How we turned a last-minute heart attack into an account-based marketing f**king win

Let me take you back to a moment that completely shifted the way I approach marketing today. This isn’t just another "how-to" post—it’s an experience that taught me a lot about the power of follow-up and timing.

So, here’s the situation: after three years of running a successful ABM strategy with a client, things started to slow down. At first, our personalized messaging was working great. We weren’t pushing for meetings—we were presenting the company and solution in a way that felt personal and relevant. The results were there, but over time, the numbers dropped. It felt like we were doing the same thing over and over without getting the same results.

We tried everything we could think of—new messages, different channels, changing up the timing—but nothing brought back the success we had in the beginning. We were stuck. Six months of frustration and no clear way forward. We felt like idiots.

Last-minute hail mary or a really, really bad idea?

Then, a curveball: one week before a major industry event, our client confirmed their attendance. I remember thinking, "How are we going to pull something together in such short notice?" Internally, I was screaming in my pillow in frustration, but the opportunity was too good to miss, so we got to work.

With only a week to prepare, we built a quick pre-event plan that went like this:

1. We filtered through the event attendee list.
2. Identified the people that matched our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
3. Targeted them with a few quick ads and social posts. 
4. We also sent out direct emails inviting key attendees to one-on-one meetings—breakfast, dinner, whatever worked.

Surprisingly, we got a 6% confirmation rate, which, given the circumstances, wasn’t bad at all. Little did we know, what really changed everything was what happened after the event.

The post-event touchdown!

We realized that the follow-up after the event was more powerful than anything we had done before. We split the attendee list into two groups: those who went but didn’t meet with us, and those who were in the area but didn’t attend the event (lazy but beautiful bastards). The message was simple: "Sorry we missed you at the event! Let’s connect”, or “What do you think about this session? Did you really enjoy it?"

Keeping it casual, not too salesy, led to about 20 responses per week. Five of those turned into actual meetings—a 25% success rate! The ROI was here, and decided to stay! 

From that point on, I completely shifted how we approached events. The event itself became less important than what we did after. We built a system, and eventually, we didn’t even need to attend some events. We just applied the same post-event strategy.

The results? We saw a significant boost in ROI, and suddenly, event marketing didn’t seem like such a gamble anymore. It taught me that sometimes the follow-up is where the real action happens.

Don't forget, an ABM strategy is in constant change, so keep proving, testing and playing with your content, channels and ideas. Feel free to reach out to us if you need any help.