An ABM strategy is proven to accelerate the buyer’s journey when companies create perceived personalized experiences that show prospective buyers that they:
- Are demonstrating a better understanding of their business vertical
- Are sharing relevant content and meaningful insights about their company or industry
- Are interested in developing a relationship
Naturally, businesses like yours may be concerned about scaling individual accounts at that level of customization since only about 3% of the marketplace is ready to engage in the sales process at any given moment. However, you don’t need to create completely custom content for individual accounts or specific businesses. The secret to a successful ABM strategy is to gain a better understanding of what a specific set of target accounts have in common and how you can speak to that target market with a singular message.
Repurpose content to do more with less marketing resources
One marketing strategy to “do more with less” is creating ABM touchpoints by customizing your existing content and marketing campaigns to better engage key accounts. For instance, if you’ve already invested in a whitepaper or custom research report, you can extend its value and squeeze more out of your marketing efforts by repurposing and customizing it for your ABM program. Read on to uncover ideas on how to do precisely that.
Offer your content in different formats
Repurposing and delivering your content in different formats is one of the easiest marketing approaches you can take with your ABM campaign efforts to better reach your high-value accounts. Why? Because everyone learns and responds differently based on how information is presented. Some people are visual and prefer videos. Auditory learners absorb information best from podcasts. Readers prefer to take in information through the written word in reports. Kinesthetic learners want to discover for themselves how something works. Naturally, you want your ABM prospects to absorb your information, so try dripping it out in different formats to resonate.
Create layers of customized content
The key to the ABM approach is delivering impactful content that speaks to the specific needs of your target account list. That’s how you pique a prospect’s interest. While you likely don’t have the capacity to create completely custom marketing messages for every prospect in the ABM pyramid, you can repurpose master content into segments like:
- Business verticals (different industries)
- Business size or type
- Pain points
- Seniority levels
Even this semi-custom content at the bottom two levels of the ABM pyramid can set you apart from your competitors by helping you build a relationship with your best prospects that reflect your ICP
8 ideas to optimize existing assets like whitepapers and custom research reports for ABM:
1. Personalized email campaigns using a white paper
Isolate key whitepaper insights that matter most to a specific segment of your ABM audience. Then, create a personalized email nurture campaign that addresses those insights. Link to your white paper but take a couple of touches to pull out the critical points for your vertical. If you can, share how it’s relevant for their business.
HOT TIP: If you’re a part of the white paper creation, ask the team to address their specific concerns that resonate with your key business verticals or break down data responses by type of business, vertical, size, key stakeholders, or other relevant categories. Planning this data breakdown in advance will give you the structure you need to segment the data later.
2. Case studies
Review your case studies to see how they align with the problems of your ABM prospects. Prospective customers react best to examples that most closely align with their business. If you don’t have actual examples, you may need to make the connection for them. Explain how the case study challenges are relatable to their situation. Rework your generic case study information to more closely speak to the specific pain points of your ABM targets. Highlight how the specific company featured in the case study used your solution to solve a problem or achieve a goal and how that relates to the specific accounts you are targeting. If possible, highlight quotes from your case study that align with the level of your ABM prospects.
HOT TIP: You can create multiple versions of the case study to send to specific levels of ABM prospects, depending on your priorities. Remember that C-level decision-makers, directors, managers, and other team members have different pain points and needs.
3. Customized presentations
Use your white paper or custom research report to create a slide deck presentation of highlights as an executive summary. Consider further customizing by prospect seniority, different industries, or even pain points. Don’t worry if you already sent the personalized nurture campaign of the same white paper. Remember that prospects often need upwards of 30 touchpoints to respond.
4. Customized videos
Expand your customized slide deck presentations to create a story narrative video highlighting specific solutions and benefits your target accounts can gain using the whitepaper insights. Make it as simple as a voiceover explainer video or an executive talking head video. For your highest-value accounts, consider creating personalized video messages. You can even use a tool like Loom to overlay the custom message on a simple slide deck.
5. Personalized landing pages
Many sales teams looking to close enterprise-level deals create personalized landing pages for best-fit accounts like highest-value accounts like 1:1 ABM target accounts. If these landing pages are a part of your 1:1 account-bsed marketing plan, customize your white papers so you can add the content to these pages. Highlight whitepaper insights most relevant to each prospect’s specific needs and pain points. You must show them why it matters to their business.
6. Direct mail touchpoints
Break through the digital clutter by using direct mail for specific high-value ABM accounts, featuring the most relevant whitepaper key learnings. Our favorite way to use direct mail is to send something small, clever, and relevant that reinforces a salient point from the white paper. For example, we once sent mini drones (as they rose in popularity) to reflect the value of zooming out to see your business insights from a higher point of view. We also nearly always add a short, handwritten note from sales for added personalization effect. The best performing direct mail packages feel like they have the personal touch. Integrating direct mail touchpoints into a multichannel approach boosts the response from emails, calls, and LinkedIn or SMS direct messages. Studies show that the cumulative effect of various channels is more significant than any singular approach.
7. Mini demonstration
Depending on the narrative in your whitepaper or research report, consider directly connecting to your solution by creating a short demonstration highlighting precisely how your best ABM target accounts can benefit. For instance, if your whitepaper shows how automation in a specific department increases productivity by 25%, create a mini demonstration video that shows how that would work for a specific prospect. As with other ABM marketing content, you can create multiple versions for different segments. The more customization, the better.
8. Customized webinars
Another solid account-based marketing strategy for existing content is to create customized webinars for your best-fit accounts if your whitepaper or research report contains rich insights. The core content of the webinar can be repurposed for ABM segments by surrounding it with customized intros and closes.
Repurposing whitepapers and custom research reports for your ABM program is a perfect way to tailor your messaging to the specific needs and pain points of the target accounts and show authority and build trust while increasing the ROI of the whitepaper investment without starting from scratch.