As 2015 draws to a close, we discuss the top 3 ways that we think will assist you in building a stronger sales enablement strategy in the New Year.
1. Improve Content Marketing Tactics
Content marketing makes up a large part of a successful sales enablement strategy so if you’ve already got one in place, listen up! (If you currently don’t have a content marketing strategy in place but would like to learn more, you will definitely want to look at our previous post, “How to Create a Digital Content Strategy”. ) Compared with 2015, 76% of B2B marketers say they will produce more content in 2016 (Source: Content Marketing Institute/ Marketing Profs, 2015). Refresh your strategy and bring it up to date in 2016 by: 1) setting strategy goals;2) utilizing other sources of content; and; 3) placing an importance on your distribution process.
Set Goals and Outline a Strategy
Among the biggest priorities for content marketing in 2016 should be to have a documented strategy. “Fewer marketers have a documented content marketing strategy than last year, 32% vs. 35%, and fewer marketers see their content marketing as effective, 30% vs. 38%” (Source: Top Rank Blog, 2015).
[RELATED CONTENT] Fewer marketers rate themselves as “effective” at content marketing, yet investments in content marketing are up every year! Find out why content continues to stumble, and several other key sales and marketing trends by downloading our FREE eBook below.
Having an outlined strategy not only helps you focus your goals more effectively, it will allow you to benchmark your progress throughout the year.
Do you have an editorial mission statement?
The key part of your documented 2016 digital content strategy should be an editorial mission statement. A mission statement will help you determine your audience and how you will serve them (Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2015). Think about this statement as if it were the measuring stick that you use to evaluate all of your content (Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2015).
Best-in-class performers of 2015 have already realized the importance of a strong strategy and mission statement. Reportedly in 2015, “32% of the most effective B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy” and “28% of B2B marketers have a documented editorial mission statement” (Source: Content Marketing Institute/ Marketing Profs, 2015).
Plan to Utilize Other Sources of Content
One of the biggest mistakes that B2B marketers make with respect to content is only sharing their own content with audiences. A New Year’s resolution for all content marketers should be to begin incorporating third party content into the strategy for a better-rounded content library.
Content marketing is extremely important to today’s sales process as buyers do most of their research online. While having an abundance of marketing materials available to your buyer is preferred, there is a fine line between being informative and creating a sales pitch. Using third party sources is a great way to validate your sales messages by introducing a new perspective (Source: Trap It Blog, 2015). If a buyer looks elsewhere for insight and perspective, you risk losing them as a prospect. Giving them all of the information that they need ensures they don’t have to turn elsewhere to advance their decision journey.
Do you leverage multiple perspectives in your content?
Incorporating third party content into your 2016 strategy can also reduce internal bias. If sales reps are only showing vendor-created content, the information presented can appear one-sided and biased (Source: Trap It Blog, 2015). Buyers don’t like to feel like their being sold-to. Incorporating third party content into your strategy minimizes this feeling while still empowering prospects to make a well-informed decision.
With so much content created daily, it’s hard to break through the clutter and get to your audience. We discuss tips on how to do so in our post, “Top 3 Tactics used by Best-in-Class Content Marketers”.
(Source: Search Engine Land, 2015)
Committ to Distribuiting
If you didn’t get the response you had hoped for in 2015, you should consider putting in place a content distribution strategy for the New Year. Content creationinvolves time and effort and not distributing it effectively puts your efforts to waste. Content distribution is one of the most underutilized marketing tactics, yet it is the most powerful when it comes to obtaining great SEO and ROI (Source: Agora Pulse, 2015).
How many distribution mediums do you use?
On average in 2015, B2B marketers used 13 different content distribution tactics (Source: Content Marketing Institute/ Marketing Profs, 2015). These tactics included social media, blogs, newsletters, etc. To implement a stronger distribution strategy in 2016, you should think about distributing content through like-minded blogs and websites (Source: Agora Pulse, 2015). You can then create published backlinks that lead to your web or landing pages (Source: Agora Pulse, 2015).
2. Train Sales Reps to be More Appealing to Buyers
It doesn’t matter how strong a sales strategy is if your sales reps can’t fulfill their prescribed role. Buyers expect salespeople to understand their pain points and provide a total sales solution. They don’t care about your sales rep’s product knowledge - they want a specific solution and how it's going to address their individual needs. The truth is, “62% of sales reps prepare for sales calls with knowledge about their company and products” (Source: Trap It Blog, 2015). That is a scary thought!
Building a stronger sales enablement strategy for 2016 continues with helping salespeople close the information gap with the right insight (Source: Trap It Blog, 2015). This is made easier with the right tools. Software for sales enablement leverages digital content consumption analytics to help sellers understand buyer behaviour and motivation. Predictive analytics develop more productive conversations that offer personalized insights to buyers (Source: Trap It Blog, 2015).
B2B sales rely on trust so if a buyer doesn’t trust your sales reps, you can kiss that sale goodbye. Though there is no single best-practice to build trust, developing a digital content strategy with a buyer-centric focus can assist in establishing a level of trust in communications. When sending your sales reps into the field in 2016, ask yourself if the content they distribute would positively influence the buyer's decision journey (Source: KnowledgeTree, 2015).
Interested in learning more about how sales enablement tools can help your sales training? May I suggest reading, “How Sales Enablement Helps Create Stronger Sales Training”.
3. Leverage Outbound Demand Generation
Outbound demand generation can best be described as an “approach to driving revenue with traditional outbound marketing approaches” (i.e., email and cold calling) (Source: Hubspot, 2014). Though outbound marketing is losing favour to inbound, basic outbound demand generation tactics are still vital to a well-rounded digital content strategy.
Integrated digital content management platforms like sales enablement put contact information, buyer preferences, and content consumption behaviour all within reach of your sellers. They can create demand for inbound content by reaching out and inviting participation and this is also a great ice breaker for sales reps given that it doesn’t involve a salesy pitch and invites future discussion.
Using outbound demand generation as a way to enrich your prospect database will be a necessary strategy in the New Year (Source: B2C, 2015). Outbound generation gives your sales reps the ability to reach out and build personal relationships with your prospects which is something that inbound content marketing cannot accomplish alone. Incorporating demand generation tactics into your 2016 strategy will also allow sales and marketing to gain new perspectives on your target audience (Source: B2C, 2015).
Buyer behaviour differs when engaging with content vs. a sales rep (Source: B2C, 2015). When a sales rep uses outbound marketing tactics, they are delivering the same content to prospects but in a different way. One step further would be to repurpose content (Source: B2C, 2015). Repurposing allows you to reach audiences that you may not have otherwise touched through your website or social media. Sellers can use the information in blogs, infographics etc. to drive critical interactions in person, rather than simply inviting the buyer to read or sending them the content.
Finally, demand-generated traffic still positively influences SEO outcomes through repeated page visits and interactions like sharing (Source: B2C, 2015). While many buyers today direct themselves through their decision journey, outbound demand generation is still important because it helps you to push content to prospects that they might not have otherwise seen.
Is content marketing actually damaging your sales process? Find out how and why content marketing could do more harm than good in our “Top 10 Reasons Content Marketing Damages the Sales Process”.
RELATED CONTENT] Did you find these top 3 reasons interesting? Then you’ll love the report we put together on sales enablement best practices! Click the link below to learn all of the ways you can (and should) be optimizing your sales enablement strategy.
