If you’ve been keeping up with our blog, or really any recent marketing trends, then you’ve already heard of Account-Based Marketing (or ABM)—a strategy that works to not just generate leads but to convert leads into sales and profits.
Perhaps you’ve even implemented targeted ABM campaigns into your organization’s marketing strategy.
Either way, it’s one thing to know about Account-Based Marketing and its many potential benefits to your organization.
It’s another thing entirely to actually see it in-the-works.
By exploring some successful Account-Based Marketing examples for yourself, perhaps you’ll be inspired when it comes time to develop and launch your next campaign.
1. McDonald’s Burger Kits
As one of the largest corporations in the world, McDonald’s isn’t an easy client to land. This is why GumGum, a computer software/vision company, knew it would need to develop an ABM campaign that would stand out if they wanted to have a shot at getting McDonald’s to give them the time of day, much less a deal.
Thinking outside the (burger) box, GumGum actually ended up using McDonald’s own branding to catch their attention.
They did this by sending out highly personalized “burger kits” to executives (100 of them!) throughout the company, with each one containing a fast food receipt for each executive, along with fake burgers that were made to represent the famous McDonald’s “Big Mac.”
For each component of the burger (the special sauce, the cheese, toppings, etc.), GumGum represented one of their company’s strengths and offerings.
All of this highly personalized and targeted marketing, along with special videos that they posted on social media pages (and tagged McDonald’s in) really caught the attention of the fast-food giant—and it wasn’t long before they signed a huge deal.
2. SAP’s $27 Million Deal
Looking for a prime Account-Based Marketing example of pipeline opportunity and acceleration? Look no further.
SAP (a global leader in enterprise software) scored a huge $27 million deal in 2015 by targeting the top 10% of its existing accounts. Upon initially assessing these accounts, SAP found that while they made up a large portion of the organizations’ regional profits, they were not properly allocating enough of their marketing funds towards this section of clients.
As Vice President of Marketing, Erin Martin, explained, “What we found when we really looked across it was that those marketing touches were not being conducted in a way that was personalized or customized to that account.”
Enter a new Account-Based Marketing campaign for SAP that focused on the creation of one-to-one marketing campaigns for individual accounts, each based on exactly where that account was within their decision cycle.
This was not an easy undertaking, of course. SAP had to follow a number of time-consuming and rigorous steps, including:
- Consulting with experts in each marketplace for each account
- Creating business cases for approval
- Deciding which accounts to include in the campaign
- Collecting and interpreting customer insights
Just to give you an idea of just how long this campaign took, it began in 2013 and the final deal wasn’t signed until 2015.
Still, this unique ABM campaign ultimately led to $27 million in new pipeline opportunities and turned into nearly $60 million in sales down the road. So I guess you could say that the payoff was worth the investment.
3. O2’s Attention to Detail
Offering ICT services to large organizations across the United Kingdom, O2 created an enterprise division back in 2011 that aimed to merge their marketing expertise with the customer insights of their sales department to create a successful ABM campaign.
The end result was an extremely personalized report that provided organizations with a demonstration of the benefits they could reap through partnering with O2.
O2 knew up-front that they had a lot of competition in the ICT space, which made the need for a personalized marketing approach even more important. They decided to target private sector organizations within the UK that had more than 2,000 employees, as well as CXOs and board members, to generate individual reports for each organization.
These reports would outline in detail how much each organization could save and how much more revenue they could generate by using O2 for their ICT services. This information was printed in large, bold font directly on the front cover of the report to grab the readers’ attention.
After the reports were distributed, a sales specialist also followed up with each client to encourage a face-to-face meeting. A pilot of this campaign was initially launched with just one account in 2015. After seeing initial success (a ROMI of 1229:1, to be exact), O2 targeted an additional 10 accounts in 2016 using the same strategy.
By 2017, a full program was launched, with plans to roll out more accounts in 2018 and beyond. So far, this wildly successful ABM campaign has resulted in 325% of target business won, as well as a 67.5% SQL conversion rate.
4. T-Mobile, Meet GumGum
Yes, we already covered a successful GumGum Account-Based Marketing example campaign in this article—but when you’re good, you’re good.
In addition to landing McDonald’s as a client through Account-Based Marketing, GumGum was also able to sign T-Mobile on-board using a highly personalized strategy.
Specifically, when they noticed that T-Mobile’s CEO (John Legere) mentioned on his Twitter account that he was a big fan of comic books, they decided to onboard a large team of professional writers and illustrators to create a personalized campaign that he would be unable to ignore.
Specifically, they crafted a customized comic book that featured both T-Mobile and GumGum (aptly titled “T-Man and Gums”), highlighting the many ways in which GumGum could benefit the mobile giant.
These comic books were sent directly to Legere himself, who was highly amused and appreciative. Not only did he share the work on his Twitter account, but GumGum and T-Mobile went on to sign a deal together thanks to incorporating some disruptive marketing and a brave ABM strategy.
5. Localytics Direct Mail
Who says ABM campaigns can only be successful in the digital realm? Localytics, a mobile app marketing and analytics company, successfully incorporated Account-Based Marketing into the direct mail space with a high-impact and directional campaign.
They caught their prospective clients’ attention by mailing out an empty iPad Mini box to each of them. Inside the box was an insert that explained the company’s value proposition and other benefits of working with their company, along with an offer to schedule a face-to-face meeting in order to receive the actual iPad Mini for free.
Not surprisingly, this campaign was a huge success.
Localytics ended up with a huge account-to-meeting conversion rate, along with an even higher conversion-to-pipe rate thanks to this campaign. Prospective clients enjoyed receiving their free iPad Minis, and this investment paid off big time when many of the face-to-face meetings turned into new deals and accounts for Localytics.
ABM Solves Your Marketing Challenges
These are just a few awesome Account-Based Marketing examples highlighting the many ways in which ABM can solve problems for your organization by aligning your sales and digital marketing strategies into a cohesive campaign.
Whether your AMB strategy focuses more on account nurturing, re-engaging dead leads, or landing and expanding, a little research and planning goes a long way in knocking your next campaign out of the park.
And while you may not be landing any multi-million dollar deals with McDonald’s on your first go-around, you will likely find that well executed ABM campaigns can pay off many times over. ITSMA reported that B2B marketers who use ABM say it outperforms any of their other strategies.
At the end of the day, you can maximize success with your next ABM campaign by focusing on a few things. This includes keeping your campaigns highly personalized, taking advantage of social media, and even utilizing less “obvious” avenues (such as direct mail) where applicable.
Ultimately, outside-the-box thinking tends to pay off the most from an AMB standpoint. This process is a lot easier with the help of a full-service digital marketing agency. At MESH, we’re well versed in all kinds of creative thinking. So if you’re looking to re-invigorate your ABM campaign, or even start one from scratch, reach out to us. We’d love to help.
Marketing Agency
MESH is a digital marketing agency that has pioneered Account-Based Marketing via our proprietary Outcome Driven Marketing (ODM) methodology. We keep our focus on tightly integrating (or MESHing) lead generation, inbound, and outbound methodologies. We help you understand the hidden levers that impact your customers’ buying decision process, develop the right marketing strategy for your unique business case, and effectively execute and measure all aspects of your Account-Based Marketing program.
