How to overcome the roadblocks to successful Account Based Marketing (ABM)

Overcoming the roadblocks to successful Account Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) can be a highly effective strategy for enterprise businesses, but it is not without its challenges. Some of the key barriers to ABM for enterprise businesses include:

1. Data Availability: ABM heavily relies on accurate and comprehensive data about target accounts. Enterprise businesses often have complex organisational structures, large databases, and fragmented data sources, which can make it challenging to gather and consolidate the necessary data for effective ABM.
2. Data Quality: Even if data is available, its quality can be a significant barrier. Incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate data can lead to ineffective targeting and personalisation, undermining the success of ABM efforts.
3. Account Selection: Selecting the right target accounts is crucial for ABM success. Enterprise businesses often have vast customer bases, and identifying the ideal accounts that align with the business objectives can be a complex task. It requires thorough research, segmentation, and alignment with sales teams.
4. Alignment between Sales and Marketing: ABM requires close collaboration and alignment between sales and marketing teams. Enterprise businesses may face challenges in achieving this alignment due to organisational silos, differing goals, or lack of communication between the teams. This can hinder the seamless execution of ABM campaigns.
5. Resource Allocation: Implementing ABM at an enterprise scale can be resource intensive. It requires dedicated personnel, technology infrastructure, and financial investment. Allocating the necessary resources and securing buy-in from stakeholders can pose a barrier for enterprise businesses, especially if there are competing priorities or limited budgets.
6. Integration with Existing Systems: Enterprise businesses often have a complex technology landscape with multiple systems and tools in place. Integrating ABM efforts with existing CRM, marketing automation, and analytics platforms can be challenging. Ensuring seamless data flow and compatibility between systems may require additional effort and resources.
7. Scalability: ABM campaigns for enterprise businesses need to be scalable to target a large number of accounts effectively. Maintaining personalised communication and engagement at scale can be difficult; requires significant investment; and may require automation, advanced segmentation, and efficient content creation processes.
8. Measuring ROI: Measuring the success and return on investment (ROI) of ABM can be complex for enterprise businesses. With multiple touchpoints, long sales cycles, and a variety of stakeholders involved, attributing revenue and impact to specific ABM initiatives can be challenging. Developing appropriate metrics and tracking mechanisms to evaluate ABM's effectiveness is essential but can be a barrier.

Addressing these barriers requires careful planning, alignment, and investment in the right people, processes, and technology. By understanding and addressing these challenges enterprise B2B organisations can leverage ABM to effectively engage and convert target accounts, leading to deeper account penetration, larger deal sizes and long-term business growth.

About Gilroy:

With a heritage spanning 40 years, Gilroy is a leading enterprise B2B integrated agency and the pioneer of Account-Based Everything. Through connected marketing experiences, we support many of the world’s leading B2B brands in nurturing customer advocacy, growing account expansion and supercharging sales performance.