ABM Isn’t a New Playbook

Hey there,

Have you ever received a marketing message so personalized that it felt like it was crafted just for you? 

It’s the kind of outreach that instantly builds trust, sparks interest, and makes you want to engage.

That’s exactly what Account-Based Marketing (ABM) does!

While ABM might seem like a modern B2B strategy, it has been around for decades, just in different forms. 

I’ve seen its principles play out in the most unexpected places:

📌 A small newspaper in 1953 using personalized gifts to win advertisers.
📌Job portals in 2006 revealed deep insights for account research.
📌LinkedIn campaigns today drive millions in revenue.

So, let’s step back and explore what truly makes ABM work.

How ABM Works in the Real World?

ABM comes in different forms, but the goal is always the same—targeting the right accounts with the right approach.

✅ 1:1 ABM – Deep personalization for a single high-value account.
✅ 1:Few ABM – Tailored outreach for a small group of similar accounts.
✅ 1:Many ABM – Scalable engagement while keeping it relevant.

Here’s how I’ve seen these strategies work firsthand.

Winning One Big Account at a Time: 1:1 ABM in Action

In 1953, Rupert Murdoch was just starting, trying to grow The News, a small newspaper in Australia. 

But he had a major problem: convincing advertisers to take him seriously.

His advertising manager, Bert Hardy, could have sent out cold letters or made endless calls. 

Instead, he took a radically different approach.

He sent each key advertiser a pair of cufflinks engraved with their initials.

Before even discussing business, Hardy made his prospects feel valued. 

No hard pitch, no generic messaging—just a well-thought-out introduction. 

And it worked. 

Big advertisers signed on, boosting the paper’s ad revenue and fueling Murdoch’s media empire.

Decades later, I applied this same principle; treating a single prospect like they were the only one that mattered.

While pitching Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief for a collaboration, I didn’t send a standard proposal.

Instead, I created a custom digital magazine, designed in Vogue’s iconic style, showcasing:

• Branded content presented as high-end editorial pieces.

• A personalized cover design that matched Vogue’s aesthetics.

• Exclusive insights into how our partnership could benefit their audience.

It wasn’t just another pitch, it was an experience tailored just for them. 

That’s the heart of 1:1 ABM—going beyond generic outreach and making the right people feel like VIPs.

Scaling Personalization Without Losing the Magic: 1:Few ABM

As businesses grow, reaching only one account at a time can be too slow. 

But mass marketing? Too impersonal. 

This is where 1:Few ABM comes in, a strategy that allows you to scale personalization while keeping the messaging deeply relevant.

Back in 2006, when I was leading lead generation at KPIT Cummins, we needed to profile large OEMs to cross-sell IT solutions.

I was tasked with profiling accounts using job portals like Naukri and Dice.

It seemed odd at first—how could hiring data help us build an ABM strategy? 

But once we started digging, we realized these platforms were a goldmine of insights.

• Resumes of professionals who had worked at our target accounts provided project details, team structures, and key decision-makers.

• Job postings revealed what technologies companies were investing in, indicating upcoming initiatives before they were even announced.

This gave our sales team an edge, allowing us to craft hyper-personalized outreach based on their future needs—not just their current ones.

Years later, at Kissflow, we took this a step further.

Instead of researching accounts one by one, we grouped them into micro-segments based on:

• Technology adoption patterns.

• Growth initiatives & expansion plans.

• Competitive shifts & hiring trends.

Each segment received:

• Industry-specific landing pages with tailored case studies.

• Email sequences that started with their pain points, not our product.

• LinkedIn engagement strategies that warmed up decision-makers before outreach.

This approach scaled ABM without losing personalization; it ensured that even if we were reaching 10 or 20 accounts at once, the messaging still felt relevant and specific.

Reaching More Without Losing Relevance: 1:Many ABM at Scale

What happens when you need to reach dozens—or even hundreds—of high-value accounts while keeping your approach personalized?

This was exactly the challenge we faced at Vymo, where we needed to build a $3M quarterly pipeline while engaging 50 high-value accounts in the Indian banking and insurance sector.

Instead of running a generic campaign, we built a layered ABM approach:

• Conducted deep research through seller interviews & competitive analysis.

• Ran highly targeted LinkedIn ads that only key decision-makers from our target accounts would see.

• Used multi-threading, engaging multiple stakeholders in an account at the same time, ensuring faster buy-in.

The results?

✔ 500 MQLs generated through LinkedIn campaigns.
✔ $21M in marketing-sourced pipeline from ABM campaigns.
✔ 12% increase in SQL-to-opportunity conversion rates.

The key lesson?

Even though 1:Many ABM reaches a broader audience, it still follows the same principles—relevance, personalization, and strategic outreach.

ABM Has Always Been About the Right Approach.

Looking back—from a newspaper in 1953, to job portals in 2006, to LinkedIn in 2024—ABM has always been about one thing:

💡 Understanding your audience deeply and speaking to them in the most relevant way possible.

The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing. 

It feels like a conversation, a relationship, an experience tailored specifically for the right audience.

So, if your current approach isn’t cutting through the noise, maybe it’s time to rethink how you engage your most valuable prospects.

Until next time,
Karthick Raajha.