Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

As a B2B marketer, your goal is to generate leads and close deals. But what’s the best approach to achieve this? In this blog post, we’ll compare two popular B2B marketing strategies – Lead Generation Marketing (LGM) and Account-Based Marketing (ABM). We’ll discuss their objectives, strengths, and limitations, and offer recommendations on which strategy could work for your business.

Introduction to Lead Generation Marketing (LGM) and Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Imagine your’re a a skilled farmer striving to yield abundant crops. You have two choices: scatter seeds randomly and pray for a good harvest, or strategically focus on each crop’s specific needs, like soil type, nutrient levels, and sunlight, to ensure optimal growth. In marketing, we have two similar approaches: Lead Generation and Account-Based Marketing.

Lead Generation is like scattering seeds all over your land, hoping to attract potential customers.

LGM casts a wide net, targeting a larger audience, relying on various marketing methods to generate interest and capture leads.

Account-Based Marketing is like customizing your farming efforts for each crop, providing specific soil types, nutrients, and sunlight to ensure optimal growth.

ABM focuses on individual accounts or target customers, tailoring marketing efforts to engage with decision-makers and key stakeholders of specific companies.

Defining Lead Generation Marketing for B2B Companies

Lead generation, particularly in the B2B context, refers to the practice of attracting and converting individuals who are strangers to your business into potential customers. This process involves leveraging several effective marketing channels, including:

• Social media: Leveraging platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to create awareness and generate interest in your offerings.
• Content marketing: Producing informative and valuable content, such as blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies, to showcase your expertise and attract potential customers.
• Webinars: Hosting online seminars or workshops to educate your target audience about your products or services while also engaging them in meaningful discussions.
• Email campaigns: Sending targeted email campaigns to nurture leads and build strong relationships by delivering relevant and personalized content.

The primary advantage of B2B lead generation is its ability to reach a wide audience while creating multiple touchpoints for engagement. However, it is important to be aware of some limitations, including:

• Lack of personalization: While lead generation casts a broad net, personalization may be challenging, impacting the level of customization in interactions with potential customers.
• Complex measurement of ROI: Determining the return on investment (ROI) of lead generation efforts can be complex, making it crucial to establish clear metrics and tracking mechanisms to accurately assess the effectiveness and success of these initiatives.

Defining Account-Based Marketing for B2B Companies

Account-based marketing, on the other hand, is a highly targeted approach that focuses on engaging specific accounts with personalized and relevant messages. With ABM, you can identify a list of high-value accounts that closely align with your target customer profile, and then create targeted campaigns that resonate with those specific accounts. This tactic is particularly effective for niche products or services and high-value deals.

Here are a few key aspects of ABM in the context of B2B:

• Highly targeted approach: ABM focuses on engaging specific accounts, allowing you to tailor your marketing efforts towards the exact audience you want to reach.
• Personalized and relevant messaging: ABM enables you to craft messages that are highly relevant and personalized to each account, thereby increasing the chances of engagement and conversion.
• Ideal for B2B niche products/services: ABM is particularly effective for companies offering niche products or services in the B2B space. By targeting specific accounts, you can maximize the impact of your marketing efforts.
• Strategic alignment with high-value accounts: ABM helps you identify and prioritize high-value accounts that have the potential to generate significant revenue for your business.

By following ABM principles, B2B companies can leverage the power of personalization and targeted campaigns to effectively engage key accounts and drive business growth. 

Infographic: Key Differences Between Account-Based Marketing vs. Lead Generation for B2B Companies

The main distinctions between lead generation and account-based marketing lie in their focus and scope:

Infographic: Lead Funnels for Lead Generation vs Account-Based Marketing

Both funnels share the common goal of converting prospects into customers, but they approach it in different ways. Lead Generation is more about broad awareness and attracting large volumes of leads, while Account-Based Marketing is a targeted strategy focused on converting specific high-value accounts.

1. Lead Generation Marketing Funnel:

• Awareness: This is the top of the funnel where prospective customers first become aware of your brand or product. This can be through various methods such as content marketing, advertising, social media, or search engine marketing.
• Interest: After becoming aware of your brand, prospects begin to show interest in what you offer. Here, marketers should provide more detailed and specific content that aligns with their interests. This could be blog posts, whitepapers, or webinars.
• Consideration: Prospects are now considering whether to make a purchase. They might compare your product or service with others in the market. Free trials, demos, customer reviews, and case studies can help sway their decision in your favor.
• Convert: The final stage is when a prospect converts into a customer by making a purchase. Clear calls-to-action, smooth checkout processes, and compelling offers can help increase conversions at this stage.

2. Account-Based Marketing Funnel:

• Identify: Identify key accounts that are most likely to deliver high value to your business. This involves researching and selecting accounts based on criteria like industry, company size, revenue, etc.
• Expand: Expand your reach within these accounts by identifying key decision-makers and influencers. Use targeted content and personalized communication to engage these individuals.
• Engage: Engage these key stakeholders with personalized campaigns designed to resonate with their specific needs and challenges. This could involve email marketing, events, or targeted content.
• Convert: Finally, convert these engaged accounts into customers. This may involve personalized demonstrations of your product’s value, negotiations, and ultimately closing the deal.

Infographic: Pros & Cons of Lead Generation vs Account-Based Marketing for B2B Companies

Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of Lead Generation and Account-Based Marketing:

Lead Generation Marketing Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Focuses on generating qualified leads and acquiring new customers.
2. Generates leads quickly, potentially shortening the sales cycle.
3. Less costly as it requires less personalized content and resources.

Cons:

1. Tends to generate lower-quality leads.
2. Less alignment between sales and marketing teams, potentially leading to miscommunication and lack of collaboration.
3. Less personalized content and resources could result in lower engagement and conversion rates.

Account-Based Marketing Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Generates higher-qualified leads due to targeted approach.
2. Improves communication and collaboration due to required alignment between sales and marketing teams.
3. Enhances engagement and conversion rates through customized content and resources.

Cons:

1. Focuses on a smaller number of accounts.
2. Longer sales cycle due to targeted messaging and content, possibly leading to longer conversion times.
3. More costly than lead generation due to more personalized content and resources.

B2C Account-Based Marketing vs B2B Account-Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing strategies can be applied in both B2C and B2B environments, but there are notable differences due to the nature of customer relationships, decision-making processes, and marketing practices in the two sectors.

Criteria	B2C Companies Using ABM	B2B Companies Using ABM
Target Audience	Influential individuals or households that impact market trends	Specific companies or accounts likely to deliver high value
Purchase Decision	Driven by personal preferences, emotions, and individual needs	Involves multiple stakeholders and is driven by organizational needs, ROI, and strategic fit
Sales Cycle	Shorter, requiring ABM strategies to quickly engage and convert potential customers	Longer, requiring ABM strategies to focus on building relationships and providing valuable, personalized content over time
Messaging	Emphasizes emotional appeal, brand value, and the personal benefits of products or services	Highlights business benefits, value proposition, and technical aspects of products or services
Channels	Utilizes social media, influencer marketing, personalized email marketing, and other direct-to-consumer channels	Uses targeted email marketing, industry events, webinars, and tailored content marketing

Quick Stats: Account-Based Marketing Stats for B2B Marketers

• Companies with well-established Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategies credit 79% of their opportunities and 73% of their total revenue to ABM efforts.
•  72% of B2B marketers who used ABM in 2021 reported an increased ROI compared to other forms of marketing.
• 33% of marketers said their company uses LinkedIn to connect. LinkedIn can be a beneficial platform for targeting accounts, especially for B2B companies. – HubSpot

3 Examples of Effective Account-Based Marketing

1. Restaurant Furniture Plus

Restaurant Furniture Plus, is a wholesale restaurant furniture supplier. They relied on search traffic and paid Google ads to attract new customers. A big win for them was saving money on ads and gaining more repeat customers by using account-based marketing to target chain restaurants.

2. DocuSign Increased Their Homepage Conversions 3x with Dynamic Content

DocuSign crafted a lead generation strategy tailored to an account-based marketing approach.

Using Demandbase’s account intelligence tools, DocuSign crafted a powerful ABM strategy to attract highly qualified leads, enabling them to get in front of a list of 450 enterprise clients that met the company’s ABM criteria.

(Image credit: CXL)

DocuSign found that although their tactic of attracting enterprise-level accounts was effective, visitors were bouncing before reading the valuable content that could generate leads for their ABM sales team.

To enhance on-page interaction, DocuSign added personalization by designing industry-targeted homepages with dynamic content, including customer testimonials.

These initiatives, when combined with an optimized free trial form, achieved remarkable outcomes for DocuSign’s account-based marketing team:

• 1,000,000 impressions were delivered
• 59% of targeted companies visited the DocuSign site
• 22% sales pipeline growth for targeted industries
• Achieved a 3x click-through rate (CTR) on the homepage by implementing industry-relevant call-to-actions (CTAs).

3. Workfront Utilized ZoomInfo’s B2B Database to Achieve a Remarkable 90% Year-Over-Year (YoY) Growth in Sales

Account-based marketing and selling require personalized approaches, which rely on accurate data. An example is Workfront, an enterprise work management software that is now part of the Adobe Experience Cloud.

Prior to collaborating with ZoomInfo, a revenue intelligence platform, Workfront faced a significant challenge in implementing an effective ABM program due to an outdated and error-ridden database.

“My teams were losing way too much time on calling the wrong contacts. We had a data problem. The accuracy of our direct-dial phone numbers was dwindling fast, and my team complained about not having anyone to call. Something had to give.”

Justin Hiatt, Vice President of Digital Sales at Workfront [via ZoomInfo]

ZoomInfo’s SalesOS and MarketingOS solutions solved this issue by matching their extensive database of direct-dial phone numbers and verified email addresses with Workfront’s key accounts.

Leveraging account intelligence and data enrichment tools like ZoomInfo’s ReachOut extension for Google Chrome enhanced Workflow’s ABM outreach sequence by providing important information on key decision-makers identified through LinkedIn account research.

(Image credit: CXL)

The LinkedIn example above shows how ZoomInfo’s data can be used to send a personalized email to their product launch manager. If you were to write an email, you could include a CTA that links to a landing page built for mid-market accounts.

In true ABM fashion, before creating personalized content, Workfront used data enrichment tools to gather detailed information on prospects.

10 Key Questions for B2B Marketers: Choosing Between Lead Generation and Account-Based Marketing

1. What is the size of your target market?

Account-Based Marketing: If your target market is small, well-defined, and has high revenue potential, ABM is a suitable strategy. It emphasizes personalized marketing and sales for high-value accounts, ideal for limited and clearly specified target markets.

Lead Generation Marketing: If your target market is large and diverse, LGM is a better option. It aims to attract and convert a wide audience into leads. A broader target market provides a larger pool for potential leads.

2. What are your short-term and long-term business goals?

Account-Based Marketing aligns short-term and long-term goals with overall company objectives. It requires significant investment in time, effort, and resources to achieve key business milestones, such as securing high-value clients or gaining market penetration.

Lead Generation Marketing relies on understanding your business goals. For short-term brand awareness, leverage content marketing and social media promotion. For long-term customer acquisition, prioritize SEO, email marketing, and consumer relationship management. Your LGM choices should be directly influenced by your business goals.

3. Do you have the resources to provide personalized content for targeted accounts?

Account-Based Marketing: Success relies on delivering personalized content to targeted accounts. This strategy requires deep customer knowledge, time, and resources for individualized marketing materials. Without these resources, executing an ABM strategy effectively can be challenging, impacting desired results.

Lead Generation Marketing aims to reach a broad audience, but personalized content is crucial. Tailored content – even through the use of automation – enhances lead nurturing, making prospects feel valued and understood, boosting conversion rates. However, it’s important to balance personalization with the need to reach as many potential leads as possible.

4. What is the value of your average deal? Is it high enough to justify the cost of an ABM approach?

Account-Based Marketing’s effectiveness is closely linked to the average deal value. With significant investment in personalized marketing for individual accounts, a high average deal value ensures a satisfactory return. However, if the average deal value is low, the cost of implementing an ABM strategy may outweigh the potential returns, making it an undesirable choice.

Lead Generation Marketing: For higher average deal values, investing more in nurturing each lead could be worthwhile. Conversely, for lower values, a volume-based approach to generate and convert as many leads as possible may be more beneficial.

5. Is your sales cycle long and complex involving multiple stakeholders?

Account-Based Marketing: If your sales cycle is lengthy and intricate, involving multiple stakeholders, ABM could be a powerful strategy. ABM’s personalized approach fosters deeper relationships over time with each stakeholder, which is beneficial in complex sales environments where decisions often require consensus among multiple parties.

Lead Generation Marketing: In contrast, if your sales cycle is short and involves fewer decision-makers, LGM may be more suitable. With a broad audience to cater to, the streamlined and efficient nature of LGM can quickly move leads through the sales funnel and towards conversion.

6. Does your product or service cater to specific needs of individual businesses rather than a wide audience?

Account-Based Marketing is beneficial for specialized products or services that cater to specific business needs. It enables personalized communication and engagement, tailoring messages to align closely with each targeted account’s specific needs and pain points.

Lead Generation Marketing: If your product or service targets a broad audience, LGM is a better option. It enables mass communication and marketing to attract a larger pool of potential leads, while still allowing for personalization in later stages of lead nurturing.

7. What is your capacity for nurturing and following up on a large number of leads?

Account-Based Marketing requires deep engagement with a limited number of high-value accounts. If your capacity for lead nurturing and follow-up is limited, ABM lets you focus resources on a smaller set of prospects, ensuring each potential customer receives ample attention.

Lead Generation Marketing requires the ability to manage and follow-up on a large volume of leads. If you have a significant capacity for lead nurturing, LGM can help you maximize your outreach and conversion potential by attracting and managing a larger number of leads.

8. Are you looking to build relationships with a few key accounts or generate a large volume of leads?

Account-Based Marketing is centered on developing long-term relationships with a select few key accounts. If your goal aligns with nurturing such relationships, ABM fits perfectly as it allows focused attention and resources on those accounts.

Lead Generation Marketing: If your aim is to generate a large volume of leads, LGM is ideal, as it casts a wide net to attract and convert as many prospects as possible, optimizing for quantity rather than individualized attention to specific accounts.

9. How equipped is your sales team in dealing with large enterprises?

Account-Based Marketing often targets large enterprises with complex structures and multiple stakeholders. Therefore, having a sales team that is seasoned in navigating such organizations and communicating high-value propositions is crucial for ABM success.

Lead Generation Marketing: In LGM, the ability to handle large enterprises may not be as critical, as the primary focus is on generating and converting a high volume of leads. However, if a large enterprise is part of the lead pool, a well-equipped sales team can ensure better service and potentially higher conversions.

10. What is your desired speed of growth and scale of operations?

Account-Based Marketing: If your company aims for rapid growth and large-scale operations, ABM might be less effective due to its targeted and personalized nature, which might not be able to support such quick scaling.

Lead Generation Marketing: On the other hand, if you’re looking for rapid growth on a broad scale, LGM could be the better choice, as it’s designed to attract a large volume of leads and can support a faster-paced growth strategy.

Conclusion

Both Lead Generation Marketing (LGM) and Account-Based Marketing (ABM) are effective B2B marketing strategies with their unique advantages and limitations. It’s important to choose the right marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals, target audience, and budget. Evaluate your current marketing efforts and identify areas where you can improve their your generation and sales conversions. Whether you choose lead generation, ABM, or a combination of both, remember to measure your campaigns’ performance and adjust your strategies as needed.