Most people are three to five years into account-based marketing. Ed VanderBush has been doing it for over a decade, and he's watched the whole thing move from a concept Bev Burgess was talking about in the early 2010s into an integrated mindset across a marketing team. On this episode of Scrappy ABM, Mason Cosby sits down with Ed, Senior Manager of Account-Based Marketing at LiveRamp, to get into what actually moves ABM forward when you don't have an unlimited budget.

They cover the three inputs Ed uses to build a target account list, why "sales, please go after Google" is how programs fail, and how framing existing content beats building bespoke assets for every account. Ed also walks through going from "the ABM guy off in the corner" to an integrated ABM motion, plus the accidental CIO deal acceleration he hammered out with a seller over Slack in under 20 minutes.

👤 Guest Bio

Ed VanderBush is Senior Manager of Account-Based Marketing at LiveRamp, the data collaboration and identity platform. He happened into ABM by accident at LexisNexis in the early 2010s, picking up a project a colleague had to hand off, and it turned into the last decade-plus of his career. At LiveRamp he built the ABM function from the ground up and now runs it as part of the integrated marketing team. He's based in southwest Ohio.

📌 What We Cover

🔸 The three inputs Ed uses to build a target account list: sales priorities, signals that validate them, and whether marketing actually has a story to tell

🔸 Why "sales, please go after Google" is the wrong way to pick accounts, and the rocket-ship example of saying no when you have zero resources for a segment

🔸 Building a first ABM program off existing CRM data and existing content instead of creating everything bespoke

🔸 Why framing an asset for the audience beats custom reports, and the client who built a one-off report for a single CIO

🔸 Customer stories as Ed's favorite content, and how a recognizable logo closes more than a stronger but unknown one

🔸 Industry groups and subject matter experts as a sourcing channel that never shows up cleanly in a dashboard

🔸 The "Anatomy of the Deal" conversations Ed ran to mine internal stories and build early evangelism

🔸 The accidental deal acceleration: spotting a CIO engage with an ad, then closing the loop with the seller over Slack

🔸 The Kroger coupon mailer that taught Ed what relevancy and value actually mean

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

🔸 Bev Burgess, an early voice in account-based marketing referenced from the practice's infancy

🔸 LiveRamp, the data collaboration and identity platform where Ed leads ABM

🔸 LexisNexis, where Ed first picked up account-based marketing

🔸 BambooHR, the recognizable customer story Mason credits with lifting close rates

🔸 Salesforce and Slack, the tools behind the accidental deal acceleration story

🔸 Kroger, the personalized coupon example behind Ed's lesson on relevancy

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Resources:

🔸 Connect with Mason Cosby on LinkedIn for a conversation about ABM.

🔸 Want more ABM content? Check out these resources.

🔸 Want to nail ABM in a Day? Register for this workshop.

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If you enjoyed today's episode and found valuable insights for your business, be sure to subscribe to the Scrappy ABM podcast for more expert discussions. Don't forget to leave a review and share this episode with your team or fellow marketers!