accounts sit in the one to one tier, where research and content are written for each company.
• How many one to few clusters need their own pages and content.
• Which channels are used: LinkedIn ads, display, direct mail, events.
• How much CRM setup is needed to show account level activity.
• Whether content is needed in English and French for accounts in Quebec or bilingual organizations.

Ad spend is paid directly to the platforms, and printing, postage, gifts, event costs and software licences are shown separately from our fees.

How to choose an ABM partner

• Who owns the accounts? The answer should be you: ad accounts, CRM, target list, briefs and content.
• How will you involve our sales team? If the answer does not include sales approving the list and a regular meeting, it is not really ABM.
• How do you decide the tiers? Ask for the reasoning, written down.
• What does personalization mean to you? Look for relevance to the account’s situation, not logos on pages.
• How will you report? By account and by tier, with meetings and pipeline as you define them.
• What will you not promise? No honest partner promises meetings, pipeline or revenue.

Distributors and wholesale brands selling to a defined list of retailers or dealers may find our page on B2B wholesale marketing useful alongside ABM.

Your next step

Start with a free ABM review, and bring your sales lead, because the target list is half theirs. A spreadsheet of your ten favourite customers, a rough idea of average deal value and the names of five companies you would love to win is plenty for the first conversation. From that we draft fit criteria, a first tiering and a written proposal with fees quoted in writing.

If your sales lead prefers to talk first, they can ring the Toronto office on (416) 273-9030 or the 24/7 toll-free line on +1 (800) 808-9235 and walk us through a deal that stalled with a target account. We answer within one business day. You can also write to us, or meet the team at Canada Create, 126 Willowdale Avenue, Suite 3, Toronto.