Step-by-Step Guide to Aligning Content Marketing and ABM Strategies. How do you combine your content marketing and ABM initiatives? Step 1: Agree on ideal customer profiles and an account list If marketing, sales, and your company leadership are all aligned under an ABM strategy (or some combination of an inbound and account-based strategy), your first step is to agree on your ideal customer profiles (ICPs), working closely with your sales team. As you complete this audit, you’ll see some gaps in content for different audiences and different stages. Make sure that you are leveraging your sales team as a resource for learning more about the accounts, industries, and personas you are targeting. The sales team is on the front line in these target markets, and they can share the challenges their prospects face, and the goals that they have. An additional benefit of involving the sales team is that they will already be on board with the content you are producing, and will be looking forward to sharing content that they already know will resonate with the prospects they speak to. This challenge exists for all content marketers, but it’s particularly difficult for ABM strategies because this content is applicable to a much narrower group of people. With website personalization, a person on your site does not need to dig for an eBook or blog post that will be relevant to him, the site can deliver it to him immediately. And don’t forget that getting the most relevant content you have already created in front of your target accounts, industries, and personas is easily achieved with personalization.
Historically, content marketers have had one clear goal in mind: develop content that will convert visitors to leads that fuel their businesses. There are, of course, other benefits to content that marketers always have in mind, such as building brand awareness, establishing expertise, enabling sales, etc. But demand generation is still, most often, the primary driver of content marketing, as it is the most concrete and measurable outcome.
However, this content goal only makes sense in the realm of inbound marketing. With ABM, the focus is on a defined group of accounts or companies. The content marketer’s goal in this case is to create content that captures the attention of specific accounts or accounts in specific industries to help initiate and accelerate the sales cycle.
So rather than focusing on content that will have mass appeal, you need to narrow your focus. How do you combine your content marketing and ABM initiatives? Start with these four steps.
Step 1: Agree on ideal customer profiles and an account
list
If marketing, sales, and your company leadership are all aligned under an ABM strategy (or some combination of an inbound and account-based strategy), your first step is to agree on your ideal customer profiles (ICPs), working closely with your sales team. Think about who your most successful customers are now. Think about who your most profitable customers are now. What industry, company size, location, or other variables do these customers have in common?
Use these profiles to compile your list of target accounts (in conjunction with sales, of course). The accounts, industries, and personas you pinpoint will be used heavily when developing your content going forward.
Step 2: Conduct a content audit
The next step is to audit your existing content. It can be as casual or as formal as you make it. No matter how you go about it, ask yourself, “Do I have content for each account, industry, or persona we outlined?” Then go deeper and ask yourself, “Do I have content for them for each stage of the buyer’s journey?” Even in an ABM strategy, content is a critical component of your prospects’...
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