Account-Based Experience: Bringing the Power of ABM to the Full Customer Journey
Most B2B businesses are familiar with account-based marketing (ABM) and its promise of revenue growth through better targeted, more efficient marketing to key accounts.
ABX—account-based experience—applies the principles of ABM to the entire customer journey.
ABX represents a more holistic, data-driven approach that spans marketing, sales and customer success. Already, B2B firms are using ABX to transform B2B customer engagement and growth strategies.
At the heart of effective ABX is the ability to unify and leverage data and client insights across systems and touchpoints—admittedly, something many B2B businesses struggle with. ABX solutions integrate information from CRM, marketing automation, web analytics and other platforms to create a single source of truth for every account.
This holistic view enables much more sophisticated targeting, personalization and measurement. With firmographic, intent, engagement and purchase data all in one place, ABX empowers marketers to identify ideal customer profiles, segment accounts (e.g., ready-to-buy, gone quiet, M+A activity, etc.) and tailor messaging and tactics to users at any point in the customer journey.
Powering advances in ABX is AI, which can analyze billions of data points from across the web, enabling predictive analytics to segment customers into more narrowly drawn categories. The more fine-grained the data, the more precisely ABX teams can develop messages, content and offers that match the user’s intent.
This data also facilitates look-alike modeling, enabling businesses to identify net-new accounts that resemble the ideal customer profile. Finding such look-alikes can dramatically expand the universe of prospects.
Orchestrating the total journey
Let’s imagine use cases from stages of a customer journey—and how ABX can address specific stated or inferred need-states:
- Delivering targeted ads, emails and social posts to key decision-makers and influencers within an account
- Personalizing website content, messaging and CTAs based on account characteristics and intent
- Tailoring nurture content to an account’s specific pain points
- Triggering timely sales outreach when an account shows increased engagement
- Coordinating sales and marketing teams with a focus on engaging target accounts and efficiently generating leads
- Proactively addressing customer health issues to improve retention
While these may be achievable individually, an ABX strategy orchestrates multiple points of contact in the customer lifecycle.
Measuring impact and optimizing
The data-rich nature of ABX enables sophisticated measurement of account engagement and impact on revenue. Instead of just tracking website visits or qualified leads, ABX professionals can measure the impact of messages, content and offers through all buying stages, leading to a better understanding of what generates interest and leads to sales and repeat business. This same data also provides insights into accounts, helping identify potential areas for concern before they become full-blown crises. Having this data allows for better optimization and resource allocation. Businesses can double down on tactics with the most impact, while reducing or rethinking underperforming efforts. The net effect is better—and better understood—ROI from marketing.
It may sound as though ABX is reducing all customer engagement to depersonalized interactions driven by cold numbers. But in fact, data and technology are enablers; humanity, empathy and creativity are still what build meaningful customer connections. ABX is not a replacement for those and in fact, in their absence, will fall short of its potential.
Successful ABX programs combine rich account intelligence with compelling narratives and authentic emotion. Use ABX insights to deliver relevance and value—and give sales and customer success teams more reasons to reach out.
While the promise of ABX is compelling, implementation can seem daunting – especially for regulated businesses with complex MarTech stacks and organizational structures that can impede the free flow of data needed for ABX.
If that describes your business—and, honestly, it describes most—begin by identifying a subset of strategic accounts or market segments in which ABX could deliver the most value. Focus on aligning sales and marketing on a coordinated strategy, perhaps beginning with just intent data and advertising. Launch a smaller-scale beacon initiative to prove the concept, iron out any issues, reduce risk and lower the change management challenge. Then build on that success and expand to more accounts and deepen your ABX capabilities.
ABX represents the next frontier of B2B marketing and customer engagement. By unifying data, enhancing account intelligence, and orchestrating personalized experiences, it allows you to make every interaction more relevant and impactful. CMOs looking to drive efficiency, close deals faster and grow revenue will find a lot to like in ABX.
| ABM | ABX | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Generate leads, nurture relationships, engage high-value accounts and close deals | Deliver seamless experience across the entire customer lifecycle, from initial engagement through long-term success |
| Focus | Top of funnel: Driving leads, closing sales | Full customer journey: Delivering consistent, personalized experience at every stage – before, during and after sale |
| Lifecycle | Emphasis on pre-sale: generating, nurturing and converting leads | Emphasis on long-term customer relationship |
| Experience | Personalized marketing and sales outreach | Beyond just marketing and sales to include onboarding, product usage, support and ongoing engagement |
| Teams | Marketing and sales | Marketing, sales, customer success and product teams |
| Goal | Conversion | Loyalty |