Boost Your ABM Success With This Account-Based Marketing Plan Example

Have you ever wondered why your marketing team keeps generating leads, yet your sales team keeps asking for better ones?

It is one of the most frustrating gaps in B2B growth. Marketing delivers the numbers, but the sales pipeline remains weak. Generic messaging, inconsistent follow-ups, and campaigns that speak to everyone often fail to move the accounts that truly matter. Teams work hard, but results feel scattered. The bigger the target client, the harder it becomes to break through the noise.

Account-Based Marketing offers a more intentional path forward. Instead of chasing volume, it brings clarity and precision. With a well-structured ABM plan, businesses can direct their efforts toward high-value accounts, deliver messaging that resonates, and finally see marketing and sales operate as one unified force.

What Is an Account-Based Marketing Plan?

An Account-Based Marketing plan is a focused strategy that outlines how a business targets a specific list of high-value accounts with tailored marketing and sales efforts. Instead of reaching a broad audience, it concentrates resources on the companies most likely to convert and bring long-term value.

The plan typically includes account selection criteria, personalized messaging, coordinated campaigns, and clear performance metrics. It aligns marketing and sales teams around shared goals, so both works together to engage the right stakeholders at the right time.

This approach ensures that every piece of content, outreach, and interaction speaks directly to the priorities of each account, increasing the chances of building trust and closing deals.

Step-by-Step Account-Based Marketing Plan Example

A strong Account-Based Marketing (ABM) plan is not built on assumptions. It follows a structured, insight-driven strategy that helps businesses focus on the accounts that matter most. Let us consider a case study where a cybersecurity SaaS provider aimed to convert a high-value fintech company that was expanding its digital infrastructure across Southeast Asia.

Here is how the ABM plan unfolded:

Step 1: Establishing Clear Goals

Before launching any ABM effort, the first step is to define measurable goals that support business growth. DiGGrowth collaborated with the client to set targeted goals for the chosen fintech company, ensuring all stakeholders had a shared understanding of success.

Key Objectives Included

• Secure a discovery call with the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) within 45 days
• Engage at least three senior stakeholders involved in compliance and IT decisions
• Influence the account to move into the sales pipeline within one quarter
• Showcase a relevant case study during the sales conversation

Step 2: Selecting the Right Account

Rather than casting a wide net, ABM narrows its focus to high-value accounts. DiGGrowth helped the SaaS provider evaluate and shortlist accounts using firmographic, technographic, and intent data.

Why This Fintech Company Was Selected

• Operates in a regulated sector with evolving cybersecurity needs
• Recently expanded into new markets, increasing compliance complexity
• Displayed strong buying signals, including recent content engagement on cloud security
• Aligned with the SaaS provider’s core offering: compliance-ready threat protection

Step 3: Conducting Deep Account Research

Once the fintech company was selected, DiGGrowth led an in-depth research initiative to uncover critical insights that would shape the campaign. Understanding the company’s pain points, stakeholders, and purchase motivations was central to personalizing the outreach.

Insights Gathered

• The fintech company had acquired a regional payment platform, increasing its exposure to security threats
• Internal restructuring had placed new emphasis on automation and compliance readiness
• Decision-makers included a CISO, VP of Engineering, and Compliance Officer
• The company was actively hiring for cloud security roles, indicating a tech stack upgrade

Step 4: Aligning Sales and Marketing Teams

ABM cannot succeed without alignment between sales and marketing. DiGGrowth facilitated a joint strategy session to synchronize both teams, establish reporting standards, and assign responsibilities.

Key Actions Taken

• Created a shared campaign calendar with key touchpoints across the buyer journey.
• Marketing owned the development of custom assets and automated email workflows.

Step 5: Creating Personalized Content and Messaging

Generic content does not work in ABM. DiGGrowth developed highly specific content that addressed the fintech company’s challenges, stage in the buying cycle, and stakeholder roles.

Customized Content Included

• A compliance audit checklist tailored for digital payment platforms
• A one-minute video explaining how the SaaS tool integrates with fintech stacks
• A case study featuring audit time reduction for a similar client in financial services
• A proposal deck personalized with data from the fintech company’s public filings

Step 6: Launching a Multi-Channel Outreach Campaign

To increase visibility and engagement, DiGGrowth launched a coordinated outreach strategy across multiple channels. Each touchpoint was mapped to a stage in the decision-making process.

Channels and Tactics Used

• Email: Personalized messages with account-specific insights
• Web Retargeting: Display ads highlighting relevant features for compliance automation
• Events: Invitation to a virtual roundtable on emerging compliance risks in fintech

Step 7: Monitoring, Measuring, and Optimizing

Throughout the campaign, DiGGrowth tracked engagement data and sales activity using real-time analytics.

Key Metrics Tracked:

• Email open rates and click-through rates
• Content downloads and time spent on key landing pages
• LinkedIn connection acceptance and response rates
• Movement across opportunity stages in the CRM

Results After 90 Days:

• CISO and VP of Engineering participated in a solution demo
• The fintech company entered the negotiation stage
• Sales reported a 40 percent improvement in engagement quality over traditional outreach

Common Pitfalls to Avoid in ABM Planning

Account-Based Marketing holds strong potential, but poor execution can undermine even the best strategies. Many businesses launch ABM campaigns with high expectations, only to encounter challenges that reduce impact and delay results. Avoiding these common mistakes is key to building a plan that delivers measurable growth.

1. Targeting the Wrong Accounts

Selecting accounts based solely on company size or brand recognition can lead to wasted resources. ABM is most effective when you focus on accounts that demonstrate real potential, through intent signals, industry fit, and alignment with your product or service. In our fintech example, the company was chosen not just for its size, but for its ongoing digital expansion and visible security challenges.

2. Relying on Generic Messaging

Even if the right account is selected, using one-size-fits-all messaging can weaken your outreach. ABM thrives on personalization. Without role-specific, context-aware content, engagement rates drop. For the fintech company, tailored assets like audit checklists and personalized demo videos made a significant difference in stakeholder engagement.

3. Poor Sales and Marketing Alignment

Missed handoffs, uncoordinated touchpoints, and inconsistent messaging result in lower conversion rates. In the fintech case, success was driven by shared campaign calendars, weekly syncs, and jointly defined KPIs.

4. Lack of Account Intelligence

Insufficient research leads to superficial outreach. Without a clear understanding of the account’s current priorities, decision-making structure, and recent business developments, you cannot build effective engagement. The cybersecurity SaaS team avoided this by conducting detailed research on the fintech’s acquisitions, hiring patterns, and compliance goals.

5. Underutilizing Engagement Data

ABM is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Without ongoing analysis, teams miss key signals. Metrics like email open rates, LinkedIn engagement, or time on site should drive continuous refinement. In this campaign, real-time feedback led to changes in messaging for compliance leads, boosting response rates significantly.

Tools and Technologies That Strengthen Your ABM Strategy

A successful Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy depends on more than selecting the right accounts. It requires a well-integrated technology stack that enables precise targeting, consistent personalization, and measurable performance. Each tool in your stack should support alignment between marketing and sales, improve efficiency, and drive better engagement with key accounts.

Here are the core tools that can strengthen your ABM strategy:

CRM Platforms: Centralizing Account Data

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools such as Salesforce and HubSpot serve as the foundation of any ABM program. They provide a central source of truth by organizing account-level data, tracking engagement history, and aligning activities between marketing and sales.

Marketing Automation Tools: Scaling Personalized Campaigns

Platforms like Marketo, Pardot, and ActiveCampaign allow you to automate email sequences, lead nurturing, and campaign workflows. These tools help deliver personalized experiences to decision-makers within your target accounts, improving consistency and efficiency.

Intent Data Platforms: Identifying Accounts with Buying Signals

Solutions such as Bombora, 6sense, and Demandbase help uncover which companies are actively researching topics relevant to your product or service. This data allows you to prioritize accounts that are showing real-time interest and create more relevant messaging.

Account-Based Advertising Platforms: Reaching the Right People

Advertising platforms such as LinkedIn Ads, RollWorks, and Terminus let you run highly targeted campaigns aimed at specific roles and departments within your chosen accounts. These platforms help build brand awareness and reinforce messaging throughout the buyer journey.

Data Enrichment Tools: Enhancing the Accuracy of Your Database

Platforms like Clearbit, ZoomInfo, and Leadspace improve your contact and account data by filling in missing details and updating outdated records. This ensures your segmentation and targeting efforts are based on clean, reliable data.

Analytics and Performance Insights: Powered by DiGGrowth

Your ABM strategy needs more than execution. It needs analysis. DiGGrowth is an advanced analytics platform designed to help you track engagement, measure campaign effectiveness, and understand what drives revenue. By integrating data from multiple sources, DiGGrowth provides real-time visibility into how your ABM activities are performing across channels and accounts. It helps you optimize campaigns, identify high-performing content, and demonstrate ROI with clarity and confidence.

Conclusion

B2B growth today depends on your ability to cut through noise and connect with the right accounts in meaningful ways. ABM provides the structure to do that—but it only works when every decision is backed by data, not assumptions. With the right strategy, the right collaboration, and the right insights, ABM does more than generate leads. It creates real opportunities, moves deals forward, and keeps revenue teams focused on what truly matters.