Nowadays it’s abundantly clear that content marketing is the bread and butter of marketing. The cluttered digital landscape means that businesses are putting more effort into content production of all kinds, and this doesn’t mean just writing a blog. Instead, “content” is now used as an umbrella term to describe any information online that’s been promoted by a business while targeting a user. This may include a blog content strategy, however, it extends much further past that.
Generally speaking, content marketing is defined as a form of presentation focused on creating, publishing and distributing content for an online audience. But because marketing targets a consumer, most businesses find it hard to differentiate their own marketing processes from their sales enablement team. Sales enablement is the process of providing a sales organization with the information, content and tools they need to be successful sellers.
Because each of these teams focuses on a consumer’s experience with a brand, companies commonly ask which of them can be held responsible for consumer attraction and retention. The answer is that both teams can! When done correctly, content marketing and sales enablement can comfortably work hand in hand.
The Differences Between Content Marketing and Sales
Most chief marketing officers feel challenged when it comes to separating the alignment of their content marketing and sales enablement teams. But the reality is that both teams seek to achieve the same goal, which is to nurture leads along the customer journey and convert customers into repeat buyers.
Here’s a breakdown of how these teams differ.
Content Marketers
- Produce content for buyer consumption, such as articles, graphics, eBooks, social media posts and videos.
- Ensure that sales representatives have the materials they need to present the brand to the client in the correct light
- Establish thought leadership and authority within the business’s industry
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Create content that speaks to your customer’s pain points, and explain the business’s why
Sales Enablement Teams
- Convince users that your brand is the best to work with and that you can solve their problems
- Ensure that sales representatives have the proper guidance and training to effectively use content to engage with customers
- Manage marketing content for salespeople to share with consumers
However, the two teams look at the means to these ends differently. Typically, sales teams are focused on converting leads into buyers. They are looking for shorter-term deals and have targets to be aligned with their monthly, quarterly and yearly goals. They see the buyer’s experience as cut and dried; a user is either a qualified lead to be converted, or they are not.
In comparison, content marketing strategy is focused on the long-term nurturing of customers, and bringing in new audiences through education and awareness of the brand and its products and service offerings. A marketer will look at a consumer as an ongoing challenge; one that can be nurtured and converted at any stage of the marketing funnel. So, for example, a marketer’s goal might be to target and appeal to consumers whether or not they’ve heard of the brand, whether or not they are in the market for the products or services the business offers and whether or not the user is considering the brand’s competitors. Marketing is a long game, and can be customized to reflect each user’s background with the brand.
Even though their methods and processes are different, sales enablement and content marketing teams have the same goals in mind; to grow the brand. Aligning both teams begins with putting in place a buyer’s journey that allows them to work together and concurrently to achieve their goals.
What Are the Differences Between Sales and Marketing Content?
As mentioned above, sales and marketing teams perform different functions in an organization. Because of this, these content types also play different roles.
Marketing content seeks to educate leads and nurture them. This kind of content can include thought leadership, webinars or blog posts. Additionally, marketing content can help build customer relationships by providing updates on products or providing insights on industry trends.
Sales content, on the other hand, seeks to convert leads or upsell current customers. These can include case studies, product brochures and comparison charts. These are great tools to add to marketing campaigns and can assist sales when talking to prospects.
The Life Cycle of the Consumer
There are a bunch of different ways to manage the life cycle of a consumer. For the purpose of this article, here are some common examples of a customer’s journey.
The Buyer's Journey
The buyer starts by going online to search for a solution to a problem. It is the typical sort of journey the sales enablement team will aim to nurture. When executed properly, this sales journey will lead users into a personalized, brand-specific experience.
1. The Awareness Stage
The consumer is noticing a problem. To determine how best to solve it, the consumer does research to understand, frame and name the solutions he or she can invest in.
2. The Consideration Stage
The consumer has given a name to the problem and is committed to learning all the ins and outs of the different solutions associated with it. At this stage, the consumer is looking into different methods and available approaches, as well as which companies can help.
3. The Decision Stage
The consumer has now defined a solution, a strategy and an approach. It is time to research in fine, granular detail the particulars of different businesses, with the hope of making a final purchase decision.
The Marketing Funnel
Marketers have to think broadly. It is their job to envision how the brand will be seen by those who aren’t even interested in converting to it. The goal is to inspire and engage with potential consumers, new users and those who have already converted.
There are different types of content that coincide with the different stages of the marketing funnel. Typically, it is as follows:
1. Traffic Sourcing
This stage, at the very top of the marketing funnel, is the place from which companies get their traffic. It could be through paid and organic search methods, social media posts, retargeting and other direct traffic sources.
2. The Interest Stage
To cater to the middle of the funnel and gain interest around the brand, a marketer might create eBooks, white papers and paid ads. These formats are beneficial as middle of the funnel content inspires confidence, suggests thought leadership and enhances a brand’s authority.
3. The Consideration Stage
At this stage, a consumer must constantly be reminded why they should choose one brand over another. Content marketers do this by highlighting what makes a brand unique, via newsletters, client testimonials and case studies.
4. The Conversion Stage
This stage is the culmination of all the previous content marketing efforts.
How Does Content Marketing Help Sales?
Now that we know that content marketing and sales can work in tandem with each other, it’s important to know how the efforts of one support the other.
Content marketing can support the sales enablement team in a variety of ways, including:
- Educating both long- and short-term customers regarding the business’s products and service offerings through blogs, infographics, case studies, ebooks and more
- Generating leads through content syndication efforts
- Driving relevant customers to your website
- Boosting brand awareness and brand authority
- Positioning your brand in a positive light online
- Increasing buyer engagement with your brand
- Nurturing leads with important information
- Creating personalized customer experiences, and making the consumer feel heard in a digital world full of noise
- Establishing credibility and thought leadership in your industry niche
How Sales Supports Content Marketing
Conversely, here is how the sales enablement team supports the content marketing team in its daily roles:
- Turning potential leads into conversions and long-term, returning customers
- Providing feedback to the content team about what types of leads their content is generating
- Providing feedback on what’s resonating with the target audience and what can be better optimized to create conversions
- Using concrete data, numbers, analytics and insights to improve the overall content marketing and sales strategy moving forward
Aligning Content Marketing and Sales to Work Together
To build a winning strategy that amplifies your brand, here are some steps to take when merging sales and marketing teams.
Understand the Customer Journey
You’ll need to have a deep understanding of the customer journey map, as well as the sales and marketing funnels, and where each member of the team fits in.
Measure Results
Being able to track how users convert, the length of the sales cycle and the pieces of content consumed can help teams understand how the content fits into the bigger picture. When Content Marketing Institute surveyed B2B marketers on content marketing return on investment, 65 percent either did not measure it or were unsure if they did. Measurement, however, is a key component to improving content ROI.
When tracking and measuring results, it’s also important to select the right goals, based on the intent of the content asset. These goals can include:
- Engagement
- Web traffic
- Email open rates
- Leads
- Brand awareness
- Thought leadership
Collaborate on Content
No one team should be responsible for creating the content from start to finish. Instead, you’ll want a more collaborative environment, where the marketing team creates the first draft, gets feedback from the sales team and then makes revisions. It’s important that both teams collaborate since they are experts on different parts of the customer journey.
Routinely Review What the Data Is Saying
No marketing or sales job is complete without a routine review of what the data is showing. The data is a direct line to the consumer, and if you don’t examine what is working and change what is not, you will have problems meeting marketing and sales goals. Content marketing should be agile, and teams need to be able to change direction based on how assets perform or what topics the market is currently interested in.
Additionally, content audits should be a routine part of the fiscal year or quarter. In order to develop content that meets prospect and client needs, your team will need to review what has worked and locate where gaps may exist. This data in conjunction with other metrics (such as engagement rate and email open rates) will help you to further build out your content calendar.
Have a Documented Strategy in Place
It’s no secret that content marketing works best when a strategy is well documented. However a written strategy can also be helpful in aiding the alignment of sales and marketing. Seventy-five percent of teams who consider themselves highly aligned report that their content marketing strategy is documented.
By creating a content calendar, sales and marketing teams can prioritize which pieces of content are most valuable to create together. Both teams can offer their insights; sales can reveal what questions are coming up in sales calls, while marketers can talk about the topics that are most relevant to prospects.
How to Create Content That Drives Sales
There are numerous kinds of content that can be created to help drive sales. These can include the following:
Thought Leadership
Thought leadership builds trust with consumers. These are educational pieces that add value to a prospect by speaking to trends or addressing specific pain points. Consider leveraging outside perspectives or voices through curated content, licensed content or freelance material. There are quite a few other thought leadership stats about how this kind of content creates more value for businesses.
Industry Trends and Insights
By discussing industry trends or news, you can become an invaluable source of information to prospects and customers alike. Software companies like Moz have a robust strategy that focuses on educating readers without focusing on their services. Consider curating news sources or highlighting the perspectives of thought leaders in company materials or newsletters.
Case Studies
Case studies allow your company to cast a spotlight on a real-world application of your product. They also lend more credibility to your product suite by highlighting how other companies have leveraged the solution you offer.
Final Thoughts
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