What is Account Based Marketing?
According to HubSpot, ABM is: "A B2B strategy where marketing and sales work together to close large, complex deals with a select number of target accounts."
This works especially well if:
- You operate in a B2B environment.
- Your products or services have a high value (€25,000 or more).
- Decisions within your target audience are complex, with at least three stakeholders involved.
The benefits of ABM:
- Higher average deal value.
- Better collaboration between marketing and sales.
- Shorter lead time of your sales process.
Sounds good, right? Let's look at how to set this up yourself with HubSpot.
In 3 Steps to Success with ABM in HubSpot
1. Establish your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and choose your target accounts
A strong start starts with establishing your ICP. This is a clear picture of the type of organization you want to reach. Collect data from your CRM (such as HubSpot), analyze previous successful deals and conduct interviews with customers. Your ICP usually consists of:
- Demographic data: such as industry, location, revenue, number of employees.
- Firmographic characteristics: such as growth potential or technology usage.
- Psychographic characteristics: such as values around sustainability or innovation.
These criteria allow you to classify accounts into Tiers:
- Tier 1: Highest priority, for example, 20 accounts.
- Tier 2: Important, but slightly less strategic, for example 50 accounts.
- Tier 3: Interesting, but not a priority.
In HubSpot, you can categorize accounts with a property such as "Tier" and automatically create lists for each group.
2. Map stakeholders
Complex deals often involve multiple stakeholders, called the Decision Making Unit (DMU). On average, these are seven people with different roles, such as:
- Initiator: takes the initiative for a purchase.
- Influencer: provides important information.
- Gatekeeper: controls the flow of information.
- Decision maker: gives final approval.
- Purchaser: arranges the formal purchase.
- User: will actually use the product.
Tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator make it easy to find stakeholders. Then use HubSpot's "buying role" property to tag each stakeholder with their role. This helps you communicate in a targeted way.

3. Personalize your communications
This is where the magic happens. Once you know who the stakeholders are, develop content that matches their specific challenges:
- Users want to know how your product makes their jobs easier.
- Decision-makers are focused on ROI and impact on the organization.
- Buyers pay particular attention to cost and contract terms.
Personalize your outreach through HubSpot tools such as:
- Workflows: for automating emails and follow-up.
- Sales Playbooks: with tips and templates for conversations.
- Video integration: create a personalized video for your contacts.
Use LinkedIn or your network to make the initial connection. HubSpot's Sales Hub then provides insights into who opens, clicks and responds to your emails, so you always know who's hot.
The new ABM features in HubSpot
HubSpot's latest ABM tools make your approach even more powerful:
- Account Overview Dashboards: get a complete overview of your target accounts, including activity and progress.
- Custom Report Builder: measure the impact of your ABM strategy.
- Playbooks for ABM: standardize processes for marketing and sales.
Collaboration is the Key
ABM requires close collaboration between marketing and sales. Make sure both teams have access to the same data and clear agreements on roles and responsibilities. With HubSpot's ABM tools, you work together from a single platform.
Get started today with ABM in HubSpot
Ready to focus your efforts on key accounts and close larger deals? With Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and HubSpot’s tools, you can target high-value accounts and align marketing and sales for success.
Need help implementing ABM? Contact us to explore how HubSpot can support your Account-Based Marketing strategy.
