Marcom Brief: Account-Based Marketing for Core Tech Companies: A Smarter Path to Growth

 by Bob Decker

For core technology companies—those building the sensors, silicon, systems, and software that power today’s innovations—the usual B2B marketing playbook doesn’t always cut it. Long sales cycles, complex buying committees, and highly technical value propositions demand a more focused approach.

That’s where Account-Based Marketing (ABM) comes in.

ABM flips the traditional funnel. Instead of broadcasting your message to a broad audience and hoping for the right leads to surface, ABM starts by identifying the right accounts—the ones that matter most to your growth—and then builds highly targeted, personalized campaigns to engage them.

For companies selling specialized technologies—whether it’s embedded sensing, power electronics, industrial automation, or advanced materials—ABM provides a smarter way to:

● Zero in on high-potential customers

● Deliver messaging aligned with technical decision-maker needs

● Align sales and marketing around shared goals

● Create stronger, more relevant touchpoints across the buyer journey

What Makes ABM Different from Traditional Marketing?

Traditional marketing casts a wide net and hopes the right fish will swim into it. ABM is more like spear fishing. It’s a targeted approach where you and your sales team collaborate to identify and pursue high-value accounts with the highest revenue potential or strategic importance. 

Your content and campaigns are customized for each target account, often down to the individual stakeholder level. Your outreach happens across multiple touchpoints – email, social media, digital ads, events, direct mail, you name it – to reach decision-makers at different levels of the organization. You're meeting prospects where they are with highly targeted tactics.

While ABM is often more effective than traditional marketing, there’s no promise it will be easier. ABM demands close coordination between your sales and marketing teams to ensure consistent messaging, timing, and outreach strategies. 

With that said, ABM often outperforms traditional marketing in terms of a higher ROI, more engagement, and a shorter sales cycle. 

Your Step-by-Step ABM Blueprint

Want to give ABM a try? Here's how to build an ABM strategy that works:

Step 1: Identify Your Target Accounts – Start by looking at accounts based on revenue potential or strategic value to your business. Ask yourself: If you could only work with 5, 15, or 50 companies for the next year, which ones would move the needle most?

Step 2: Map Key Stakeholders – Take time to understand the buying committee and influencers within each account. If, for example, that includes engineers, procurement, finance, and C-level executives, each has different concerns and speaks a different language.

Step 3: Develop Personalized Content – Create materials tailored to specific pain points and roles. Your content for a semiconductor company's design engineer should feel completely different from what you show their finance director.

Step 4: Launch Multi-Channel Campaigns – Coordinate your touchpoints across email, social, paid ads, and sales outreach. These might include:

● Custom landing pages or microsites for specific accounts

● Personalized emails from sales and marketing

● Targeted LinkedIn ads for a company-specific audiences

● Executive-level outreach with tailored messaging

● Content or case studies when applicable

● Events or webinars exclusively for selected accounts

Step 5: Measure and Optimize – Track engagement and influence, then refine your strategy. Look beyond opens and clicks to focus on meeting requests, proposal invitations, and actual pipeline progression.

At Redpines, we specialize in helping core technology companies like yours execute marketing that actually moves the needle. We’ve seen how ABM can drive real results—when it's done with precision, deep technical understanding, and seamless coordination between sales and marketing.

If you're wondering whether ABM is right for your company, or how to get started, let’s talk. We’ll help you design an ABM program that fits your market, your team, and your goals—without overcomplicating the process.

Ready to explore what ABM could look like for your business? Reach out to me by phone at 415-409-0233 to start the conversation. 

Toolbox: All Your Trade Show Resources All in One Place

Got trade shows coming up? Wondering what you need to do to get people to stop and notice your booth when they’re walking the show floor? Or maybe you’re curious about how you can get the most out of your marketing before, during, and after the show?

At Redpines, we prepare our clients for shows each year. So we have more than a few tricks up our sleeves to make shows and other industry events easier and more successful. 

Now, we’ve compiled our trade show resources in one place to make it easy to find what you need. Visit the new Trade Show Resources page on the Redpines website to find:

● Press Coverage Playbook: See exactly how to prepare for and conduct press meetings that result in meaningful coverage. 

● Stand-Out Strategies: See affordable, proven tactics to make your booth the one everyone wants to stop by.

● Trade Show Video Guide: Find out how to create videos that not only capture attention on the show floor but continue generating leads long after the event ends.

● Your Complete Trade Show Marketing & Communications Checklist: Take control of your trade show preparation with a comprehensive timeline that ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

● Speaking Success Blueprint: Secure those coveted speaking slots that position you as an industry leader.

Anytime you’ve got a show on the horizon and you’re looking to ease the stress and challenges that often arise around industry events, keep this resource page in mind. 

Marcom brief: Don’t miss out on video! Get The Redpines Video Tip Sheet.

By Bob Decker

Have you dragged your heels on making videos a part of your marketing strategy because you’ve assumed it will require equipment you don’t have to make it look professional?

Videos on LinkedIn, YouTube, and other social channels are increasingly a requirement for a complete, up-to-date marketing approach. So if you’re not posting videos, you’re missing out. But there’s no need to post nothing at all!

At Redpines, we put together a how-to guide so you can offer polished videos with just a smart phone or computer and a few inexpensive accessories. These are the same tips and tricks we offer our clients when we’re helping them shoot videos at trade shows and at the office. Now you can put them into practice to make videos a key part of your marketing.

You’ll find out how to: 

● Shoot videos at a trade show with you as director

● Capture video in an office using Zoom with you as a speaker

● Prepare any speaker to talk confidently on camera

● Round up the easy-to-find equipment you’ll need 

● Set up the shot and your space to appear professional and visually appealing

Download The Redpines Video Tip Sheet now.  

Video is a great way to extend the PR and marketing benefits of your presence at trade shows long after the show ends. 

Want help shooting videos at your next event? At Redpines, we take the stress out of video and deliver finished products that result in more engagement. To talk about the services we can provide you, please reach out to me by phone at 415-409-0233.

Marcom Brief: The New Rules for Social Media - What to Know in 2025

By Bob Decker

Stuck in a social media rut?

When was the last time you evaluated your social media strategy? Have you made any changes to the channels you're posting to regularly or what types of content you’re sharing?

If it has been a while since you have taken a good, hard look at your social media game plan, now is a great time to reevaluate. 

Here are six rules that may have changed since the last time you considered what you’re posting and where:

1. Don’t go it alone.

Whatever the size of your company, be sure more than one person is authorized as an administrator on each of your social media channels. For example, on LinkedIn, a couple of people other than the social media manager should be designated as an Admin on your company’s account. The same goes for other people having the login information for your X account, as well as any other channels where you have a presence.

2. Involve everyone on your team.

It used to be that many companies’ IT departments blocked access to social media channels on your company’s computers. If that’s still the policy, it’s time to change that or you risk losing an opportunity to turn employees into vocal brand advocates.

Ask everyone in your company to like or follow your business page on all social media channels that you run, and encourage them to share company news with their friends and followers.

Find out who in your company likes to take pictures or videos and incentivize them to participate in your social media outreach. Encourage them to share interesting insights from trade shows, and anything else that makes your company look like a cool place to work that’s full of smart people. Reward employees who contribute posts by giving them a photo credit in the caption and maybe a small reward for each post you use.

3. Set guardrails. 

If you’re delegating social media tasks within your organization or to an agency, be sure to have a decision tree in place that sets rules for how everything from events to customer questions to outright attacks will be handled. Set clear expectations about approvals for posts. 

Be open to what employees will share in their role as brand representatives, but also set the guardrails in advance for what kind of posts are acceptable or not. 

4. Use an editorial calendar.

Set a goal for how often you want to post to your social media channels. Once a week is good if you haven’t had a policy up until this point. Then create a document where Column A is dates and Column B is what your posts are going to be about on that date. Column C should be the call to action for each post. 

Try to plan ahead for six or seven weeks. Be sure the editorial calendar gets looked at regularly by putting it on the agenda of a recurring meeting.

Are you suddenly in charge of social media for your company? Wondering where to start? Need a plan? Get your social media checklist: 5 Simple Tips to Get Your Social Media Channels Up and Running.

5. Videos rule the day.

Posts with a photo or video consistently get more engagement than just words, and posts with short videos get the most engagement of all. When it comes to videos, keep it short and sweet. Completion rates drop off sharply for videos longer than 60 seconds.  

6. Don’t overthink it.

Do you struggle to come up with enough to post on social media? Here are some easy post ideas that get great engagement. With all of these, make sure they are authentic and focused on WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) to keep followers engaged:

• Trade shows where you’re exhibiting make a great photo and video opportunity. People love “behind the scenes” looks at booth set up or tech checks.
• Share anything you’ve changed, improved, or added to in your products or services.
• If you’ve added anything to your website like blog posts, case studies, and guides, pass it on.
• When new people join your team, share their photos and a quick bio.
• Post press coverage about your company. Be sure to tag the publication writing about you. It’s good manners to give them credit – and they will be more likely to post about you again in the future. 
• Company events like an annual picnic or holiday party are a surprisingly great photo and video opportunity. Anything that makes your company look fun!
• Wish your customers safe and happy celebrations before major holidays.
• Let your customers do the talking. It’s one of the best ways to be authentic and attract more prospects like them.

Here’s a bonus seventh tip: Do you have pixels embedded into your website code for your social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn? If not, you’re missing a big opportunity to engage with the people you care about the most. Retargeting those prospects is a set-it-and-forget-it way to stay top of mind for potential buyers. 

Are you tired of feeding the social media beast with engaging content week after week? Are you unsure of which social channels make the most sense for your business? Would you like to try retargeting ads, but you have no clue where to start?

At Redpines, we help our clients with overall social strategy, daily posting, getting started, and everything in between. Please reach out to me by phone at 415-409-0233 if you’d like to find out more.