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Aligning Content Marketing and Sales Satrategy
Sales strategy and content marketing are mostly considered to be two distinct areas in a business, yet when aligned, they can help your business reach new heights. Sales are about getting more deals for your business, while content marketing is all about the methods used to achieve those deals. Content marketing can be in the form of articles, blogs, white papers, etc. Businesses publish content that helps them drive sales, which is why content marketing and a sales strategy should be interconnected. For instance, the material you posted on your blog, can help you connect the brand with your customers, hence, increasing sales. The following paragraphs will explain the importance of aligning your content marketing strategy with your sales strategy.
The significance of Content Marketing in Sales
Sales add value to your content. Let’s consider that you have a company blog and you are getting a vast number of visitors every month, and it is working pretty well for you. However, without monetizing those viewers, you will not be able to create any value. To generate revenue, some content marketers make use of affiliate links and advertising. However, for those who don’t utilize these assets, aligning with sales and turning readers into potential customers is the best road to success.
Furthermore, both the mediums can be used to get a better understanding of your target audience. With content marketing, you have the opportunity to connect with the audience, to make them aware and familiar with your brand. For instance, a sales representative is in touch with the prospects at all times; they can avail this opportunity to understand the needs, issues, and preferences of their customers. This information can then be used to produce content that will provide more value to customers and increase engagement.
Along with this, if both sales and marketing work together, they can benefit the company by sharing information and making better decisions. For example, the sales team can inform the marketing team regarding the behavior of leads, whereas, the marketing team can provide information regarding the interactions and comments of the readers. Both sides with this help and necessary information can work on improving their approaches.
Generating Leads and Getting Conversions
To generate leads and get more conversions would require you to optimize your content, which you might be already doing. However, what you can do is add a small section on your blog page which describes what your company is, what values they believe in, and what benefits they offer. This will get the readers to become familiar with your company, and people usually make purchases from the brands they are aware of. Additionally, using a call to action technique would make it even better for you. You can add a contact form that will help generate leads. This, along with the interesting content you are producing will help you get more leads for the sales team.
Many individuals don’t understand the difference between getting more conversions and getting better conversions. It is always better to get, for instance, three valuable leads than to have a dozen uninterested leads. Producing content that is only focused on the preferences of interested leads would help you filter out the uninterested ones. With some help from the sales team, your marketing team can come up with topics that are better targeted and have a relevant call to action at the end of each post. This is how you would be able to generate interested and valuable leads.
Understanding Consumer Preferences
The experience of sales professionals can be utilized to come up with valuable and better content. Your sales team is in touch with customers, and they can understand what problems they are facing and how can the company assist them in solving those problems. Furthermore, they can also learn about their preferences and needs through discussions. This information can then be shared with the marketing team so that they can produce topics that will be targeted towards the issues and interests of your target audience.
Tips for Bridging the Gap between Content Marketing and Sales
Assistance. To take the two departments alongside, they need to be good at their separate tasks. If they’re not performing well individually, they indeed cannot function well together. However, there is a need for independence for each. Both the teams need to work on their strategies; however, assisting each other in attaining the objectives would be better for both.
Settings. Create an environment where the employees of both teams feel comfortable with each other. This is how they will be able to communicate effectively and help each other with their approach. Furthermore, it is better to segment your target audience as much as possible. You can then divide and assign each sales rep to focus on one segment and also learn which content type made them convert.
Measurement. To get meaningful insights regarding the performance of your team, you need to measure everything in terms of the outcomes that you want to achieve. Take everything into consideration, especially factors like comments of readers and social shares. Collaboration and communication are two key elements that will help you effectively reach your business goals. It would be best if you also defined your leads clearly to both the departments. Both the teams should also establish a service level agreement.
