Sales and marketing alignment is important whether you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner, or an innovator. It pays to fill the gap between promotion and customer acquisition.
There’s been a sizable disconnect between sales and marketing teams, creating industry-wide splits, hot-button issues, and communication rifts.
About 49 percent of sales and marketing executives consider communication to be a team-dividing factor.
The Internet of Things has widened the gap between marketing strategies and success, making the area where sales and marketing converge a place of booming business.
If you want to use content marketing to elevate your sales department, you’ll need to keep the following at the heart of your strategy:
Lead Generation
First, take note of lead generation. Plenty of evidence supports the importance of better leads.
Because most buyers are a third of the way into their purchasing journey before contacting a sales team, marketing teams have a unique responsibility: Attract as many consumers as possible.
Content is the honey which attracts buying bees. If your content stands out from a competitor’s, it’ll be about 93 percent more effective at buyer education.
It will also be about 88% more effective than leading alternatives where brand differentiation is considered.
Customized Content
No one likes run-of-the-mill, keyword-jammed content. Modern content consumers won’t stick around for wooden, regurgitated content.
They want content which displays personal interest. If you can pack the consumer’s preferences into a solid content strategy, it’ll synergize with your sales strategy.
The key, here, is cohesion. Sales, itself, is an intimate process. Start-ups are failing due to insincere, repeated, content.
Customer-First Interactions
In an online world packed with white noise, formulaic shopping experiences and predictable marketing ploys, a little flexibility goes a long way.
Potential customers interact with high-quality content. They also stick around if the provider bends to their communication needs.
What does this mean? It means you’ll need to extend your platform to accommodate for mobile connectivity, social media eCommerce and even location-based mobile services.
If you have the data available, use it. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, you’ll need to target ready-to-buy consumers with multiple entryways. Further communication is expected to result in a 70-percent conversion boost.
Find the Benefits and Promote Them Via Content
Your brand’s real benefits matter. Website visitors won’t care about bland product and service content. They will, however, stick around for material which shows brand value.
This goes double for mobile, considering it’s a quick-look platform for quick-browse shopping. If you can, get visitors to subscribe to your blog. Today’s successful brands offer an experience, not simple products.
Takeaways
Regardless of your soon-to-be content marketing plan, your success, in the sales department, relies on your ability to connect with consumers, promote yourself appropriately and gauge customer responses.
Be confident, and prioritize high-value interactions. At the end of the day, sales thrive in cycles—not in one-shot communication efforts.
Smarketing is revamping age-old sales and marketing tactics.
Robert G is a freelance business and marketing writer with WriterAccess. See how hiring a freelance writer can help you bridge the gap between sales and marketing.
