How to Set Up Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Campaigns in Marketo

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a highly targeted strategy that focuses on engaging high-value accounts, tailoring marketing efforts to the unique needs of each account. Marketo is a powerful platform that allows you to execute ABM campaigns by automating personalized marketing strategies, tracking key account data, and optimizing engagement across various channels. Below is a comprehensive guide on how to set up and run an ABM campaign in Marketo, along with the key steps needed for a successful campaign.

1. Define Your Target Accounts

The first step in any ABM strategy is identifying and defining the high-value accounts that align with your ideal customer profile (ICP). This is crucial because ABM focuses on quality over quantity, ensuring your marketing efforts are concentrated on accounts that have the most potential for revenue or long-term value. Tools like firmographic data, intent data, and sales insights help refine your account list to ensure it matches your ICP.

Defining target accounts allows for focused, personalized efforts. When you target the right accounts, you ensure that your resources—whether they are marketing content or sales efforts—are used on companies that are more likely to convert and deliver a strong ROI.

2. Set Up Your Account List in Marketo

Once you have your target accounts, the next step is setting up your account list in Marketo. You can either upload existing account lists from a CRM like Salesforce or manually create the list based on the criteria you've defined. This allows you to manage, monitor, and engage with each account from within the platform, creating a centralized database for your ABM efforts.

Marketo’s account list feature streamlines the process by enabling segmentation, engagement, and tracking of all interactions. This not only ensures consistency across your campaigns but also provides a more unified approach between marketing and sales teams.

3. Create a Marketing Plan for Each Account

ABM requires highly personalized and segmented marketing strategies tailored to the specific needs of each account or account segment. Creating a dedicated marketing plan for each target account ensures that you are delivering personalized content that speaks directly to their business challenges and objectives.

Marketo allows you to create tailored campaigns that span multiple channels, such as email, social media, and even direct mail. This multi-channel approach increases the likelihood of reaching key stakeholders at each account, maximizing engagement and moving them through the buying journey.

4. Set Up Engagement Programs in Marketo

Marketo’s Engagement Programs help automate your nurturing efforts by delivering the right content to the right person at the right time. These programs allow you to maintain consistent communication with your target accounts, nurturing them based on their behaviors and interactions.

Automation through engagement programs ensures you’re providing valuable, timely content to key decision-makers, keeping your brand top-of-mind as they move through the buyer’s journey. This saves time while ensuring that leads don’t go cold, ultimately resulting in higher conversion rates.

5. Build Personalized Campaigns for Target Accounts

One of the key strengths of ABM is personalization. In Marketo, you can build dynamic, personalized campaigns that adjust based on each account's characteristics and behaviors. This can range from customized email sequences to personalized landing pages or ads.

Personalizing your messaging ensures that it resonates more deeply with the decision-makers at your target accounts. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, personalized content speaks directly to the unique challenges and opportunities each account faces, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion.

6. Run Account-Based Advertising

Marketo’s AdBridge allows you to run highly targeted ads for your key accounts across platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. Account-based advertising ensures that your target accounts see your brand’s messaging throughout their buying journey, reinforcing the personalized outreach done via email or other channels.

By consistently engaging target accounts across multiple touchpoints, you increase brand recognition and stay top-of-mind. The constant visibility reinforces your value proposition, helping move these accounts further down the sales funnel.

7. Align Marketing and Sales Teams

ABM is a collaborative effort between marketing and sales. Marketo’s Account Insight feature allows marketing teams to share valuable account data and insights with sales teams, ensuring a smooth handoff from marketing to sales when an account is ready to engage further.

Marketing and sales alignment ensures that both teams are working toward the same goals and focusing on the same high-value accounts. This unified approach improves the customer experience, ensures timely follow-ups, and significantly increases the likelihood of closing deals with key accounts.

8. Set Up Scoring and Reporting

Account-based scoring in Marketo allows you to assign points based on how engaged an account is with your campaigns. Actions like visiting your website, opening emails, or attending webinars can all be tracked and scored. Accounts with higher scores are more likely to be ready for sales engagement.

Using account-based scoring allows you to prioritize your efforts on the most engaged and interested accounts. Marketo’s reporting tools provide clear insights into which campaigns are driving the most engagement, allowing you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your ABM strategy accordingly.

9. Measure and Optimize the Campaign

No campaign is complete without regular measurement and optimization. Marketo provides comprehensive reporting tools that allow you to monitor the performance of your ABM campaigns. Key metrics like engagement rates, pipeline growth, and conversion rates offer valuable insights that help you fine-tune your strategy.

Measuring the effectiveness of your ABM efforts ensures that you can continuously optimize your campaigns for better results. By tracking performance data, you can identify which aspects of your strategy are working well and where there is room for improvement, enabling you to refine your approach and achieve greater success with future campaigns.

Conclusion

Setting up an ABM campaign in Marketo is a strategic process that focuses on building personalized, data-driven marketing efforts targeting high-value accounts. By following the steps outlined above, you can create a comprehensive ABM strategy that drives higher engagement, improves sales alignment, and delivers better conversion rates. When executed properly, ABM not only helps your marketing team generate more qualified leads but also accelerates the sales process, leading to larger deals and long-term customer relationships.

This quick reference guide provides the key steps to launching a successful Account-Based Marketing (ABM) campaign in Marketo, with concise descriptions to help you implement them effectively.

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

• Action: Identify key characteristics of your target accounts (industry, company size, revenue, etc.).

2. Build Target Account Lists

• Action: Compile a list of high-value accounts using CRM data, third-party sources, and intent data.

3. Segment Accounts

• Action: Group accounts based on common factors like industry, buying stage, or challenges.

4. Align Marketing & Sales Teams

• Action: Ensure marketing and sales are aligned on account selection, goals, and messaging.

5. Create Personalized Content

• Action: Develop targeted messaging, emails, and ads for each account segment.

6. Set Up Engagement Programs in Marketo

• Action: Automate nurturing sequences to deliver relevant content based on engagement behavior.

7. Launch Account-Based Ads

• Action: Use Marketo AdBridge to run targeted ads on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms.

8. Implement Lead Scoring

• Action: Set up account-based lead scoring to prioritize engaged accounts.

9. Set Up Sales Alerts

• Action: Configure real-time notifications for sales teams when target accounts engage.

10. Measure KPIs

• Action: Track engagement, pipeline growth, and conversion metrics regularly.

11. Optimize Continuously

• Action: Use performance data to refine targeting, messaging, and content strategy.

This ABM checklist helps ensure you hit key milestones when setting up and optimizing account-based campaigns in Marketo. Use it as a step-by-step guide to deliver tailored, automated engagement for high-value accounts.