If done well and backed by the proper plans, processes and especially marketing technologies, ABM (Account-based Marketing) can provide greater returns on marketing investments. While ABM has become commonplace in the B2B realm, there are still a host of misconceptions surrounding this useful and fairly popular marketing strategy.

Here are some of the most common ABM myths worth dispelling through 2022 and beyond:

Your Core Marketing Should be ABM-Driven Only

The term marketing itself in today’s largely complex digital or phy-gital environment comprises a ton of processes, strategies and channels. A brand cannot stick to one channel or one marketing strategy to drive wholesome revenue in the long-term, while they can increase their focus on a particular well-performing channel or strategy, they still have to complement every effort through a multi-channel approach.

In short, despite the proven results that a well-planned ABM strategy can provide, Account-based marketing has to be complemented with other marketing strategies and plans to build a more robust experience in the long-term.

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ABM is Only Meant for a Marketing Team to Pursue…

One of the core requirements for a successful ABM plan is to align marketing and sales efforts. The basis of a sound ABM strategy revolves around broadcasting consistent messaging to a pre-defined audience base, based on where those audiences are at.

While the decision to pursue an ABM model might mainly come from a marketing team or marketing head of an organization, without strong alignment with sales teams, an ABM plan will fail.

Sales teams and marketing teams need to work together to identify their ABM process, to set the tone for the messaging, to define who their target audience for a particular ABM pilot or campaign is before setting out. After this initial stage, marketers need to run ABM driven content and campaigns while ensuring they measure, track and evaluate every stage of this ABM journey. At this point, sales teams and marketers need to work together to understand who from their target audience list is engaging most with their ABM strategy/campaign and what can be done to revive engagement for those who are not.

A proper, aligned, well-oiled sales-marketing model is actually the basis of any ABM plan, this allows marketers and salespeople to also come to a definite consensus surrounding when prospects should be handed over to salespeople.

ABM is All About the MarTech

Most newbie marketers who are in their initial phases of implementing ABM plans often suffer from the misconception that a good ABM outcome will be influenced by the kind of martech they use,

In reality, ABM (like most of marketing today) is about the data and list used to run a campaign. Digital marketing and martech tools can enable ABM efforts and even allow lean teams to scale their processes faster and offer the same playing field as larger enterprise teams. But, martech alone cannot give marketers the outcome they desire from their ABM strategy, the key element lies in defining your audience set, understanding your data and using it to drive further engagement and ROI with the right martech investments.

ABM has only one Process to Follow

One of the great things about marketing is that there can’t be set process for anything. What works for one brand might not work as well for another. Every team needs to identify processes and martech that can suit their individual short term and long term goals. When it comes to ABM, there is not just one particular method or tactic to follow, in fact, there are multiple ways to pursue an ABM model.

From programmatic ABM to Strategic ABM or ABM lite, most marketers are now choosing to implement one of these different types of ABM practices.

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Conclusion

Account-based marketing allows brands to offer deeper personalized campaigns to a set list of people/prospects. A plan that is deeply integrated within sales-marketing teams and helps align to core near-term to long-term business goals will always provide high value results faster.

For an ABM strategy to thrive, B2B teams need to double down on not only the best suited martech but also refine their internal processes and data management practices. Most successfully ABM-ers pursue this model to capture interest of their highest-value target accounts. When done right, this strategy can boost company growth and ROI faster because customer wins against high-value target accounts will allow brands to earn quicker revenue.