Content Marketing Done Right

Content marketing when done right can deliver exceptional results yet
as many as 75% of marketing departments are doing content marketing the
wrong way. One big and critical difference between content marketing and
promotional marketing can be summed up in these two words: sharing
versus telling.


Today’s digital savvy buyers and educated consumers are ignoring
traditional advertising and sales tactics like never before. They have
become immune to brands telling them what to buy. Banner ads and online
advertising are also feeling the heat with ad blocking technologies like
AdBlock and AdDetctor helping consumers avoid advertising altogether.
As one marketing agency stated “Internet savvy people are more likely to
sign up for a trip to Mars than click on some banner ads.”


So, the logic would follow as buyers and consumers turn away from
interruption ads online and are even using tools to nullify them, then
marketing have responded to this challenge to ad weariness, right?


Ah no, this is unfortunately not always the case.

Marketing is contributing to “Content Blindness”

When developing content marketing strategies, over 75% of marketing
leaders report that product mentions are a regular tactic in their
content strategies. (The Economist Group). Marketing
departments have responded to the move away from online advertising or
“ad blindness”by viewers and implemented content marketing tactics to
counteract this decline in raising product awareness. However by
flooding the social media networks with promotional lead content, they
are in fact now encouraging “content blindness”.


The sharing of content has become a breeding ground for brand
plugging and promotional stuffing. The result is audiences are now
starting to see some content shared by brands as being deceiving,
missing out on the fact that when you strip away the advertising pitch
many of these brands have powerful stories to share.


Content marketing is primarily about sharing great stories and as you
earn the audiences trust you can begin selling your products. The hard
sales pitch tends to turn off potential customers, so rather going
straight into selling mode, start with building trust and credibility
through informative content that adds value.


Prior to publishing an article or blog post, ask the following questions:

• Does the content offer real insights on a market or interest OTHER than plugging how great a product or service is?
• Do the articles and blogs showcase the company’s expertise by providing actionable tips or research based analysis?

If the answer is, “Yes,” to these questions, your content is ready to publish.


Hold on I hear you say, so if we work diligently to create content
NOT to sell to our readers, then how do we use content marketing sell?”


Well research shows that less is more, the least sales pitch
orientated articles drive more sales when executed correctly. This is
because the content will drive awareness (inform, educate, amuse,
engage) and ultimately help prospects become qualified leads as they
consider you as a viable purchasing option.


Any business can create a content marketing journey for their
prospects and over time gently guide them to the solution to solve their
problems: considering your product or service. But the patience and
skill is you have to let them arrive at that conclusion at their own
pace.

Educate Through Content – Highlight Your Expertise

Real content marketing is about sharing thought leadership or
research, addressing problems or market trends your customers or
potential customers face. This stream of valuable content acts like a
seed, planting the ideas which overtime grows into the realisation to
prospects that they need your product or service.


The stark reality is that the press release route and publishing
in-depth product descriptions serves only to create a wall between you
and your audience. Audiences just tune out if they have not been primed
with educational content before you go for the sale with “sales
content”.


Also B2B buyers now use social media to research trends, reviews and
ways to improve their business. This presents a great opportunity for
marketers. But are B2B marketers missing the mark?


Well, the CMO Council studied how buyers viewed content published by
business-to-business marketers. This quote may help focus your content
strategy: “Business to business buyers and influencers are turned off by
self-serving, irrelevant, over-hyped, and overly technical content.”


Still lots of B2B marketers think that “content marketing” almost
like a Trojan horse, publishing product descriptions in the guise of
content. But buyers constantly remind us they are not ready to be sold
the moment they see some sales content. Their journey is about accessing
content that understands their problems first.


So when publishing content on forums, LinkedIn or on the company blog, keep these best practices in mind:

1. Hold the sell. As most readers are looking to learn
   more about a topic, do not start bombarding them with promotional
   jabber. Content sharing focuses on engaging them through quality
   articles packed with valuable insights to encourage them to learn more.
   Remember, in the sales process it takes anywhere between three and
   thirteen interactions for a prospect to turn into a qualified lead, so
   starting a “social conversation” with a sales pitch baked in will chase
   away potential customers, so the goal is to get them to stick around to
   learn something.
2. Think of your audience, not your product. When
   creating and sharing content, always prioritise an audience first
   approach. What would the readers want to learn more about? What
   obstacles are they encountering and how can you overcome those? When you
   tap into your prospects’ needs and issues, you can create content that
   they can align themselves to and encourages them to continue the
   education process.
3. Become a valuable information resource. Publish
   helpful content on a consistent basis will give readers a reason to
   visit your blog time after time. Becoming a go-to resource is critical
   to building up followers and readers. I also suggest that carefully
   offering a white paper, e-book or case study to visitors is a way to
   gain more in-depth information.

As your journey into content marketing
continues, remember that telling is not selling so put your audience’s
interests before your own. Content will only grow in quantity on the
web, and the way to avoid content blindness and do it right is never use
sales pitches disguised as articles. Instead focus on sharing your
expertise and insights. Always write to benefit the reader. As time
progresses readers will take note of your genuine approach to offering
solutions and then will be happy to engage with the sales process.


Content Marketing Done Right – The Bitter Business

How to Improve Sales Close Rates

To improve sales close rates and drive up return on
investment takes time, not to mention better use of sales resources. In
selling, the ratio of leads that do not convert to sales may suggest
that buyers are unconvinced that you are knowledgeable of the products
or services they require. So how can salespeople improve their sales
closing rates?





Here are some tips to assist salespeople in closing sales:

1. Know Your Product And Service: Even today one of
   the simplest ways to improve sales close rates is to learn and
   demonstrate your company’s USP’s. Learn what makes you and your product
   stand out from the competitors. What is your company’s value wedge? This
   alone will demonstrate your knowledge of the market and will show your
   understanding of what your prospect needs and what challenges they face.
   B2B selling requires in-depth knowledge of industries, people, products
   and trends. There is nothing worse than being unable to answer a simple
   sales question, because you have either not prepared or researched –
   resulting in you (the sales person) being caught off guard.

2. Create Awareness Prior To The Sales Pitch: A study
   has found that it takes salespeople 8 phone calls to get in contact with
   their prospect. Think about how long they have been on hold, time spent
   leaving voicemail, updating the database, doing follow-up emails,
   scheduling multiple follow-up calls, not to mention the resources and
   efforts to firstly source this lead. All of this time attempting to
   speak to the prospect – you finally get a hold of them, they don’t know
   who you are, what company you represent, they are busy and are probably
   not interested in talking to this stalker.
   However, if you have previously interacted and engaged over a period
   of time (sharing content, articles and information) with them on a
   social platform, your name may already be familiar to them, they may
   already know what company you represent and of your industry knowledge
   from blog posts and conversations on LinkedIn. Try to begin the
   conversation by sharing your social media insights on the prospect, ask
   questions and get feedback – find out what their problems and challenges
   are. Have a planned approach based on your social media insights to
   build a relationship, do not just blast your sales pitch. Your goal is
   to share your knowledge and demonstrate your understanding of the
   challenges within their industry.

3. Solve The Prospects Problem: Focus on the prospects
   problems and how your company or product can make life easier for them –
   think solving problems, saving time and money. Be careful not to
   promote your product or service outright, your goal is to assist the
   buyer in solving THEIR problems.

Asking questions enables you to diagnose the prospects pain and the
implications of this on their business – time to market, manpower and
costs. It is imperative to demonstrate what is at stake if this
challenge is not resolved, show the prospect your understanding of their
challenges and become a trusted advisor.

4. Customize Your Pitch: This feeds into my previous
   points, many salespeople believe a generic script will work for every
   prospect when in fact – no two sales are ever the same.

What issue is this specific prospect trying to solve? For example,
the salesperson will need to tailor a software package to a specific
customer, so why use a generic sales pitch for all of your leads? Adapt
your sales strategy to your prospects needs; delivering a customized
sales pitch will demonstrate your knowledge of what solution would best
suit them.

5. Qualify Sending The ‘Requested Information’ Email:
   If the prospect asks you to put everything you have just said in an
   email – Pause for a moment. Instead of accepting the outcome, inquire as
   to what specifically they would like to see in the email. This in-turn
   encourages the customer to open up to you about any questions or doubts
   they may have. If the prospect cannot outline what they would like in
   the email, you need to revisit your opening questions. By not just
   accepting the ‘requested information’ email, salespeople keep the
   process on track in a way that will come across as a more genuine and
   less robotic salesperson.

6. Time You’re Follow-Up: This could be scheduled
   while your brand is still fresh in the prospects mind, not too early
   though, as it is inherent not to pressurize the lead. Research has shown
   that 75% of marketers believe it is a combination of a knowledgeable
   salesperson and an acceptable time frame which results in a positive
   follow-up. Be aware that if you schedule an auto-response through a CRM
   platform, it must be customized and relevant to that particular
   prospect. This in turn encourages relationship building – whereas a
   generic response will actually hinder your efforts. Research has shown
   that all too many salespeople lack the discipline to follow-up with
   prospects in a timely manner.

How to Improve Sales Close Rates | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Using Social Selling Tools to Improve Sales Pipeline

Using social selling tools are not only a fantastic way to build a
sales pipeline but they also play a big part in managing the pipeline
with insights and social updates to help improve win rates. Every sales
organization needs a constant stream of new opportunities along with
having social insights into existing opportunities in the pipeline.


In the past CRM tools have done a good job delivering much of this
data but now advanced social selling media tools are now coming on the
market which complement CRM systems while providing greater social
insights into the pipeline. These new ‘social media listening tools”
give sales team capabilities they never had before – vastly improved
lead generation success, insightful social listening to improve timely
follow-up and a better method to engage with prospects more successfully
through an ‘social selling’ approach.

Sales lead nurturing image

The use of social selling tools is giving sales people the sales
tools for increased visibility into the buyers journey plus customers’
interests and social activity.  This social knowledge about when and how
potential buyers engage with conversations on social networks (based on
keywords or activity) or read marketing content allows sales teams to
drive sales opportunities faster through the pipeline and hence reduce
the overall sales cycles. Social selling tools achieve this by:


What potential prospects are talking about what


How to lead nurture using content marketing


Who is giving out buying signals on the social networks


Are your prospects or customers talking or connecting with competitors


Connecting others that may be involved in the decision-making process


Uncovering social data on customer interests to keep opportunities moving forward

See how social selling can build sales pipeline

A study on Inside Sales Market Size conducted
by Inside Sales, shows that more than half (53%) of B2B sales people
sell remotely, and that inside sales is growing 15 times faster than
traditional field sales. With less customer facing contact, sales people
need to be up to-date and socially informed of where things stand with a
prospect or potential buyer. The old interruption sales model of
chasing a prospect with phone calls to fact find or to explore
opportunities is just is not an effective sales tactic anymore.


Sales automation and CRM will monitor the level of activity
surrounding a sales proposal.  However with social selling tools, sales
teams can see social activity that may help or hamper a deal, who are
they connecting to or with, what social conversations are they engaged
with, what they are sharing with others on social networks. All of this
gives greater understanding about where customers are in the sales
pipeline.


Also just as important, these social tools also reveal prospects who
are not engaging with your content or social activity. Social selling
helps to weed out the ‘nos’ faster so sales people can stop wasting time
chasing prospects going nowhere and instead focus their efforts on more
accessible prospects.

Connect to all influencers in the buyers journey

Social selling is a great way to get visibility and to connect with
influencers or decision makers across multiple departments with little
effort. Multiple social connections help manage the pipeline for more
complex deals and gives the sales teams varied points of contact for
lead nurturing.  Also to understand the sales pipeline, organizations
need insight into the social interests and connections to any
stakeholder in the sales process. Social knowledge is a powerful sales
weapon.

How can social media analytics help?

Social media analytics help to make it easier to identify anyone
potentially involved in a company’s buying process. Social selling
tools, such as Connectors Marketplace social prospecting platform, can
alert sales teams to new prospects and on that prospects social activity
from shares to like to group activities. Also it allows sales teams to
view how articles or content is being shared across the social networks
to identify interest levels, gaining insight into all the people who
interact , which works to deeper understanding about where a prospect
might be in the buying process.


Social insights into how much activity a prospect in the sales
pipeline spends looking for information or asking questions gives sales a
better path to match their needs. They can see what tweets,
blogs,articles, likes and comments a prospect is engaged in. Empowered
with this social data, sales teams can better generate and qualify
leads.

Uncover customer insights on the social networks

Social media has enabled buyers and consumers to learn more about
products and services than ever before. In fact the buyers journey has
changed the nature of selling due to what Forrester Research calls the
‘Age of the Customer’ ,  an era of educated buyers who have control over
the selling and buying process.


Due to the change in the buyers journey as a result of social media,
sales team need more insight into a customer’s social interests as
possible. Social selling tools shows sales teams what type of content
engages prospects  plus acts as an indicator to how and when to engage
with prospects.


Social selling tools
allows sales teams to tap into a myriad of social conversations, many
with buyer signals, buyers interests supported by access to social media
profiles. Social selling allows for very personalized sales
conversations and relevant information sharing. According to Aberdeen
Group, 45% of best-in-class companies make personalized sales  conversations a priority.


There is no doubt that social media has created a paradigm shift in
the way every business sells and transformed the way that they should
manage their sales pipeline. By showing how prospects engage with social
media and content, social selling tools are now an essential asset in
growing the sales pipeline of the future for any business whether B2C or
B2B.





Using Social Selling Tools to Improve Sales Pipeline | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Social into Selling

Today social selling and using the power of social media is how sales
people do their networking, information sharing and in many cases the
initial customer interaction. For sales teams putting the social into
selling is paying rich dividends. The internet and growth of social
media channels are providing sales people with a multitude of new ways
in lead generation, to identifying prospects and improving awareness to
buyers. Social selling sounds simple but maybe it is time to ask
yourself – are you using these new sales avenues as much as you should
be?





First, let us look at some social selling statistics to help reinforce why this sales activity is proving so rewarding.


Social Selling Statistics

• 72% of B2B buyers used social media to research their purchase decision.

• 79% of sales people that use social media outsell their peers.
• 53% of buyers said they seek peer recommendations before they make a purchase.
• 65% of buyers feel the Company content (content marketing) had an impact on their final purchase decision.

Social selling is about moving sales people from old world selling
into the social selling world. To get sales team switch from the cold
calling world to the world of LinkedIn, Twitter and Social Networks.
Leaving behind “interruption sales” where sales people call prospects
indiscriminately to a sales model where the sales people share and
inform their prospects with relevant content to get there awareness.


Recent articles published in Forbes on social selling shows “78.6% of
sales reps using social media as part of their professional outreach
outperformed those that were not”. The same research shows how sales
people using social media as a tool were also more successful at
exceeding their sales targets. Sales teams using social media won more
often, and lost less. The top 3 social selling platforms were LinkedIn,
Twitter, and Facebook. However there are many more social networks and
forums where lead generation can thrive.


I often hear the line that “social selling does not apply to our business”
as the target segment does not use social media that much. The argument
is that not all businesses put a lot of time or effort into social
media marketing. They may not use social media but they DO consume it,
from articles on forums or LinkedIn, to white papers published online or
industry research shared. They read and are influenced by peer comments
which by default raise the awareness levels for brands or companies.
The above social selling statistics prove it. Business social networks
like LinkedIn is just one avenue as there are many industry specific
social platforms or forums that will work for most sales efforts
regardless of industry.


Social selling is about subtly directing buyers or
prospects to potential groups of interest to them, sharing quality and
relevant, and helping them expand their own social network use for
information. Putting the social into selling can go a long way in
increasing awareness, driving up the consideration levels for your
product, your company, and yourself as a valued connection.





Using the social networks to sell, requires sales people and content
marketers to stand out from the noise and low quality social
conversations. If your business segment is a vertical that is very
social (gaming, clothes, marketing, health, and recruitment) and you are
considering if it is worth trying to make an impression when there is
so much noise already? Why not take a different social approach and go
personal. Use a social media tool
to find contacts and decision makers at target companies that have
their own Twitter accounts or unique blog on Blogger, WordPress or
Medium. Maybe they are active participants on certain business forums.
Sharing relevant content, insights, useful information or replying to
questions on Quora, can make any sales person stand out from other
suppliers, and present you less as the “interruption” sales person of
the old world and more of a quality connection for the future
collaboration.


Putting the Social into Selling | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling

Sales Success

Sales success is all about how to acquire more customers and grow the revenue or profit each customer brings into the business. One of the biggest challenges facing sales management is how to 
increase the sales selling time. Sales people need to be active in productive sales actions like lead generation, lead nurturing, social selling and closing deals and not dragged into time spent on status
updates to the sales process.


Sales management need to be crystal clear to ensure sales success and be clearly able to answer the number 1 sales question – what sales activities do you want me to do? as it not only defines what sales people are expected to do but also the recruitment process. Lets take a step back before trying to answering this question and ask yourself “what does selling activity mean in your business?”.  Is your primary sales activity definition time spent on lead generation, prospecting or maybe lead nurturing (if you supply leads via marketing activity) , is it sales, new customer acquisition or new deals closed. Real sales success tactics comes from a clearly defined definition and process for what sales activity you want the sales force to prioritize.





The world and activity of the sales person is changing rapidly. Now the main sales channel for lots of companies is via inside sales. Terms like social selling,inbound marketing automation, sales force
automation, customer success agent and the systems supporting the sales process have gotten increasingly more complex. Sales leadership have to ask the hard question, despite all the new sales tools has the actual selling time by the sales team become less important than the sales process?. Some research into selling techniques now show that sales people and sales management focus more time updating the sales process metrics than actual selling time. Maybe its time to go back to basics
and create more time to get the sales team selling!

Decide What Your Sales Tactics Are

In the era of big data and data driven sales models, the sales process in lots of companies has become complex and even less efficient in the quest for information. The outcome of this has seen downward
pressure on the rate sales forces can acquire customers, reduced sales productivity and as already stated shifting the sales thrust from selling time to sales process time.


Surely one of the aims of sales leadership is to maximize the core selling time, lead generation and relationship building activities of the sales team. This may sound rather obvious to any sales leader,
however the reality is that the drive for data insights and sales reports can be polar opposites to the rise of complexity in the sales process. Be ware the sales teams that can over time slip comfortable
into being great sales up-daters versus being great sales winners. Every business has to understand and clarify the scope of their sales team activities along with minimizing the various inefficiencies in the sales process.


As a great sales leader once stated “There are thousands of ways to
kill a sale but only a few ways to win one”. A few examples of ways to
kill a sale include not chasing up on calls, not following up on
customer requests, lack of needs understanding, not establishing a
customer connection, chasing the deal too early, not recognizing the
real decision makers etc. Most if not all of these can be identified by
sales management and addressed with sales training so with some practice
they can be solved.


However the true sales killers to sales success are the issues that
hide beneath the surface that all too many companies and sales managers
do not realize they exist.  We call these “sales weaknesses” in the
sales process which when combined with sales peoples own activity
preferences can act like heavy weights dragging down the sales efforts
and end results.


The work of aligning sales activities with the undoubted need for the
sales process takes effort. Due to the hunger for data and systems,
sales leadership or marketing can be reluctant to change existing sales
habits.  Sales managers, marketing and even CEO’s need to overcome the
common fear re-prioritizing the sales activities will somehow impact
sales revenue or data insights. All stake holders in the sales and
marketing process including finance must work together to prioritize the
expected sales activities from the sales force. Next, sales success
transformations means someone taking the lead to get the senior
management from across the company to sit down, share data, and discuss
what are the prioritizes for the sales process. The switch to sales
success tactics is about sales leadership es overriding any internal
concerns, seeing the bigger customer picture while ensure the focus is
shifted to the best solutions that will boost sales time with customers
regardless of the past.

Note of caution; moving the sales focus and sales teams activities may
mean having to change the roles people are expected to fulfill will
change.



 Read the full article published here:

Sales Success Tactics | Instant Lead Generation For Social Selling