In this article, I’ll discuss 6 advanced ABM tactics focused on content strategy, BDR/SDR operations, technology, measurement, and expanding the existing customer base.
Read on to improve your ABM strategy and learn how ZenABM can help you along the way.
6 Advanced ABM Tactics for Personalized Content, BDR/SDR Ops, Reporting and Customer Growth: Quick Summary
- Personalize ABM content using research reports and targeted guides.
- Align BDRs and SDRs closely with ABM goals and buyer intent.
- Implement ABM-specific KPIs for accurate reporting and attribution.
- Use ABM strategies for upselling existing customers.
- Leverage ABM tactics to drive cross-selling opportunities.
- Apply ABM principles to enhance customer retention efforts.
- ZenABM simplifies these tactics by providing accurate LinkedIn engagement data and intent tracking directly in your CRM.
1. Diversify and Personalize Your ABM Content Asset
High-value content personalized for each account or segment is non-negotiable for 1:1 ABM.
And to take it further, thought leaders like Araminta Robertson (Founder at MD at Mint Studios) suggest using in-depth assets like research reports as ABM content:
She says, in her experience, Reports have worked the best as they can be personalized with custom data and expert interviews, making prospects more likely to engage once they’re warmed up.
She also talks about how Joana Rocha, Director of Growth Marketing and her team at Runa also adopt this strategy (a mix of reports, guides, case studies, and short video demos targeted to specific industries or accounts).
See: This is how diverse and specific their reports are at Runa:
And you can do this too.
For example, if you’re targeting a financial services account, produce a mini report with industry insights and that account’s challenges in mind.
The key is to make each content piece feel highly relevant to the account’s context. It boosts credibility and curiosity because you address exactly what the target account cares about.
And such great content also shows you know what you know about the industry and its pains.
Pro Tip: You can use ChatGPT’s “Deep Research” mode to help you brainstorm ideas regarding which research reports you should make for different types of your ICPs. Prompt it something like: “Thoroughly scan my product [insert your URL] and consider my ICP pointers: [insert all ICP definitions that suit your business] to brainstorm ideas for research reports that I should build as lead magnets and pain-point specific ABM content. Also, take into account what in-depth content my competitors are serving.”
I did it for us at ZenABM, and the result was really good.
It gave me a comprehensive analysis of competitors’ content:
And a list of recommended gated content ideas:
And also did a content gap analysis:
2. Align BDR/SDR Operations with ABM Goals
We talk about Sales and Marketing being aligned for ABM. But it’s not just about agreeing on the TAL or sharing tools – the alignment must be end-to-end.
- For instance, your Business Development Reps (BDRs) or Sales Development Reps (SDRs) should be deeply involved in your ABM program.
- Rather than relying on generic cold calls, empower your SDRs to deeply research and personalize outreach for each target account.
- Start by having SDRs tier accounts by revenue potential (Tier 1, 2, 3) so they know where to focus their energy.
- They should then qualify each account against ideal customer criteria and thoroughly research the account’s business triggers, pain points, and key players.
- Next, they should map out the buying committee, identifying decision-makers, influencers, champions, and technical stakeholders.
- Also, encourage your BDRs to go beyond email: join conversations on LinkedIn or industry forums, send personalized connection messages, and share micro-content that addresses the account’s challenges. For example, an SDR might comment insightfully on a prospect’s LinkedIn post or send a short video demo addressing a known pain point. By updating BDR outreach to these modern, account-focused tactics, you’ll nurture relationships instead of bombarding everyone with cold pitches. This close sales-development alignment with marketing ensures prospects experience a cohesive, personalized journey from first touch through to sales engagement.
Pro Tip: Instead of spending on ‘intent’ tools, you can embed buyer intent (the feature/quality of your product/service being advertised by the ad) into the ad itself to give more context to your BDRs. For instance, as a product management tool, you can have different ad campaigns for different features, like user onboarding, product analytics, etc.
Something like this:
And then you can observe which company is interacting with exactly which ad the most to gauge their intent, and your BDRs will be able to address those specific pain points and your tools’ features during their outreach to ‘hot’ target accounts.
And ZenABM can help you orchestrate this.
It pulls company-level LinkedIn ad engagement data for each ad campaign from LinkedIn’s official ads API:
And huddles companies showing similar intent together:
For further convenience for your sales teams, it pushes engagement data and intent as company properties to your CRM:
3. Develop ABM-Focused Reporting & KPIs
With ABM, success is about depth and quality of engagement, not sheer volume of leads.
Set up reporting dashboards that highlight account-centric KPIs meaningful to sales and execs.
Key metrics might include: account engagement scores (aggregating all interactions like site visits, content downloads, event attendance), deal stage progression and velocity for target accounts, pipeline created or revenue won from ABM accounts, ROAS, etc.
For example, instead of reporting “500 leads,” an ABM report might show that 10 out of 20 target accounts engaged this quarter, with 3 reaching the proposal stage and $2M in pipeline from ABM efforts.
You should also track account penetration (net new stakeholders engaged in an account) and marketing’s influence on expansion or retention deals.
When presenting results, include anecdotes or case studies (e.g. “Our personalized microsite helped Account X engage 5 stakeholders, leading to an upsell conversation”) alongside the numbers.
By reporting on these ABM-specific KPIs, you can show the full impact of marketing-sales plays on high-value accounts and continually refine your strategy for greater success.
ZenABM can help you with comprehensive ABM reporting if LinkedIn ads are your primary channel:
It will show you:
- Each ad campaign’s performance
- Each campaign group’s performance
- Each ABM campaign’s performance
The performance metrics will be in terms of revenue generated, return on ad spend (ROAS), pipeline generated, accounts engaged, and the number of accounts that progress from one ABM stage to another.
And to get the deal values for these calculations, ZenABM matches ad-engaged companies to the deals in your CRM.
4. Use ABM to Upsell Existing Customers
ABM isn’t just for new logo acquisition.
You can also get upsells (account expansion) with your current customers.
For this, treat your top customers as target accounts, not just as a renewal to process.
Focus on their specific needs and goals to identify opportunities to offer more value and build ad campaigns based on those identified opportunities.
For instance, create a personalized campaign for a client highlighting how an upgraded product tier or additional module addresses a new challenge they face.
Because these campaigns speak directly to the customer’s context, they tend to deepen the relationship and boost the chances of an upsell.
Also, align your sales, customer success, and marketing teams so that everyone knows the upsell targets and messaging.
5. Apply ABM Strategies to Cross-Selling
Similar to upselling, cross-selling (selling complementary or additional products to existing customers) can be turbocharged with ABM tactics.
The idea is to treat expansion into other product lines or departments with the same focus and personalization as you would landing a new account.
Start by segmenting your customer base to find those who fit the profile for other solutions you offer.
Then, directly show them BOFU ads with each ad showing a different feature/product line.
After the campaigns are live, ZenABM will help you see which feature/intent is engaging each account the most:
This intent-specific tracking is important – if you show them generalized ads again, how will they knwo what other cool stuff you offer that they havent checked already. Plus, showing them the product line that they are already a customer of makes no sense.
6. Focus on ABM for Customer Retention
The concept of treating each customer as a “market of one” shouldn’t stop once they sign the contract.
Continue the personalized, high-touch approach throughout the customer lifecycle to keep them engaged and successful.
By delivering ongoing relevant content, insights, and support matched to each account’s needs, traits, and behaviour, you position your company as a strategic partner rather than a vendor.
Example: ABM-style retention might involve quarterly business reviews that focus on the client’s specific goals, or a customer newsletter curated for each account’s industry trends. You could also invite key clients to exclusive peer networking events (virtual or in-person) that address common challenges in their field. These efforts, while resource-intensive, make customers feel understood and valued.
According to a Forrester survey, companies obsessively focused on customer engagement saw a 43% increase in customer retention on average.
Additionally, happy retained customers often lead to more revenue, as McKinsey noted – exceptional, personalized experiences can drive up to 25% higher cross-sell rates.
In short, ABM for retention is about continuously enriching the relationship: by knowing the account’s evolving needs and proactively helping meet them, you greatly improve the odds of renewal and long-term loyalty.
ZenABM for Executing Advanced ABM Tactics
ZenABM is purpsoe-built for LinkedIn ABM, and if your primary ad channel is LinkedIn, let me tell you how ZenABM can help you ace ABM there:
Company-Level View-Through Engagement Tracking Per Campaign.
Many ABM professionals have a very obvious problem – cookie based CRM attribution systems cant accuately track evry LinkedIn ad viewer. Some companies might be seeing your ads or engaging too but becuase they aren’t clicking, you’ll never know about them.
But, ZenABM pulls company-level impressions, engagements, clicks, and ad spend for each campaign from LinkedIn’s official ads API:
So, you’ll know each company viewing or engaging with your ad and also with which ad/ads exactly.
You won’t have to rely on bot-plagued display ads, or inacurrate IP matching tools and can rely on LinkedIn as your sole platform.
Immediate Sales Outreach Enriched with Intent Data
Instead of investing in standalone ‘intent’ tools, you can directly integrate buyer intent specific product features or value propositions into your ads. This gives your BDRs deeper context for outreach. For example, if you offer a product management tool, create separate ad campaigns highlighting distinct features, such as user onboarding or product analytics.
Something like this:
You can then track which companies engage most actively with each specific ad, effectively capturing their intent. Your BDRs can use these insights to directly address relevant pain points and highlight corresponding product features during outreach to high-intent accounts.
And ZenABM can help you orchestrate this.
It pulls company-level LinkedIn ad engagement data for each ad campaign from LinkedIn’s official ads API:
And huddles companies showing similar intent together:
For further convenience for your sales teams, it pushes intent as company properties to your CRM:
And for immediate response, ZenABM tracks the stage of each account based on the engagement score:
and assigns BDRs to accounts that hit the ‘interested’ stage in your CRM:
Btw, the engagement thresholds for each stage are customizable:
Accurate ROI Reporting for Each Ad Creative
ZenABM has the ability to see LinkedIn ad engagement of each company with each ad – we discussed that.
Now, ZenABM also pulls deal value of each company by matching engaged companies with the ones in your CRM.
This makes extremely accurate and precise attribution dashbaords possible.
You can see pipeline generated, revenue won, ROAS, accounts targeted, etc. for each campaign:
And do a lot of other stuff life comparing performance of different campaigns, campaign groups, ABM campaigns etc.
The whole dashboard:
Over to You
Account-Based Marketing is rapidly evolving, and adopting advanced tactics like personalized content, deeper sales-marketing alignment, precise attribution reporting, and strategic upselling and cross-selling is essential.
Tools like ZenABM simplify executing these strategies by capturing intent signals, enriching outreach context, and providing accurate LinkedIn ad engagement data directly to your CRM, helping you deliver measurable ABM success.
