In the dynamic marketing landscape, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has emerged as a powerful approach to target high-value prospects and build stronger, more personalized relationships.
This development has come out of necessity – copy-and-paste outreach to a large number of prospects just doesn’t cut it anymore. In fact, 70% of brands have opted to ditch the cold outreach and focus on ABM in 2023.
In this blog post, we explore the dynamic realm of ABM and how you can elevate your marketing efforts by integrating a dynamic medium – the branded podcast.
Understanding ABM strategies
First things first: what is ABM?
Account-Based Marketing, or ABM, is a highly targeted and personalized marketing strategy that focuses on engaging with specific, high-value accounts rather than casting a wide net across the entire market.
This approach allows companies to tailor their messaging and content to resonate deeply with the needs and pain points of individual prospects and decision-makers within those key accounts.
By aligning marketing and sales efforts in a coordinated manner, ABM creates a more personalized and meaningful experience for potential clients, increasing the likelihood of converting them into long-term, loyal customers.
Here’s where branded podcasts come in
A branded podcast is an audio series created and produced by a company, where the content aligns with the brand's values, expertise, and target audience's interests. Unlike many forms of traditional advertising, branded podcasts should not be “sales-y.”
Instead, branded podcasts allow businesses to share their stories, insights, and industry knowledge in a compelling and entertaining way, establishing themselves as thought leaders and building a genuine connection with their listeners.
From the likes of *list of brands that have great branded podcasts*, branded podcasts have played a pivotal role in growing the reach and relationships with existing and new customers.
Integrating your branded podcast with ABM strategies
Now, imagine the potential when you combine ABM with a branded podcast. By incorporating this compelling audio medium into your ABM strategy, you can create bespoke content that directly speaks to the specific challenges and interests of your target accounts.
This personalized touch enhances your chances of forging stronger relationships and gaining a deeper understanding of your prospects' needs. In fact, 89% of marketers see a positive ROI when they use personalization in their campaigns.
Now, let’s dive into practical tips and insights on how to seamlessly integrate your branded podcast with your ABM efforts.
Identify and understand your target audience
The first step in any successful ABM strategy is understanding your target audience. Identify the key accounts you want to engage and understand their pain points, challenges, and interests. Conduct thorough research to gain insights into their preferences and needs.
These should be high-value accounts that align with your ideal customer profile and have the potential to generate significant revenue for your business. This information will guide the content creation for your branded podcast, ensuring it resonates with your ideal customers.
Some things to consider when identifying your ideal accounts include:
- Company size
- Annual revenue
- Industry
- Budget
- Location
Create valuable, targeted podcast content
Once you have a clear understanding of your target audience, focus on creating valuable and relevant content for your branded podcast. Delivering high-quality and insightful content is crucial to building trust and credibility with your prospects.
Here are some examples of high-quality, valuable content that you can feature in your branded podcast:
Guest features
The ideal guests will depend on your podcast's niche, goals, and target audience, but a good quality guest typically falls into one of these categories: industry experts, successful entrepreneurs, and CEOs, thought leaders, authors and researchers, and accomplished influencers. When it comes to choosing your guest, try to place yourself in your target listener’s shoes. Who would they want to hear from? What value and insights does this guest provide?
Trend analysis
Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in your industry or niche. Keep an eye on news sources, social media, industry publications, and expert insights to identify emerging trends that are relevant to your audience and align with your brand's focus. We suggest gathering data, statistics, case studies, and expert opinions to provide a well-rounded, objective analysis.
Address industry challenges and solutions
Importantly, don't just highlight challenges; also provide actionable solutions and strategies. A good way to do this is to share success stories of individuals or businesses that have overcome challenges or capitalized on opportunities within your industry. This can inspire and motivate your audience and they will appreciate actionable advice they can apply to their own endeavors.
Position your brand as a thought leader
Feeding into the previous point, relevant industry content can only come from a trusted source – and a branded podcast serves as an excellent platform to showcase your brand's thought leadership.
By sharing valuable insights, original research, and valuable guest interviews, you can establish brand authority and credibility, making your target accounts more likely to consider your solutions.
Personalize your approach
Personalization is crucial for an effective ABM strategy. By delivering personalized experiences, ABM can build stronger relationships and drive higher conversion rates, ultimately leading to improved sales and increased revenue.
Utilize the data and personas collected from your target accounts to customize podcast content to suit their specific needs and preferences.
Now, we understand that you can’t make a personalized podcast for your different target accounts, and if you did, it’s a large lift. To add personalization in a mass medium like branded podcasts, we suggest:
- Referencing the account’s pain points
- Tailoring your content to align with their industry challenges
- Offering potential solutions (without being too promotional of course)
Personalization helps create a deeper connection, showing that you understand their business and are genuinely invested in their success.
Promote and distribute strategically
A successful branded podcast requires effective promotion and distribution. Leverage your existing marketing channels to reach your target accounts and find out where else they live online.
Promote episodes through avenues like social media, blog posts, personalized emails/outreach, industry publications, and create a dedicated page for your podcast on your website.
Measure and analyze performance
Tracking the performance of your branded podcast is essential to gauge its impact on your ABM strategy and brand overall.
Here are some metrics we recommend tracking and tools we suggest leveraging:
B2B Analytics:
B2B Analytics is a game-changer for brands and agencies. CoHost’s B2B Analytics provides in-depth insights into what companies are listening to your podcast including size, industry, average revenue, and location across listening apps. These metrics can be used to attribute marketing leads, identify engagement touchpoints, and ensure you’re hitting the right target audience which is critical for AMB strategies.
Tracking Links:
Tracking links take your marketing efforts to the next level by showing you what sources your podcast downloads are coming from. Importantly, this allows you to visualize the data of each tracking link and episode to see what content audiences are engaging with across platforms. Ultimately, tracking links is key when deciding what channels to nurture and which to place on the back burner.
Podcast ROI:
Your podcast ROI gives a clear picture of exactly how your podcast is leading back to your business outcomes. It’s calculated into a percentage number based on a variety of factors like the amount of money you’ve invested into your podcast, the number of listeners you have for each episode, or your consumption rate.
Consumption Rate:
The consumption rate tells you how much of a podcast episode listeners are listening to before dropping off. If you notice listeners are consistently dropping off at a certain point, it’s important to analyze the reason why – did the content get too sale-y? Did an ad run a little too long? We suggest aiming for an average consumption rate of 70%
We suggest leveraging these key metrics and tools to refine your content strategy and continuously improve your podcast's relevance and resonance with target accounts.
Nurture relationships
A branded podcast is not just a one-way communication channel; it's an opportunity to foster deeper relationships with your prospects.
First-hand feedback from listeners is a powerful tool. Because you’re putting in the time, effort, and personalization to nurture these accounts, it is important to know what is working and what isn’t.
Take time to analyze your reviews to pick out suggestions that can be implemented into your podcast. For instance, maybe listeners are looking for a certain type of guest, style or format, discussion point, and so on. Let your listeners assist in guiding the direction of your show.
Engage with your audience by encouraging feedback, answering questions, and responding to comments. Create a community around your podcast to facilitate meaningful conversations between your brand and potential customers.
How do branded podcasts fit into your ABM strategy?
Ultimately, combining the personalization and precision of ABM with the authenticity and connective power of a podcast can take your marketing efforts to new heights.
A branded podcast offers a unique and immersive way to engage prospects, delivering valuable insights and showcasing your expertise while building trust and credibility. Additionally, it provides an opportunity to nurture relationships, driving long-term loyalty and advocacy among your key accounts.
If you’re interested in learning more about branded podcasts, chat with our team!
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