Wednesday 25 April 2018

How Content can play as your hidden sales force


Your product or service may be something to write home about. But it is the content you “write” about that product or service that will drive your sales target “home”.
Yes, content marketing is the new strategy that has become inevitable for your overall marketing strategies or plans.
Content as a concept has moved from its prevalence in just lead generation process for a business, and has gained immense importance in processes beyond.
Erstwhile content driven sales qualified leads pass into the periphery of the sales team whereas in the subsequent stages of sales, the content passes into almost nothingness.   
This often leaves the potential customers or buyers in a maze of indecision due to lack of answers for his/her corollary questions once the interest about a product or service is generated. This is resulted from the lack of coordination between sales team and marketing side, results in a long and cumbersome sales process and buyer or customer mulls over the value your product will add or whether he/she needs that product.
Here comes much decisive power of your content that can actually assure your customer about the value your product and service will add or guide your customer or buyer in his or her decision making, conveying the answers that customers or buyers seek. So, how to fully unleash the potential of your content to boost your sales force.
The answer is simply creating content for each stage of sales process. No doubt, the companies have realized the important role your content can play at each stage of sales process, making it faster for your potential customers and your company.
What more, scope of content marketing can be manifested through traditional as well coming of age medium such as Social media, blog articles, websites, videos etc. 
To generate content that can make impact on sales better coordination between marketing and sales teams is a prerequisite. Content is invariably considered to be a creation solely for marketing purpose. Yes, it is. But creation of a good content takes into account the perspective of customers and sales team equally.
Often sales team members are found lacking in keeping a track of the content created by the marketing team that is available for use to them, and often even if they need content customized content for their sales strategy, the marketing side is found lacking.
Sales and marketing may be independent of each other but when it comes to the question of creating content that can seal the deal, the sales and marketing teams must put their acts together.
Inputs - such as sales insights, target audience, questions they face upfront from customers – all can from the sales team can help marketing team create precise content for every step of sales and a buyer’s journey with the company. This will also help unraveling gaps in your content, identify questions at each stage of the sales cycle and weather doubts about the products via content.
Creating content with these inputs will give you the opportunity to address them and if your sales people didn’t see the content beforehand, they are now armed with relevant content that they can use to help close the deal.
It is a continuous process which is refined with the changing company goals and market dynamics.
Now, with equal measures, content can be better synchronized with potential buyers or customers, their needs and ways to reach them.
Identify your target customers or buyers, followed by identifying their needs and their sources or channels for accessing information related to products and service that fulfill their needs. Accordingly, the platforms can be used for delivering customized content laden with right information that they need. 
Customer experience is of utmost importance in a business which starts from a potential customer or buyers’ interests in your product and services but continues with the product life cycle. Hence, delivering right value right through is a commitment which starts with delivering right content. Selection of content options (Website, Blog, White papers, Infographics, Social media, Conferences, Case studies, PR, Sales sheets, Videos) based on target audiences and platform plays a key role. These exercises will surface the best content options to drive your business forward, and make it easier to decide what to focus on.
Right content, created in tandem with sales insights can make great impact on target customers or buyers to drive your sales performance.

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