The ABM tactics that actually make a difference in practice
There is no shortage of articles listing ABM techniques. Twelve tactics, eighteen tactics, each with a paragraph and a stock photo. We are not doing that here. This article covers the techniques we actually deploy for our clients, how we implement them, when we use them and how we measure the results. Including an honest take on why we deliberately avoid some of the most popular tactics out there.
If you have read the strategy article, you know how an ABM programme is structured: from Target Account List to always-on campaign to focus accounts to nurturing. This article goes one level deeper. It shows which tactics you use at each stage and why.
LinkedIn targeting: how to reach only your Target Account List
LinkedIn is the starting point for most ABM campaigns, and for good reason. It is the only major advertising platform that lets you advertise exclusively to your target accounts.
The setup is straightforward: we upload every company on the Target Account List using LinkedIn’s company list feature. This ensures your ads only reach employees at those specific companies. From there, we narrow further by filtering on job title, seniority, skills and other attributes, so we target the people who actually play a role in the buying process as precisely as possible.
This is also how you prevent budget leakage. On other platforms (Google, Meta), you have to address a broader audience and hope you hit the right companies. On LinkedIn, you can rule that out entirely. Your budget goes exclusively to the accounts you want to reach, and within those accounts to the roles that matter.
That makes LinkedIn ideally suited for the first track: the always-on brand awareness campaign. You know for certain that you are visible to the right companies. The trade-off is that unless someone actively engages (a like, a comment), privacy regulations make it hard to identify exactly who saw your ad. But that is fine during the awareness phase. You are building visibility. Individual identification comes later, through other tactics.
Retargeting: reinforcing visibility at lower cost
Once the always-on campaign is running and accounts start visiting your website, retargeting becomes a powerful addition. The principle is simple: someone who has visited your site then sees your ads on other platforms. This reinforces visibility among your target audience, often at a much lower CPM than regular campaigns.
We like to use Google retargeting, and Reddit retargeting is also surprisingly effective given the platform’s broad reach. LinkedIn retargeting tends to be less effective in our experience, though it can work with sufficient volume.
An important nuance: retargeting works best as part of the always-on campaign, at group level. It is not suitable for targeting at the individual account level. You use it to amplify overall reach and recognition among your audience, not to approach specific people. You have other tactics for that.
Direct mail: physical impact in a digital world
One of the most underrated ABM tactics is physical direct mail. In a world where everyone’s inbox is overflowing with digital messages, a package on your desk stands out. Not because it is expensive, but because it is personal. And that is exactly what ABM should be.
What do you send, and when?
What you send and to whom is determined in the campaign plan by the Business Development Team. Sqrl has an extensive playbook of ideas, but the choice is always tailored to the cluster and the moment. The principle: the gesture captures attention, the accompanying material delivers substance.
An example: for one of our clients, we are currently preparing a summer mailing. We are sending a bottle of sunscreen with a playful message on the label, along with a document that goes into real depth on a specific aspect of the offering. A bottle of sunscreen arriving just before summer is not something you throw away. It gets a smile. And the document provides a reason to reconnect later.
We often see an immediate response to these kinds of actions. When you do something genuinely thoughtful, people let you know. But sometimes you only hear months later how a mailing landed. That is fine. ABM is not a sprint.
How do you measure the impact of physical mail?
This is where the Sqrl software really shines. We generate unique URLs at the individual level. Those translate into a unique QR code that we print on the mailing. If the recipient scans it, we know exactly who is showing interest. From there, we can see whether that person has visited the client’s website before, which pages they viewed and whether there were earlier touchpoints.
This used to be a manual, labour-intensive process. In the Sqrl software, it has been built in from day one. No extra cost, no friction, but you can measure a meaningful part of your impact directly. And unlike email, postal delivery is genuinely reliable: if you send someone something, they receive it.
Email in ABM: why we do not automate
Nearly every article on ABM tactics calls automated email sequences essential. We disagree. Deliberately.
Automated email flows sound effective: set up a sequence, send it to your entire list, and a certain percentage converts. But at its core, that is a volume play. The same logic as traditional lead generation, wrapped in ABM language. In practice, it means 90% of your target audience either ignores you or, worse, hits “spam.” That does more damage to your reputation with the very accounts you are trying to win than it delivers in conversions.
On top of that: how do you even get the right email addresses? You might be able to guess a few business addresses, but those people never gave you their contact details or permission for such emails. Especially for SME+ companies in Europe, there are solid reasons not to email at scale.
What we do instead: manual, personal emails from sales. One to one, following a medium- or high-intent touchpoint, fully personalised. That is not an email sequence. It is a personal message at the right time. The difference in response speaks for itself.
Landing pages: from cluster to account
How landing pages are used varies by client, by campaign and by phase. There is no one-size-fits-all, but there is a logical progression.
At the start of the campaign, during the always-on phase, landing pages are aimed at the cluster. They address the themes that matter to the group and offer relevant CTAs. As the campaign develops and focus accounts emerge, we increasingly build account-specific landing pages that highlight particular themes or CTAs based on what we know about that account.
There is also a middle ground that works surprisingly well: dynamic personalisation. We automatically adjust landing pages based on the account or person visiting. These are often small tweaks: the visitor’s company name appears at the top of the page, the copy shifts, or a different CTA is shown. A subtle change that can generate noticeably more engagement.
Connection requests: why less message sometimes works better
At a certain point in the nurturing process, you send connection requests to DMU members on LinkedIn. This is a medium-intent touchpoint: more personal than an ad, but not yet a sales conversation.
In our approach, it is the salespeople who send the connection request, not marketing. That is deliberate: the account is already a focus account at this stage, and sales sits on the Business Development Team. The connection comes from the person who will eventually have the conversation.
What we see in practice is that the message accompanying the request matters less than you might think. Most people decide yes or no from LinkedIn’s overview screen, not from the message itself. They check whether they recognise your name and company, maybe scan the first line, and decide. We have even seen cases where a connection request with no message at all, just the default LinkedIn text, performs best. Because at least you are not inadvertently signalling that you want to sell something.
If you do include a message, keep it short and light. Ideally with a touch of humour or a relevant reference. Do not mention follow-up, do not suggest a meeting, do not say “I would love to pick your brain.” That creates resistance against the implied obligation.
The fact that the recipient recognises your company name from the always-on campaign that has been running for weeks or months is your biggest asset here. You are not a stranger. That is the difference between a request that gets accepted and one that gets ignored.
Personalised video as outreach
A personal video in which a salesperson briefly and specifically explains why they are reaching out to a particular person or account can be a powerful medium- or high-intent touchpoint. It is more personal than an email and shows you have made a genuine effort.
But let us be realistic: at SME+ companies, there are quite a few practical hurdles. Not every salesperson is comfortable on camera, the technical setup (decent camera, lighting, software) is not always in place, and recording takes more time than typing a personal message. At larger organisations with higher customer lifetime values, the investment is easier to justify.
We see personalised video not as a standard tactic but as an option for clients who are ready for it. It typically comes into play later in the campaign, as a medium- or high-intent touchpoint, and works best when it is genuinely personal: made specifically for one person, addressing their particular situation. A “personalised” video that repeats the same script with a different name dropped in misses the point entirely.
Social selling: being visible as a person, not just a brand
Social selling goes beyond connection requests. It is about the client’s salespeople being visible and relevant on LinkedIn as individuals.
That starts with the LinkedIn profile itself. When a potential customer visits the profile of a contact at the client company, it should be immediately clear that this is the right person to talk to. Relevant content, possibly even elements of the campaign, and a clear narrative that aligns with the campaign message.
Once a salesperson is connected with DMU members at focus accounts, engaging with their posts, sharing relevant content and being present in their feed becomes a natural part of building the relationship. LinkedIn then serves as a low-key way to stay top of mind, demonstrate expertise and build rapport, without it feeling like sales.
This is not a separate programme. It is a natural extension of the ABM campaign: the always-on campaign builds brand recognition, the personal LinkedIn presence of sales builds human recognition.
Warm introductions: use what you already have
One of the most obvious yet frequently overlooked tactics: checking whether anyone on the client’s team already has an existing relationship at a target account.
This comes up during the creation of the Target Account List. If sales already has personal ties at an account, there are two options. Either the account stays out of the TAL because sales can approach it without ABM. Or it goes into the TAL and that existing contact becomes an accelerator: you make it a focus account immediately and begin personal outreach straight away.
A warm introduction is an enormous lever. It creates an opening that no campaign can replicate. In practice, we check for this systematically when assembling the TAL, not as an incidental discovery but as a deliberate step.
Events as an account based marketing technique
Events are one of the most powerful high-intent touchpoints in ABM. Not because you sell directly at them, but because you build relationships. And in B2B, deals come from relationships, not from funnels.
There are two ways to use events.
Option 1: organise your own
If you organise your own event, you first need a certain level of standing and brand recognition. A potential customer is unlikely to accept an invitation from an unknown player, but they will from a company with a track record. That is a prerequisite, and it means this approach is not available to everyone.
The key with your own event: do not make it about you. Do not put your product or service at the centre. Instead, focus on the world of the customer or a challenge that the market you are targeting is dealing with. Many IT companies, for example, are currently organising sessions around AI implementation, simply because it affects every market and they have genuine expertise. But a law firm could just as easily host an event on a topic that seems far removed from their own services yet is highly relevant to their target audience.
Build a programme that is genuinely interesting and commercially relevant. Invite speakers who actually know what they are talking about. That increases the likelihood people will attend, and it positions you as the company that made it happen, not as the one trying to sell something.
Option 2: sponsor or buy in
The alternative is to leverage the authority (and, crucially, the perceived objectivity) of another party. Think trade associations, publishers or commercial event organisers.
A strong example: one of our clients wanted to reach financial institutions. Rather than organising something themselves, they became a sponsor of a roundtable hosted by a publisher of industry journals. Only C-level executives from financial institutions were invited, not by our client but by the publisher, on the basis of their expertise. The topic touched on our client’s services but certainly did not revolve around them.
By joining the table alongside the target audience, opportunities arose to have real conversations during the drinks and dinner that followed. The publisher had a strong reputation in the market, the setting was not commercial, and the guests’ peers were also present. A natural moment to build relationships.
Webinars and online events
Alongside physical events, webinars and online knowledge sessions offer a lower-threshold alternative. Attending a physical event is a significant commitment, while people sign up for a webinar knowing they can watch it a week later if needed.
The approach is essentially the same as for physical events: relevant topic, strong speakers, no sales pitch. The difference lies in the intent signal: online events and webinars are typically medium-intent touchpoints, whereas physical events are high-intent. Someone who clears an evening to attend a roundtable is showing more commitment than someone who clicks a registration link.
Following up after an event
The follow-up is simpler than you might expect. You have spent an evening talking to someone, perhaps exchanged business cards. But far more effective: send a LinkedIn connection request the next day to someone you had a good conversation with. That is not cold outreach. It is a natural continuation of a personal encounter. And the acceptance rate reflects it.
Account based marketing techniques by phase
None of the tactics above exist in isolation. They follow the intent ladder that drives the ABM programme. Here is an overview of which techniques you deploy at each stage.
Phase 1: brand awareness (always-on campaign)
- LinkedIn company list targeting across the full TAL, filtered by relevant job functions.
- Video and single-image ads to test engagement and build a performance benchmark.
- Retargeting via Google and Reddit to reinforce visibility at lower cost.
- Cluster-specific landing pages with relevant themes and CTAs.
- Content that addresses the themes of the cluster, not your own product.
- Website visitor identification at company level through the Sqrl software.
The goal in this phase is not conversion. The goal is to build visibility and measure intent.
Phase 2: early interest (low-intent to medium-intent)
- Adding channels (Meta, Google Ads) once the DMUs come into sharper focus.
- Physical direct mail with unique QR codes to identified individuals.
- Targeted content (case studies, whitepapers) that connects to demonstrated interest.
- Connection requests from sales to DMU members at focus accounts.
- Social selling: ensuring sales profiles are on point, engaging with DMU members’ content.
- Leveraging warm introductions where existing relationships exist.
- Dynamic landing pages with account-level personalisation.
- Webinars and online knowledge sessions as medium-intent touchpoints.
In this phase, communication shifts from broad to personal. You know who you are reaching and why.
Phase 3: active nurturing (medium-intent to high-intent)
- Personalised mailings (physical and digital) with a personal note from sales.
- Personal one-to-one emails from sales, following up on earlier touchpoints.
- Personalised video where the client is ready for it.
- Invitations to physical events, roundtable discussions or demonstrations.
- Direct phone calls or personal messages on LinkedIn.
- Account-specific landing pages with tailored themes and CTAs.
- Sharing highly specific documentation that speaks to the account’s pain points.
Once a person acts on a high-intent touchpoint (attends the event, requests a demo, responds positively to a meeting request), that is the moment of sales qualification. Not a handoff from marketing to sales, but a natural progression in the customer journey. Sales has been part of the Business Development Team from day one.
Measuring: touchpoints as the universal metric
We measure everything through touchpoints. Every measurable moment of contact between an account or person and the brand is a touchpoint: an impression, a click, a website visit, a QR code scan, a like, an event attendance, a conversation.
We distinguish two levels. At account level, we see general signals: how many people at this company saw an impression last week? At person level, it gets specific: person X liked a post, received a mailing and scanned the QR code.
During biweekly reviews, we walk through the results from the Sqrl dashboard. We look at the touchpoints generated over the past period and discuss what they mean for the campaign. Concretely, that means determining whether certain accounts should become focus accounts and which individuals are ready for the next step in the nurturing journey. Every touchpoint carries its own weight: an event attendance counts for more than an impression, a personalised QR code scan counts for more than an ad click.
What makes ABM tactics different from ordinary marketing
Every technique above can be used without ABM. LinkedIn ads, direct mail, events: none of these are exclusive to account based marketing. The difference comes down to three things.
First, they are aimed at a defined list of accounts, not a broad audience. You know exactly who you are targeting and why.
Second, they build on each other. Every tactic is a step in a coherent customer journey, not a standalone action. The LinkedIn campaign creates recognition, the direct mail deepens the contact, the event builds the relationship, and sales follows up when the moment is right.
Third, they are measured at account level. You do not just know whether a campaign “went well.” You know which specific accounts responded, which individuals are involved and where each account sits in the journey. That makes course corrections concrete.
Without those three elements (focus, coherence and account-level measurement), these are standalone marketing tactics. With them, it is account based marketing.
The role of Sqrl software in these techniques
The tactics above might sound labour-intensive. They are not, provided you have the right infrastructure. The Sqrl software supports execution on a few critical points.
Unique URLs and QR codes are generated automatically per person, making physical mailings immediately measurable without manual work. All touchpoints (website visits, campaign clicks, conversions, connections) are automatically linked to accounts and individuals. The DMU is tracked and enriched per account using LinkedIn data and AI agents. And the campaign plan lives in the software, so the entire team can see which actions are planned, which have been completed and what the results are.
We think of the software as a pre-CRM system: it manages the customer journey up to the moment of sales qualification. After that, the contact moves to the client’s own CRM, complete with all the context built up during the ABM programme.
The unique QR codes are just one example of what the software enables. In our article on Sqrl’s ABM software, we walk through the full platform: from account management and DMU mapping to intent tracking and campaign planning.
