By John Lavey | Hammock President/COO
How can content be used to support account-based marketing (ABM)? We defined ABM in an earlier Idea Email this year, and as the concept has gained traction, we thought it deserved a closer look.
First, it’s important to determine what ABM is and isn’t. ABM is a targeted sales and marketing approach aimed at specific companies, and sometimes specific individuals in those companies. ABM marketing is the opposite of a “top-of-the-funnel” approach, where you’re hoping to attract leads. Instead, ABM uses helpful content all along the customer journey in order to build longer, deeper relationships with specific individuals.
Next, consider the following principles of effective content use to support ABM:
- Be highly focused. Make it your mission to solve strategic challenges that concern decision-makers and those who influence them. Taking the time to have targeted discussions with your customers will lead you to content that works.
- Educate. Instructive, training-centered content naturally supports your ABM efforts. (Or, as we often say, “help, not hype.”) Focus on developing “collective teaching” or “collective learning” content aimed at the buying team.
- Coordinate marketing with sales. The metrics that matter most for ABM are sales. Your marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) should look a lot like your sales KPIs. Again, ABM is not a top-of-the-funnel strategy where leads or traffic is the key metric—ABM is about serving individuals and small teams.
Takeaway: ABM relies on good content. As long as the approach is targeted, helpful to a decision-making team and coordinated with your sales approach, then it’s a great strategic fit. Even if you aren’t fully employing ABM, these are principles worth adopting whenever marketing to healthcare providers.
Photo: Getty Images
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here . To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here.