Episode Summary
Account-based podcasting is not a full blown ABM strategy And if youre looking to use your podcast as a way to create leads youre doing it all wrong
In this episode of Recorded Content Justin Brown chats with Declan Mulkeen the CMO of strategicabm Declans company helps companies win grow and retain their most valuable accounts through true account-based marketing strategies Declan also hosts the Lets Talk ABM podcast and uncovers how other marketers are using ABM to generate revenue
During the conversation Justin and Declan talk about why ABM is a marathon and not a sprint The two discuss the different layers involved with an effective ABM strategy and uncover how a podcast can fit into a companys plan
According to Declan podcasting consists of three main parts the guest the topics and the audience Unfortunately Declan explains podcast hosts focus on guests and topicsand neglect the audience And when you forget about the audiences needswants your companys podcast is on track for failure
Declan and Justin also discuss the importance of repurposing content According to Declan not everyone will sign up to listen to an entire podcast episode People either dont have time or interest to watch or listen to hour-long content So if you want to attract as many listeners or views as possible you need to adjust your content to a format they like to consume
Guest Profile
Name: Declan Mulkeen
What he does: Declan is a leader in ABM and serves as the CMO of strategicabm
Company: strategicabm
Noteworthy: Declan has built a career as a CMO in the SaaS Professional Services and EdTech sectors Today he helps B2B tech brands win grow and retain the most valuable accounts He is also the author of the Lets Talk ABM podcast
Key Insights
- ABM is a marathon not a sprint Declans job is to help companies grow by implementing the ABM strategy However companies must be aware that ABM is not a good fit for every type of business In fact as our guest explains ABM is ideal for companies that target mid-market to enterprise organizations It is because AMB requires a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of resources ABM is a much more of a holistic account-centric approach to either winning growing and or retaining your most important accounts and thats the position that we take when we talk to the market
- Is there an overlap in where account-based podcasting can fit into an account-based strategy One of the newest phrases among podcast creators especially in the B2B space is account-based podcasting Although not entirely defined the phrase came from ABM account-based marketing If an account-based strategy can be used in podcasting heres how it should look like It all comes down to content When youre engaging with the accounts that youre looking to win or influence or accounts that youre looking to grow you have to be able to put a value proposition When you think about podcasting youve got the guests the subject matter that you choose to interview them about and youve got the audience that you want to consume that content Once you start building up a number of followers you have to be a bit careful If youre solely thinking about the guests and youre not thinking about the audience you might end up committing the cardinal sin of eating your baby so to speak
- Not everyone wants to sign up to listen to each full episode Declan and Justin agree that repurposing your content is the key to success Being creative and promoting your work on as many channels as possible is the proven recipe So many golden nuggets come out of these interviews and sometimes theyre lost within that 30 minutes So the key thing for the audience that youre looking to reach through this account-based strategy is how you can pull out those nuggets and make them available in a fashion and a mode that they want to consume Because not everyone wants to listen to or watch a webinar Most people spend 80 of their time producing content and 20 of their time promoting it My advice to everyone is to flip that and to spend 80 of your time promoting content and probably do less content but do it better
Episode Highlights
The Foundation of Account-Based Marketing ABM
It goes back about 20 years and Bev Burgess who coined the term account-based marketing even she admits today that perhaps the M for marketing isnt the best term because its a lot more organizational-wide It impacts sales it impacts customer success it impacts the whole organization So if you take account-based as the roots then thats all about working out which clients accounts do you want to have more of how can you find them and how can you win them So that is primarily the premise of account-based marketing
What is Required for a Company to do ABM Effectively
The first thing we say to companies when we engage with them to have a conversation about whether ABM is a good fit for them is are they targeting mid-market to enterprise organizations Because if youre targeting SME SMB ABM is not going to be a good fit
What is the average order value of the service or the product that you sell If its not at least 30 40 50000 per annum ABM is not going to be a good fit for you because ABM requires a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of resources
ABM is a much more holistic account-centric approach to either winning growing and or retaining your most important accounts and thats the position that we take when we talk to the market
The First Rule of Content Marketing Create Great Content
If you create great content the audience will naturally navigate to that great content and will want to read it So the upside comes with the SEO with the engagement that comes downstream the upside comes with potential contact form fills downloads whatever metric you have in place to measure the impact of your content strategy
The Consumption of the Long-Form Videos is Lower than the Consumption of the Short-Form
Content that you publish through platforms such as LinkedIn but even LinkedIn doesnt want you to leave their platform So they are giving priority to content that stays that keeps you staying in the channel So publishing a little snippet publishing a short sixty-second video youre going to get a lot more reaction there than people come into your website So the key thing is to mix it up and get a little bit creative with your content
A Piece of Advice for Future Podcast Creators
Start close to home Start with that network of individuals and companies that are very close to your company And after that draw up a list of people you respect in your space people you believe have got something worth sharing
If youre in a fortunate position where you can call on people that have got that level of expertise and reach thats brilliant If not start with your customers start with people close to you and start building out Ultimately podcasting has a domino effect Once you start knocking down the dominoes it gets easier and easier and easier