With the emergence of countless new types of media and distribution methods, the appetite for blog posts, videos, podcasts, collateral and more to support sales has been insatiable. With the pace of change increasing, the demand for new — and better — marketing content will continue to grow in the years ahead. It will be harder than ever to beat your competition in the content game.
For the last decade or more, content has been king.
Check out eight ways you can take your content to the ULTIMATE level.
1. Be brave: Make the most of winning pieces… And cut your losses.
Even if you use the best research, data, information and practices to develop content, you’ll have some pieces that are winners and others that fall flat with consumers.
With all the content available today, people have little patience for things that don’t speak to them. That’s why it’s important to constantly monitor usage and effectiveness. It will help you make the most of winning pieces by quickly expanding distribution and leveraging their messages and images in other materials. At the same time, it gives you an opportunity to fix the losers or cut them from your content library before they have a major negative impact on sales.
Tip: A sales enablement system like the one offered by Mobile Locker makes it easy to monitor content usage and determine its effectiveness in real-time.
2. Admit it: Quality is ALWAYS better than quantity.
Most marketers love to create new materials. They believe it’s a good way to demonstrate to managers and coworkers that they’re doing their jobs.
The truth: When it comes to content, less is more.
Marketers must make it a rule to ONLY develop pieces that support their sales process and help move consumers through it. The rest of their time is better used:
- doing research
- developing strategies
- planning for the future
- providing training
- monitoring results
- reporting on the effectiveness of their materials and campaigns.
These activities will not just prove that you’re getting work done. It will also demonstrate you’re a professional doing valuable work.
3. Map the marketing and sales journey.
How can you develop pieces that align with your sales process if you don’t have a complete understanding of it? Take time to document your end-to-end sales journey along with the marketing materials needed to support it every step of the way. This will ensure all your content adds value and isn’t just clutter that doesn’t get used.
Did you know: Mobile Locker’s sales enablement software makes it easy for salespeople to find the right content to use at every step of the sales process, any place, any time?
4. Ban one-offs.
Once you’ve mapped your sales process and developed content to support it, you should NEVER need to create materials for one-off situations. If you do find a valid reason to develop a piece for this kind of request, it’s likely that you have a gap in your sales process or marketing content library. If not, it’s time to just say “no.”
5. Create content that talks to people, not just businesses.
One of the biggest traps that B2B marketers fall into is developing content that focuses exclusively on the benefits of their products and services provide to businesses. They forget about the individual people actually making purchases. While it’s important to clearly document the results businesses can expect when they use your offerings, it’s also critical to explain how they make people’s lives better. Adding personal benefits and emotion to your content makes it more likely buyers will respond to it.
6. Have a reason for everything you do.
You’ve probably read an article, watched a video or listened to a podcast and said to yourself: “So what?” This is a sure sign that content has been developed without a clear purpose.
Before you create new pieces, make sure you understand:
- Where they fit in the sales process
- Who you’re communicating with
- What you want people to feel
- The ultimate action you expect buyers to take.
Once you have these things clearly in mind, you’ll be better able to develop content that gets results.
7. Go local.
Do you work for a company that does business in multiple locations? One-size-fits-all content may not be right for all your prospective clients. Regional differences could make pieces that are effective in one part of the country — or the world — less so in others.
Take time to compare the results your pieces generate in different areas, looking for regional performance differences. It might show that materials that get good results overall could be dragging down sales in certain areas.
8. Go beyond basic and make it attractive.
It’s not good enough today to merely say the right things. It’s also important to present information in professional ways. People are used to top-tier design in all aspects of their lives and they expect it in their marketing content, as well. They may never even take time to read or view things they don’t find attractive. You owe it to your sales team to create pieces that prospective customers will want to engage with.
