If you think this will be an SEO or paid play, you are wrong !!
In this article, I will walk you through how I combine ABM and content marketing to generate leads and produce expert-sourced content that your competitors can’t copy.
This is not a sustainable way of generating leads, but if you are an early-stage startup and you want to generate leads through content, this tactic is perfect for you
Doing ABM with content is very similar to traditional ABM. You will pick a list of people that could be your potential customer and reach out to them to get their quotes on the content you are writing. When you do this, you are more likely to get their response and introduce your brand to them.
I think this method is much better than cold outreach, you get to introduce your brand to your audience, and you also get to create really good content.
Below are the 7 step process you can use to do ABM through content.
The first thing to do is to create your prospect list. This should be formed from people who could be your customer. Look back at your past customers and try to identify the ones with:
Based on the criteria above, try to come up with a list of people you can reach out. You can use Linkedin to build your list.
The topic should be closely related to the problem you are solving, and it should also be something that your ICP feels comfortable contributing.
For example, if your tool helps salespeople to do lead prioritization, your topic could be “How to do lead prioritization for best results?”
The reason why you should go after a topic that is closely related to the problem you are solving is that if someone is interested in that topic, chances are high that they are having that problem, and they could be your customer
Although the main purpose of this tactic is to introduce yourself to your ICP, it is still important that the content generated is useful and high quality. You don't necessarily have to optimize this content for SEO, but you need to ensure the content flows naturally.
Your content type will be an expert interview roundup. You will gather quotes from various experts and summarize them in your article.
If your content is about the problem you are solving, you can add a section at the end of the article and write about how your product can solve the problem. Use videos, gifs and interactive demos to educate your readers better.
Here are some examples of expert roundup articles:
I like to use Linkedin to reach out to my ICP. It’s fairly easy to find and filter people if you are using a sales navigator, but since most people have the basic or premium version of LinkedIn, I am going to show you how you can use vanilla Linkedin to find your audience
When you are done with creating a list, you can send a connection request and wait for them to accept. I usually don’t add any notes while adding connection requests, as this looks more natural and less salesy.
Once your connection request is accepted, you can send a message similar to the one below to invite your guest for a call
“Hey John, I am writing an article for [company name], and I would love to have a contribution from a top B2B SaaS marketing expert such as yourself. Please let me know if you are interested in contributing so that we can schedule a 15 mins call”
Take your time to personalize the message, and don’t forget to give genuine compliments.
Make sure that you do your preparation before the interview. List down all the questions you will be asking to get the best contribution possible. Make sure that you have the necessary tools to record the interview
Please avoid:
- Selling your product
- Formality
- Asking about the information you could find publicly
When you are on the call, don’t go straight for the questions, have some casual conversation, and briefly introduce your company and the problem you are solving. It’s important to mention the problem you are solving briefly, this will be your hook to draw his/her interest to do more research about your company later on
Once you finish your interviews, you could send the audio records or transcripts to your writer and the content brief you prepared earlier. You could also try to write the content by yourself, I like to outsource it, though:)
Before you publish, make sure to send the draft version of the article to contributors to get their approval. You can also ask them if they want a link to their profile or company page.
If you want to get eyeballs on your content from day one, there are a couple of things you can do, and today, I am going to cover two of these methods
As soon as you publish, you need to tag all your contributors. When someone engages with your content, you also piggyback on their audience. Anytime someone likes or leaves a comment on your post, all the other people in their network will see the content as well.
When you publish the content, send it to your contributors and ask for their feedback on the article. Use email or LinkedIn to distribute the article
It’s hard to do outreach without annoying your persona, and it’s even harder to stand out amongst all the pitches your ICP is receiving.
You hit 2 birds with one stone. By using this method you are getting expert sources of content and also doing outreach at the same time.
This method helps you to do a warm intro for your product without forcing hard selling. You get a chance to hop on a call with your ICP, and you can soft-sell your product during the conversation
