From ambition to a running ABM programme in three months
There are plenty of articles that explain account based marketing strategy in seven steps, complete with a diagram and a list of tools. We are not doing that here. This article shows what an ABM strategy actually looks like in practice for European B2B companies, what it requires from your organisation, and why most companies that claim to “already be doing ABM” are really still running lead generation in a new wrapper.
We share our own approach, the mistakes we encounter most often, and an honest picture of what you can expect. Not in theory, but based on what we see every day working with industrial companies, technology businesses and professional services firms.
It does not start with ABM. It starts with a problem.
Hardly any SME+ business owner calls us saying “I want to do ABM.” What we do hear:
- “We are not getting enough inbound leads.”
- “The leads we get are low quality. Sales spends hours on them and nothing comes of it.”
- “We invest heavily in trade shows but the returns have been declining for years.”
- “We have ambitious growth targets but no idea how to achieve them.”
- “We are growing organically, but want to accelerate. How?”
- “We have dream clients, but no idea how to get in the door.”
These are very practical challenges. The business owner or commercial director knows that marketing is part of the answer, but not which part, and not how. Their standard playbook (trade shows, inbound, cold calling) is delivering less and less, and they essentially have no alternative.
Account based marketing is that alternative. Not because it is a trendy term, but because it provides an answer to precisely these problems: too broad a focus, too low quality, too little control over who you reach and whether it produces results.
The generational shift that changes everything
There is a shift happening in B2B that many companies have not yet fully recognised. The generation of buyers and decision-makers that dominated the market for decades is retiring. These were the people who went to trade shows to discover suppliers and picked up the phone in the first week of their buying journey. Their successors operate very differently.
We see this first-hand with our own clients. An industrial supplier we work with watched trade show attendance fall off a cliff. Meanwhile, email enquiries rose, online tool usage grew, website traffic climbed, and inbound requests increasingly arrived via email rather than through outbound sales. Trade shows turned into a venue for hosting existing customers efficiently, no longer a place to win new ones. For their market at least, the era of a buyer walking a trade fair to see what is out there is well and truly over.
That research now happens online. Out of sight of the companies that still think their sales team opens the deal. Research confirms this (McKinsey): younger generations (millennials, and Gen Z even more so) do far more research online and engage with sales much later in the buying journey. Where the previous generation would pick up the phone in week one, today’s buyers spend weeks or months evaluating options before any conversation happens.
ABM bridges those two worlds. You acknowledge that doing business is about people, but also that the path to that personal contact has changed dramatically. With ABM you can respond to this shift: be visible when the potential customer is doing online research, detect when they are open to a new supplier, and start the conversation at the right moment.
When account based marketing is not the right choice
Precisely because we believe in a targeted approach, we are also honest about when you are better off not starting it.
When your average deal value is low. ABM requires an investment in time and resources. If your typical contract is relatively small, that investment does not justify the return. A broader, volume-based model is a better fit. As a rule of thumb, we see a customer lifetime value of at least €5,000 as the minimum.
When sales and marketing are not willing to collaborate. ABM lives or dies by the alignment between the two teams. They need to be open to a new approach and, quite practically, get along well enough to pull in the same direction. Without that foundation, it simply will not work.
When you want leads to chase tomorrow. Looking for a stack of contact details to start calling straight away? Then you might be better off responding to the messages that land in your LinkedIn inbox every day; there is no shortage of entrepreneurs promising you exactly that. We believe in deliberately going after the ideal customers for your business, and that does not happen overnight.
When your target audience cannot be clustered. The power of our ABM approach for SME+ companies lies in shared characteristics. If genuinely anyone could be your customer, with no common thread across market, application or company type, you lack the basis for targeted segmentation.
When you do not (yet) have a distinctive story. Being consistently visible to a select group only works if you have something to say that sticks. Without a sharp positioning, you are mainly burning attention.
When you are not prepared to measure. The entire benefit of control and boardroom confidence hinges on collecting touchpoints and intent data. If you are not willing to do that, you miss out on the lion’s share of the gains.
In short, you need a certain deal value and a certain time horizon. Quick wins do not fit ABM. Patience and discipline do.
The most common mistakes in ABM
We regularly encounter companies that are already taking steps towards ABM. They may have a target account list, run targeted ads or have given their sales team a list of dream clients. But the results fall short. Two mistakes keep coming back.
Mistake 1: the content is generic
This is by far the most common mistake. Companies go through a number of ABM steps, but they do not tailor their content and messaging to the specific target audience. They produce advertising-style communication that does not differentiate them from the competition, does not stand out, and is not relevant or interesting to the accounts they are trying to reach.
More often than not, this comes down to an organisation’s inability to step outside itself. They communicate from the perspective of their own product rather than from the challenge of the potential customer. But ABM requires exactly that: putting the customer at the centre and building your entire approach around them, including your content. If you do not do that, you can use as many ABM tactics as you like, but if your resources and overall approach remain the same as always, you will not notice the difference.
Mistake 2: the target audience is too broad
The second mistake is choosing a target audience that is too broad or too large. Companies often do not want to choose. Because choosing means that you also do not do many things. That you do not actively pursue certain potential customers. And that is uncomfortable.
But if you do not make tough choices, you can never achieve the focus that determines ABM’s success. A list of 500 accounts “because they could all be interesting” is not an ABM strategy. That is lead generation with a fancy label.
How does account based marketing fit alongside your existing marketing?
Most SME+ companies that come to us already have marketing in place. They have a decent website, perhaps run some ads and post regularly on LinkedIn. They publish the occasional article and are reasonably visible in their network. That foundation is usually in order.
But that foundation does not drive growth. To grow, you need to do more, go further. That is what ABM does: you step outside the proverbial pond you have been fishing in for years. You go directly to the companies you want to serve, instead of waiting for them to find you by chance.
In fact, without that marketing foundation it is harder to be successful with ABM. If a brand already has strong market awareness, the return on ABM is even higher. ABM does not replace your existing marketing. It builds on it and gives it direction.
In practice, we always try to deploy the client’s existing resources and activities within the ABM programme. Is the client already publishing content on their website and LinkedIn that is relevant to the target audience? Then it can be used in the campaign. Does the client already have an event planned? Then we look at whether a small adjustment can make it relevant for the target accounts as well, without existing guests missing out on anything.
One of our clients is targeting IT consultants. That client already had plans for a customer event, but by jointly adjusting the timing and content, the event suddenly became highly relevant for the target accounts too. The same applies to article series or existing campaigns: we shape them so they also work within the ABM programme. The sooner the campaign materials are ready, the sooner we can start producing results. Working with what already exists beats starting from scratch every time.
Is the client already running Google Ads? Those campaigns simply continue. Google Ads targets keywords, not specific accounts, so it is hard to reach an ABM audience with them. But they contribute to broader visibility. Existing LinkedIn posts and blogs keep appearing as normal. The ABM campaign adds a targeted layer on top, not a replacement.
The Sqrl method: from foundation to running campaign
Our approach follows five phases that lead to a running ABM programme in three months. After five weeks, the first brand awareness campaign is already live. Below is the full route, including what happens in each phase and what it delivers.
Phase 1: Onboarding
Before we start on content, we assemble the team and establish the framework. We form a Business Development Team that combines sales and marketing, and that includes the managing director or owner. This is not a formality: everyone involved in the customer journey of potential clients needs to be on board. We establish reporting lines, success criteria and a timeline.
Why does the director need to be involved? Because a director who says “I see no results, let us pull the plug” after two months undermines the entire programme. The same director who helped shape the strategy from day one understands how it works and can ask pointed questions about progress. That makes it far easier to report on measured intent and planned follow-up actions, and buy-in is much stronger as a result.
Timeline: week 1.
Phase 2: ABM Fundamentals
A workshop in which we take the entire Business Development Team through the basics of account based marketing and our approach, translated to their specific situation. The goal is for everyone to share the same starting point, understand what ABM entails and know what their role will be.
But it is more than theory. During this workshop we also define the parameters for the Total Addressable Market (TAM) and the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). We discuss which clustering we could use and what the characteristics of companies within it are. Companies often already have a clear idea here. Think of a packaging machinery manufacturer that sees major opportunities in the e-commerce market, where companies face seasonal peaks and staff shortages and high-end packaging machines therefore offer clear added value. By asking the right questions, we refine that preference into a sharp choice that the entire team supports.
The result of this phase: the team delivers a list of 5 to 10 ideal customers that serve as the basis for the Target Account List.
Timeline: week 2 to 3.
Phase 3: Target Account List
Based on that seed list, the team expands the list themselves using the Sqrl software. The software uses AI agents to search databases and the internet for characteristics, descriptions or specific terms. The system returns an extended list of companies that need to be qualified by the team. That qualification produces new insights that can be used to search again. Each iteration takes you a step further.
During a central sprint in this phase, we help the team get started: we share our approach, provide examples and make the first real choices together. But the execution lies with the client. In practice, we usually make strong progress during the sprint, but realistically it often takes another week or two before the list is fully finalised and everyone has provided their input.
The result: a Target Account List of 20 to 100 accounts that you will target with your campaign.
Timeline: week 4 to 8.
Intermediate step: the always-on campaign goes live
As soon as the TAL has taken sufficient shape, we start the first track: a brand awareness campaign targeting the entire Target Account List. We build an audience on channels such as LinkedIn, search engines or trade publications, develop ad materials and ensure everything is set up to track results through the software and link them to companies on the TAL wherever possible.
This is a crucial moment. The campaign is running and generating visibility. After a few weeks, the first intent becomes visible: certain accounts respond, visit the website or show interest in other ways. Those are the signals that take us to the next phase.
The campaign typically launches around week 5 to 7 and runs continuously from there.
Phase 4: Decision Making Unit (DMU)
Another workshop, but now focused on the accounts showing intent in the always-on campaign. This is precisely why there are several weeks between this workshop and the previous one. Using one or two specific companies as examples, we map the Decision Making Unit: who is in the DMU, in which roles, and what keeps them up at night?
In practice, this comes down to three to five groups in which we cluster the different people within the organisation. For each group, we build a profile together and enter it into the software. The AI agents can then use those profiles to quickly map the DMU at other companies. The client’s team verifies and supplements.
The result: a clear overview of the DMU per account, which roles belong to which group, and what their pain points and ambitions are. This is crucial input for the campaign plan.
Timeline: week 9 to 13.
Phase 5: Campaign plan
The final workshop, in which we jointly shape the campaign plan. This plan goes beyond the always-on campaign. We determine how we will engage the people within the accounts that are showing intent. What actions will we take to build a relationship and earn a preferred position with these people?
It starts light: a card, a small gift, a mailing. But it gradually shifts to more personal communication: relevant documentation, event invitations, connection requests. All the way to the ultimate goal: a face-to-face meeting or a scheduled demonstration. That is what we are working towards: moving a person within an account to the point where they are sales qualified.
And this is exactly why doing it as a team, in a workshop, matters so much. Everyone needs to know when a person is sales qualified, and decide together what you are going to do to get there.
The result: a complete campaign plan with a concrete timeline for execution.
Timeline: week 14 to 16. The entire programme up to and including the campaign plan spans three months.
Personalisation at scale: the 1:cluster model
One of the most important strategic considerations in ABM is the level of personalisation. Traditional enterprise theory prescribes building a fully customised campaign for every account: bespoke content, dedicated landing pages, tailored messaging. For an SME+ company with 50 accounts on the list, this is simply not feasible. Your marketing team would collapse within a month.
That is why Sqrl works with what we call the 1:cluster model. Instead of personalising per account, we group accounts based on their dominant shared characteristic: the same market, the same challenge, the same type of buying process. Within that cluster, we develop content and campaigns that are relevant for the entire group, without the unaffordable overhead of 1:1.
One cluster per campaign is the starting point. A suitable cluster contains enough accounts to run an efficient campaign, in practice somewhere between 20 and 150. The exact number depends primarily on the number of relevant people within the average company. The larger the DMU, the more complex the campaign quickly becomes. For accounts with up to around 2,000 employees, the DMU is typically manageable enough to work in a cluster. For truly large enterprises with complex DMUs, each account is a campaign in itself, and that is enterprise ABM, not the Sqrl approach.
Where does the personalisation come in, then? In the person-to-person communication. All campaign materials (ads, articles, videos) are aimed at the cluster as a whole. But as soon as you send a case study to a person, you do so with a personal message in which sales explains why this is relevant for that particular account. Connection requests, invitations, physical mailings: that is individual and genuine. This is how you combine the efficiency of cluster communication with the impact of personal contact.
How do you select and prioritise accounts?
The power of ABM lies in focus. But how do you determine which accounts to target, and whether all accounts deserve the same attention?
Selection starts with the Ideal Customer Profile: which type of company is the best fit for your proposition? You determine this based on criteria such as sector, company size, application area, potential deal value and existing relationships. This is not a theoretical exercise. It is a conversation between Sqrl, which knows the parameters for a successful campaign, and the client, who knows their market better than anyone.
In principle, we prefer to work with a cluster of companies with equal priority, without separate tiers. Especially when measuring intent in an always-on campaign, it is difficult to put more focus on certain accounts than others.
But in practice, it is sometimes necessary to supplement the cluster. A good example: one of our clients develops software for a very specific market. The campaign targeted companies that the client knew would need to switch from a competing package that is being discontinued within three years. However, that group was not large enough for an efficient campaign and would have put too much pressure on a limited set of accounts that might not yet have been ready for a next step. So we searched for other accounts in the same market that face similar challenges. That second group had comparable potential deal values and could be incorporated into the same cluster.
Account selection is therefore always a joint effort. Sqrl provides the methodological framework (minimum cluster size, campaign efficiency, spread), the client provides the market knowledge and account information. Combining the two produces an approach that aligns with the reality of the market.
Content that actually works
Earlier we named generic content as the most common mistake. But what does content look like when it is done right?
Successful ABM content aligns completely with the client’s world. If you serve a very practical target audience, or a very technical one, then polished advertising-style communication is pointless. It can even undermine the intent you are trying to build.
What does work: tapping into the themes that affect specific companies at a specific time. We share a case study from a company that is very similar to the potential client, with a personal letter explaining why we are sharing this with that particular person or account. Or we send a barbecue package to decision-makers, just before the weather turns warm. We have a full toolkit of proven tactics.
The difference is not about big budgets or clever funnels. It is about genuine interest and the willingness to go the extra mile. People respond well when you dare to be genuinely personal. No email blasts or automated outreach sequences, but real communication, from and with real people.
The same goes for the always-on campaign. Skip the polish. Say what people in the market are actually thinking. Call things what they are. Think like a customer, not like a marketer or a salesperson.
Which content do you use in which phase of ABM?
The choice of content types depends on the cluster and the market, and the Business Development Team often has a strong opinion here based on years of experience. There is no fixed sequence, but there are clear patterns.
Always-on campaign (brand awareness)
In the early phases of an always-on campaign, we almost always test with video and single image ads. This provides a solid benchmark for the specific target audience in terms of both performance and cost, and enables us to make very accurate predictions for later phases.
Each format has its own profile. Video typically generates a higher engagement rate and therefore shows intent more clearly, but is more expensive to produce and generates fewer clicks to the website. With single images, it is the other way round: a larger share of clicks to the website, but less total interaction. Articles, carousel posts and whitepapers each have their own pros and cons. By testing in the early phase, you quickly learn what works for this specific cluster.
Nurturing (targeted engagement)
As soon as accounts show intent and become focus accounts, the content shifts from broad to personal. Case studies from comparable companies, relevant documentation, invitations to events or roundtable discussions, physical mailings with a personal letter. The further an account progresses in the journey, the more personal the communication becomes, all the way to a direct conversation or demonstration.
The client has significant influence here. They know which message resonates, what they definitely do not want to do, and what comes across as credible in their market. That weighs heavily in the campaign design.
Which channels do you choose for an ABM campaign?
LinkedIn is often the starting point for an always-on campaign, and with good reason. Where other online platforms often require you to address a broader audience and hope you reach the right companies, LinkedIn makes it possible to focus exclusively on your target accounts. That makes it ideally suited for the first brand awareness campaign.
But LinkedIn, like other social media platforms, has a limitation. Unless someone actively responds with a like or comment, privacy regulations make it difficult to trace actions back to the individual. That is why, as soon as we see intent at target accounts, we often move to more personal and direct communication. We send direct mail, both physical and digital, to measure intent at the individual level as well.
Once we have more insight into the DMUs at accounts, it becomes possible to add other channels to the always-on campaign: Meta (Facebook, Instagram) or Google Ads. Those channels are less precise in targeting than LinkedIn, but they increase reach and ensure you are visible in multiple places.
From low-intent to high-intent touchpoints
The channels and actions build up in intensity, linked to the level of intent that an account and person are showing.
Low-intent touchpoints are the always-on foundation: ads, articles, social posts. These ensure you are visible to the desired accounts and people.
Medium-intent touchpoints follow once interest becomes visible at the individual level: connection requests, personalised mailings (physical or digital), a relevant article or case study with a personal message.
High-intent touchpoints are aimed at conversion: an invitation to a high-value event such as a roundtable with other industry leaders, a demonstration, a training session or a direct phone call.
We scale up the effort and investment as the intent of an account and person increases. This ensures the account and person are increasingly well-qualified before sales enters the conversation.
Intent data: which signals do you track in ABM?
Intent data sounds abstract, but in practice it comes down to very concrete signals that show whether an account is moving.
Website visits. We identify visitors at company level. For conversions (a form submission, a download, a request), we attach a complete conversion path so we know exactly what that person’s journey looked like.
Campaign responses. Clicks, comments, likes, but also more passive signals: has a company seen a particular campaign or individual ad? This way we can not only measure whether there is interest, but also which themes generate more interest than others. That in turn influences the next campaign.
Conversions on communication. Whether through direct mailing, ad campaigns, phone calls or any other channel: the Sqrl software registers and links all signals as automatically as possible to both accounts and individuals.
In the Sqrl software, every client has their own environment. Beyond the headline campaign KPIs, you can drill down to the finest detail: who saw what, where and when, including activity on your own website. We think of the software not just as the engine of the ABM campaign, but as a pre-CRM system that makes sure no account or person slips through the cracks.
From intent to focus accounts: when do you shift gears?
The always-on campaign is running and generating visibility across the entire TAL. But not every account is ready for intensive follow-up. The question is: when does an account move from the first track (brand awareness) to the second track (targeted engagement)?
That is partly a qualitative call. Has a company been steadily exposed to your brand and started to respond? Then you can cautiously ramp up. But there is a quantitative side too: if an account has seen plenty of campaigns but nobody has engaged, that company probably is not ready yet.
That decision lies with the Business Development Team, meaning marketing and sales together. We call the accounts that move to the second track “focus accounts”: accounts from the TAL that are showing intent and that we are therefore focusing on.
Measuring and adjusting
With most clients, we meet every two weeks, sometimes monthly. We work from the software and discuss the results: intent, touchpoints, progress per account. And of course whether we are on the right track.
If progress stalls, we work with the client to figure out what needs to change. Warning signs include too few new touchpoints, certain accounts proving hard to reach, or specific ads and actions falling flat. In most cases we can adjust within days and see improvement quickly.
The whole point of ABM compared to traditional marketing is that you can see exactly what is happening: per account, per person, per touchpoint. That turns course corrections into concrete decisions rather than gut feelings.
Start with one cluster as a pilot
A common concern is: “Do we have to overhaul our entire commercial strategy straight away?” No. An ABM programme focused on one cluster is a pilot in itself.
Most SME+ companies have somewhere between three and seven primary markets they focus on, and they often have a clear ideal customer in each of those markets. In practice, we see that each of these markets (Ideal Customer Profile plus the dominant shared characteristic) often contains a valid target audience for an ABM campaign.
By running an initial pilot in the most promising of those markets, the method and approach can prove itself. And once it has been proven: why would you not roll it out across all your markets? Companies that have successfully run an ABM programme often cannot wait to set it up for other target audiences and achieve success there too.
The predictability of the sales pipeline that an ABM approach makes possible is too significant an advantage for almost any SME+ company to sit on.
Two ways to get started
Not every company has the same needs, which is why we offer two routes to start with the Sqrl method.
DIY package (€4,500)
We onboard you, run one sprint to motivate and train your team, and you get three months of access to the Sqrl software. After that, you execute it yourself. This fits companies that have the capacity and experience in-house to run the programme themselves, but need a solid starting point.
Director package (€16,500)
We guide you step by step through the entire programme: all workshops, sprints and interim support. The execution lies with your team. We are the director, you perform. This fits companies that need the structure and guidance to set the programme up properly, but want to and can handle the execution themselves.
In both cases, the result is the same: a running ABM programme with a validated Target Account List, the DMU mapped out, a complete campaign plan and a campaign that is already generating visibility.
Validation interviews: test your assumptions in practice
A valuable addition to the programme is conducting validation interviews with the target audience. During the DMU phase, but also earlier when defining the TAL, we make assumptions about what concerns the target audience, which pain points are at play and what would motivate them. You can test those assumptions by simply engaging in conversation with people from your target audience.
This delivers two things. First: certainty that your message and approach align with reality before you put budget behind it. Second: direct insights you cannot get anywhere else, insights that tangibly improve your content and campaigns.
We recommend this to every client, but it is not a mandatory component. Consider it insurance against assumptions that turn out to be wrong.
What ABM delivers after three months
At the end of the programme, you will have:
- A Target Account List of 20 to 100 companies that represent your ideal customer.
- The Decision Making Unit mapped per account, including personas, pain points and ambitions.
- A Business Development Team in which sales and marketing work towards the same goal.
- Brand awareness among your target accounts and a benchmark for further campaigns.
- A complete campaign plan for approaching, following up and converting prospects into Sales Qualified Leads.
In nearly all our campaigns, the first real sales qualified leads come in within three months. But perhaps more important than the deliverables is the shift in how you work. ABM is not a one-off project. It is a flywheel: once it is running for one market or cluster, the same method can be applied to the next. That turns it into a structural growth engine rather than a campaign with an end date.
