A Salesperson's Guide to Content Marketing

Connecting with Content

Table of Contents

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What is Content Marketing?

Why is Content MarketingImportant for Sales?

Contributing to the ContentMachine

11 Quick Tips for Getting theMost Out of Content

Keep this in mind next time you take a sales call: Whoever is on the

other side of the phone is probably halfway to a purchase.

Actually, CEB found that 57% of a purchase decision is made before

the buyer even talks to the company.1

So...they’re more than halfway.

When someone can access millions of webpages in a fraction of a

second and poll hundreds of peers among their social network, it’s

no wonder they rely less on a flashy brochure and a 30-minute call

with a sales rep.

This is why you’re hearing so much about content marketing.

Perhaps it’s been bandied about by your colleagues in marketing.

But what does it mean, and why is it important for sales

professionals?

57% of a purchase decision is madebefore the buyer even talks to the company.

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-CEB

1Why Solution Selling No Longer Works. CEB.

First, a definition. Content marketing is the creation, publication, and

distribution of engaging and educational information to attract the

attention of a target audience and move buyers toward purchase.

The word “content” can encompass several types and formats—

e-books, blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, images,

interactive media, and more.

Marketers are tapping content to generate a big pool of web traffic,

which turns into leads, and then gets passed on as qualified

opportunities to sales. Creating content about benefits and features

is rarely enticing, therefore, marketers focus on producing valuable,

informative content that speaks to a buyer’s pain points and

challenges.

This attracts the right visitors and leads based on their needs, not

how well they know your products. And when done well, content

marketing accelerates the sales cycle, aids reps in building

relationships with prospects, and affirms value and confidence

when an opportunity is ready to buy.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content.Page 3Connecting With Content

Glad you asked!

Sales representatives need more than good phone skills these days.

The best reps are thought leaders, industry experts, and

knowledgeable resources.

As the best-selling book The Challenger Sale notes, the sales rep who

pushes buyers to think differently, educates buyers with new

insights, and tailors conversations to their needs consistently

outperforms the others.2

Good content marketing helps achieve these goals. The content

you share should deliver insights that engage your prospects. With it

you can share thoughtful commentary through channels such as

email, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, making you a valuable

resource for your prospects.

But in order to produce and distribute content that supports your

goals, sales and marketing need to work hand-in-hand.

Why Is Content Marketing Important for Sales?

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Not only is Mark Hunter an expert on sales profitability, keynote and motivational speaker, and workshop leader, but he’s also a pro content marketer. His website and blog, The Sales Hunter, helps sales professionals reach today’s buyers and close high-profit deals.

For Hunter, informative and educational content plays a key role in attracting the right audience. "People don't search my name. They search a subject and a topic. That's how they find me." And it works. "I was talking to a

Fortune 500 company on the phone, and they mentioned very specifically a couple of my blog entries."

Ultimately, content marketing is about building relationships and earning the trust of your audience—goals closely aligned with the sales process. "Your objective on every sales call is to earn the right, the privilege, honor, and respect to be able to meet with that person again. And that's what a blog post has to do. A blog post is to earn the privilege, honor, and respect to be able to meet with that person again. And if you do that, wow, that's huge."

MarkHunter

Sales Spotlight

2 Dixon, Matthew & Brent Adamson. (2011). The Challenger Sale. New York, NY: Penguin Group.

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Up to 70% of content created by B2B marketing teams is never used

by sales, according to SiriusDecisions.3

Why?

The content sitting unused by sales teams is product-centric instead

of buyer-centric, and speaks to the benefits of a “solution” instead of

examining the problems facing a prospect. And the prospect isn’t

interested.

Sales reps need the right content to succeed. And the only way to

get it is for sales and marketing to collaborate.

Here are a few ways you can support the creation of content that

will impact the decisions of your prospects.

Share Questions, Comments, and FeedbackAccording to Mark Hunter, sales expert and keynote speaker, "Every

question that a customer asks, every objection that a customer

has...becomes a viable blog post and/or a viable e-book.” The

conversations you’re already having with customers get at the heart

of their challenges, and the best content marketing seeks to answer

these questions.

Write down the most common questions you receive from

Contributing to the Content Machine

Up to 70% of content created by B2B marketing teams is neverused by sales.- SiriusDecisions

3 Estep, Erin. (2013). B-to-B Content: The Revolution is Now. SiriusDecisions.

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Collaboration

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prospects, and share these insights with marketing so they can

strategize the best way to address those topics with content.

Share Your Content NeedsDo you need more testimonials? A case study for a specific industry?

More support in explaining important processes or best practices?

Share these needs with marketing, and tell them why these topics

are important to you and your prospective customers. Providing

marketing with that context will help them prioritize production.

Your insight can aid marketing in fixing holes in their content

stockpile. "If you're attacking the biggest problems and challenges,

you'll find you're filling those gaps," said Kyle Porter, CEO of SalesLoft.

O�er to Create ContentThere’s no better way to get the content you need than to create it

yourself.

Public-facing assets such as blog posts, articles, and podcasts help

your prospects see you as an industry expert and thought leader. By

sharing your insights and ideas, you’re simultaneously helping out

marketing and building authority in your industry.

Contributing to the Content Machine

CONTENT MACHINE

Content Content

Feedback Needs

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11QUICK TIPSFOR GETTING THE MOST

OUT OF CONTENTOkay, so you’ve got the content. What’s next? Use

these eleven tips to strategically promotecontent and track your efforts.

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Take Advantage of Every Email.

Email is one of the most powerful ways to

reach and engage your target buyers. In

fact, email has a 2x higher ROI than cold

calling, networking, or trade shows.4 At

SalesLoft, Porter says that his sales reps

place unresponsive prospects into unique

drip campaigns, through which original

content is delivered to them on a

semi-regular basis.

Content provides you with an excuse to stay

in touch, or to reach out to cold leads

through email, and effective reps take every

opportunity to make an impact.

Don’t Use Attachments. Use Trackable Link Shorteners.

When you want to share content in an

email, don’t send an attachment. Use tools

like bit.ly to shorten links to that asset,

whether it’s a blog post, article, e-book, or

video.

Link shorteners allow you to track clicks on

specific links. Not only will you know

whether a buyer acts, but it’s also more

convenient for the recipient. Clicking a link

is easier than downloading an asset. Not to

mention, attachments can be stripped from

emails by protective software, particularly

for heavily monitored and regulated

organizations.

.

Deliver Content Speci�c to Pain Points.

When you’re crafting that follow up email

after a demo or presentation, include

content that addresses a specific pain point

raised by the prospect during your

conversation. This shows that you’re paying

attention to their needs.

"We simply ask them, ‘Why is it that you

called me? What was it in particular?’” says

Mark Hunter. “Then, when we get done

talking, we will email them links to some

additional content. We stay in

communication with them."

.

#1 #2 #3

4 20 Shocking Sales Stats. (2013). BuzzBuilder.

#1 #2 #3

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Track Activity, Then Propel Them Forward.

Technology such as marketing automation

and CRM software allow marketing and

sales to track the actions taken by

prospective buyers more closely than ever

before. Use this information to your

advantage.

Take a look at what your buyers are doing

before you reach out to them. Can you tell

which topics they care about based on the

e-books they download or the webinars

they attend? Is there a piece of content that

speaks to those same topics, yet moves

them one step closer to understanding how

your product fits into their needs?

Leverage Visual Media.

Videos, infographics, and images are

fantastic assets to use during the sales cycle.

Typically considered top-of-funnel assets,

these eye-catching pieces can actually

engage your buyers at every stage.

Visuals are processed 60,000x faster in the

brain than text.5 When you’re sending

emails or following up with a prospect,

visuals make an impression.

.

Use a Variety of Content.

In line with the last tip, don’t limit yourself to

written content. People respond to different

channels, different formats.

“You have to have multiple levels of

content,” says Mark Hunter. “Not everyone is

engaged with just text. The infographic is

really taking off…videos, audios—we have

to be able to engage our customer or

prospect in as many different manners as

possible."

.

5 Why Do Infographics Make Great Marketing Tools? Neo Mammalian Studios.

#4 #5 #6

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Set Up Alerts for Your Accounts

If you’re paying attention to what’s

impacting your prospects—to the news

around their organization or

industry—they’ll see you as more than just

someone pitching product.

Set up alerts for each of your top prospects

using a tool like Google or Salesforce. You’ll

receive an email once a day with news on

that company, providing you with

additional fodder for conversation. Even

better, share an article or content asset

relevant to these updates—even if that

content isn’t created by your organization.

Create Twitter Lists for Your Top 25 Opportunities.

Aside from alerts, Twitter is a fantastic way

to stay in the loop. But it can feel

overwhelming to keep up with every new

tweet.

“For salespeople, social is that last frontier

that not a lot of people have adopted,” says

Porter. “We're advocates of our salespeople

finding their top prospects, and following

them on Twitter. The way you do this is to

go into your CRM and find the people who

are opportunities...Put them on a private

Twitter list. Then, you can use tools that will

send you an email of the daily digest of

their tweets.”

Subscribe to Your Company’s Blog.

“Every member of the company should be

subscribed to your own blog,” Porter says.

This ensures you’re updated on all the new

content being produced by your

organization, and gives you ideas for new

content to share during conversations and

calls.

It might even spark some ideas for

addressing content gaps, which you can

share with your marketing team.

.

#7 #8 #9

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Subscribe to Your Prospect’s Blog.

Keeping track of their blog will supply you

with valuable ideas while keeping you

updated on the prospect’s goals. If you

understand your buyers, you’ll be able to

use this information to target the content

you share more effectively. And it gives you

a catchy way to reach out.

“One of my favorite cold emails…that

someone wrote me to sell me a product,

had the subject line, ‘Your Seven Quotes

Blog,’” says Porter. “I had just written an

article that was seven quotes...They took the

time to read it, reference it in the email, and

they went on again to reference it in the

body of the email.”

Join Conversations Online.

Go where your prospects are. Simple, but

effective.

If there’s a relevant group on LinkedIn, join it

and participate. If there are Google

Hangouts that will get you in front of the

right people, mark them in your calendar.

These are real opportunities for sharing

content organically, and to engage with

your target buyers.

.

Kyle Porter is the CEO of SalesLoft, the

simplest way to build accurate and targeted

lists of leads on the internet. They serve over

12,000+ sales professionals with their

prospecting product and that number is

growing rapidly. They were recognized by the

Technology Association of Georgia as one of

the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in the

state. Porter is an avid writer and speaker on

the topics of sales, marketing, and

entrepreneurship.

Content marketing is a team effort at

SalesLoft. Every morning, the company has a

stand-up meeting and salespeople share their

roadblocks. "It's important to have a good

relationship between whoever is in charge of

sales and whoever is in charge of content."

This constant communication inspires

valuable content for the sales team and their

prospects.

KylePorter

Sales Spotlight

#10 #11

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“Marketing” might be the word that follows content, but that

doesn’t mean sales doesn’t play a big role.

Content creates an opportunity to contribute to more effective

assets, reach out to prospects, and monitor interest during the sales

cycle. Couple your insights with these easily implemented tactics,

and you’ll be able to have more meaningful conversations with

prospects and opportunities.

Kapost™ helps enterprise brands grow revenue with content. Their content marketing software simplifies and centralizes the cre-

ation, distribution, and analysis of content across a range of channels. Marketing teams of all sizes can collaborate on content,

manage assets in one platform, organize extensive campaigns, and establish an efficient, process-driven operation.

Hundreds of the world’s top brands — including Lenovo, AT&T, and VMware — use Kapost to create, publish and scale their con-

tent operation, so they can focus on serving their customers and growing their business.

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And you’ll earn their respect as a thought leader and industry

expert.

Remember, buyers are already halfway to purchase before contact-

ing sales. Stand out from your competitors. Prove you’re paying

attention. Share relevant, valuable content.

Conclusion

Connecting With Content

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