Enterprises have long been attracted to account-based marketing (ABM) because leadership, including marketing, expects big returns from targeting high-value accounts. They've also seen the research: 80% of marketers who use an account-based strategy say it delivers better ROI than any other marketing program, according to a survey by Momentum ITSMA.

Jon Miller, former chief marketing officer at Demandbase and co-founder at Marketo and Engagio, says research also shows account-based strategies lead to bigger deals, better close rates, and superior customer service.

As content and marketing move past the point of one-size-fits-[anything], momentum is building around the next stage of ABM, where every touchpoint in the customer experience becomes more tailored, intentional, and measurable.

When Rachael Foster takes on ABM responsibilities, she makes one demand: Account-based experience (ABX) must be part of her title.

"If it's ABM, then it means it's just marketing. You have to use ABX because it should be shared by both sales and marketing and imbued throughout the entire customer life cycle. Otherwise, you're not getting the full value," says the former director of ABX and field marketing at ZoomInfo.

While account-based strategies work, they can work better when they fall under the ABX moniker, according to our experts, from ABM originators and former account-based tech vendors to the marketers doing it. It's not about the acronym; it's about the approach — a strategy that marketers are well prepared to lead.

ABM begets ABX

Over 20 years ago, ITSMA (Information Technology Services Marketing Association) coined the term account-based marketing.

Rob Leavitt, who helped in its development as ITSMA's vice president of marketing and is the founder of ABM for Good, explains why: "The whole point was about marketing and sales working together, and often experts from other departments, too. The core principle was a fully customized, integrated plan for long-term growth and innovation with your most important accounts."

Initially, ABM was intended as a corporate strategy for big companies with a clear set of key or top-tier accounts with dedicated sales leads and teams (usually existing accounts). The new account-based marketing role is embedded within the sales account team, effectively bridging the two functions. This marketer would build a customized plan for an account, usually using existing marketing activities, content, and events, while helping the account teams create more personalized VIP relationships and customized solutions.

Since then, the strategy has become pervasive in B2B marketing, thanks to its potential to increase ROI. Although the original definition still exists, especially in programs focused tightly on strategic or top-tier accounts, it has also become bastardized.

"ABM has gotten a little squishy," Rob says. As evidence, he references companies that take a generic white paper, “personalize" it by adding the recipient's first name to their email outreach, and call it ABM. “A lot of what people have been calling ABM is really just good, targeted demand gen. That can be effective, but it’s not really true to the more fully integrated and customized solutions approach that we began with.”

The "M" in the initialism hasn't helped either, as it indicates to some in leadership and sales that it's a marketing-only initiative or that marketing is solely responsible for it.

The original intent of the “M,” as ITSMA designed ABM, was to bring in marketing to collaborate with sales to help cultivate the long-term relationships with large and complex accounts at big companies like IBM, HP, and Accenture, Rob says.

Other attempts at ABM didn’t sufficiently deliver what the sales team needed to land hot accounts that could drive revenue, Jon says.

ABX is emerging to solve those challenges. Jon characterizes this evolution as "a customer-centric rethinking of an account-based go-to-market [strategy]."

The account-based X-factor unifies customer engagement

ABX extends ABM's targeting to all stages of the customer relationship. Not only does it focus on creating relevant, trusted interactions throughout the entire customer life cycle, but it also enables the entire go-to-market function to work as a unified team.

Further, Rachael says ABX acts as the third tier in the inverted triangle of marketing. The brand is at the top of the triangle. It goes after everyone and sets the tone of the brand. Demand is the second tier. Demand-gen narrows the focus to identify who the enterprise can sell to. It percolates what ABX goes after — the smaller set of accounts spiking with intent or interest. ABX pulls them into the sales cycle.

According to Rachael, adopting an ABX strategy makes it easier for marketing to control the early brand marketing narrative — what the goals are, how you partner with sales, customer marketing, customer success, etc. — and works well with the demand-gen arm of marketing.

However, it's not just a repositioning of ABM that has propelled ABX into the enterprise spotlight. The rise of buying committees and advances in tech integration profoundly impacted account-based strategies.

While at Demandbase, Jon wrote in this guide that LinkedIn research has found an average of 6.8 people serve on a B2B buying committee. A Clari study found that deals over $100K involved an average of 19 meetings with 14 stakeholders.

"This complexity means marketing can no longer simply hand qualified leads to sales. Instead, both teams must work in harmony throughout the entire process," Jon says.

Fortunately, technology can now facilitate that integration and measurement. "Advances in technology opened the door for ABX to do what ABM was always intended to do," says Tiffany Nwahiri, founder of 3rd + Taylor agency and former vice president of marketing at Validity.

Jon, who previously led marketing at a popular account-based marketing software platform, attests to that evolution: "When I first wrote about ABM, companies cobbled together point solutions. We now have sophisticated platforms combining account identification, intent data, orchestration, and measurement in a single solution."

Marketing should lead ABX

Though marketing isn't in the ABX name, these programs typically work best when marketers helm the program rather than acting as support for the sales team. If accounts haven’t been identified, that take-charge approach first involves marketing and sales working together to select the accounts to target.

"I'm a big believer in [focusing on] facts over feelings," Tiffany says. So, instead of accepting an account list from sales of companies they'd love to sell to, she suggests marketers be prepared to dig deeper. As Tiffany once had to tell a sales team, the ideal customer profile (ICP) can't be everyone who can buy your product.

To narrow your set of potential targets, start by answering questions about the prospects, such as:

"Marketing can take on more of that responsibility," Tiffany says. By knowing which account to target — and which stakeholders within that account to reach — marketing can develop messaging and a channel plan. Then, you can serve that playbook to sales so they can easily follow up with the account.

When Rachael works on account selection, she hosts a war room with the sales team. Each member is asked to bring three accounts worthy of one-on-one engagement. But she won't add accounts to the list unless the sales team member has had a direct conversation with them. Then, sales and marketing should collaboratively conduct an analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each account.

With that done, the team digs deeper into the final account list. For example, if the target is a public company, they'll dig into its 10K report to uncover its priorities and messaging approach.

They also work with sales to understand the account's timing. Is there a decision that needs to be made by a particular date? Are there meetings happening with certain account leaders that we should be at, or around, or somehow take advantage of?

"It's like a research project with the seller and the marketer," Rachael says, noting it isn't a project to assign to a junior marketer. "You need somebody who understands the selling process."

For one account in their ABX program, Rachael and the marketing team listened to the company's many podcast episodes to understand how they talked about the relevant subjects. They weaved that vernacular into the talk track for everything from a lunch-and-learn to an email campaign for them.

"It created this compelling event that aligned with what they were talking through," she says.

Of course, marketers should also examine existing accounts, experts say. Rob says ABM originated with companies focusing on existing key accounts and broadening to a small number of must-win accounts later. "It’s much easier to grow existing accounts than win new ones — unless you literally only have one thing to sell and don’t have much else to offer existing accounts,” he notes.

Craft and coordinate the engagement experience

"In many ways, ABX puts content at the heart of the customer journey — not just as a deliverable but as the thread that ties insight to action," says Kristin Connell, global head of strategy and innovation at Sojourn Solutions. "It's a strategic shift toward delivering relevant, coordinated, and meaningful experiences across the entire account life cycle."

To realize this ideal, marketers must stop thinking about content as creating "stuff" and start thinking about putting the relationship and experience at the center. It requires building dynamic experiences that can flex across stages and roles. It's the first step toward supplying sales and customer success teams with highly relevant content for each touchpoint in the target's journey.

But it doesn't necessarily mean marketing teams must develop those assets from scratch.

"Often, the most effective programs begin by repurposing and reframing what already exists. An e-book becomes a blog series; a webinar becomes a podcast or a short-form video series," Kristin suggests. "Look for ways to layer in personalization and format variety where it makes sense."

She also asserts it's a huge opportunity for content leaders to step into a more strategic role. "You're not just producing assets — you're shaping the experience for the entire account."

Prepare to shift minds and martech capabilities

Successful ABX implementations require alignment across marketing, sales, customer success, and revenue operations. According to Kristin, everybody must understand the shared goals, who's responsible for what, and how coordination happens as an account moves through the journey.

For some of these partners, adapting to ABX may just require minor changes to their day-to-day work processes. Yet, for others — including those unfamiliar with operating under an ABM strategy — it represents a significant cultural shift. Either way, experts agree that managing necessary change requires the full support of leadership.  

"ABX asks people to think differently about success metrics, campaign timing, and how content is deployed," Kristin notes. "Even things like redefining handoffs between sales and marketing or shifting from batch campaigns to signal-based activation can feel like a big leap, but they're necessary to deliver a cohesive experience."

On the content side, Kristin says marketers must evolve from "traditional campaign mode" toward more modular, flexible content strategies that activate in real-time based on the account stakeholders' signals, roles, and current stage.

On the tech side, she sees two common paths teams can take. Some go with full ABX platforms like 6sense or Demandbase. Others leverage a more unbundled, strategy-led approach, leaning into the tools they already have — such as CRM, MAP, intent providers, or web personalization — and adding what they need as the ABX program evolves. (Full disclosure: Demandbase recently entered into a partnership with Informa TechTarget, a division of CMI’s parent company Informa.)

Operationalize your ABX strategy

With a strong cultural foundation laid for ABX, marketers can follow Jon's five-step implementation plan, which unites many of the points addressed earlier:

1. Build your account data foundation. Create a single view of all your account data shared across marketing and sales. Connect data from your CRM, marketing automation, web visits, emails/meetings, firmographics, technographics, and intent signals.

2. Identify your target accounts. Use the FIRE methodology to set focal priorities based on the following:

3. Engage through relevant, personalized interactions. Develop account insights and orchestrate relevant experiences across channels, including advertising, direct mail, events, website personalization, and sales outreach.

4. Close opportunities by aligning marketing and sales. Connect insight to action with seamless coordination between teams. This involves regular standups, shared access to account intelligence, and coordinated plays.

5. Measure account progress. Track relationship quality (engagement) and journey progression against the four Vs: volume, value, conVersion, and velocity.

You'll create a more effective ABX program by identifying success metrics upfront. Kristin adds that decisions on what to track should be anchored in the outcomes that matter most to your business, such as:

Jon also details some types of tech solutions in the ABX process to consider:

AI has had a significant impact on the potential of ABX programs in recent years. "It helps identify in-market accounts, predict which accounts are most likely to buy, personalize outreach at scale, and optimize resource allocation. The most advanced systems use AI to recommend the next best action for each account based on its unique journey," Jon says.

Creating the ABX culture

Implementing an ABX program is more effective when stakeholders are aligned with the program and when they address the challenges upfront. Jon addresses two additional factors of success:

When everyone in an ABX program works together, the secret sauce is revealed — it's the orchestration that synchronizes interactions across channels. "This coordination is what truly differentiates top-performing programs," Jon says.

All tools mentioned in this article were suggested by a contributor to the article. If you’d like to suggest a tool, share the article on social media with a comment.

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