ABM Best Practices: Named Account Marketing

Gil Allouche
Gil Allouche

Sometimes it feels like your lead generation efforts amount to throwing money out the window.

If your sales and marketing teams are spending time and money to bring potential customers into the funnel, but your hit rate is single-digit, then it’s time to think about using Named Account Marketing.

What is a Named Account in ABM?

The term ‘named account’ in account-based marketing might have come up during your latest brainstorming session about a strategy for lead generation. And no, it’s not those off-color nicknames you might have for your more challenging prospects.

A named account is one that has been identified as a valuable potential customer, based on predefined metrics, such as sales revenue, location, ‘fit’ with your industry, strategy and current customer base, existing relationships and current needs (on both sides of the table).

Responsibility for calling on this prospective company – and all relevant decision makers from the CEO to the purchasing manager — is then assigned to a specific sales and marketing team.

In the context of Account-Based Marketing (ABM), a named account is not just any lead—it’s a specifically identified organization strategically selected for focused marketing and sales efforts. Unlike traditional marketing that broadly seeks leads, named accounts are chosen based on predetermined criteria and engaged by dedicated sales and marketing teams.

At metadata.io, we call these opportunities ‘target accounts.’  We’ve outlined our approach for identifying buyer intent and developing persona insights in earlier posts. Our guidelines help you dig deeper than basic metrics to more precisely define your target or ‘named’ accounts.   

How Do Named Accounts Differ from Regular Leads?

Traditional lead generation involves collecting contacts without specific focus on their strategic value. In contrast, named accounts are pre-qualified organizations selected for their potential value and fit with your business. They typically demonstrate:

  • Significant revenue potential
  • Strategic alignment with your objectives
  • Opportunity for deeper engagement
  • Clear fit with your ideal customer profile

Benefits of a Named Account Strategy

In a B2B world, decisions are rarely made by a single individual. According to the Harvard Business Review, “the number of people involved in B2B solutions purchases has climbed from an average of 5.4 two years ago to 6.8 today, and these stakeholders come from a lengthening roster of roles, functions, and geographies.”

A Named Account strategy improves the efficiency of your selling efforts. Here’s how:

  • Assigning responsibilities prevents duplicated efforts by your sales team 
  • The customer will have a single point of contact for streamlined communication

Moreover, focusing on named accounts allows your teams to deliver highly personalized marketing campaigns, engage multiple stakeholders effectively, and align sales and marketing efforts towards common goals.

The decision to move to a Named Account selling strategy can exist outside of Account Based Marketing.

But simply identifying potential customers to call on without a supporting marketing plan is like buying all the ingredients for a great meal, leaving them on the kitchen counter and hoping the meal appears.

Named Account Marketing acts as the ‘chef’ bringing together the right combination of ingredients to deliver a compelling, ‘tasty’ and personalized message for potential customers to savor, so much so that they return to the buffet for more.

Tailoring your informational menu to specific accounts can be completed manually, but data-driven approaches are more likely to improve your team’s efficiency as they develop targeted materials and strategies.

The Advantages of Using Named Account Lists in ABM

Named Account Lists (NALs) are a key component of Account-Based Marketing (ABM), where a specific set of high-value accounts is identified and targeted for personalized marketing and sales efforts. These accounts are selected based on factors like company size, industry, and potential for growth, ensuring that resources are concentrated on the most promising opportunities. By focusing on these accounts, businesses can align their efforts more strategically, leading to more effective marketing and higher conversion rates. 

Here are the key benefits that make Named Account Lists an essential tool for a successful ABM campaign.

Sales and Marketing Alignment

Named Account Lists (NALs) align sales and marketing teams toward shared goals, fostering a unified approach to business development. By creating a curated list of high-priority accounts, both teams can work in sync, ensuring that efforts are focused on the most promising leads. This coordination reduces wasted time spent chasing low-potential prospects and helps teams concentrate on engaging the right accounts at the right stage of the buying process. 

Additionally, having a defined target list enables more strategic communication, clearer goal-setting, and shared metrics for success. As a result, sales teams experience improved deal closure rates, while marketing teams see a more measurable impact on their campaigns. The result is a seamless process that accelerates pipeline growth and drives more efficient use of resources across the board.

ROI and Revenue Generation

Focusing on Named Account Lists significantly boosts ROI by directing efforts toward high-value accounts with the greatest potential for conversion. By prioritizing these accounts, companies improve their win rates and secure larger deal sizes, ultimately driving more revenue. This targeted approach minimizes resource wastage, ensuring that marketing and sales teams aren’t spreading themselves too thin or focusing on accounts that are unlikely to convert. 

As a result, companies can allocate their marketing budgets more efficiently, reducing overall cost-per-acquisition. Furthermore, this laser-focused strategy leads to higher-quality leads, better client relationships, and a more streamlined sales process. The result is a clear, measurable improvement in revenue generation, with higher returns on investment from both marketing and sales efforts, which is essential for businesses aiming for long-term sustainable growth.

Customer Engagement

Focusing on specific accounts through Named Account Lists creates deeper, more meaningful engagement opportunities. By targeting a select group of high-value accounts, companies can tailor their messaging and outreach strategies, which resonates more effectively with decision-makers. This focused attention leads to better relationships with potential buyers, improving trust and credibility in the marketplace. 

Companies can engage with the right buyers early in the purchasing process, providing them with content that addresses their specific pain points and needs. This proactive engagement boosts brand reputation, as it shows an understanding of the challenges that target accounts face. As a result, engagement rates soar, not just because content is more relevant but also because prospects feel valued, increasing the likelihood of conversion and long-term customer loyalty.

Resource Allocation

Efficient resource allocation is one of the most significant benefits of using Named Account Lists. By concentrating efforts on accounts that are most likely to convert, businesses can maximize the effectiveness of their marketing and sales activities. This targeted approach ensures that resources—whether in the form of time, budget, or personnel—are being spent on accounts that offer the highest potential return. Teams can customize their outreach strategies to focus on the unique needs of each account, making every interaction more relevant and impactful. 

Additionally, resources are allocated more efficiently across the organization, as teams avoid spreading themselves too thin or targeting accounts that don’t align with their ideal customer profile. This strategic use of resources leads to higher conversion rates, shorter sales cycles, and a more effective marketing spend overall.

Personalization Capabilities

One of the most powerful advantages of Named Account Lists is the ability to deliver highly personalized content and communication. With a clear, curated list of key accounts, sales and marketing teams can create tailored messaging that speaks directly to the needs, challenges, and goals of individual decision-makers. This level of personalization ensures that every touchpoint feels relevant, timely, and impactful, which in turn drives higher engagement and conversion rates. Whether through custom email campaigns, targeted content offers, or personalized outreach, companies can demonstrate a deep understanding of their target accounts’ unique requirements. 

These benefits create a more efficient, effective, and profitable marketing approach, building stronger customer relationships over time.

How to Create a Named Account List

Developing a strong named account list will help you be successful. Here’s how you can create one:

Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is the foundational step in creating an effective Named Account List (NAL). An ICP is a detailed representation of the type of companies that are most likely to benefit from your product or service. To develop an accurate ICP, focus on key characteristics like company size, industry, geographic location, technology stack, revenue range, and decision-making processes. These factors help you identify which organizations are the best fit for your offerings and have the highest potential for conversion. 

A well-defined ICP ensures that your NAL targets accounts that align with your business’s strengths, increasing the likelihood of success. Without this clarity, you risk wasting resources on accounts that aren’t the right match, leading to inefficiencies in your ABM strategy. Defining your ICP upfront sets a solid foundation for the entire process.

Establish Account Selection Criteria

Once your ICP is defined, the next step is to establish clear, objective criteria for selecting the accounts you want to target. This includes both quantitative and qualitative factors that align with your business goals. Quantitative factors might include metrics such as annual revenue, employee count, or the size of their existing customer base. Qualitative factors, on the other hand, could involve assessing a company’s growth trajectory, market position, reputation, or company culture. 

By developing these selection criteria, you create an objective framework for evaluating potential accounts. This allows you to prioritize organizations that not only match your ICP but also show the highest potential for growth and long-term partnership. Properly establishing these criteria ensures you are targeting the right accounts for optimal engagement and conversion, improving the efficiency of your ABM efforts.

Gather and Verify Account Data

To build an effective Named Account List, you need to gather comprehensive and reliable data on your target accounts. This data should come from a variety of sources, such as firmographic (company size, location, industry), technographic (technology stack), and behavioral data (recent interactions, intent signals). Utilizing tools and platforms that specialize in account-based data collection, such as ZoomInfo, Clearbit, or LinkedIn Sales Navigator, will ensure the information you collect is accurate and up-to-date.

 It’s equally important to verify the data periodically, as incorrect or outdated information can result in missed opportunities and wasted resources. Regular data verification helps maintain the integrity of your NAL, ensuring you’re focusing your efforts on the right accounts. With accurate and verified data, your outreach becomes more effective, leading to improved targeting, stronger relationships, and higher conversion rates.

Prioritize Accounts Strategically

Once you’ve gathered and verified your account data, implement a prioritization system to effectively allocate your resources. Not all accounts in your Named Account List will be of equal value, so categorizing them based on their likelihood to convert is essential. A strategic prioritization system typically involves scoring accounts based on how well they fit your ICP and their readiness to engage. 

Factors like current pain points, budget allocation, purchasing cycles, and decision-making authority all contribute to this evaluation. Prioritizing accounts ensures that your sales and marketing teams focus their time and energy on the highest-potential leads, rather than wasting effort on accounts that may not be ready for conversion. This approach not only improves efficiency but also boosts the chances of closing deals faster, ultimately driving higher revenue and better return on investment for your ABM strategy.

Implement Team Collaboration

An effective Named Account List requires close collaboration between your sales and marketing teams. These teams must be aligned in their goals, messaging, and strategies to ensure a cohesive approach to account engagement. Regular alignment meetings and shared tools, such as a centralized CRM or ABM platform, are essential for maintaining communication between teams. Sales teams can provide insights into the accounts they’ve been interacting with, while marketing can supply targeted content that resonates with those accounts. Clear role definitions help avoid overlap and ensure that each team knows its responsibilities in the process. 

A coordinated approach ensures that all outreach efforts are consistent, timely, and effective, improving the chances of success. Strong collaboration also fosters mutual understanding and shared accountability, ensuring that both teams are working toward the same objectives, making the NAL strategy more powerful.

Maintain and Update Your Named Account List

The market landscape is constantly evolving, and so should your Named Account List. To maintain the effectiveness of your ABM strategy, it’s essential to continuously update and refine your NAL. This includes monitoring shifts in the target accounts’ needs, industry changes, new technology adoptions, or changes in decision-making teams. Regularly reviewing your list ensures that you are targeting the most relevant and high-value accounts at any given time. 

In addition to updating account data, it’s important to assess the performance of your current accounts—are they engaging as expected? If not, reassess your approach or prioritize other accounts that may be more likely to convert. By maintaining a dynamic, up-to-date Named Account List, you ensure your ABM strategy remains relevant and effective, helping you stay ahead of the competition and achieve long-term success.

Managing and Maintaining Named Account Lists

Now let’s see how you can manage and maintain named account lists. 

Regular Review Process

A regular review process will help you maintain the effectiveness of your Named Account List (NAL) over time. These reviews should focus on account performance, market trends, and shifts in buyer behavior. Involving both sales and marketing teams in these reviews helps ensure that your strategy is aligned with broader business goals and market opportunities. 

During these reviews, assess which accounts are progressing well and which may need to be removed or replaced based on their engagement or fit with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). A periodic reassessment of your accounts also allows you to stay agile, ensuring that your ABM strategy remains focused on high-potential opportunities. By continuously evaluating account performance and adjusting your strategy, you improve resource allocation, ensuring that your efforts are directed where they can generate the highest return. This dynamic approach helps maintain momentum and adapt to changing business and market conditions.

CRM Integration and Data Management

Successful integration with your CRM is very important when managing your Named Account List, because this ensures all account data is accurate, up-to-date, and easily accessible. Platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot offer robust tools for maintaining data integrity and automating updates, reducing the risk of human error or outdated information. Proper integration ensures seamless communication between sales and marketing teams, allowing both to track account interactions and engagement in real time. 

A well-maintained CRM system centralizes all relevant account information—such as contact details, engagement history, and purchasing intent—making it easier to personalize outreach and strategize effectively. Additionally, data management extends beyond simple contact information; it includes tracking behavioral data, engagement metrics, and even technology adoption, which can provide invaluable insights for account prioritization and segmentation. By leveraging CRM tools for automation and organization, businesses can streamline their workflow and improve their ABM efforts’ overall efficiency and effectiveness.

Performance Tracking and Optimization

Tracking performance with key performance indicators (KPIs) allows you to determine how well your Named Account List is performing and where improvements can be made. KPIs such as customer lifetime value (CLV), engagement metrics (open rates, response rates), and conversion rates provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your ABM strategy. By regularly monitoring these KPIs, you can identify trends, spot areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions that optimize your approach. 

Analytics tools such as Google Analytics, HubSpot, or more specialized ABM platforms help you track performance in real time, offering immediate feedback on campaign success. If certain accounts are showing lower engagement or slower progress toward conversion, this data can prompt timely adjustments in outreach strategy or resource allocation. Performance tracking and optimization ensure that your efforts remain efficient and effective, allowing you to refine your strategy as you move forward, improve results, and ultimately drive higher ROI.

Cross-team Collaboration

Cross-team collaboration between marketing and sales is fundamental to the success of your Named Account List strategy. Clear communication protocols and processes for sharing insights, updates, and feedback between teams ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals. Regular meetings or collaborative platforms, like Slack or shared CRMs, help both teams stay aligned, ensuring that marketing is providing the right content at the right time, while sales is following up with targeted, informed outreach. 

Additionally, providing training on CRM access, account categorizations, and data interpretation helps both teams understand the tools and processes that drive account-based marketing success. By fostering collaboration, both teams benefit from the collective insights and expertise of each other, leading to more effective engagement with named accounts. This unified approach ensures consistency in messaging, personalized outreach, and ultimately improves the chances of converting high-value accounts into long-term customers.

Ensure Your Named Account List Evolves

To maintain the success of your ABM strategy, your Named Account List must evolve to align with changing business needs and market conditions. As your business grows or pivots, the types of accounts that fit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) may shift, requiring an update to your target list. Regularly review performance data, feedback from sales teams, and changes in the market to refine your NAL, ensuring it remains relevant and effective. As new opportunities arise, your NAL should adapt by including accounts that have become more aligned with your business objectives. 

Conversely, accounts that no longer meet your criteria or are underperforming should be reevaluated or removed. Continuously optimizing your list based on real-time performance data, market trends, and team input ensures that your strategy remains agile, focused, and effective in achieving long-term success. This dynamic approach ensures that you are always targeting the best possible accounts, maximizing the ROI of your ABM efforts.

How to Implement a Named Account Strategy 

Implementing a named account strategy involves personalization, multi-channel engagement, strategic content development, and sales-marketing alignment.

Personalization Approaches

Effective personalization is at the core of a successful Named Account Strategy. It starts with a deep understanding of each account’s unique challenges, needs, and pain points. This involves conducting thorough research on the target accounts, such as reviewing their business objectives, industry trends, and current obstacles. With this information, marketing and sales teams can craft tailored messaging that speaks directly to the account’s needs, increasing engagement and demonstrating value. Personalized content can take many forms, such as customized proposals, personalized email campaigns, and even dynamic website content that adapts based on the account visiting your site. 

Moreover, leveraging insights from previous interactions helps refine messaging to make each communication more relevant, which enhances the likelihood of converting those accounts into customers. Personalization builds trust and shows a genuine understanding of the client’s situation, ultimately improving the customer experience and increasing conversion rates.

Multi-channel Engagement Strategy

A comprehensive multi-channel engagement strategy is essential for reaching and engaging named accounts effectively. By using a combination of channels, businesses can ensure that they meet stakeholders where they are most active and engaged, creating a more cohesive and integrated experience. Digital campaigns, such as targeted email marketing, PPC ads, and social media outreach, offer an efficient way to start conversations and drive awareness. However, relying solely on digital methods may not be enough. Incorporating direct mail or hosting exclusive events—either virtual or in-person—can provide a more personal touch and encourage deeper engagement. 

Social media platforms, especially LinkedIn, allow for direct interactions with decision-makers, while events offer opportunities for face-to-face networking. A strategic mix of online and offline touchpoints ensures that your messaging is consistent across all channels, helping to reinforce your brand and stay top of mind with key decision-makers. This approach maximizes the chances of engaging stakeholders throughout the entire buyer journey.

Content Creation and Distribution

The content you create for your Named Account Strategy should be specifically tailored to the needs, interests, and challenges of the accounts you’re targeting. High-quality, industry-specific content demonstrates your understanding of the account’s unique landscape and positions your company as a trusted advisor. This could include in-depth whitepapers or case studies that showcase successful implementations of your product or service within similar industries. Additionally, customized reports, interactive content, or webinars that address specific pain points or offer solutions to common challenges can engage accounts on a deeper level. The distribution of this content must also be strategic—distributed via channels that best reach each target account. 

Whether through personalized email outreach, gated content, or social media, the goal is to ensure the right content reaches the right person at the right time. By delivering value through thoughtful and relevant content, you strengthen relationships with your named accounts, increase brand loyalty, and enhance the likelihood of successful conversions.

Sales and Marketing Coordination

Sales and marketing alignment is critical to the success of a Named Account Strategy. For ABM to work effectively, both teams need to operate with shared intelligence, goals, and resources. Regular meetings between sales and marketing teams help ensure that both sides are aligned on account priorities, messaging, and strategy. With shared insights from CRM platforms and analytics tools, marketing can deliver targeted content and campaigns that are in sync with the sales team’s outreach efforts. 

Unified messaging is also crucial for maintaining consistency across all touchpoints with the named account, whether it’s an email, direct mail, or a face-to-face sales call. Joint planning sessions allow teams to identify opportunities, refine strategies, and ensure resources are allocated efficiently. This level of coordination ensures that all efforts are focused on the same objectives and that the strategies of both teams complement each other. Ultimately, it increases the effectiveness of your ABM efforts, driving higher engagement and conversion rates across your target accounts.

Consistent implementation across these elements, with flexibility to adapt to account needs, ensures continuous improvement in your named account approach.

And the best news? You don’t have to go to the Culinary Institute (of Marketing) to provide a satisfying marketing program to your Named Account. Metadata.io is here to help you drive more leads, optimize campaigns, and scale your results effortlessly.

A professional hitting a bullseye on a green dartboard, with a teal upward arrow and the Metadata.io logo displayed above.
Optimizing B2B Campaigns: A Data-Driven Look at Channel and Audience Performance on Metadata.io

See Metadata in action

You did your research, saw enough proof, and want to see the real thing.