4 Low-Cost ABM tactics that drove 590% ARR growth
How we landed enterprise accounts and amplified ABM-led MQLs with a small, lean, and profitable growth team
Introduction from Joe — co-founder/CEO of Supademo
In the last year, we increased our deal velocity by 40% and landed key enterprise customers.
We wanted to be laser-focused yet hyper-personalized in our marketing efforts. That's why we doubled down on tactical, low-cost Account-Based Marketing (ABM).
Traditionally though, ABM is super expensive (averaging between $50k to over $200k annually). It makes perfect sense when you spend $50k to make $100k (or even $60k). No hard feelings there.
But here's the brutal reality of ABM: up to 70% of your marketing budget gets burned on accounts that will never convert. Most companies are still throwing darts in the dark, hoping something sticks.
The internet is flooded with frustratingly vague advice on ABM: 'Align sales and marketing.' 'Create personalized campaigns.' 'Automate everything.' But what do you align? What do you personalize? What do you automate? And how do you do this at scale?
That's why we created this tactical playbook. No fluff, no theory - just proven tactics organized by implementation effort, backed by real data.
Inside, you'll find four specific, low-cost ABM tactics we've deployed, drawn from our experience garnering over 100,000 signups.
Hope you find this useful!
Tactic 1: Signal-based, 'done-for-you' outreach
Every day, we identify high-potential signups and create high quality Supademos related to their use case — to help demonstrate expected ROI with Supademo.
Here's our exact process:
- 1.When a high-value user signs up with a work address (>100 employees, use case match), Customer IO fires a Slack notification to notify team members
- 2.We manually review 5-10 promising accounts daily by looking at the person-level data
- 3.We then create a "realistic" Supademo that is specific to their role and use case, and enhance it with:
- Studio-quality AI voiceovers
- Custom branding elements (logo, CTA, font)
- Interactive hotspots
- Polished transitions
- 4.We then DM them with personalized messaging
This creates an immediate "aha" moment when they see what's possible with their own content. It's one thing to tell someone what your product can do; it's another to show them using their own work.
How you can leverage this
This approach works for any SaaS product where you can add immediate value to what customers are already doing. Here are a few examples for different tools:
Spreadsheet Tool:
- Look for complex spreadsheets users create
- Enhance them with advanced formulas, automated calculations, custom dashboards, data visualization
- Demonstrate how they could save hours of manual work
Design Tool:
- Identify basic designs users create
- Enhance them with professional typography, color harmony, advanced effects, responsive layouts
- Show them the professional-grade possibilities
The key here is:
- Focus on high-value accounts
- Create personalized, value-first content for their use case
- Show dramatic before/after contrast
- Make the value obvious and immediate
- Automate as many processes as possible, but with human review
Tactic 2: "Look-a-like" outreach leveraging existing customer success metrics
Once we've successfully helped a company achieve significant results with Supademo, we use that success story to reach out to their competitors.
The process:
- 1.Review our power users and select companies with:
- Strong case studies
- Clear, measurable results
- High product engagement
- Strong brand presence/affinity
- 2.Use Clay to find and enrich competitor data:
- Map direct competitors
- Identify decision makers
- Gather company size and tech stack
- 3.Build automated sequences in Apollo, Clay, HeyReach and/or Dripify:
- Initial message with industry-specific case study
- LinkedIn connection request
- Follow-up with concrete metrics
Sharing specific results from direct competitors provides powerful social proof that drives urgency and action.
The key here is:
- Name drop directly in subject line for immediate interest
- Choose power users with clear, measurable wins
- Focus on competitors of similar size/industry
- Lead with specific, relevant metrics
- Make success feel achievable and relevant
- Create competitor FOMO
Tactic 3: Land-and-expand in power user's org
We leverage Supademo's cross-functional value to expand within larger organizations - but with a targeted approach.
Here's our exact process:
- 1.Monitor product usage through:
- Mixpanel tracking of user activity
- Slack alerts for most active power users
- Company size filter (>50 employees)
- 2.When users surpass specific usage thresholds, send data to Clay
- 3.Use Clay to map internal expansion opportunities:
- Enrich company data
- Find decision-makers and potential power users in other departments
- Identify departmental structures
- 4.Launch personalized outreach via Apollo:
- Share specific wins from their colleague's usage
- Add relevant metrics from similar teams
- Include department-specific demo templates
- Multi-touch campaigns across channels (Email + LinkedIn)
To make our lives easy, we've created department-specific demo templates with dynamic variables (name, company name, etc.) that showcase relevant use cases:
Strategic expansion works because we're not selling cold—we're leveraging internal success stories and tailoring our pitch to each department's specific needs.
The key here is:
- Monitor product usage to identify champions and set alerts for certain thresholds
- Create department/role-specific content like interactive demos upfront
- Use automation while maintaining personalization
- Lead with internal success stories
Tactic 4: Product launch campaign targeting
We monitor product announcements from enterprise companies and proactively create workflow documentation for their new features, reaching out with ready-to-use solutions that demonstrate immediate value.
Here's our exact process:
- 1.Monitor launch announcements or opportunities through:
- Company newsletters
- LinkedIn posts
- Product Hunt upcoming
- Twitter/X product teams
- 2.Create personalized content:
- Workflow documentation for new features
- Step-by-step implementation guides
- User onboarding flows
- 3.Direct outreach to product teams
By creating content they need before they even ask (and at a crucial time), we demonstrate both our product's value and our understanding of their challenges.
How you can leverage this
This approach works for most SaaS tools across different industries. Here are examples for different tools:
Sales Enablement Tool:
- Monitor competitor product launches
- Create ready-made sales scripts
- Build battlecards and objection handlers
- Reach out with complete sales enablement package
Customer Support Platform:
- Watch for major feature releases
- Build support documentation templates
- Create FAQ frameworks
- Offer ready-to-use help center content
Analytics Tool:
- Track new integration announcements
- Create custom tracking dashboards
- Build ROI measurement templates
- Provide launch success metrics framework
The key here is:
- Stay alert on launch announcements for key accounts
- Create value before they ask
- Focus on immediate implementation
- Show specific use cases
- Make adoption effortless
- Build relationships with fast-growing companies
Additional tips for successful ABM campaigns
1. Automate as much as possible
We run our entire ABM operation with just 3 people by automating key processes. Here are a few examples:
- Custom dashboards built using Retool, Rows, and other tools
- Slack alerts notify us of power users automatically from Mixpanel data
- Clay enriches company and contact data
- Apollo.io handles personalized outreach sequences
Focus your time on high-value work (like enhancing demos, in our case) by automating everything else.
2. Document your customer journey and product's value
Create a detailed transformation map showing exactly how your product changes your customer's world. Break it down into specific areas of before vs. after:
- What tools and processes they have before vs. after
- How their daily workflow changes
- The emotional impact (frustrations vs. wins)
- Their standing in the organization
This deep understanding helps craft more compelling outreach and identify the right champions.
3. Create a great hook
Design an initial offering that makes it easy to say yes. For us, it's enhancing a customer's existing demo for free. Other examples:
- Quick proof-of-concept pilot
- Free audit or assessment
- Trial with dedicated support
- Custom implementation roadmap
The key is providing immediate value while showcasing your product's full potential.
4. Track, document, and learn from responses
- Document which messages get responses
- Note common objections or questions
- Keep track of best-performing templates
- Regularly update messaging based on feedback
FAQs
What's ABM?
You've probably experienced ABM without realizing it. Ever received:
- An email showing how your specific company could use a product, complete with your logo and industry-specific examples?
- A LinkedIn message mentioning how other companies in your industry are using their solution?
That's ABM in action.
For SaaS companies, ABM means identifying your dream customers and creating personalized campaigns just for them. Think custom demos, tailored landing pages, and coordinated outreach across marketing and sales.
The numbers speak for themselves:
- Companies using ABM report a 97% higher ROI compared to traditional marketing
- ABM can lead to a 40% reduction in sales cycles through earlier engagement with decision-makers
Unlike traditional marketing, where you might get 100 low-quality leads, ABM helps you land fewer but much higher-value customers who are more likely to stick around and grow with you.
What's the investment required for ABM?
We did a little digging - talking to folks at successful companies and researching countless resources on the internet. Here's what traditional ABM initiatives typically cost:
| Investment Component | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|
| Technology and Tools | $5,000 to $50,000 annually |
| Content Creation | $10,000 to $30,000 |
| Advertising and Promotion | $5,000 to $20,000 per campaign |
| Human Resources | $50,000 to $150,000 annually |
| Research and Data Acquisition | $5,000 to $15,000 annually |
| Overall Budget Estimate | $50,000 to over $200,000 annually |
As an early-stage startup, we didn't have that kind of money, nor did we have a large team that could easily carry this out. With a small growth team of three people and limited resources, we had to get creative. So, we developed a leaner, more focused approach that delivered results without the massive investment.
And this helped us:
- Land key enterprise accounts
- Increase deal velocity by 40%
- Generate 3x more qualified opportunities
- Scale with a lean growth team of <5 people