Account-Based Marketing: The New B2B Strategy for Growing High-Value Deals
L'Account-Based Marketing It's the natural evolution of lead generation in B2B with large deal sizes. Account-based marketing means focusing time, budget, and expertise only on the accounts that can truly drive revenue. In a scenario where sales cycles are long and buying committees are complex, does it still make sense to focus solely on volume?
In B2B in 2026, the challenge is no longer generating leads, but understanding which accounts truly deserve a deep marketing effort. In saturated and highly competitive markets, volume alone is no longer enough to sustain growth. A model is needed that overturns the traditional funnel and begins with a rigorous selection of high-value accounts.
This is where the’Account-Based Marketing becomes central: not as an alternative to traditional lead generation, but as its strategic evolution. An ecosystem of content, touchpoints, and personalized relationships is built around each account, orchestrated in a data-driven manner and shared between marketing and sales.
The growth of the global ABM market, estimated to reach over $3 billion by 2032, is the clearest sign of this paradigm shift. B2B companies are moving from a "one-to-many" approach to a targeted, measurable, and internally defendable approach, where every account interaction has a specific business objective.
In an era dominated by AI, information overload and strong selectivity of decision makers, the’Account-Based Marketing It becomes the lever for transforming attention into relationships and relationships into structured revenue. According to some estimates, the market value will grow from $1.67 billion in 2025 to a forecast of $3.52 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 11.241 t/t.
This trend confirms ABM's shift from an experimental tactic to an orchestrated revenue engine for B2B companies. This evolution requires the integration of data, technology, and deep collaboration between marketing, sales, and inside sales teams.
Account Based Marketing beyond traditional lead generation
The difference between Account-Based Marketing Traditional lead generation can be explained with a simple metaphor: fishing with a net versus fishing with a spear. In the former case, you collect many contacts, often low-quality ones. In the latter, you focus on just a few high-value targets.
With ABM, marketing and sales resources aren't wasted on generic leads, but are invested specifically on a list of strategic accounts. These accounts are selected based on clear criteria of compatibility and revenue potential, creating a tailored approach from the outset.
For B2B companies with large deal sizes and long sales cycles, this approach generates tangible benefits throughout the sales funnel. It's not just about increasing the number of opportunities, but also improving their depth, average value, and probability of closing.
The Benefits of Account-Based Marketing for Companies with High-Value Deals
A program of Account-Based Marketing A well-structured solution delivers measurable benefits, especially where contracts have a high average value and the decision-making process involves multiple stakeholders. High levels of customization and alignment across teams translate into higher ROI and improved customer lifetime value.
Several market data highlight the impact of ABM on performance:
- Higher ROI: 97% of marketing professionals state that ABM generates a higher return on investment than other methodologies.
- Increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): 80% of marketers believe that ABM increases the value of the customer lifetime, thanks to stronger and longer-lasting relationships.
- Greater efficiencyBy focusing resources on only the most promising accounts, you avoid wasting time and budget on unqualified leads.
- Accelerating the sales cycle: targeted content and interactions reduce prospect education time and encourage faster closures.
These results are consistent with the very logic of the’Account-Based Marketing: less dispersion, more focus, higher quality sales dialogue. In complex B2B contexts, ABM becomes a lever for clearly aligning marketing and sales objectives around the same target accounts.
For a broad overview of the concept of ABM in digital marketing, the dedicated page on the portal is useful. Wikipedia. Even international reports such as those of Gartner offer in-depth analysis of industry trends.
The key stages of an Account-Based Marketing campaign
A campaign of Account-Based Marketing It's not a one-time action, but a continuous process that combines strategy, data, and cross-departmental collaboration. Success depends on methodical execution, from account identification to results measurement.
Identification and selection of the Target Account List (TAL)
The first phase consists of building the Target Account List (TAL). This isn't just a simple list of companies, but the result of an analysis of Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). The goal is to identify the accounts with the greatest potential in relation to the offering and revenue objectives.
To do this, different types of data are combined:
- Firmographic and technographic data: industry, company size, revenue, geography, and technology stack in use. These are used to verify basic compatibility and digital maturity.
- Behavioral data: interactions with the website, content, social media, and events. High levels of engagement indicate genuine interest.
- Intent data: signals collected from specialized platforms that show which companies are actively looking for solutions similar to yours.
Mapping the buying committee and stakeholders
Once the TAL has been defined, the’Account-Based Marketing Enter the internal account mapping phase. In B2B, decisions are almost always collegial: it's important to understand who makes up the buying committee and what role each player plays.
We identify roles such as influencers, end users, economic decision makers, and gatekeepers. This allows us to tailor messages, content, and channels to the specific needs of each person involved, increasing the relevance and impact of interactions.
Personalization of content and experiences
The heart of the’Account-Based Marketing It's personalization. Mass communications are giving way to experiences tailored to the challenges and priorities of each target account. It's not just about personalizing a name in an email, but about building dedicated journeys.
Depending on the strategic value of the accounts, three main models can be distinguished:
- Strategic ABM (one-to-one): reserved for a few very high-value accounts, with content and campaigns designed for a single company (dedicated reports, exclusive landing pages, customized workshops).
- ABM lite (one-to-few): Targeted at clusters of accounts with similar challenges, often in the same industry. Personalization is by segment, maintaining high relevance.
- Programmatic ABM (one-to-many): Apply ABM principles at scale, reaching hundreds of accounts using technology and behavioral data.
Creativity and orchestration of touchpoints
In a digital environment saturated with messages, creativity is a crucial accelerator for’Account-Based Marketing. Outreach to decision makers must stand out and demonstrate a true understanding of their business.
You can use high-quality direct mail, personalized videos, infographics focused on a specific issue, or invitations to exclusive events. Data-driven creativity transforms a contact into a memorable experience.
Channel orchestration is also crucial: email, social media, targeted advertising, physical and virtual events, and even conversational touchpoints like WhatsApp Business. The goal is to create a coherent sequence where each interaction reinforces the previous one.
Exclusive events—such as small roundtables, private webinars, or business breakfasts—play a key role for high-value accounts. They're not designed for the general public, but for a select few high-potential decision makers, with formats tailored to their interests.
Technology, data, and alignment in account-based marketing
L'Account-Based Marketing Modern marketing relies on a solid technological infrastructure. MarTech and SalesTech platforms enable scalable personalization, analyze large volumes of data, and orchestrate complex campaigns across multiple channels.
Intent data and sales intelligence platforms help identify in-market accounts and detect weak signals of interest. Integrating them with the company's CRM creates a single source of truth that aligns marketing, sales, and inside sales on the same account and opportunity data.
Integration with CRM allows you to:
- enrich customer profiles with engagement and intent data;
- track all interactions along the customer journey in one place;
- accurately measure the impact of ABM campaigns on revenue.
The success of the’Account-Based Marketing It also depends on the alignment between marketing and sales. So-called "Smarketing" involves shared objectives tied to the revenue of target accounts, not just the number of leads generated.
This alignment is formalized through Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that define responsibilities, follow-up times, and minimum account data quality. The inside sales team (SDR) acts as a bridge, transforming engagements into qualified sales conversations.
A Nielsen report highlighted how marketers are increasingly shifting budgets to targeted and measurable channels, such as Connected TV (CTV), with 56% of global marketers predicting an increase in investments in 2025. This same precision logic also drives ABM. To learn more about data in marketing, you can consult the dedicated section of Nielsen.
Account-Based Marketing: Impact on Marketing and Business
L'Account-Based Marketing It directly impacts the way B2B companies design marketing strategies, customer experiences, and sales processes. It's not just a tactic, but a growth model geared toward the value and lifetime value of key accounts.
From a digital marketing perspective, ABM shifts the focus from generic campaigns to highly targeted programs. Content becomes a tool for starting conversations, not just generating traffic. The customer experience is designed on an account-by-account basis, integrating digital channels, events, and conversational touchpoints like WhatsApp.
For business, the’Account-Based Marketing This means greater revenue predictability and better utilization of sales resources. Sales teams can focus on opportunities with a high probability of closing, supported by insights and content developed in conjunction with marketing.
Some examples of practical application:
- account expansion programs on strategic customers, with dedicated cross-sell and up-sell campaigns;
- roadshows and closed events for a small number of high-potential accounts;
- Personalized onboarding and nurturing paths for each decision maker within the account.
In a context where vertical communities, targeted webinars, and content syndication to profiled audiences are becoming the norm, the most advanced ABM combines editorial visibility and commercial activation. The goal is always the same: transforming engagement into qualified conversations and then into measurable business opportunities.
How SendApp Can Help with Account-Based Marketing
L'Account-Based Marketing It becomes even more effective when it integrates high-engagement and high-response conversational channels, like WhatsApp Business. SendApp is the platform designed to bring ABM logic into everyday conversations with your key accounts.
Thanks to SendApp Official (official WhatsApp API), you can connect your MarTech stack to the official WhatsApp Business APIs. This allows you to orchestrate highly personalized messages to decision makers in your target accounts, in a compliant and scalable way.
With SendApp Agent Manage ABM conversations as a team, assigning threads by account, department, or funnel stage. Your SDRs and account executives can work together on the same accounts, maintaining a complete history of interactions in a one-to-one manner.
SendApp Cloud allows you to enable advanced automations for your program Account-Based Marketing. You can define specific workflows for strategic accounts: post-event follow-up messages, personalized reminders, sending premium content, or invitations to dedicated webinars.
By integrating SendApp with your CRM and ABM platforms, you create an ecosystem where data, content, and conversations work together. Every WhatsApp message becomes a trackable touchpoint in the account journey, useful for measuring engagement and readiness for sales contact.
If you want to bring the’Account-Based Marketing to the next level, leveraging the power of WhatsApp Business to manage high-value relationships, you can find out more on the official website SendApp. Request a dedicated consultation or activate a free trial to field test automations, official APIs, and sales team collaboration tools.
