What CMOs Really Think About Account-Based Marketing

Is account-based marketing (ABM) a short-term trend or a long-term strategy? Is it resource intensive or scalable? An optional component or core pillar? There's no doubt that today's B2B CMOs are taking a growing interest in account-based marketing. But what are modern CMOs considering as they attempt to implement effective ABM programs at scale?

Argyle Executive Forum, a leading peer-to-peer C-suite networking group, developed a survey in partnership with Oracle Marketing Cloud to gain insights into how CMOs and marketing executives are incorporating ABM into their overall marketing strategies. As part of that survey, the research sought to discover how essential ABM is to B2B marketing leaders and where they see ABM fitting into the marketing programs of tomorrow. A few noteworthy discoveries include:

1. For today's B2B CMOs, ABM is not optional. Almost 60% of respondents currently use some form of ABM and an additional 28% are actively exploring its future use. Additionally, when asked how ABM fits into future marketing strategies, over 75% of marketing leaders see ABM as either a critical cornerstone or an important component of their success.


2. Personalization in ABM is a top challenge. Similar to the results found in a recent Argyle survey on data-driven marketing; maintaining consistent, personalized interactions with prospects was named by marketing leaders as the #1 account-based marketing challenge. The second to be named was the ever-elusive goal of driving sales and marketing alignment.


3. CMOs need the right tools and metrics to measure ROI. A shocking 54% of respondents indicated they were not yet able to measure ROI from their ABM efforts. The big takeaway: don't become one of the 54%! Given today's need for marketing teams to scale their ABM efforts while still proving ROI, success in ABM for Modern Marketers rests on using the right marketing technology to drive measurable results at scale.


4. Increased ABM sophistication is an opportunity. While over 40% of CMOs indicated they currently use account-based data and account-based profiling in their ABM strategies, the results suggested that account-based web, email personalization, as well as scoring and digital advertising at the account level were tomorrow's areas for today's CMOs to explore.

Interested in reading more? Find out what today's CMOs are really thinking about ABM by downloading the Argyle survey: Account-Based Marketing: The New Star of B2B Marketing