Short and sweet:
A business-to-business strategy that treats selected high-value accounts as individual markets and coordinates personalized outreach to them.
A focused approach for aligning marketing and sales around the companies most likely to become valuable customers.
See also: Ideal Customer Profile, Lead Nurturing, Sales Qualified Lead
Account-based marketing flips the usual funnel by first identifying a specific list of high-value target companies, then building coordinated, personalized campaigns aimed squarely at the key decision-makers within each one, rather than casting a wide net and filtering leads down afterward. Marketing and sales typically work in much tighter lockstep under this approach than in a traditional funnel, since both teams are focused on the same named accounts rather than a broad, shared pool of anonymous leads. Because of the personalization and coordination required, it’s generally reserved for higher-value B2B deals where the potential contract size justifies this more resource-intensive, targeted approach.
An enterprise software company practicing account-based marketing might identify 50 dream-client companies and build a completely custom LinkedIn ad campaign for each one instead of running a broad, generic push.
Sales and marketing teams working this way together might send a handpicked list of executives a personalized direct mail gift ahead of a big pitch meeting, treating that single account like its own tiny market.
A cybersecurity vendor targeting Fortune 500 companies with this same focused strategy could build a dedicated landing page mentioning a specific prospect’s industry challenges by name, rather than generic messaging meant for anyone.
