One quick search for content writing and you’ll see the term “content is king” mentioned. But why is content so important to your sales efforts?
Sales and marketing play an important role in every company. Still, these two fundamental teams rarely work in sync. The rise of the modern sales funnel has changed that.
Sales funnels unite sales and marketing by structuring how a customer progresses through the buying process.
And the key to any successful sales funnel is content. This essential medium captures, guides, and converts leads.
The more you can reach a customer’s specific situation and position your company as their savior, the easier it will be to capture that sale. But that means you need your sales and marketing teams to collaborate on fresh, evergreen, and regularly produced content.
Content Guides Customers and Reduces Friction
Leads want to purchase goods and services that are relevant to their needs. But leads are rarely ready to buy right away. They need to be educated, guided, and convinced first.
If you do not act quickly to convert a lead to a sale, your competitors will. Content is one of the simplest ways to convert leads into sales.
You may see some metrics as more important than others. Likes, views, contact, and other KPIs exist to create a “meaningful” perception of success, but the tried and true method of guiding customers and overcoming barriers, regardless of medium, is quality content.
Creating useful content will grow your customer base, even if growth is slower. The inverse is that you can buy attention, like buying views, but you will gain fewer customers if your content doesn’t speak to your customers and their pain points.
Content Ensures Customers Get the Information They Need, When They Need It
Leads want content that’s relevant to their pain points—the problems they're trying to solve. They want to know how your products and services can help them now, the value they stand to gain, and why yours is the right fit.
And while sales cycles do vary by industry, your content should focus on the immediate and long-term value a customer stands to gain.
The content you create is designed to lower barriers and generate interest. Here are a few examples of how this works:
- Generate Awareness. Initial PPC ads generate awareness. They tell a customer your products exist and encourage them to opt in for further remarketing.
- Build Interest. Interest is the next goal once a customer knows about your products. This type of content focuses on showing how your product can solve real problems and create value.
- Encourage Decision. With your value established, you should focus on encouraging a decision. This content may compare your product to competitors, show why it’s better, and work to get the customer to convert.
- Take Action. The final step, if everything went according to plan, is to get your customer to act. This content should leverage urgency and desire to convince a customer to follow through and convert.
These are the four basic stages of the buyer’s journey, and your content plays a significant role in guiding and steering customers through them.
Notice that the best content producers do not just produce one or two pieces. They have produced content regularly for years that supports the different stages of the buyer’s journey.
That’s because a solid content plan should include a mix of different assets to support your sales efforts. This content can include:
- Offer sheets
- Case studies and success stories
- White papers and ebooks
- Blog posts
- Video guides
Tying together impactful content is the key to any successful sales and marketing strategy. But content alone isn’t enough. You need to consider how it ties into the general buyer’s journey, the goal of each piece of content, and how that content can encourage a customer to continue that journey.
Overcoming Silos: How Content Unifies Sales and Marketing Teams
Content is difficult to create without wearing many hats. You would be surprised just how much collaboration goes into stellar content—designers, marketers, sales staff, and content writers, among others, all contribute to the final content piece that you see, hear, or read.
Each individual or department that contributed to the content also reaps the benefits.
Unity is good. The more unified your company is, the easier it will be to send customers content—that is your primary goal after all. Send them what they are paying for, keep them hooked, and always focus on creating value.
That’s the goal of any successful content marketing strategy, and it’s something your sales teams can use to keep customers interested and loyal to your brand.
The Blitz Difference: Closing the Sale
Content is the gateway to the sales process—something your teams rely on to keep customers engaged and flowing through each stage.
But how are you managing your sales processes internally? Blitz provides sales commission tracking software that helps your sales and marketing teams coordinate data and content.
Are you looking for a powerful tool that can turn leads into sales? Book a demo with one of our sales automation specialists today to get started.