Updated and expanded. Learn the ins and outs of account based marketing, including examples from Terminus and Engagio.

1. What is
Account-Based
Marketing?

2. For years, marketers have been
obsessed with casting these wide nets.
@DRIFT #ABM

3. THEIR PHILOSOPHY:
Attract enough fish
into the net…
@DRIFT #ABM

4. …and you’re bound to end up
with a keeper or two.
@DRIFT #ABM

5. But then an alternative philosophy
began to evolve. One that replaces the
net with a spear.
@DRIFT #ABM

6. ABM
Identify target
companies
Engage them with
personalized conversations
Build lasting relationships that
lead to new opportunities
@DRIFT #ABM
Identify target
companies
Nurture them with
automated emails
Attract people to your site & get
them to fill out forms
Traditional Marketing /
Pioneered by ITSMA (the Information Technology Services Marketing
Association), ABM flips the traditional marketing funnel on its head.

7. With ABM, you’re laser-focused on
companies that you’ve already identified
as being a good fit to buy.
@DRIFT #ABM

8. Which means you don’t waste
resources filling your funnel
with bad leads.
@DRIFT #ABM

9. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
According to ITSMA, the simplest definition of ABM is “treating
individual accounts as markets in their own right.”
ABM acknowledges all of the different people — and different viewpoints — that
comprise each account and uses highly targeted, personalized campaigns in order
to win over those accounts.
@DRIFT #ABM

10. “ABM aspires to be ‘zero-waste’
marketing. It’s a model that targets only
the companies and contacts that are
likely to buy your product and that sales
has pre-committed to try to close.”
JOE CHERNOV, CMO InsightSquared
@DRIFT #ABM

11. “With ABM, you’re creating this really
strategic, orchestrated set of activities
that makes you rise above the noise of
what everyone else out there is doing
and gets that account to say, ‘Hey, I
want to talk to you.’”
TRISH BERTUZZI, FOUNDER & CEO The Bridge Group
@DRIFT #ABM

12. Account-Based Marketing
vs. Inbound Marketing
@DRIFT #ABM

13. @DRIFT #ABM
You can also think of inbound
marketing as feeding into your
ABM funnel.
Attract people to your site &
get them to fill out forms
Engage them with
personalized
conversations
Build lasting relationships
that lead to new
opportunities
Nurture them with
automated emails
Identify
target
companies
Because if an inbound lead ends up being part of a target
account, ABM can pick up right where inbound leaves off.
INBOUND
MARKETING
ABM

14. Key Differences
@DRIFT #ABM

15. ABM is highly targeted.
ABM focuses on just those prospects that are most likely to buy and uses
personalized campaigns to engage with them. In order to source these
high-quality prospects, account-based marketers build ideal customer
profiles (ICPs) using firmographic and technographic data (and sometimes
predictive analytics).
@DRIFT #ABM

16. ABM focuses on accounts, not
markets or industries.
Account-based marketers gain a deep understanding of their target
accounts in order to create content and campaigns optimized for them.
This is different from your typical approach to inbound marketing where
you’re addressing a broader market or industry.
@DRIFT #ABM

17. ABM targets both prospects
and customers.
ABM’s goal is to “land and expand” using optimized campaigns to
bring in new customers and act on opportunities to grow current
accounts (i.e. cross-sell, upsell).
@DRIFT #ABM

18. @DRIFT #ABM
ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETINGINBOUND MARKETING
Market/Industries Accounts
Quantity of Leads Quality of Target Accounts
New Business Land & Expand
Buyer Persona Ideal Customer Profile
FOCUS
MEASURE OF SUCCESS
OBJECTIVE
RESEARCH TOOL

19. Reasons Why
ABM Works
@DRIFT #ABM

20. Strong alignment between sales
and marketing
@DRIFT #ABM
For years, marketers have been trained to write and create campaigns for
people in particular markets and industries. Meanwhile, sales has been
focused on engaging with just those accounts that are likely to buy. With
ABM, sales and marketing are both focused on target accounts and are
working toward a common goal.

21. “In traditional demand generation, marketing throws
leads over the fence for sales to chase. In ABM, there is
no fence. The collaboration is close, constant, and
totally focused on defined, account-specific objectives.”
@DRIFT #ABM

22. Efficient and optimized
@DRIFT #ABM
As Joe Chernov said, “ABM aspires to be ‘zero-waste’ marketing.”
Remember, ABM is fishing with a spear, not a net. There’s considerably
less “bycatch” as you’re only engaging with prospects that are likely to
buy. Combine that narrow focus with an amazing customer experience
(more on that next) and conversion rates start to climb.

23. Better customer experiences
@DRIFT #ABM
With ABM you research accounts and design campaigns specifically for them.
Meaning every touchpoint along the buyer’s journey is personalized.
Instead of doing what’s convenient for the company (re: automating
everything and reusing the same content for all of your leads), with ABM the
focus is on doing what’s most convenient for the contacts and decision-
makers inside of your target accounts.

24. ROI
@DRIFT #ABM
One of marketing’s biggest challenges has always been justifying budget. If
you’re looking to convince decision-makers that ABM is the path forward,
good news, tons of brand have done it for you 🙏
To get started, you’ll need to identify your target accounts and start
developing personalized campaigns. Here are a few real-world examples you
can use for inspiration 👇

25. ABM Campaign
Examples
@DRIFT #ABM

26. Air Cover Campaign
@DRIFT #ABM
As BDRs work on target accounts, Terminus’ marketers target the contacts
and decision-makers within those accounts with relevant online ads. The
targeted ads help build awareness within accounts before and/or at the same
time a BDR is reaching out.

27. While Terminus had campaign-specific goals for each of the examples we
described, they also have key metrics they look at for every ABM campaign:
● Engagement (How many target companies are you engaging with?)
● Close rates (Are they improving?)
● Time to close (Is it decreasing?)
● Deal size (Is it increasing?)
● Upsell/cross-sell opportunities (Are they increasing?)
● More opportunities being influenced (Is it happening?)
@DRIFT #ABM

28. Event Marketing Campaign
@DRIFT #ABM
Because events are a big part of their broader marketing strategy,
Terminus has built an event marketing campaign playbook that covers
activities that happen leading up to, during, and after events. Sales and
marketing work together to identify the target accounts for these
campaigns — they look at past event attendees, pre-registration lists,
and also target accounts that are located near where the event is
taking place. After an event, follow-up kicks into gear, which includes
ads targeted at attendees, emails and social posts, and calls and
emails from BDRs.

29. Pipeline Acceleration Campaign
@DRIFT #ABM
This campaign is technically three campaigns, but all three are focused
on one thing: Closing deals.
Sales and marketing work together to come up with targeted messages
and ads that match the opportunity stage different accounts are in —
early-stage opportunities, mid-stage opportunities, and late-stage
opportunities.

30. The Future
Of ABM
@DRIFT #ABM

31. At Drift, we love the more personalized and
targeted approach that ABM takes, but there’s
one inconsistency that we keep noticing:
@DRIFT #ABM

32. Lots of account-based
marketers are still serving
up the same old, forms-
based experience to their
ABM prospects.
@DRIFT #ABM

33. You’re leaving too much value on the
table if you’re not engaging with these
high-value accounts NOW.
@DRIFT #ABM
Avoid a generic greeting
to your VIP prospects

34. Imagine getting a push notification on your
phone the instant a decision-maker from one
of your target accounts lands on your website.
@DRIFT #ABM
DRIFT
Applinks is currently on the homepage.
17m ago

35. Then jumping in a live chat
to engage with those key
contacts in real-time.
@DRIFT #ABM
Applinks

36. Then learning from these conversations and seeing
how to improve cadence and repeat plays that work.
@DRIFT #ABM

37. “One meaningful conversation with a decision-
maker is more valuable than 20 leads
from unqualified prospects.”
@DRIFT #ABM

38. At Drift, we want to help you start
meaningful conversations that create
value 👇
@DRIFT #ABM

39. See how with
Drift ABM.
@DRIFT #ABM