Account-based marketing: One marketer's journey to B2B customer nirvana

"Aruba Networks marketing director, Gregory Yatman, has been a proponent of account-based marketing (ABM) for five years, first coming across the concept while working at software integration firm, Avanade. Today, he’s spearheading ABM’s rollout within Aruba, a B2B networking technology firm that was acquired by HP last year. Yatman says ABM enables two things key to marketing success today. “The first is the holy grail of marketing, which is getting sales to pay attention and gaining skin in the game,” he tells CMO. “When I outlined what a real ABM program looks like and how it works when all the pieces come together, sales became interested. We [as marketers] became less about the promotional items and more a facilitator for deeper engagements with these organisations. We are people who could help sales map out and meaningfully touch organisations and people in them.” The second thing ABM helps with is targeted campaigning. “Typically, when you have inbound or outbound marketing, you’re hitting a small percentage of the organisation,” Yatman says. “ABM, if done diligently, allows you to get your message out at various levels and to various personas you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to address.”"