On the face of it, these two methods of digital marketing stand completely against each other. One focuses on generating content that reaches the masses, the other focuses on designing specific content directly targeted at individuals or small buying committee groups.
That’s not to say either of them is necessarily more effective than the other. Inbound is still said to have 54% more leads than traditional outbound practices. Conversely, according to the CMO Club, 76% of marketers get a higher return on investment (ROI) with ABM than they do with any other form of marketing. So, which is better for you?
We’re also here to answer the question: are they even really all that different? After all, good marketing is simply getting the right message to the right person, at the right time…
This article explores the nuances between the two marketing practices, what defines success for both, and, most importantly, answers the question: Should you be using Account-Based Marketing (ABM) or Inbound Marketing?
The real answer is that there’s no answer (sorry). It truly depends on your individual business position, budget and resources to be able to execute either of these strategies effectively.
ABM typically requires more resources than inbound marketing, and, if you’re looking to take advantage of things like buyer intent, you will often need a larger tech stack than inbound marketing, as ABM prioritises personalisation, as well as targeting and engaging potential customers.
For example, platforms like 6sense and Demandbase offer powerful intent data and predictive analytics to highlight which accounts are ‘in-market’ before they even visit your site. Tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator give sales teams the power to build relationships through direct outreach, while HubSpot’s ABM tools enable segmentation, personalised workflows, and account-level insights.
Alongside that, you need to create hyper-personalised content which not only takes a team that understands your solution inside out, but also a team that has a very deep understanding of your customer in order to serve that content.
However, despite inbound marketing usually needing fewer resources than a dedicated ABM team, it can usually yield slower results depending on which market segment you’re targeting. With inbound marketing, you need to stack time and content in order to build a repeatable engine and whilst the same is true for ABM, ABM is much more direct and you can iterate a lot faster by having a clear view of what your prospect is doing and what they’re engaging with at all times.
The tech stack required for Inbound Marketing relies on a more content-powered and SEO-driven toolkit. Here, platforms like Ahrefs help teams research and optimise for search intent, while Google Analytics provides insights into content performance and user journeys.
Aside from all this, we strongly believe that, if you have the capacity to do so, you should merge the two into an integrated strategy.
Whilst focusing on building scalable and sustainable results using inbound marketing, you can also focus on targeting your key accounts using ABM through two separate campaigns. This not only allows you to capture demand from people that are in the market and searching for a solution to their problems, but also capture it from your key accounts that may not even have a problem yet.
A win-win.
But let’s take a step back and look at what both are and how they seemingly counteract one another.
Inbound marketing is a strategy centred around attracting prospects organically, rather than pushing messages onto them.
Instead of relying on other B2B lead generation methods like cold calls or unsolicited emails, inbound focuses on creating valuable content and experiences that resonate with the target audience. The core aim is to provide solutions to the challenges potential customers are already seeking to solve, positioning your business as a trusted authority from the outset. By drawing people in with relevant blogs, social media posts, SEO, and downloadable resources, you can build genuine engagement, trust and, most importantly, be viewed as the trusted vendor in their ‘space’.
The inbound methodology follows a clear process: attract, engage, and delight. This is usually either pictured in the form of a funnel or, as HubSpot coined, a flywheel.
Initially, businesses attract strangers by delivering the right content at the right time through the right channels. Once prospects are engaged, tailored nurturing strategies are used to convert them into leads and eventually customers.
These are the inbound marketing fundamentals for planning a strategy successfully.
Some of the attributed benefits to deploying an inbound marketing strategy include:
Despite being around for nearly 20 years, the fundamentals of inbound marketing still stand strong. For example, our recent work with Bridge Coffee Roasters, where we supported them with creating content that aligned with the way B2B buyers want to buy. In 2024, Bridge Coffee Roasters saw results of:
As Jack Merriman, Content Marketing Manager at Bridge Coffee Roasters, puts it:
One of the biggest results was really figuring out who our target customer is, and that's just been really helpful, not just from the marketing and content side of things, but also from a top level across the whole business, really getting ideal clarity on who it is that we're working for and who it is that we're helping in their jobs.
However, despite it being ingrained in the fabric of any B2B marketer, inbound marketing does have its drawbacks, which is why people turn to ABM…
ABM, unlike inbound marketing, is a highly focused strategy that targets individual accounts within your ideal company profile (ICP).
Rather than casting a wide net to attract leads, ABM centres on identifying high-value target accounts and creating bespoke marketing campaigns and content personalised specifically for them. This approach allows businesses to speak directly to the unique needs, challenges, and goals of each account, making engagement much more relevant and impactful from the outset.
Rather than utilising the traditional marketing funnel of attract, engage and delight, ABM quite literally flips this on its head. The reverse funnel focuses on finding your key accounts first, engaging them through hyper-personalised content, converting them and then building an ongoing relationship with them to maximise LTV.
There are a couple of strategies you can deploy for a successful ABM execution, such as:
As you can tell, the focus of ABM is on quality, not quantity.
By choosing your key accounts, you’re focusing on converting them - and only them. You can monitor how they engage with your content and the touchpoints you have with them, rather than relying on leads coming in organically and hoping they show high intent for your solution.
An integrated, successful ABM strategy can bring many benefits, including:
Linking to the final bullet, ABM typically has an easier attribution model. It’s easier to map and measure their engagement across touchpoints. For example, you know exactly which businesses received a specific personalised email, clicked a bespoke landing page, or attended a tailored webinar, meaning you can attribute success directly back to that campaign.
This lies in contrast to inbound marketing, where attribution is more complicated. It relies on drawing connections between broader traffic sources, anonymous top-of-funnel behaviours, and eventual conversions, often across a long timeframe. You may generate hundreds of leads through organic content, but understanding which blog post or keyword influenced the final purchase decision can be difficult and can require complex attribution models to measure.
However, there is a caveat to ABM. You’re putting a lot of eggs in a basket that may not even want your solution.
You see, unless you’re targeting accounts that you know want your solution, you could spend so much time and resources targeting accounts that will never want your solution, whereas you could be spending your time more productively, creating educational content for those accounts that are going to come into market and find your blog. ABM, as a sole strategy, is a high-risk, high-reward type of scenario IF you don’t know your target account wants your solution.
But here’s the kicker - you can (and should) utilise both in conjunction with one another.
They both accomplish different things in the wider scope of your marketing strategy. One enables you to create content which captures the attention and demand of those that are in search of your solution, whilst the other can inform your target accounts that they have a problem before they even realise they need a solution for it.
According to 6Sense, by the time of this first contact, 78% of buyers have mostly or completely established their business requirements. This means that, if you have a long-term strategy for engaging target accounts using ABM and are successful in establishing trust, you’re more than likely to close that account when they come into market, without pressuring them into a sale.
Moreover, inbound marketing enriches ABM efforts by supplying insights into buyer behaviour, interests, and challenges. This data informs smarter ABM strategies, enabling more tailored messaging and outreach that resonates with specific decision-makers. Meanwhile, the personalised engagement strategies from ABM can enhance inbound nurturing programmes, providing a more cohesive, consistent experience across channels.
But the only way this is successful is if you have a handle on who your target persona is and if their company matches your ICP.
You need to understand their drivers to market, what broke the ‘status quo’ for them and really uncover the person you’re trying to sell to. This should be mapped out into personas for all your marketing activities. When crafting content, copy and creatives for your ideal customer, consider:
Alongside that, you need to map out who the ideal company you want to work with is. The simplest way of doing this is by:
This way, you’ll have a strong idea of what companies you will be targeting with your marketing strategy, for both inbound marketing and ABM.
I’m going to be real here - and a little bit biased. An integrated inbound marketing and ABM strategy is only suitable for select companies.
If you’re facing the following issues, inbound marketing is your best starting point. Despite the quantity of content you need to create, it's more cost and resource-efficient in generating leads and is based on long-term growth, especially for B2B businesses.
If you’re encountering these pitfalls, then consider whether an integrated approach is the way to go:
ABM is most effective when targeting large, high-value accounts where the return justifies the investment in personalisation and resources.
If the average deal size or LTV is relatively low, the cost and effort involved in delivering bespoke marketing experiences will likely outweigh the potential return. Businesses selling products or services at a lower price point have more success in broader, inbound-focused strategies that can deliver them consistent, scalable growth.
If a business serves a large number of industries, buyer types, or geographies without a clear focus, ABM can become unmanageable due to personalisation.
A successful ABM strategy requires clear segmentation and deep insights into a relatively small group of target accounts. Without a narrow focus, the ability to deliver truly personalised, relevant campaigns diminishes, making ABM less impactful. Without it, there’s truly no way to deliver a hyper-personalised experience and engage your target persona.
ABM demands close collaboration between marketing and sales. It’s arguably the most important facet of any account-based strategy.
If these teams operate in silos, with misaligned goals, poor communication, or competing priorities, an ABM programme will struggle. Before investing in ABM, businesses need to ensure there is a strong internal foundation: shared objectives, agreed target accounts, and a commitment to joint execution - ideally through the eyes of commercially-driven success.
As we’ve alluded to, account-based marketing is resource-intensive.
It requires significant time and investment in account research, content personalisation, campaign management, and relationship building. Smaller businesses without dedicated marketing and sales resources, or those stretched thin across too many priorities, will find it difficult to execute ABM effectively.
This isn’t to dissuade you from using an integrated strategy as a solution. As we said earlier, if you are able to look at these objections and say, “we don’t suffer from any of these”, then this strategy will work really well, and you combine inbound marketing efforts with personalised targeted ABM.
However, if you do look at these pitfalls and think “we do have problems in that area”, then stick with inbound marketing for the moment for long-term success. Overcommitting on the amount of eggs in a single basket could jeopardise your marketing efforts and, more importantly, your budget.
So, there we are. Hopefully, you have a better perspective on the question “ABM vs Inbound Marketing”.
In summary, we strongly believe that it’s not a “one or the other” situation. Although all your content should be tailored and personalised to your target audience, ABM offers you another opportunity to hyper-personalise and target individuals on a more specific level. And that’s why neither should be discounted from your overall marketing strategy - just used strategically with each other.
If you want support in actioning this integrated strategy, then download our Pricing Guide today. We have a strong track record of helping B2B businesses with their digital marketing activities and have generated real, attributable revenue from marketing strategies we have deployed.