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What is Cohort Marketing?

Cohort marketing is the practice of running campaigns into a group of accounts that share a common need, so B2B sales and marketing teams can create meaningful interactions with the entire buying committee through relevant insights, messaging, and offers.
By Adam Hutchinson, Chief Strategy Officer, Kyn
Adam Hutchinson X Kyn-1

Why does most B2B marketing feel irrelevant to buyers?

Most marketing messaging is still often pushed top-down. Content reflects what vendors want to say to buyers based on their “profile,” but rarely reflects what buyers are actually looking for.

B2B marketers have long pursued the ultimate goal of relevancy: reaching the right buyer with the right message at the right time. Through advances in marketing technology, account scoring, and a wider adoption of digital channels in B2B sales, marketers became really good at targeting the right buyers, but the messaging hasn’t evolved alongside it.
The number of channels buyers use to interact with B2B vendors has doubled over the past decade, with buyers now engaging across 10 channels on average, according to McKinsey. But B2B sales isn’t just omni-channel; it’s also omni-department. Forrester found that the vast majority of B2B purchases involve 3 or more departments and an average of 13 people inside a buyer’s organization. Perhaps more importantly, that same Forrester study found that B2B purchases are informed by an average of 9 individuals outside of the buyer’s organization. That includes industry influencers, peer referrals, and analysts.

With all that complexity, it’s no wonder marketing campaigns are landing flat. Buyers are getting their most valuable information from the people they trust, and they’re navigating multiple conversations internally across stakeholders before they even talk to sales. When a marketing message lands in their inbox talking about a generic value proposition, even when it’s “personalized” for a persona or a vertical, it’s just not a meaningful addition to the conversation.
Instead, marketing’s job in the sales cycle is to help buyers understand a specific use case that matters to them, and help show them the path towards achieving that outcome. To do it, we need to create relevancy around their need, and the more specific the better:
01. I need to get more results out of my current tech stack
02. I need to reduce the amount of manual tasks I have to do each day.
03. I need to find a way to get our brand into a new market.
Not every prospect faces the same need, nor at the same time. By finding common needs amongst a group of accounts, marketing teams can create cohorts that kick start more relevant campaigns.

How does Cohort Marketing work?

The spark of a cohort marketing campaign is an insight. This could be:
01
01
A market insight, like the acquisition of a competitor that will create market uncertainty.
02
02
An engagement insight, like a group of accounts viewing your content or attending an industry event.
03
03
An account insight, like new strategic hires or announcing initiatives in their quarterly earnings reports.

Or something else entirely.

Aligning commercial objectives to account insights and clear messaging is the exercise that enables marketers to build relevant campaigns.
This is an example of how a hypothetical company could start with two very different commercial segments and territories, uncover a relevant insight for each, and form two distinct cohorts.
Aligning commercial objectives to account insights and clear messaging is the exercise that enables marketers to build relevant campaigns.

The breakdown.

Team Expansion Cohort

In Example 1 above, the ICP is pretty broad, covering new business in North America but focusing on the pet toy category. However, the use case is narrow: using LinkedIn or AI data acquisition tools, we could identify accounts that hired a new shopper marketing leader recently, often a sign that the prospect is actively reevaluating their tech stack to support that new leader’s initiatives.

Customer Winback Cohort

In Example 2 above, the ICP is narrow, only looking at previously closed lost customers in the UK market. However, we found that multiple accounts visited the same case study recently, perhaps after we posted it on social media. That’s a great insight we can use to market to them; it seems like the competitor they left us for isn’t living up to the hype around a specific solution.

Action

Once we’ve identified the audience and their need, we can select the accounts that are most relevant to the campaign. Some of the data we might look at could include CRM data, first-party engagement data, third-party intent data, and good old fashioned desk research.

There’s no magic number for how many accounts fit into a cohort. For budget purposes, you may decide to limit the campaign to 30 or 50 accounts, to ensure your ad spend can reach each account multiple times for enough coverage, or to limit the number of attendees for an executive-level, exclusive event. But the goal isn’t an artificial limit; it’s relevancy. If the message and CTA will speak to them, then they’re a good fit.

Furthermore, a cohort is a flexible fence. We can tighten the fence as we learn more and more about our accounts through real first-party interactions and sales conversations, ultimately leading to hyper-targeted 1:1 account campaigns. But we can also widen the fence, as we see success promoting a use case that may be relevant for additional accounts that share a similar need over time.

The breakdown.

Is cohort marketing the same as ABM?

While account-based marketing (ABM) is a methodology to segment accounts based on tiers and revenue potential, cohort marketing is an approach to run campaigns to accounts that share a common need.

ABM and cohort marketing are absolutely compatible, but they start by asking different questions:
ABM
01
ABM asks which accounts have the largest revenue potential and highest likelihood to close, so you can prioritize resources, budget, and effort on the biggest opportunities.
Cohort
02
Cohort marketing asks what use cases can you build an effective outcome-driven campaign around, so you can target accounts that share a common need and reach them with the most relevant message and offer.
One of the advantages of starting with a common need is that you can orient your campaign levers around interaction points that start (or continue) a real conversation.
The most impactful content in a cohort marketing campaign incorporates perspectives, anecdotes, advice, and education from experts in the industry: your buyers’ peers, influencers, analysts, partners, and so on.

Similarly, the most effective CTAs in a cohort marketing campaign don’t just drive towards a form fill. They ask for interaction. Share groups, roundtables, experiential events, and custom analysis reports are all great ways to get your buyers and sales reps talking.

From this point, you can see how ABM fits seamlessly into a cohort model. Your top revenue potential accounts might deserve a little extra love, but you can focus your resources on the ones that are the most engaged. The sales CTAs, content, and custom offers can become more bespoke as you narrow in on the accounts most likely to convert.

What does cohort marketing look like in practice?

For B2B marketing teams used to running the traditional ABM pyramid model, or still reliant on quarterly vertical campaigns, making the shift to a cohort-based approach can feel a little unnatural at first.

A good starting point is to pick one core business objective and one key market insight to build a cohort around. Identify a use case that you already have solid marketing messaging built to support, and select the accounts that will be easy to identify.
01
Crowdsource insights to use in campaign content. Try at least a few sources:
One or two existing customers that want to showcase their expertise. An internal employee who likes to nerd out on the topic. An industry influencer, aka the type of person who’s already talking about the topic on LinkedIn and has dozens of comments on every post
02
Craft a report that doesn’t just state an industry problem and immediately proposes a product solution.
If the answer to “how to do it” is “schedule a demo,” then your use case isn’t specific enough. What action do your buyers need to know about?
03
Drive engagement with the content through your own channels and third-party channels, like your partner network.
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Give them a reason to interact. Host an intimate event, either in person or virtual, and invite the industry influencer to participate.
Make the agenda about solving a problem together.
The metric you’re looking for at this stage is accounts responded. How many unique accounts either downloaded the content, attended the event, or responded to the sales outreach email? This metric is the early indicator of booked meetings, pipeline, and revenue, as you continue to nurture the cohort.

Frequently asked questions about cohort marketing.

Why isn't my ABM converting?

We're committed to creating digital experiences that are not only functional but also true to the designer's vision. By combining technical expertise with a deep appreciation for design principles, we deliver solutions that preserve your creative intent and resonate with audiences in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Is cohort marketing just rebranded ABM?

No. ABM sorts accounts by tier and engagement level, and builds campaigns around revenue potential for your business. Cohort Marketing groups accounts by the situations that the account is going through that make them a buyer, and creates campaigns that speak to buyers at many levels of engagement. 

How is a cohort different from a customer segment?

A customer segment groups accounts by what they are: industry, size, region, etc. A cohort segments accounts by their situations: new market expansion, incumbent to displace, etc. Segments are largely stable, and the messaging stays the same. Cohorts are live, allowing for messaging that feels fresh to their current situation. 

How do you reach buyers who aren't ready to buy yet?

By speaking to the situation, not the signal. Whilst the majority of your accounts aren’t ready to buy at any time, they may still be going through situations that you can speak to. Building campaigns and content around the situations your buyers face lets you reach them before they ever show buying signals. 

Does cohort marketing replace intent data?

No, but it helps you put your intent data to use better. Intent tells you an account is active. Cohort Marketing asks why, and then checks whether that same reason is live across accounts that aren’t yet demonstrating intent. Intent goes from a tool to identify single accounts engaging, to a tool that helps you build campaigns that touch whole groups. 

Is cohort marketing the same as cohort analysis?

No, they share a word and not a method. Cohort analysis is a product-analytics practice that groups users by signup date to study retention. Cohort Marketing is a marketing strategy that groups target accounts by the buying sections they share right now. 

How do you group target accounts for marketing?

Group accounts by the situations they share, not just the demographic or firmographic traits that define them. Look for a common buying signal, a shared incumbent to displace, or a similar new launch strategy. If you can build a use case for one situation and have it speak to multiple accounts in your target list, you’ve built a cohort. 

Ready to map your first cohort? 

Want some extra brainpower to build your strategy?

Adam Hutchinson
Adam Hutchinson
Schedule a brainstorming workshop with your marketing leaders and Adam Hutchinson to identify the right cohort, thematic topic, channels, and CTA motion for your ABX campaign.