Account-based marketing (ABM) has a vital role to play across the customer lifecycle, from awareness, to consideration, to close. Across this sales cycle, in order to target our key accounts at the most optimal time, we need to have content at every stage.
Creating content is an important part of the end-to-end ABM process. It armors the sales team with assets and tactics that are personalized, relevant and have a consistent message they can use to sell to your key accounts.
In fact, 82% of marketers strongly believe that personalized content is essential for effective ABM and can help improve customer retention.
Your target C-suite decision maker won’t have all the time in the world to read through an ABM plan- but they may have 60 seconds spare to watch a visually arresting video that captures their key pain points in a more thought-provoking manner!
Having the consistent message:
Nonetheless, having that ABM plan is the first essential step to creating content.
Rather than casting a wide net, like B2B, ABM is all about hooking the big fish and focusing simply on the accounts that we know are relevant, have the highest revenue potential. We understand their needs and challenges.
From the strategy and message crafted in the ABM plan, creatives use that unique, high-level message house as their foundation and building blocks for creating content. It will form the framework of your copy, ensuring that the messaging stays consistent across all channels, however you may wish to target your key accounts.
Often, the message house can be chopped and used in a multitude of ways to deliver content- from an eBook that focuses on just the value proposition and strategic pillar narratives, to a more product-focused whitepaper.
But what ABM content is right?
Okay, so you’ve delivered your ABM plan, now it’s time to take that high-level message house and transform it into visually arresting assets. Yet, 40% of marketers state it’s challenging to know how to develop the correct content for their target audience- which content type will work best for you?
Before you begin to create your content, you need to consider the following:
- Have you completed a content audit? This is an essential preliminary action to take prior to any content creation. It allows you to assess and determine which content is readily available and relevant, and what gaps are missing to fill the demands of personas, buyer needs, and the sales cycle stages.
- What level of customisation is needed? The type of ABM can determine the levels of customization that can be required, not only in the content itself, but also how it will be deployed. This can range from a level 1 piece of content, with no account-personalised elements at all, through to levels 2 and 3, which may have more industry and persona specific messaging (cluster), all the way to level 4 customization, which may only be used solely to target an individual account within their internal channels.
- Where will the content fit in the customer journey? Certain types of content are much better suited to particular stages of the sales cycle. An interactive infographic for example, is much better in the initial ‘awareness’ stages as it’s light touch and easily consumed. Whilst a whitepaper may be more suited to nurture and educate a prospect on a relevant topic to them.
- Do you have a sufficient budget? ABM is not a cheap approach- and ABM content creation is no exception! Costs can of course vary, based on licensing on certain platforms; time and materials; resources, and channels in which you choose to deploy the assets; but in order for ABM to be effective, you need to invest enough budget and time into it.
- Do you have the right resources to create the content? From copywriters, to videographers, to graphic designers, content creation can require a whole suite of creatives to bring it all to life.
Once you have that all covered and confirmed, then it’s time to start producing your assets.
Starting with tissue sessions are an in-person mind mapping meeting. Coming up with multiple concepts first can help you to determine which will be best at showcasing that compelling narrative to your accounts.
Once concepts are agreed, it can then take anywhere between 2 to 6 weeks for creatives to bring those assets to life.
From visually rich content such as video, which can deliver more immersive, snappy experiences; to a personalised gift sent directly to the CEO. ABM provides you with endless opportunities to create memorable, unique moments with your target prospects. As you’re targeting a specific individual, group, or set of accounts, you have more opportunity to create something truly distinctive, with a message that ultimately resonates with those decision makers alone.
The more your content stands out from the regular B2B marketing noise, the more likely a C-suite will remember your brand and in turn, will win you bigger business.
Finally, when it comes to ABM content creation: collaboration is key. Throughout the entire end-to-end process, it’s important for the content creators and ABM teams to work together, to ensure that the needs of the strategic accounts are fully reflected at all times.
Setting clear rules and expectations for the content will also ensure that the right levels of customisation are met each time and resources are aware of their responsibilities and deadlines.
Here at AmbitionABM, we have delivered a plethora of unique, award-winning content for our clients. If you would like to learn more about how to create effective content for ABM, then get in touch with us today to see how we can help you.
