The Best Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Tools for 2024: Software to Help You Identify, Nurture, and Close More Accounts
January 4, 2024·8 min readExplore our roundup of the best ABM tools worth trying this year, whether you need help refining your ABM process, surfacing data, or supporting your campaigns.
We’ve all heard the analogy that if marketing is like casting a wide net, account-based marketing (ABM) is like fishing with a spear. Leaving aside the perhaps unflattering comparisons between your prospects and their distant aquatic relatives, it’s not a terrible metaphor. In regular marketing, you send your message to the widest audience possible, with the hopes that it will resonate with the right people. In ABM, you preselect your targets and then personalize your marketing and sales outreach directly to them.
It can be a hugely effective strategy but only if, as in spearfishing, you have the right tools to work with—not a dull, rusty hook. In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the best account-based marketing software available, why you should consider using them, and what to look for, before making a purchase. Let’s dive in.
- Contents
- Why Use an ABM Platform?
- What Should I Look for in an ABM Platform?
- What Are the Top ABM Tools on the Market?
- Choose the Right Equipment to Bring Home the Biggest Catch
Why Use an ABM Platform?
ABM’s biggest strength—personalization—is also what makes it so costly and difficult to execute. Creating ABM marketing content and sales outreach that feels unique to your buyers can take an enormous amount of time, effort, and resources. ABM platforms can help make personalization efforts much more time- and cost-effective, while ensuring you still make the biggest impact possible.
To get the most out of ABM, most teams divide and conquer their list into three categories:
- One-to-one ABM: Targeting singular, high-value accounts with exceptionally personalized engagement
- One-to-few ABM: Targeting accounts with similar challenges and needs as a group, customizing your outreach to these shared characteristics
- One-to-many ABM: Targeting large groups of accounts based on more general criteria, like size or industry, with broader customization touching on one shared characteristic
Where ABM platforms have the greatest impact is on the latter two types of ABM—using tools can allow your team to achieve personalization at scale over a large volume of accounts. This can free you to spend more manual effort where it really counts, on your high-value, one-to-one ABM programs.
What Should I Look for in an ABM Platform?
What you need in an ABM platform will depend a lot on the individual needs of your program. Instead of rushing out to buy software, it’s often wise to start your program small and scrappy. Then, as you scale, pay attention to where you spend the most time and energy and see what efficiencies you could potentially unlock.
Ask yourself, what manual activities do you wish you could outsource? For instance, if you spend all your time researching your ideal customer profile (ICP) to try to figure out who’s in-market, try an intent data provider. If you’re stuck wrangling spreadsheets to sort your accounts into tiers, look for a platform that will help you segment and prioritize accounts to reach out to. Or if you’re struggling with personalization at scale, might we suggest a video tool to make sending personalized messages quick and easy?
What Are the Top ABM Tools on the Market?
Account-Based Marketing Platforms
ABM software platforms are tools that can support the entire ABM journey, from finding your key accounts, to targeting them, to collecting analytics. They each have different strengths, however, so it’s important to know what capabilities you’re looking for.
1. Demandbase
One of the most advanced tools on the market, Demandbase provides ABM solutions for the entire customer journey. The platform enables you to discover intent, prioritize accounts, target ads, personalize web experiences, and collect deep analytics so you can reach out with the right message at the right time. This is a great option for teams who want a comprehensive, all-in-one tool to help them not just identify and sort accounts into tiers, but also nurture them along every phase of their ABM journey.
Key features:
- Intent data
- Account-based advertising and retargeting
- Web analytics
- Campaign performance monitoring
2. 6sense
Best known for its deep intent data, 6sense allows users to peek into the dark funnel and understand who’s curious and ready to buy, even if they’ve never filled out a form. That said, the tool also has other ABM features, like digital advertising and website personalization, allowing you to understand and segment your market, execute ABM campaigns, and measure your performance. You’ll be able to understand which accounts are a good fit for ABM and where to channel your resources for best results.
Key features:
- Intent data
- Market insights
- Account segmentation
- Digital advertising
3. RollWorks
RollWorks is an all-in-one platform for every phase of the ABM journey, namely identifying targets, engaging across channels, and measuring campaign impact. Though simpler than some of the other tools out there, it’s consistently ranked as one of the easiest ABM platforms to set up and use, so it’s a great option for teams who are just getting started with their ABM program or who want a simple, streamlined solution.
Key features:
- Intent data
- Campaign management
- Account-based advertising and retargeting
- Measurement and attribution
4. HubSpot
HubSpot’s ABM software allows you to plan and execute ABM campaigns, right from the HubSpot platform. Create an ICP definition and HubSpot will automatically generate a list of target accounts based on companies already in your database. From there, you can tier your accounts and plan and execute ABM campaigns using the entire suite of HubSpot marketing tools that you may already be using. This is a great option for teams who are already using HubSpot. (Note, however, that HubSpot does not yet provide any third-party intent data. They’ve just entered an agreement with Clearbit, so this feature might be on its way soon.)
Key features:
- Identify best-fit accounts with HubSpot Smart CRM
- Account-based advertising and retargeting
- Native integration with LinkedIn sales navigator
- ABM reporting dashboards
5. Terminus
A pioneer of the ABM category, Terminus has all the features you need to execute a successful ABM campaign. Find target accounts inside or outside your CRM, coordinate multi-channel campaigns, get your sales team to take action, and measure the impact of your marketing and sales efforts so you can tie it all back to revenue. The tool is especially well-rated by users for its digital advertising suite, with high scores on software review tracker G2.
Key features:
- Intent data powered by Bombora
- Digital advertising and retargeting
- Email, web, and chat personalization
- Measurement and attribution
Other ABM Tools to Consider
While ABM platforms can be great, all-in-one solutions (a Swiss Army knife, if you will), sometimes you need a more specialized tool to get the job done. You may also want to leverage tools outside of your ABM platform to help create compelling ABM campaigns that will entice your targets to bite—er, buy.
Intent Data and Account Surfacing
1. Bombora
Bombora is a standalone third-party intent data provider that collects signals from over 5,000+ B2B websites around the internet to measure exactly what your prospects are in the market for. Use on its own to help identify your highest-propensity target accounts, or alongside other ABM tools to build out a complete suite.
2. Clearbit
Clearbit is an AI native data provider to enrich your records and reveal buying intent. It empowers ABM teams to tier-rank and target accounts more effectively by supplying additional context. This makes it easier to connect with your ideal customers.
3. Correlated
Correlated is an AI-supported account-surfacing tool to help you find your highest-propensity accounts and buyers. Designed to route leads to your sales team, it can also be a great tool for sales and marketing teams practicing ABM.
4. Toplyne
Toplyne is a predictive AI tool for sales and marketing teams. Toplyne’s AI models learn from your customer data, allowing you to predict new customers, upsell/cross-sell opportunities, and identify customers at risk. This can help enable you to find and prioritize the best candidates for ABM.
ABM Campaign Support
1. Vidyard Video Messages
Vidyard Video Messages allow you to add a personalized touch to your ABM campaigns through one-to-one video messages that are a breeze to record and send. Check out our comprehensive guide on what videos to send at each phase of the ABM journey, plus step-by-step recording instructions you can follow. (Psst, did we mention this is a free account-based marketing tool? Try it for yourself.)
2. Vidyard Video Hosting
Vidyard Video Hosting lets you manage and analyze your growing library of demos, webinars, sales videos, and more. You can easily organize, track, and repurpose videos, so your ABM video content can scale alongside your ABM program.
3. Alyce
Alyce is a B2B gifting and direct-mail platform. You can use it to send physical mail and gifts to decision-makers at your highest-value ABM targets, making a great impression and increasing their propensity to buy. (Psst, for best results, we recommend adding a video to your gifting flow to build trust and increase gift acceptance.)
4. Unbounce
Unbounce is an AI-powered landing page builder that allows you to spin up custom landing pages fast. Quickly build, share, and A/B test ABM landing pages for different audiences and collect data on what works best so you can improve your performance over time.
5. An agency partner
You don’t have to tackle your ABM journey alone—there are plenty of professionals who are able to support you as you strategize, plan, and execute your ABM program.
Choose the Right Equipment to Bring Home the Biggest Catch
Getting great at ABM takes skill and strategy, sure—but it also helps to have the right ABM tools at your disposal. Figuring out the right account-based marketing software for your needs, whether that’s a full platform or some combination of supporting tools, can ensure that you’re best equipped to land the most exciting deals for your company. Then, you can take a selfie proudly holding your catch for your social media (actually maybe don’t do that to your prospects, that’s weird). Happy spearfishing!