We invented ABM Orchestration, now we celebrate it!

Several years ago we published the very first ABM Capabilities Framework. The first version was very crude but we wanted to get it out as soon as possible so we can share our thoughts. In this framework, we released the very first view of Account Based Orchestration.

At that point, the framework and our invention of ABM Orchestration was nothing better than anyone else’s top 10 list or infographic. That is until we published our first Account Based Marketing research report. In this research, we found that only 18% of ABM programs produced measurable and high revenue impact. Of this small number of programs, we found that 85% of them approached the strategy very similarly… they executed ABM Orchestration.

These high performing programs were focused on solving three key issues:

1. Identification of target account needs – beyond conjecture and a crystal ball, they looked at 1st and 3rd party data so they could decipher the topics, timing and stage for target accounts that demonstrated any signal of B2B Marketing Intent.
2. Selection of content to reflect needs – delivered content is your reflection to an in-market buyer that you understand their needs. When the content is poorly written or doesn’t reflect the topic of interest or buyers journey stage, marketers do a lot to prove that their organization is irrelevant.
3. Delivery through relevant channels – not only were they able to select channels, but they also reflected those messages through 2.5X the number of channels of lower performing programs and were substantially less reliant upon display ad media.

Fundamentally, when ABM Orchestration is done properly, Account Based Marketing should never fail. There are only two key reasons why ABM fails:

1. Marketers don’t have the right identification of target audience needs. Typically, this is because marketers skip the rigor of proper segmentation, they guess or only use 3rd party intent data.
2. The selected content doesn’t reflect the topics and stage of buyers journey for the target account.

Account-based Orchestration does not start with Target Account or channel selection, delivery means or message, it starts with data. It connects the identification of audience signals that indicate high value needs to the precision of knowing who at each target account you need to engage, delivering a scaled application of next best interaction.

Marketers seeking a mature state and higher performance in their ABM program using Account-Based Orchestration need to follow this three-step process:

1. Insights – identify the triggers that indicate audience need and engagement
2. Relevance – identify the tribal knowledge you would apply if a trigger is reached
3. Action – put it all together, provide an amazing target account Buyer experience