Opinions

Scaling ABM: 3 Creative Areas to Focus Your ABM Playbook On

Kevin Kerner
November 13, 2024
6 minutes

Scaling ABM: 3 Creative Areas to Focus Your ABM Playbook On

When it comes to ABM Playbooks, many teams fall into the same trap: building everything from scratch for each campaign. It’s a labor-intensive way to work and, more importantly, it’s a barrier to scaling. 

If we’re serious about driving measurable results, it’s time to rethink our approach to Account-Based Marketing Playbooks and embrace systems that deliver impact consistently.

While there are many ways to add scale to your ABM Playbook framework, let’s look at three less-talked-about areas that allow you to scale efficiently while leaving room for personalization.

Using Systems and Packages to Tackle Specific Use Cases in Your ABM Playbook

ABM doesn’t have to mean reinventing the wheel for every campaign. Instead, create packages and systems around the core types of campaigns you run—like lead generation, nurturing, or re-engagement. These ABM strategy templates let you address common needs efficiently so you can focus your energy on what matters most: reaching the right accounts with the right message.

Research from TOPO found that companies with a clear ABM strategy saw 50% higher revenue growth than those with fragmented efforts. A cohesive ABM Playbook enhances that effectiveness by creating repeatable success across accounts.

By creating these ABM packages, your team can quickly adjust tactics without having to rework the entire campaign each time. For example, at Mighty & True, we use our customer dashboard, FlowOS, to automate and scale our ABM efforts. Flow is designed to streamline ABM Playbook management by providing predefined packages that align with typical client needs. Using a system like FlowOS, your team can put time and budget into execution rather than endless planning, freeing resources for more strategic decisions.

Mighty & True FlowOS
Mighty & True FlowOS with Custom ABM Playbook

Pro Tip: FlowOS is built using no-code software called Glide, which lets us rapidly create, iterate, and scale Account-Based Marketing Playbooks. No-code solutions like Glide make it easy to update and improve your ABM Playbook as campaigns evolve, allowing for agile changes without heavy dev resources.

Template First, Then Customize in Your ABM Playbook

One of the biggest mistakes we see in ABM is investing in custom campaigns and content for every single account. Imagine having to design a new campaign every time—you’d burn resources fast.

Templatizing content allows you to build foundational elements that are relevant to a specific segment (like an industry or buyer group) and can then be easily customized for individual accounts within that segment. This approach enables scalability while still providing the flexibility to personalize when it matters.

How This Works: Segment-Based Campaigns with Targeted Personalization

Start by building a segment-level template. This ABM strategy template serves as the campaign’s foundation and is designed to speak to the shared characteristics of a group, such as companies in the same industry or buyer personas with similar pain points. For example, you might create a “Segment Template” for financial services or cybersecurity companies, which includes:

  • Industry-specific imagery
  • Broad messaging relevant to the segment’s needs
  • Generalized CTAs and benefits that apply to most accounts in that segment

Once the segment-level template is created, add layers of customization and personalization for each target account within the segment. For instance, you could adjust the headline or CTA to reference a specific company’s known pain points or priorities. Personalization tools, like Mutiny, can further automate this by dynamically inserting account-specific details based on visitor data.

Mighty & True ABM Personalization Strategy
ABM Playbook Personalization Strategy

In practice, this might look like creating a landing page for the “financial services” segment but personalizing the messaging, CTA, and even specific value propositions for each individual target account within financial services. 

This layered approach keeps your ABM Playbooks efficient and focused on high-impact customization without overhauling the entire campaign every time.

Benefits of Segment-Based Templating with Customization in ABM Playbooks

This approach provides several benefits for building scalable ABM Playbooks:

Scalability Without Sacrificing Relevance: By starting with a strong segment-focused foundation, you can scale your ABM efforts across industries or buyer groups while still addressing specific account needs through customization. This keeps your Account-Based Marketing Playbook efficient and prevents resource drain.

Efficient Resource Allocation: Instead of allocating budget and time to fully custom campaigns for each account, your team can focus on impactful personalization that doesn’t require rebuilding the entire campaign from scratch.

Faster Campaign Iterations: Segment templates provide a reusable framework, making it easier to roll out campaigns quickly. For each new campaign, you only need to refine the account-specific elements, rather than creating everything from the ground up.

Improved Consistency Across Campaigns: Templating ensures consistent messaging across a segment while allowing targeted adjustments, helping maintain brand alignment even as you address unique account needs.

Data-Driven Optimization: With standardized templates, you can analyze performance across similar campaigns and segments to understand what works best. This allows for optimization over time, making each iteration of the ABM Playbook more effective.

Flexibility for High-Impact Personalization: Personalization tools like Mutiny make it easy to tailor key elements (like CTAs and messaging) for individual accounts without heavy manual work. This adds a layer of relevance that resonates with each account while keeping your efforts scalable.

With a templated approach, ABM Playbooks aren’t just scalable—they’re adaptable, allowing you to balance broad messaging with specific personalization. This layered strategy, with segments as the foundation and personalization as the fine-tuning, offers the best of both worlds for Account-Based Marketing Playbooks.

Personalization at Scale: Use Data to Gain Efficiency and Engagement

Many ABM teams struggle with personalization because they assume it requires creating unique assets for every account. In reality, tools like Mutiny enable personalization at scale by dynamically adjusting content based on visitor data, sparing you from constant one-off builds. This approach keeps ABM Playbooks relevant and impactful without draining resources.

A study from Econsultancy found that 80% of buyers are more likely to buy from brands offering personalized experiences. In B2B, this translates to higher engagement and faster conversions.

Mutiny and similar tools can personalize elements like headlines, images, or CTAs based on attributes like industry, company size, or visitor behavior. This allows each account to experience a tailored interaction without manual tweaks.

MutinyHQ Landing Page Personalization
Landing Page Personalization

Pro Tip: Use Mutiny’s dynamic personalization capabilities for your high-value landing pages within your Account-Based Marketing Playbooks. Set up personalization triggers based on visitor attributes like company industry, size, or behavior on-site, allowing you to maintain a personalized touch without building multiple versions.

Pitfalls to Avoid: Why an ABM Playbook is Critical for Success

Many ABM efforts fall short because of misallocated resources and lost focus. Here’s where an ABM Playbook saves the day by helping you sidestep these common pitfalls:

Over-investing in bespoke campaign creation – Custom campaigns are costly and difficult to scale. With a scalable ABM Playbook, you gain a structured, repeatable approach, saving resources and driving more consistent results.

Wasting resources on untested creative – Without an Account-Based Marketing Playbook, teams often spend money on creative that hasn’t proven effective. A playbook allows you to identify high-performing messaging, creative, and channels for each use case, ensuring resources go toward strategies that deliver results.

Focusing on tactics over strategy – Endless discussions around technical requirements, creative details, and campaign mechanics can dilute your focus. An ABM Playbook allows you to standardize tactics, so your team can focus on overarching ABM strategies rather than the minutiae.

Inconsistent measurement – Bespoke campaigns make it difficult to track and compare results. With a playbook framework for ABM, you can apply standardized metrics across campaigns, making optimization easier and more data-driven.

Pro Tip: Build measurement into your ABM Playbook framework so that each campaign’s results feed into the next iteration. Over time, this makes it easier to identify high-performing tactics and improve based on real-world performance.

With an Account-Based Marketing Playbook, you’re not just running campaigns—you’re building a system that can evolve and get smarter over time.

Contact Us to Get Started on Scaling Your ABM Programs

ABM doesn’t have to be a bespoke, resource-heavy challenge. By implementing systems, templates, and personalization tools, you can scale efficiently and still deliver highly targeted experiences. A well-designed ABM Playbook allows you to achieve impactful results without constant reinvention. Contact us to get started on your playbook strategy.

FAQ: ABM Playbook and Account-Based Marketing

Q: What is an ABM Playbook, and why is it essential for scaling Account-Based Marketing?

A: An ABM Playbook is a documented strategy that allows organizations to approach Account-Based Marketing systematically. By implementing a playbook, teams can increase efficiency, consistency, and effectiveness across all campaigns, scaling their efforts without compromising on quality or relevance.

Q: How does an ABM Playbook differ from traditional marketing campaign planning?

A: Traditional marketing campaigns tend to be broader in focus, while an Account-Based Marketing Playbook is highly targeted and account-specific.

Q: What are the main components of a scalable ABM Playbook?

A: Systems and Packages for Specific Use Cases, Template-Based Creative, and Personalization Tools like Mutiny for Landing Pages.

Q: How do templated systems and packages improve ABM effectiveness?

A: Templated systems and packages allow teams to address different campaign types or use cases without the burden of constant custom creation. For instance, if your ABM Playbook includes strategies for lead nurturing or account expansion, you can create a playbook package specifically for these goals. According to Forrester, 60% of ABM leaders reported reduced production costs after adopting a playbook-driven approach. By focusing on big-picture strategies and standardizing recurring elements, your team can be more agile and responsive, scaling your Account-Based Marketing Playbook effectively.

Q: How does templatizing creative benefit Account-Based Marketing teams?

A: Templatizing creative assets means building adaptable resources that can easily be tailored for different accounts. For example, if your ABM Playbook targets tech companies across multiple verticals, you could create a base template optimized for the tech sector and then customize it based on specific product offerings or pain points. This process helps ABM teams avoid the inefficiency of creating entirely new assets for each campaign while ensuring that quality and relevance remain high. A Demandbase survey found that organizations using templated ABM content saw a 30% boost in efficiency, allowing them to focus resources where they’re needed most—strategy, customization, and personalization.

Q: Why should we use personalization tools like Mutiny in our ABM Playbook?

A: Personalization tools like Mutiny bring scalable personalization to Account-Based Marketing without the cost and complexity of bespoke content. These tools analyze data from each visitor and adjust elements on landing pages, emails, or ads, so each target account sees messaging tailored specifically for them. With a tool like Mutiny, the ABM Playbook doesn’t just outline the message but enables the system to adapt dynamically to each account. Research shows that personalized content is 50% more effective at driving engagement in B2B than generic messaging. When added to a templated Account-Based Marketing Playbook, personalization tools enhance the relevancy of each campaign while keeping the team’s workload manageable.

MutinyHQ personalization framework
Mutiny Website Personalization Strategy

Q: What common pitfalls can an ABM Playbook help us avoid?

A: Implementing an ABM Playbook helps teams sidestep several common issues, such as:

Excessive Spending on Bespoke Campaigns: Custom campaigns drain resources and aren’t scalable. ABM Playbooks offer a structured approach, saving time and budget.

Investing in Unproven Creative: By templatizing successful creative, the playbook ensures resources are spent on strategies and channels that demonstrate ROI, reducing risk and improving outcomes.

Getting Lost in Tactics Over Strategy: The ABM Playbook centers your team around strategic goals, minimizing endless tactical discussions and helping everyone stay aligned on the larger mission.

Difficulty in Measuring Success: Playbooks allow for standardized metrics and consistent comparisons across campaigns, making it easier to track, measure, and optimize ABM performance.

Q: How do we measure the success of an ABM Playbook?

A: A successful ABM Playbook should deliver consistent metrics for evaluation, allowing teams to measure results across campaigns. KPIs like engagement rates, pipeline impact, conversion metrics, and deal velocity can indicate the effectiveness of each playbook campaign. With repeatable plays, marketers can benchmark performance, making it easier to identify high-performing tactics and make data-driven improvements. Organizations that use ABM Playbooks see a 25% higher likelihood of meeting their pipeline and revenue goals due to this ability to optimize based on consistent, comparable data.

Q: Can we still customize campaigns within an ABM Playbook, or is it only for generic use cases?

A: Absolutely, an ABM Playbook is built to strike a balance between efficiency and flexibility. While it provides templates and structures, it also allows for customization. Templates are merely the starting point—teams can tailor the content to specific accounts as needed. Customization can include messaging nuances, targeting variations, and campaign goals. Playbooks also make it easy to leverage personalization tools to further customize the experience based on the account’s behavior, ensuring that each campaign feels personal without requiring a ground-up build.

Q: What steps should our team take to create an effective ABM Playbook?

A: Creating a robust ABM Playbook involves several critical steps:

Identify Key Use Cases and Develop Packages: Outline common campaign goals (e.g., lead gen, engagement) and build packages that address each one.

Build Templates for Content and Creative: Organize creative assets by audience type, industry, and buyer persona, so customization becomes a quick process, not a full rebuild.

Incorporate Personalization Tools: Use platforms like Mutiny to make personalization scalable by adjusting headlines, CTAs, and visuals based on visitor data.

Establish Measurement Protocols: Define KPIs for each campaign type and ensure that reporting aligns across campaigns, so improvements are data-driven and consistent.

By following these steps, teams create an ABM Playbook that isn’t just a document—it’s an actionable, repeatable framework that reduces complexity and drives impactful, scalable results.

Q: How do ABM Playbooks align sales and marketing teams more effectively?

A: An ABM Playbook provides a shared framework for both sales and marketing, making it easier to align on strategy and avoid unnecessary discussions around tactics. With a standardized approach, marketing teams can hand off assets and information to sales seamlessly, while sales teams can rely on consistent messaging and targeting. This alignment helps reduce the back-and-forth around technical requirements, creative adjustments, or targeting changes, enabling both teams to focus on closing high-value accounts.

By implementing ABM Playbooks and adopting scalable systems, your team can target high-value accounts efficiently and effectively, align sales and marketing, and drive impactful results without the need for constant reinvention.

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