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.

5 Mistakes SMEs Do in Marketing

Marketing makes or breaks a business, reason why big brands splurge on marketing on different platforms. However, just like every decision in business does not yield desired results, marketing too sometimes fail partly or out rightly. Big names or brands, can afford to forgo the wastage of time money in undesired results due to the cushion in budget. But small businesses or SMEs, in particular, do not get that cushion as they run short on time and resources and so there is little margin for error for SMEs.

This is not as much to say that SMEs should not think about using the power of marketing, they should know the right approach to marketing. Much as they need to know what to do in marketing, they should better know what not to do in marketing to avoid the common mistakes SMEs often commit.

If you are an owner of SME business or are mulling plans to start your own business, sooner or later, you should take note of these don’ts that will give your business the boost it needs to become a brand.

Not Believing in the Need of Marketing  

Some small business owners often have preconceived notions such as their business is too small to need marketing at all and they do not need marketing for their products to be sold. Certainly some products and services are strong enough to do that, but not until after people know about them. If you aren’t marketing your business because you think what you have to offer will handle it itself, then you are missing out on opportunities to earn new business, let alone establishing your business a brand.

Some time small business owners think they do not have the required budget to indulge in marketing. This idea stems from the lack of knowledge about or willingness to try new marketing approaches. Digital marketing is the new marketing technique which costs less than traditional marketing campaign and hence is suitable for small business owners or SMEs.

Not Having a Marketing Plan

SMEs often are found lacking in having a proper marketing plan for their business due to lack of clear vision about their own businesses i.e. what their business goals are, how is their business different from that of their competitors.

As a result, many a time, small business owners end up spending too much on adopting wrong marketing techniques. Like every plan in a business, marketing, too, should have a proper layout which is based on the insights about one’s own business and goals.

Not Having Online Presence    

Your marketing starts from having your presence on the internet – that is a website for your business.  SMEs often think they are too small or too local to run an online presence, so they do not require a website at all. But the truth is customers use internet as the first channel to find out products and solutions provider for their needs. So, a website for your business will only add up to the identity building process of your business among customers, both local and global.

Not Targeting Right Customers

The very basic mistake that small business owners commit is that they do not earmark their target customer group and so they target all as their customers. When it comes to marketing you need to narrow down your target to a recognizable group so you can use best use marketing approaches that work more effectively.

A tricky situation that arises here is too often small business owner are some time too blinded by their the idea about target customer segment that they fail to recognize an actually potential customer segment that goes unnoticed.

Not Focusing on Social Media Marketing

Those business owners who are averse to using new marketing approaches show a dull face to using social media marketing. It is true, although, that small business owners often do not have the time to spend in social media marketing. But this platform can be actually be rewarding and an ideal platform for small business owners. Social media marketing is one of the most affordable and effective marketing techniques for business owners who can focus their efforts and maximize their time spent on social media to yield big results.

A key point to remember here is once they start social media marketing they should avoid abrupt absence from it. Since customer these days search online and keep track of your product and solutions online, if a potential customer sees no activity, that often leaves them wondering if you are still in business and they move on to the next company. So, choose your channel wisely and keep updated.

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.