I've had a couple of conversations this week about using content to target prospects. A common question was "How do I make this piece of content more targeted?".

The theory behind Account-Based Marketing and Social Selling is that it starts with the account and who within the account you need to influence, not with your company's offering. 

Understanding the pain points, needs and even personal drives of your target are all extremely useful and can help shape the approach that will best suit that person. Some simple research into what your prospect is liking, writing and engaging with online should give you lots of the information you need. Have they recently contributed to a blog, podcast or whitepaper? Have they lent their expertise to a newspaper article or even done some charity work? 

Each piece of information you find out about someone builds into the bigger picture of who they are and what they care about. 

Once you have that insight, think about where they are most active and having conversations. This will shape where you share content so that it is seen by your target. Is this LinkedIn, Twitter, WeChat or are they mysteriously absent from social? Perhaps, in this case, they are present on panel discussions or talk at events?

At Passle, we then follow the "create deliberately, share strategically" rule. Create a post that will resonate with your prospect. This could address a pain point of theirs, a campaign they are aligned with or could be your thoughts on a recent article they have written, to suggest a few.

Once done, make sure you share to the social networks you know they are present on. Name-checking on LinkedIn and Twitter is an exceptionally easy and effective and you don't need to be connected with the person to do this. (If they aren't on social, check for those that work with them, or their company's corporate social accounts).

Finally, to make sure your arrow hits the bullseye, send the content to them directly. At Passle we use our Expert-to-Expert tool ISTATOY (I saw this and thought of you) to send a piece of Passle content directly. A feedback engine is built in so you can see when that person opens and engages with their content. You can easily do this from your own email, just make sure you stay on the right side of GDPR..

Even if this process is followed perfectly, it may fail to generate that 6 figure opportunity or secure that meeting. These are steps that compliment everything you are already doing to open that opportunity or win that business. All touch points and nudges are a good thing! After all a toe in the door could one day lead to a foot.

Now that you have your targeted content, the great thing is your post won't just resonate with one, but will likely resonate with many. 

Give it a go!

This is an absolutely brilliant way of thinking about it - More aiming, less shooting by Kyle Hughes of Applied Influence group.