Account based marketing is a strategic approach to marketing based on account awareness in which an organization considers and communicates with individual prospect or customer accounts as markets of one. Through a close strategic alignment between sales and marketing, we focus on target accounts that fit our ICP (ideal customer profile).
Account Based Marketing sits next to Field Marketing and is similarly aligned to Sales and Sales Development. The Demand Gen team creates marketing campaigns that support the top and middle of the funnel, while Field Marketing brings the regional knowledge and is focused on lead generation and account centric marketing. Account centric and Account Based Marketing both allow marketers to take a targeted approach at scale in varying degrees so that we are going after the prospects and accounts we want (based on our ICP and other factors) as opposed to trying to generate demand to come to us.
GitLab
If you need assistance, please open an issue in our project and/or tag us using the ~Account Based Marketing label
Account Based Marketing: pulls the issue into the board and is used to put an issue on the team's radarABM FYI: used to put something on the account based marketing team's radar when they are not the DRI (example: and account centric campaign being run by field marketing)Slack
Emily Luehrs
Manager, Account Based Marketing
Megan O'Dowd and Christina McLeod
Manager, Account Based Marketing
This approach combines sales intelligence and marketing muscle to build a strategy specifically for each 1:1 account that puts our Sales and Sales Development teams in front of the right people with a message that resonates. ABM tactics are personalized for each 1:1 account.
Accounts will be grouped based on commonalities such as industry, entry point use case, etc. and each group will receive a specific marketing strategy that is a medium lift and as personalized as we can be at scale. For example, there may be three different campaigns running within this tier that are focused on a set of accounts rather than customized to a single account.
The ABS team is responsible for 1:1 and 1:Few marketing strategies and we collaborate with Field Marketing on the 1:Many or account centric approach. This marketing strategy leverages ABM tactics with less personalization so the principles can be applied to a larger number of target accounts grouped together.
Accounts can be nominated by leveraging the Account Rank field in Salesforce. When an account is marked as Rank 1.5, it is considered nominated for ABM strategy. You can nominate an account at any time, however, nominations are reviewed the last month of a quarter. Once a new quarter starts, accounts will not be added unless there is capacity, budget and/or ABM manager bandwidth. Accounts must have specific information up to date in Salesforce prior to being nominated.
The account based marketing team will be monitoring accounts in all tiers and adjusting the level of marketing support for these accounts based on how they align to our ICP, SAL and SDR engagement (we can't build a highly personalized strategy without sales/account intelligence!), strategic priority to GitLab, and ABM Manager bandwidth (building an entire strategy for one account takes a lot of lift and time). The account team will be notified when an account is added or removed from the ABM program as well as when an account moves tiers to ensure we can strategize and build in the marketing plan appropriately.
An account can be removed from (or not added to) account based marketing if the following occur:
The below items need to up to date in Salesforce before an account can be added to ABM strategy. This is done by the account owner prior to nomination. If this information is not populated as best as we can with the most up to date information, the account cannot be added.
If an account is added to ABM strategy, the account team will be notified via an issue and a kick-off call will be scheduled. During this kick-off call, the below items will be discussed. After the call, the ABM manager will update the issue with all of the relevant information and provide a list of what tactics are being launched, when they are being launched, and what assistance is needed.
ABM Manager
SAL/SDR
1:1 accounts will have a bi-weekly recurring meeting. When we can take this meeting async and update the epic, we will. The purpose of this meeting is to continue to gather account information and provide updates on how the tactics are going.
The same items will be discussed as in a 1:1 campaign but the frequency will be once a month. Async metrics and updates will be added to the epic bi-weekly.
The Account Based Marketing Team owns Demandbase for GitLab. It is a targeting and personalization platform that we use to target online ads to companies that fit our ICP and tiered account criteria. Demandbase also has a wealth of intent data that is available to us through it's integration with Salesforce. For more information about this tool and how you can request leveraging it check out the Demandbase handbook page
ABM Campaign Tactics:
Pathfactory is used to create customized content experiences and guided journeys for ABM target accounts.
ABM Campaign Tactics:
Drift is a chat platform used by the Sales Development (SDR) organization to engage visitors on select web pages.
ABM Campaign Tactics:
A series of emails that are sent based on a prospect's behavior, which deliver timely, targeted information that helps guide the lead through the buying process.
ABM Campaign Tactics:
Ad campaigns in the form of email signature banners
ABM Campaign Tactics:
ABM Campaign Tactics:
