76% of B2B companies have adopted account-based marketing. Only 17% have mature strategies. The other 83% are running the same playbook they adopted during the pandemic: intent data, email sequences, LinkedIn ads, retargeting. It is a good playbook. It is also stuck in 2020.
ABM promised to replace spray-and-pray marketing with precision. It delivered the precision. What it forgot was the personal touch that makes precision matter. 78% of B2B marketers say analog touchpoints perform better than a year ago, according to a Forrester study commissioned by PFL, yet most ABM programs remain 100% digital. That gap between what the data says and what the playbook includes is where the next wave of ABM evolution lives.
The ABM Playbook Peaked in 2020
Let’s give ABM its credit. 87% of ABM marketers say it outperforms other marketing initiatives. Companies that commit to it report a 10% revenue increase after one year, with 19% seeing growth above 30%. The concept works. The execution has stalled.
The standard ABM stack in 2025 looks identical to the standard ABM stack in 2021: an intent data provider feeding a CRM that triggers automated email sequences and display retargeting. 40% of practitioners cite ROI measurement as their biggest challenge. Another 40% point to data cleanliness. And 40% say they simply lack the internal expertise to run ABM well.
None of these are technology problems. They are execution problems dressed up in technology language. And the most common execution failure is the simplest one: 43% of B2B marketers report losing sales because they could not deliver the right content at the right time. The playbook has the targeting right. It has the channel mix wrong.
What 83% of ABM Programs Get Wrong
The maturity gap is revealing. If 76% of companies have adopted ABM but only 17% have mature programs, then the vast majority are stuck in early or mid-stage execution. The pattern looks the same almost everywhere: identify target accounts using intent signals, run them through an automated nurture sequence, and hope the combination of timing and volume produces meetings.
That approach worked when fewer companies were doing it. Now every enterprise buyer in a target segment is getting the same treatment from multiple vendors simultaneously. The ABM playbook has become the new spray-and-pray: targeted by account but generic by experience. Successful 1:few ABM programs achieve 65-85% pipeline influence rates. But those programs look fundamentally different from the standard stack. They invest in experiences that accounts can feel, not just campaigns accounts can see.
The Physical Chapter Most Playbooks Skip
The data on physical touchpoints is unambiguous. Direct mail pulls a 4.4% response rate compared to email’s 0.12%, according to ANA (formerly DMA) research (via PostcardMania). That is a 37x gap. A Canada Post neuromarketing study found that physical mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to process than digital content. 82% of enterprise marketers increased their direct mail budgets in 2024 (Lob / Comperemedia), up from 58% in 2023.
For a deeper look at the full data case, the research on handwritten mail’s effectiveness tells a compelling story. But the headline for ABM practitioners is this: hybrid physical-digital campaigns boost engagement by 68% and close deals 29% faster. When an ABM program adds physical touchpoints to its digital sequences, each touch in the sequence works harder because the physical element breaks through the noise that makes digital-only programs plateau.
This is not about replacing your intent data or your email nurtures. It is about adding a channel that operates on different cognitive pathways than every other channel in your stack. The growing fatigue with AI-generated outreach only amplifies the advantage. When digital ABM creates experiences that feel algorithmically personal rather than genuinely human, physical mail stands out more as the channel that still carries authentic weight.
What the Sendoso-Alyce-Postal Consolidation Tells Us
The corporate gifting and direct mail space just went through a rapid consolidation cycle. Sendoso acquired Alyce in February 2024, bringing together two of the largest players in B2B gifting. Sendoso then acquired Postal in early 2025, uniting the top platforms in the space under one roof.
This consolidation is worth paying attention to because of what it signals, not just what it produces. Companies like Gong, Talkdesk, and other enterprise leaders were already investing in physical touchpoints as a core ABM channel. The consolidation happened because enough demand existed for sending physical outreach at ABM scale that the market could support a major platform consolidation. Gifting is now the third most-used marketing tactic in B2B, behind only content marketing and community.
That is a market telling you something. The ABM playbook is evolving, and the companies acquiring their way into physical touchpoint infrastructure believe the next chapter of ABM runs through the mailbox, not just the inbox.
Building ABM That Actually Feels Personal
The fix is not complicated. It starts with acknowledging that “personalized” in most ABM programs means a first name in a subject line and a company logo in a display ad. Real personalization, the kind that makes a buyer feel individually recognized, requires channels that carry weight by their very nature.
A handwritten note to a champion at a target account after a meaningful interaction costs more than an automated email. It also communicates something an automated email cannot: that someone on the other side invested real time in this relationship. That signal is what separates mature ABM from the 83% still grinding through the standard stack.
The practical path looks like this: keep your intent data, keep your email sequences, keep your retargeting. Layer in physical touchpoints at the moments that matter most. After a key meeting. When a deal stalls. When you are trying to reach an executive who ignores digital outreach. When you need to re-engage an account that has gone quiet.
Platforms like Sendoso, Postal, and Stylograph make this operationally feasible. For a practical guide to writing the kinds of notes that make physical outreach effective, structure and specificity matter more than stationery.
ABM is not broken. The concept of targeting the right accounts with the right message at the right time is sound. What needs updating is the assumption that “the right message” always means a digital one. The next chapter of ABM includes a physical layer, and the companies building it now are the ones whose accounts will remember them.
FAQ
Why is ABM not working for some companies?
Most ABM programs stall at the execution stage, not the strategy stage. 76% of B2B companies have adopted ABM, but only 17% have mature programs. Common failure points include data cleanliness issues (40% of practitioners), ROI measurement challenges (40%), and a lack of internal expertise (40%). The deeper issue is that most programs rely exclusively on digital channels, which have become saturated as more companies run similar ABM playbooks against the same target accounts.
What is the role of direct mail in ABM?
Direct mail serves as a physical touchpoint that breaks through the digital noise saturating target accounts. With a 4.4% response rate compared to email’s 0.12% (ANA data via PostcardMania), physical mail operates on different cognitive pathways than digital outreach. Hybrid campaigns that combine physical and digital touchpoints boost engagement by 68% and close deals 29% faster than digital-only approaches.
How do you add physical touchpoints to an ABM program?
Start by identifying the highest-leverage moments in your ABM sequence: after a key meeting, when a deal stalls, or when trying to reach unresponsive executives. Layer physical sends (handwritten notes, relevant books, personalized gifts) at those moments while keeping your existing digital infrastructure running. Platforms like Sendoso, Postal, and Stylograph handle the logistics of printing, fulfillment, and mailing so that sales and marketing teams can add physical touches without operational overhead.
What is the ROI of corporate gifting in B2B?
Gifting is now the third most-used marketing tactic in B2B after content marketing and community. Sendoso reports that customers using their platform see 3x meeting rates, double win rates, and close deals 29% faster. Individual companies report significant pipeline impact: Gong generated over 400 opportunities and influenced $33 million in pipeline using physical sends. The ROI varies by execution quality, but the trend data consistently shows that physical touchpoints amplify the returns of existing digital ABM investments.