I’m a strong believer that content strategy is at the core of successful marketing programs, especially account based marketing (ABM). Your plan and G2M may not start with content strategy, but you won’t get very far without one. In a noisy, fast-moving landscape, brands need more than a content calendar — they need a strong messaging framework to guide what they say, how they say it, and who they say it to.

When that framework informs a strategic content plan the result is messaging that resonates, content that converts, and marketing that supports revenue growth. This blog breaks down the role of a messaging framework and content strategy in powering effective, full-funnel marketing — from top-of-funnel engagement to bottom-of-funnel conversions — with a spotlight on how it plays in Account-Based Marketing (ABM) programs.

Messaging is the Backbone of a Brand

Over the course of my career, I’ve seen too many marketers jump into content creation without really thinking about what or why they are creating. I understand their intention and sense of urgency. So many of us have felt the always-present pressures of delivering leads to the sales team. In fact, sometimes that’s what we are judged on. The quantity, not the quality. But creating content just to have content is wildly misguided. Before teams start launching campaigns, spinning up blog posts, and scheduling social media, they need to understand (or establish) a messaging framework.

A messaging framework is the brand’s backbone — a strategic tool that defines what you say, how you say it, and why it matters. In its simplest form, a messaging house should contain these core components:

Turn Messaging Into Content Strategy

Too often, I have clients that just throw out ideas and topics without thinking through the customer journey. They tend to think about each piece of content in a silo and in the same format. I counsel them to refer back to their messaging and brand narrative and think in-depth about a topic, from top-of-funnel (ToF) to middle-of-funnel (MoF) to bottom-of-funnel (BoF). And, I encourage varied content formats.

Content strategy is the bridge between your brand’s message and your audience’s needs. It brings your messaging to life through purposeful planning, channel strategy, and content creation that meets buyers wherever they are in their journey.

A true content strategy answers:

• What content are we creating?
• Why are we creating it?
• Who is it for?
• Where will it live?
• How will we measure its success?

Here’s how to turn your messaging into an effective content engine:

1. Align content to messaging pillars. If you’ve built your messaging house correctly, you have your main pillars for content already defined, and each pillar ladders up to the brand’s value drivers.
2. Map content to the buyer’s journey.  While your messaging should remain consistent and align to your core brand message, not all prospects are in the same place on their buyer journey. It’s important to create messaging for each stage of the funnel, using different formats, tones and CTA’s as appropriate.
   • ToF  – educating and building brand awareness. Prospects are problem aware but not ready to make a purchase. Examples of content include landing pages, blog posts, infographics, videos, and podcasts.
   • MoF – prospects are aware of your brand and have begun to express an interest and engage with your brand. Building trust is a large part of this stage, and you should start to segment your audience and consider personalizing content. How-to guides, customer success stories, webinars, tutorials and comparison guides are good examples of MoF content. Show off your expertise and your position as a leader in the industry. Pro Tip:avoid the hard sell. Customers don’t like that!
   • BoF: Highly personalized and designed to showcase your product’s value and convert leads. Product demos, case studies, 1:1 emails and ads, and use cases are often used here. The intent to encourage the prospect to take the next step – make a purchase, request a demo, or contact sales.
3. Tailor content to your target personas. This one is fairly straightforward. Consider your audiences and make sure that your content reflects that. CEOs and CFOs may have different needs than a director of operations or program manager.

A Strong Content Strategy is Foundational to ABM

When you build your content as I’ve outlined, you’ve already set yourself up for success with an account based marketing program.  ABM is a high-touch strategy that thrives on relationships, trust, and credibility, and it’s highly effective and cost efficient.

By design, it targets each stage of the funnel and closely monitors engagement levels to understand where a prospect is in their customer journey. ABM programs produce a lot of data and insights that help inform the next steps for a prospect, including how personalized and customized the content is you put in front of them. This allows brands to deepen engagement, accelerate deal cycles, and drive higher-value opportunities. Learn more about account based marketing.

Here you will find a chart that shows content across the ABM funnel. Thinking about what your end goals are helps to plan out your content pieces to ensure you have addressed all areas.

Measure What Matters: Optimize for Impact

Creating great content rooted in smart messaging is just the beginning. To prove value and improve performance, you need to measure what matters – at every stage of the funnel. A content strategy aligned to your messaging framework and ABM program should be just as strategic in its measurement and optimizations.

Here are some key metrics to consider:

Track Account Engagement, Not Just Leads

Another important thing to note: use an account-centric view when considering your metrics. It’s no longer about tracking a single lead or person, but the account as a whole.

• Account penetration: Are key personas engaging?
• Engagement velocity: How quickly are accounts moving through the funnel?
• Buying committee coverage: Are multiple stakeholders consuming content?
• Sales lift: Are deals closing faster or at higher value with ABM content?

Platforms like 6sense, Demandbase, Propensity or Terminus can help tie these together into a single ABM dashboard.

Tie Content Back to Pipeline

It should go without saying that tracking your content is important. Use UTM tagging, link tracking, and content attribution models to understand:

• Which content types accelerate pipeline
• What messaging themes resonate most by persona/industry
• Which accounts are influenced by which assets

Pro Tip: Create a “content-to-pipeline” map each quarter to show how content aligns to opportunities, stages, and outcomes. This can help executives better understand the value that the right content brings to your marketing efforts.

Test, Learn, Iterate

The most successful teams treat content like a product: continuously improving it based on performance, feedback, and new data.

Build in a quarterly review process that includes:

• Top-performing content by stage/account type
• Underperforming content to revise or retire
• New messaging insights from sales calls or intent signals
• Gaps in the buyer journey or persona coverage

Use this intel to feed your next round of content planning — and keep evolving your strategy to stay aligned with the market.

Final Thoughts

When your messaging, content, and ABM activities are fully aligned, and you continuously learn and optimize, your entire go-to-market engine runs faster and more effectively.

This is how you shift messaging and content from a “nice to have” into a revenue-driving, relationship-deepening growth strategy.

And my final Pro Tip? Make sure everyone in your organization understands the messaging and brand narrative. It only works if everyone is singing in tune. Oh, and make sure sales in highly aligned with your activities. After all, one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to ABM is that it’s entirely marketing’s responsibility. It is not 😊!