Account-Based Marketing: Don’t Scale Fast, Scale Smart! [Podcast]

Sendoso Chief Marketing Officer Dan Frohnen sits down with Terminus Vice President of Marketing Justin Keller (at the time of recording, Justin was the VP of Marketing at Sigstr, which was acquired by Terminus in December of 2019) on another episode of the B2B Growth podcast to discuss how account-based marketing can sometimes be a double-edged sword. Since ABM is so popular, it’s tempting to scale your program, and fast. But Dan and Justin agree that scaling isn’t so simple, and not always the answer to achieve long-term success.

Great Account-Based Marketing Doesn’t Happen Overnight

Say you’ve taken all the necessary steps to get an account-based marketing program up and running at your company, and followed the 8 Commandments of Account-Based Marketing word for word.

All you have to do now is sit back, relax, and watch as your target list of accounts come knocking down your door to be customers, turning your team into ABM superheroes—right?

Wrong.

There’s no magic ABM “mousetrap” for attracting the right customers and capturing revenue. Just because you’ve seen success in growing your one-to-one program into a one-to-few, doesn’t mean you need to race to the finish line to scale into a one-to-many.

Justin’s team knows this all too well. Instead of rushing and “spraying-and-praying” to dream companies, Justin’s team took a thorough, natural progression to ABM success by collecting accurate data, building a lead scoring framework for accounts, and taking growth one strategic step at a time. And by going about ABM the right way, not the fast way, those steady steps led them straight to an award for Best Pipeline Acceleration Campaign at the ABMies in one year.  Here are some tips Dan and Justin discussed.

How To Intelligently Scale Your Account-Based Marketing Program

1. There are no clever hacks. Just because your outreach has a specific account name on it, doesn’t mean your outreach is personalized. Keep personalizing on your journey from one-to-one to one-to-many. Although it may take more work on the front end, creating intentional, personalized ABM programs are healthier for your brand and always worth it in the long run.
2. Tools are your friend! You don’t have to rely on your team’s sweat alone. Using tools to assist in your ABM efforts can help your team advantageously focus their time and energy. Justin’s team cuts time by using Terminus to do their advertising, and Sendoso to automate their direct mail marketing. (Want to learn how? Request a demo here.)
3. Inbound + Outbound = Success. It takes equal parts inbound marketing and outbound marketing for any great ABM formula. Make sure marketing and sales teams are in perfect alignment, and think of your SDRs or BDRs as an extension of your marketing team. After all, they’re often the first points of contact with prospects and should be excellent brand ambassadors.

Many people get scared when they don’t see ABM results fast enough. Don’t be one of those people! At the end of the day, ABM is a slow and steady race. As long as you’re being strategic, (and smart!) you’ll build a successful, reasonably-scaled ABM program in no time.

Listen to more B2B Growth podcast episodes for ABM best practices, and find out how Sendoso can save you tons of time and manpower.