10 Common Account-Based Marketing Mistakes Marketers Should Avoid

Account-based marketing or ABM is a marketing strategy that focuses on targeted customer segments. It is a form of customer relationship management.

Account-based marketing is a strategy that focuses on targeted customer segments or accounts and tailors the campaign to their needs and wants. It also includes developing relationships with these customers to encourage repeat business and referrals.

ABM is an effective way to prioritize the most critical accounts for a business, and you can use it to help achieve organizational goals to achieve expedited growth.

If you’re interested in ABM but want to avoid the common pitfalls of this marketing approach, then read on. Be sure to avoid these 10 mistakes, and you’ll be well on your way to leveraging the power of account-based marketing for growing your business.

1. Not knowing your ideal customer profile.

The entire focal point of ABM marketing campaigns is that you have more specific and centered ideas of who your customer would be, making your marketing efforts more targeted and personalized.

In ABM, you need to know your ideal customer profile to identify the most likely accounts to become customers. You should be able to answer the following questions:

• What is the company’s market position?
• Who are their competitors?
• What are the company’s personality and culture?
• How does their product or service differ from others in the market?
• What are their pricing strategies and promotional activities?
• Who is their target audience, and what do they want from a company like yours?

If you don’t know who your ideal customer profile is, you can’t create an effective ABM strategy for those customers.

2. Confusing ABM with traditional marketing

Traditional marketing methods are not practical for reaching the goals of Account-Based Marketing. The traditional marketing methods are not personalized, and they don’t lead to the right people.

ABM is a new way of marketing that focuses on account-specific content, messaging, and sales tactics. This method is more efficient and effective for companies because it targets the right people with tailored messages that are relevant to them.

The traditional marketing methods are geared towards a mass audience, while ABM focuses on a limited set of accounts. This difference is why traditional marketing methods fail to generate the desired results.

3. Not having a workable targeted account list.

The success of any ABM campaign relies heavily on the target list. An account list is more effective if it includes only accounts that are the best fit for the company’s products or services.

Without a workable target account list, an ABM campaign will be unsuccessful because it will not reach its desired audience. This failure can be due to either a lack of data or an ineffective strategy.

Without a workable targeted account list, you will find yourself in an endless cycle of prospecting without any leads.

You can generate a targeted account list using various methods such as using data from other sources like CRM or lead generation software or through market research and social media analysis.

Suggested Reading: How Does Data Science Empower You to Solve Your Business Problems?

4. Focusing only on digital

If you are only focusing on digital marketing, you might miss out on many potential opportunities. The digital world is changing rapidly, and it’s hard to keep up with all the trends.

By not looking at ABM as a whole, you might be missing out on opportunities that could make or break your business. These misses can happen because of the lack of creativity in your marketing strategy.

Focusing only on digital marketing can also be harmful to your company because it will limit your potential customer base. As we know, most people use more than one device to communicate with others and search for information. So, focusing only on digital can be limiting.

Think about attending events, networking in person, or even sending printed marketing materials to your targeted accounts.

5. Not personalizing the content for each campaign.

ABM campaigns need to have personalized content for each account. Personalized content means that the person in charge of the campaign needs to know about each account’s products, services, competitors, and industry. Personalizing the content for each campaign can also help reach out to different segments of customers.

The success of ABM depends on the quality and relevance of the content. The more personalized it is, the more likely it will resonate with the targeted audience and lead to conversions.

You should tailor your content to match the prospect you are looking for overall. This step will increase the chances of finding what they are looking for in your company’s website or digital assets.

6. Not aligning sales and marketing on the same page.

There are way too many effective digital marketing strategies that boost sales, so by not keeping one another aligned, you will miss out on a lot.

Marketing teams are responsible for driving leads to sales, but they need to do this to align with the company’s brand and messaging. They need to know what people are interested in and be able to offer them solutions.

On the other hand, sales teams need to know what is going on at all times so that they can close deals faster. They need to know who is interested in their product or service and how much they are willing to spend.

When sales and marketing teams find alignment, great things happen.

7. Poor quality CRM data

Make sure that when you’re using CRMs, you properly train everyone on how to use it. Integrating marketing automation is not a bad thing as long as it makes your team more efficient, but if they don’t know how to use it, it can lead to poor quality CRM data. 

Poor quality CRM data is one of the biggest problems that companies face when trying to do Account-Based Marketing. ABM relies heavily on the data that is in CRM tools. If the CRM data is not accurate, it can be difficult for companies to identify their best prospects and reach out to them with personalized messages.

For companies to be successful with Account-Based Marketing need accurate and timely customer data. Accurate CRM data will make it easier for them to identify their best prospects and reach out to them personalized.

8. Operation in silos with only a few channels and tactics

Many companies are still operating in silos and using only a few channels and marketing tactics. This approach is not the best way to do account-based marketing.

The main problem with this strategy is that it limits your ability to scale your marketing efforts. You can use many different channels for ABM, such as social media, email, content marketing, etc. It’s essential to use a range of them to reach your target audience and get more visibility for your brand.

9. Using a one-size-fits-all approach

One-size-fits-all marketing is when you treat every customer the same, hindering ABM.

Account-Based Marketing is a more targeted and personalized form of marketing. It is done by building relationships with high-value accounts and focusing on their needs.

One size does not fit all in this case. Each account has different needs, so it is vital to customize the marketing approach for each account. For example, an account that deals in services will have different needs than one that deals in products.

10. Measuring the wrong KPIs

KPIs are the metrics that measure the success of a marketing campaign. It is crucial to measure suitable KPIs with Account-Based Marketing to get the desired results.

Measuring the wrong KPIs can lead to a lack of return on investment and an inability to track progress. Marketers need to know what they should be measuring.

The following are a few key performance indicators that marketers should measure:

• Return on investment (ROI)
• Leads generated
• Number of meetings set up with decision-makers or influencers
• Total number of accounts targeted
• Total number of accounts contacted
• Percentage of contacts that converted into accounts
• Number of opportunities created

Final Thoughts on Account-based Marketing

These common account-based marketing mistakes are ones that you should avoid at all costs if you want to save on time, resources, and energy.

As a marketer, it’s essential to be aware of these common pitfalls so that you won’t fall victim to them.

Keep these in mind while you enact your ABM campaigns to have higher chances of success in your campaigns in the future.