Account Based Marketing: A #CMWorld Twitter Chat with Carmen Hill

An increasing number of marketers are embracing account-based marketing. But what exactly is ABM and what does it mean for our content marketing? We invited beloved community member and #CMWorld chat regular Carmen Hill to break it all down.

What follows is a brief look at the insights shared during the chat. For a deeper dive into each question and answer, check out our Twitter Moment.

We asked our community to share their definitions of ABM and how they believed it complemented their content marketing. Here’s what they had to say.

A1. Simply put, account-based marketing (#ABM) focuses on your most valuable prospects and customers, targeting accounts—companies—rather than individuals. Target accounts are like a VIP audience. #CMWorld https://t.co/gukVCZM6EF

— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) August 21, 2018

A1: ABM is a hyper targeted form of B2B marketing. You identify specific businesses that you know your product or services are a good fit for and create a strategy to reach the right contacts at them #CMWorld

— Kristen Hicks (@atxcopywriter) August 21, 2018

A1. Account-Based is a go-to-market strategy where all customer-facing functions (marketing, sales dev, sales, CS, etc), deliver valuable experiences to drive engagement and progression at a targeted set of accounts. #cmworld

— Eric Wittlake (@wittlake) August 21, 2018

A1. Content is important to account-based because it is one of the ways we deliver valuable experiences and drive engagement with target accounts. #cmworld

— Eric Wittlake (@wittlake) August 21, 2018

And now that we know how our community defines ABM, it’s time to put in the work.

A5. To jumpstart #ABM, focus on a subset of target accounts and create a pilot. Could be a handful of top-tier accounts, a particular vertical, or some other segmentation. Start small, get some quick wins and build from there. #CMWorld https://t.co/Px9NrdACuZ

— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) August 21, 2018

A5. Build our your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). This is a coordinated effort between sales and marketing and can, should, and will change over time as you gather data and learn more about your best customers. #cmworld

— PathFactory (@pathfactory) August 21, 2018

A5: Start by looking for a way to add value. If you just want to sell more or increase share, it’s probably not enough. How can a concerted effort help specific accounts you work with (or want to work with) and gauge their interest. It’s a great way to prospect, too! #CMWorld

— Mike Myers 🤠 (@mikemyers614) August 21, 2018

A5. Bring in your Sales (and ops, etc.) team and explain what ABM is and how it works, then decide on whether you want to pilot on retention or acquisition and then plan…together as a team #CMWorld https://t.co/D3NpgJHQnu

— Mike Boogaard (@mikeboogaard) August 21, 2018

Want to take it a step further and put this knowledge into action? Carmen recommended these resources.

ALIAS Partners (@juliewisdom is co-founder) has a great collection of practical guidance for developing an account-based content strategy: https://t.co/Qz9wB7oWk3 #CMWorld

— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) August 21, 2018

The smarties at @TOPOHQ have published a definitive guide to #ABM on their blog. It’s a good overview for beginners and veteran ABMers alike: https://t.co/I2YYRUjwNa #CMWorld

— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) August 21, 2018

Want to learn more? Hear from Carmen and her co-presenter Julie Wisdom at Content Marketing World. They are presenting two sessions, including “Aligning Around an Account-Based Content Experience.” Use code SM100 to save $100 when you register today