Account-based marketing (ABM)

Most marketing starts with a broad audience and filters down to the companies that respond. Account-based marketing turns that around: sales and marketing agree a named list of target accounts first, then put their effort into those accounts only. Each account is researched, the people in its buying group are identified, and the messages, ads and events they see are chosen for that account or for a small cluster of similar ones.

ABM makes sense when deals are large enough that winning one account pays for real research, and when several people must agree to buy. It is measured by account, not by lead: engaged accounts, meetings and the pipeline they produce. Outbound email and account-targeted ads are its usual tools, and the account list is usually built from the ICP, with intent data and buying signals deciding which accounts to work first.