How to Get More Out of Your Content Marketing

Business people laughing at a table with their laptops

Content marketing might be evolving, but it’s not going away anytime soon. According to the latest research, 82% of marketers report actively using content marketing in 2021, up 70% from 2020. Yet, the constant demand for content can be exhausting for businesses. Finding creative ways to get the most out of your content marketing is often one of the biggest challenges companies face in today’s marketing world. 

Recently, our senior content strategist, Skylar Wooden, had an opportunity to educate our team on the latest trends in content marketing. She highlighted specific ways our clients can continue to get more out of their content marketing efforts. We wanted to take a few minutes to share her key insights and takeaways in this post.  

How Today’s Audiences Are Consuming Content 

Businesses need to know the variety of formats that are driving most of today’s content marketing. A decade ago, most marketers focused primarily on written content, whether online or in print. Today’s businesses must consider the way content marketing has evolved. Here are the three primary ways today’s audiences are consuming content based on statistics  from a 2021 Hubspot report: 

  1. Written Content — This includes content like blogs, e-books, and articles. 61% of marketers are paying more attention to writing these. Of the written content formats, the top 3 content types are social media content (95%), blog posts (89%), and email newsletters (81%).
  1. Audio Content — Many businesses have turned to podcasts as a way to reach their audience in recent years and for good reason! In under three years, podcast listening in the United States has increased by more than 60%. The podcast market is expected to reach more than 2 billion by 2023, meaning that marketers are preparing to devote significant time and money to the channel.
  1. Video Content — Video is now the primary form of media used within any content strategy. According to the report, a video was the most commonly used form of content marketing in 2021, overtaking blogs and infographics. So, how do you get more out of your content marketing efforts in 2021 based on these statistics? Here are a few important insights we encourage clients to consider: 
  • Consider Your Audience’s Preferences — Meet your audiences where they are, not where you want them to be. This is the most important principle to keep in mind when developing content. An estimated 68% of Baby Boomers prefer traditional content formats such as news articles, research reports, blogs, e-books, and email content from commercial brands. If you want your content marketing to make the biggest impact, you need to meet your audience in the channels they use (social, email, etc.) with the types of content they prefer (written, audio, video). 
  • Remember that Video Covers All Three Content Types — One unique aspect of the video is that it allows you to diversify your content into all three formats. You can start by posting the video, pulling the audio for a podcast or recording, and formatting the transcript to create a blog post or infographic. As video becomes increasingly important, this is an easy way to reach your audience by repurposing and reformatting.  
  • Know that the Future of B2B Marketing is Audio — While the video might be the most popular format of content today, businesses should pay attention to the increased interest in audio content. According to statistics shared at the 2021 Inbound Conference, 57% of the American population listened to podcasts last year and weekly listenership doubled from 2020 to 2021. Additionally, more than half of consumers say they consider buying from brands they hear on podcasts.  

How to Diversify and Maximize the Content You Create 

With these trends in mind, it’s important to consider all three formats of content in 2022. We also recognize that creating a new piece of content from scratch can be time-consuming. So, how do you diversify and maximize your content? 

  • Supplement Blogs with Audio & Visual Content — Is there a way to include a video or audio podcast into the blog posts you create to maximize content? Find ways to integrate audio and visual content into the online content you’re creating.
  • Maximize the Reach of Podcasts through Show Notes & Additional Resources — If you’re creating podcasts, leveraging the show notes is a great way to maximize your content and drive your audience deeper into your content marketing funnel. Providing a way for your audience to download additional resources can also supplement your podcast efforts and increase engagement with your brand. 
  • Repurpose Resources into Shorter Audio or Social Content— You can easily repurpose, repackage or expand every piece of content that you produce to get the most out of your investment. For example, if you’ve created a piece of long-form content such as a video or e-book, consider how you can repurpose key ideas and concepts for other channels such as social media or email.

As content marketing continues to evolve,  brands need to stay nimble. Remember, the most important way you can get the most out of your content marketing efforts is to ensure you’re meeting your audience where they are. Taking these tips into consideration will help you stay ahead of the trends when it comes to creating content that impacts your bottom line. 

Need Help With Content Creation? 

Our strategic, full-service marketing firm can help you plan and deploy an innovative content marketing approach to court customers and build brand loyalty. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your marketing goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

5 Qualities of an Effective Marketing Agency

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Marketing agencies exist to be a guide that meets your business where it is and helps you get where you want to go. Whether you’re looking to build a brand, increase awareness about your product, services, and mission, or drive sales through more effective marketing tools, your agency should be a partner who understands your industry and can provide ideas, tools, and resources to help you achieve your goals. 

For the past decade, Green Apple has worked with dozens of clients in a variety of industries. We’ve also partnered with other marketing agencies to help our clients achieve their specific goals. With that experience in mind, we’ve identified five qualities you should look for when selecting a skilled marketing agency.

1. Quality Relationships Across the Agency

At its core, the partnership between you and your marketing agency is a relationship. But that partnership is built on numerous individual relationships: between you and the agency representatives, between employees within the agency, and between your agency and their vendors. If there are relational issues or breakdowns, your results have the potential to suffer. 

Behind every successful marketing agency is a great team of people who have both the skills to execute strategy and a positive attitude that makes for a streamlined workflow. That includes the leadership level and those responsible for executing the day-to-day project management tasks.

2. They Understand and Can Support Your Greatest Needs

Marketing agencies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Each has its own unique philosophy, approach, style, and strengths. One important factor we constantly focus on as an agency is our ability to truly understand what our clients need and ensure we can support them. 

This is why an agency needs to get to know the ins and outs of your business. What are your biggest challenges? What would others in your company say? Making sure your marketing agency is aware of what’s happening across your business and communicating your goals will help them identify the best ways to support it.

3. They Communicate Expectations Clearly and Mistakes Quickly

Effective agency partnerships involve constant communication. This is why asking specific questions before hiring a marketing agency can be helpful. It’s essential to know how an agency communicates with clients. It’s also important to understand how they expect you to communicate with them. Clarity is key. 

An agency should also be able to proactively and quickly own up to any mistakes. There isn’t an agency out there that doesn’t make mistakes. We’re human. But effective marketing agencies can communicate mistakes quickly and provide quick resolutions.

4. A Robust Team that Can Grow or Adapt with Your Needs

The marketing world is ever-changing, so it’s important to partner with an agency that is agile and able to adapt as your business evolves and changes. This is one thing that makes our approach at Green Apple unique. We don’t believe your business fits into a marketing mold. Instead, we mold our marketing practices around your business to help you be successful. Then, as more data comes in, we pivot, adjust, and adapt those strategies to be more effective over time. 

Often, our clients engage with us for one or two services, and our relationship grows to cover several different areas over time. For example, one of our clients started with social media and website support services. That quickly evolved into SEO and branding needs as they expanded into new markets. Now, we also assist with additional internal marketing and onboarding procedures for new employees. 

A Proven Track Record of Creating Results  

The goal of every effective marketing company should be to deliver positive results for their clients. When considering a partnership with an agency, look for case studies and testimonials to see how they’ve made their clients successful, and ask about measuring ROI. Marketing agencies exist to help brands, businesses, and nonprofits achieve something they can’t do on their own. But there are a lot of factors that go into making that happen. 

If you’re curious about how Green Apple can help you achieve your goals, schedule an exploratory consultation with our team. We would love to learn more about your business and see if we’re the right fit for you!

3 Action Items to include in your Holiday Marketing Plan

pen and agenda

As the weather is slowly cooling down, the holiday season is quickly approaching. It always kind of sneaks up on you, doesn’t it? This year, your company can take advantage of the seasonal magic in the air and start designing your holiday marketing plan early. We’ve shared a few ways that you and your team can stay ahead of your competition by incorporating a few new elements into your marketing plan.

Curate Email Campaigns

Email marketing is one of the best ways to keep a potential customer engaged. Email is also one of the most influential ways to drive business and earn ROI (especially with Millennials). Plan and strategize your email content including specific promotions, engaging graphics, and the timeline that these should be distributed. Be sure to create a sense of urgency to make customers act fast (and be proud of their quick decision-making skills).

Design Festive Freebies

Whether content is available to current clients or is an incentive for new subscribers, free resources are always appreciated. Who doesn’t love free, valuable information? Add some holiday cheer to the mix to make it even more captivating. Think about your goods or services and customize some themed content that will help your customers solve a pain point. 

Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

  • Shareable “good to know” information
  • Holiday checklists 
  • Interactive illustrations
  • Expert advice for the season

Show Your Appreciation

There’s nothing quite like receiving a corporate token of appreciation—you feel like your business truly matters. Spend the time to learn what your customers would genuinely value (even in a virtual world) and invest in the relationship.   

The holiday season is also an incredible time to give back to your community or international nonprofits that your organization admires and supports. Utilize social media to raise awareness for the causes that your business believes in, and encourage your audience to help, strengthen and give back to others. 

Ready to Implement?

Feel like your marketing plan involves details you’re not sure how to implement? Contact us today to schedule a consultation and give your customers what they want this holiday season.

How to Write a Case Study that Brings in Business

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On your list of marketing goals, building trust with your audience should be somewhere near the top. As most customers will not consider working with you without thoroughly vetting others’ experience with your company, customer reviews are your first step. But, what if you want to take it a step further? That’s where case studies come in.

Case studies are some of the most beneficial assets that your company can have in its marketing toolbox. Not only are you featuring a positive experience with your company, but you’re explaining to your audience exactly how that customer benefitted—with statistics, quotes, and visual elements. To help you build your next case study, we’ve put together a few things that you should consider along the way, including how to get started and how to use it to attract new leads. Here’s how to write a case study that you’re proud of.

First, What is a Case Study?

A case study is an in-depth response project that allows you to highlight your business, products, or services and your real-life customers to share their experiences.

The opinions and stories of customers have incredible power over your prospects. Based on what people see or hear about a brand determines what judgment they have or what action they will, or won’t, take. Over time, by incorporating positive and genuine feedback into your various marketing strategies, you will gain more customers and drive more revenue.

Where Can I Use a Case Study?

You can use (and reuse) your case study in numerous forms that will attract your ideal client. The beauty of case studies is that it’s not what you are sharing about your service or product, it’s about what others are sharing, automatically creating an element of storytelling. 

Prove to potential customers that you have what they need by accentuating positive evidence through your:

  • Website: Often, your website is the primary location where potential consumers research information. By supplying helpful and authentic testimonials, you can help attract your ideal audience. 
  • Marketing Collateral: When creating your collateral pieces, use statistics or quotes found from the study to build your credibility. 
  • Social Media: You can design engaging graphics by utilizing takeaways or numbers found in your study.
  • Videos: Videos on all social platforms are becoming more and more popular each day. Repurpose your study results into movement creations with animated infographics, typography videos, or testimonials. 

Where Do I Start?

You first want to determine the purpose of your case study. In most cases, the purpose is to demonstrate how a common issue of your target audience is solved. An efficient way to determine what these issues are? Ensure your entire team is actively collaborating to compare existing or potential problems. 

After establishing the purpose, other key elements you want to implement are to:

  • Find the right candidate: The person or company you choose to focus the study on makes or breaks your case study. Choose someone who is willing to (enthusiastically) provide you with all the necessary information.
  • Emphasize your product or service: Be sure to let your audience know exactly which services or products you utilized in the case study. This way, they will become more familiar with your brand, and which features they are initially interested in pursuing. 
  • Be creative with your visuals: Did you help with a business’ website? Did a client have a transformative impact? Include content, photos, or screenshots of the candidate results to make the case study easier to follow and more attractive to view. 
  • Display numerical results: Numbers don’t lie, so it’s important to incorporate the “hard” facts into your final study. Present your impressive stats with pride, there’s a reason people like you and others should know that, too.  

Build a Reputation Management Strategy with Green Apple Strategy

Interested in taking your case study to the next level? Green Apple helps businesses like you improve their marketing strategies. Contact us today to schedule a consultation. We’re happy to learn more about you and help you accomplish your desired marketing goals. 

10 Ways to Promote Your Upcoming Webinar

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You have plenty of wonderful ideas and expertise to share with your audience. What better way than a webinar? The thing is, though, that a hefty amount of thought, planning, and design goes into creating a webinar. And, after all the work you’ve put into building this resource, wouldn’t it be great if someone attended? Of course, we know you want as many people as possible to see your webinar. So, we put together a list of ways that you can promote your upcoming webinar.   

1. Send an Email Blast 

First up, send an email to your newsletter subscribers. Because they already follow you, they’ll be interested to see that you’re providing them with helpful content. You can increase your chances of a successful email by adding an eye-catching subject line and segmenting your list to narrow in on those who would be most interested. In your email, make sure to include all necessary details along with a clear explanation of the benefits of attending.

2. Add a Line to Your Email Signature

Consider adding a line about your upcoming webinar to your email signature. That way, you always have a reminder there for clients and prospects. Be sure to add a link so that they can find more information! 

3. Feature it On Your Home Page

Try featuring information about your webinar on your Home page. When clients land on your site, they’re already looking for insight. Imagine how excited they’ll be to see that you’re offering to share your know-how!  

4. Create a Paid Social Campaign

Help your followers find your webinar with a paid social campaign. Before you put money behind your ad, make sure that you determine which of your social media platforms performs the best and where your audience spends the most time.

5. Write a Blog 

Writing a blog to announce your webinar and feature a high-level overview will give you a multi-purpose piece of content that you can use on your website, social media, and in your emails. It will also be great to send to those who ask for more information.

6. Add a Pop-Up to Your Website

To draw even more attention to your webinar, try adding a pop-up to your website. You can use this as an opportunity to encourage visitors to sign up or learn more. 

7. Collaborate with Influential People or Businesses in Your Industry

Many people in your industry have access to your target audience—social media personalities, podcasts, industry experts, and bloggers, just to name a few. Connect with these people to offer your insight on their next project (e.g., guesting on their podcast) to create an opportunity to plug your new webinar. Since your audiences are so similar, you’ll find that many of their followers are there for precisely this type of content.

8. Hand Out Flyers at Your Next Event

Have a trade show coming up? Design an engaging informational hand-out that you can give to attendees who may be interested. These events are also an excellent opportunity to collect email addresses from those who would like to receive more information.

9. Post Consistently On Social Media

Add a consistent routine of posting about your webinar on your social media accounts. Feature fun, informative content that lets the user know exactly what they would gain by attending.

10. Tell Everyone You Know

Word of mouth is a more effective marketing strategy than some may think. Tell everyone you know about your webinar, and be sure to send them follow-up information if they seem curious.

Need Help Building or Promoting a Webinar? 

Green Apple builds and promotes webinars for clients in various industries, and we find that it’s an incredibly robust marking tool with a high return on investment. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.

7 Key Elements of Eye-Catching Content

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The internet is a vast sea of information. Search engines help us find what we need, but even when we’re searching for a topic, we have an overwhelming amount of options. If you’re looking for ways to improve your content marketing, for example, you will then be left to choose from around 12 different articles—and that’s just on the first page of your Google search. 

Your audience is out there swimming right along with you, wading through the fluffy content to get to the good stuff. And they’re busy and skimming their content, just like you. So, how do you catch their eye? Grabbing your audience’s attention isn’t an easy task, but expertly crafted content can do the trick. 

1. Keep it concise.

We can’t say it enough: your audience is busy. They want to skim their content, because even when they do have the time, they want to spend it relaxing or enjoying time with their family. Give them what they want as fast as you can, and try not to overload with fluffy language that takes away from your point. Say what you need to say, and let it go.

2. Break it up.

You wouldn’t want to read a wall of text, and neither does your audience. What if you’re heading into an article about how to bake a cake, and you just need to know how to make the frosting? You’re going to want to jump to the end and find your answer. Give your audience a format that they can quickly jump around in. You may think, “Don’t I want my reader to stay on the page as long as possible?” Yes, you do; however, readers will leave your site if they don’t find what they want quickly, and they are much more likely to share your content with their peers if they find your content helpful or valuable.

Use sub-headers, bullet points, and numbered lists strategically throughout your content to make it more digestible for the reader. And don’t be afraid of short, quick paragraphs!

3. Focus, focus, focus.

The more specific you are about your topic, the more receptive your reader will be. General articles don’t grab as much attention because we are often on the lookout for exactly what we want. For example, if you want to learn how to make icing for a German chocolate cake, you’re not going to click on How to Make Cake Icing. You’re going to click on How to Make the Best German Chocolate Cake Icing You’ve Ever Had.

Even if you feel like specific topics may alienate parts of your potential audience, know that someone is looking for that particular idea. When your content is aligned with what that person is looking for, they will stay on your website longer and share it with others who they know need the same information.

4. Diversify your content throughout different platforms.

When we think of content, our mind often goes to blogging, but it doesn’t stop there. We must also consider social media, email, webinars, podcasts, and any other way that we communicate with our audiences. The beauty of solid, engaging content is that you can mold it to fit these different purposes. For example, if your company created an excellent podcast episode that others need to know about, add it to your next email newsletter, post about it on social media, and summarize the points into a blog article. Good content is a great front-end investment that will provide you with excellent returns.

5. Use imagery.

People are visual creatures. We’re intelligent, and we want to learn new information, but there is still an element of “Look! A pretty picture!” that catches our attention. We want to see beauty in our world, and the internet is no exception. When you’re doing research for work or learning about a hobby, you’ll most likely click on the article that uses visual elements. Not only do we love the way it looks, but visuals make information easily digestible for our brains. For this reason, infographics are an incredible tool that our audiences enjoy reading and sharing.

6. Put the content within your audience’s reach.

We all have friends who use one platform for their information more than others. Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, email, or another outlet, make sure that your content is ready and available to your audience whenever the mood strikes. Work with your web developer to ensure that your resources page on your website is as user friendly as possible.

7. Look for creative angles wherever you go.

Creative content inspiration is everywhere we turn. We can find ideas in our daily conversations with clients and coworkers. We can find them in other content that we’re reading or something we see on television. We may even ask pointed questions to clients and others to determine what they want to learn about. You are out to propose new ideas, solve problems, and provide your audience with inspiration and solutions. Remember that as you go about your day, and you will organically collect potential topics to share with your audience. 

We can help you create and manage content that your clients can’t take their eyes off of. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation today!

How to Empower Employees to Create Content for Your Marketing

coworkers working together

Empowering employees to help create content for your marketing might seem like a big risk, but it can also create one of the biggest rewards for your business. That is why I encourage businesses that their marketing department should own organizational culture. Marketers that understand the power of employee advocacy can empower them to create content that improves brand awareness, educates buyers, increases search engine visibility, and creates more meaningful connections with potential customers. 

How to Empower Employees to Create Content for Your Marketing

Here are four specific ways you can begin to empower employees outside of marketing to help you create content to attract the attention of your potential customers: 

Invite employees to contribute to podcasts or webinars as subject matter experts.

Your employees likely have a deep level of experience that could be beneficial for potential customers. Empowering them to become thought leaders in your industry by inviting them to create content is one of the simplest, yet most effective ways to maximize their knowledge for business development. It could be something as simple as hosting monthly webinars that put your employees in the spotlight or creating a podcast where you interview employees about how to overcome specific challenges your audience is facing. 

Make it easy for employees to share content they care about.

Having your employees share your content—whether it’s emailing it to a prospect or promoting it on social media—is the perfect way to increase your reach.

But just because you create the content (and even ask them to help promote it), doesn’t mean they will share it. 

That’s why it’s important to create marketing content employees actually want to share.  It could be a story about your employee or one of your clients or a tutorial related to your product. 

Equip and reward employee advocates.

According to recent research, 31% of fast-growing companies have set up an employee advocacy program. These businesses recognize that employee advocacy encourages their workforce to expand their role from “employee” to “brand ambassador.” And, this type of approach can create tremendous dividends for the overall health and success of your company.

Let employees take over your social media for a day.

Instead of paying thousands to influencers and brand ambassadors, let your employees leverage their social media influence to increase awareness of your products and services. Give them the resources, tools, and leeway to develop their expertise in the niche. While you might have one person who owns the responsibility of improving your brand’s social media presence, making sure he or she isn’t doing it alone is critical to success.

Leveraging employees to help create content for marketing is an incredibly valuable way to humanize your brand. Employees might be your most effective content creators because they know the challenges your customers face every day and have a deep knowledge of your product, service, and industry. 

Contact Green Apple Strategy to discuss how you can leverage content marketing to improve SEO, develop your brand story, and generate leads.

4 Steps Your Small or Midsize Business Can Take to Improve SEO

If there’s one thing we know about small business leaders, it’s that they are incredibly busy people. While many small business leaders recognize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as an important marketing tactic, most don’t have the knowledge or bandwidth to execute everything that needs to be done to optimize their website for search. At the same time, most small businesses have limited digital marketing budgets.

SEO is a game-changer for small and midsize businesses. It’s what makes small, local companies able to compete with the big companies. No matter what industry you’re in or the size of your business, consumers are looking for brands like yours online every day. Investing in SEO, or at least having a working understanding of the basics, is one of the best ways to reach these potential customers.

4 Steps Your Small or Midsize Business Can Take to Improve SEO

While SEO can seem overwhelming, there are four steps we typically encourage small businesses to consider—from simple basics to more complex tactics:

Step 1: Create a website (that’s optimized for search).

One of the reasons small businesses struggle with SEO is because their website isn’t built with search in mind. Sure, your website might look good, but if it’s not structured correctly, you can lose out on a significant amount of search traffic.

In case it helps, here are some of the most important local SEO factors for small and midsize businesses.

Step 2: Optimize the meta-descriptions on each page to reach local customers.

More than likely, you already have a website. But making sure it has relevant keywords that matter to your customers—and therefore search engine results—is an important second step.

The next step for SEO is to make sure all of your primary landing pages are optimized for the keywords you discovered. In other words, you must utilize the appropriate keywords in your titles, meta descriptions, and body content for each page. Also, ensure that every page on your website has a unique meta description and title.

Pro tip: It’s helpful if your metadata description doesn’t exceed the length at which Google begins to truncate the text. In addition, try to make sure that the description will entice users to click-through to your site.

If you need to optimize your meta-descriptions and website content for search, here are a few details and rules you’ll need to consider.

Step 3: Set up and optimize your Google My Business page.

Google My Business should be a focal point for any small business, especially if you want to maximize the power of search. It’s incredibly simple to set up your Google My Business page, and it can make a big impact. As a small business, you should leverage every element of Google My Business pages to your advantage—images, videos, Q&A, reviews, and posts you publish.

Step 4: Look for creative opportunities to increase reach outside your city or region.

Many businesses serve clients across the country or region and are looking for ways to rank high in searches outside their cities. One of the most common questions we get as an SEO firm is, “How do we rank beyond the city where our headquarters is located?”

This is where you can begin to get creative with your SEO tactics and strategies. You might consider creating content focused on specific cities or regions. Taking this approach allows you to build up the authority of your site with quality external links, and you could increase your search rankings for location-specific keywords.

If you want to rank high outside of your business’ physical location, here are a few specific tips to help you rank in searches conducted outside your area.

You don’t have to execute every step mentioned above, but if you’re looking to take advantage of everything SEO can offer your small or midsize business, I’d encourage you to take the next step. SEO success doesn’t happen overnight for any business. That’s why it’s incredibly important to take action to address the basic issues and then tweak as you go.

5 Questions to Evaluate & Enhance Your Content Marketing

video editor working on a laptop

One of the primary purposes of content marketing, and no doubt one of its most compelling benefits has always been that it helps to connect what marketing is doing with what sales is doing. However, the trends that have led companies to focus on content marketing have also raised some very important questions from business development professionals, one of which being, “How do we not only connect our content marketing to our current sales process but also ultimately enhance our processes along the way?”

In this blog post, we’ll highlight five questions you can use to make sure your inbound marketing efforts are worth it.

Here are five questions to evaluate your efforts and enhance your content marketing campaigns moving forward:

  1. What are the biggest gaps in your current sales and marketing process? Everything you do when it comes to content marketing should enhance your current sales and marketing process. Do you need more leads? Does your sales team need resources to close more sales? Are leads going cold? Taking time to identify the biggest gaps in your sales or marketing processes will help you find ways to use content marketing to help you overcome them.

  2. What questions do people have in different stages of the buying cycle? The entire goal of content marketing is to address the questions your prospective customers have at the appropriate time. Spend time thinking through the journey a prospective customer takes from learning about your brand to becoming a customer. What questions are they asking throughout that process? What problem are they trying to solve?

  3. What type of content can you create to answer those questions and give your prospects confidence in your company? Providing content that addresses the specific needs of where a prospective customer is in the buying cycle is critical for success. For example, new prospective buyers might be looking for helpful information like eBooks or infographics. Prospective clients who are considering doing work with your business might need case studies or product spec sheets to make a decision.

  4. What would help your sales team promote your content marketing resources: email script, suggested social updates? By encouraging your team to use tools for cultivating relationships with current clients and leads, you’re able to essentially kill two birds with one stone — generate new leads & equip your sales team with resources to help them succeed.

  5. How can you give people a reason to stay interested in your business? Consistently providing prospects with quality content is a great way to keep them engaged during the buying process. Don’t think of what you want to tell prospects, think of what they want to know.

Are you ready to overcome the obstacles that keep a lot of companies from experiencing the benefit of an integrated inbound marketing and sales process?

Download our free resource Biz Dev’s Guide to Inbound Marketing to dig deeper into these questions and enhance your content marketing efforts for greater results.

5 Ways to Equip Your Sales Team with Content Marketing

Equip your sales team
A common frustration among content marketers is seeing their well-crafted content being ignored by sales reps. Depending on who you ask, the estimates for how much content goes unused by sales vary from 60% to 90%. So how do you get sales to get on board with content and leverage the content you’re producing? Many times, salespeople see the primary function of these pieces as lead generation tools. However, by encouraging your team to use them as tools for cultivating relationships with current clients and leads, you’re able to essentially kill two birds with one stone: generate new leads & equip your sales team with resources to help them succeed. 5 Ways to Equip Your Sales Team with Content Marketing Here are five ways your sales team can use the resources you generate from content marketing to cultivate relationships, shorten the sales cycle, and close more leads:
  1. Send the downloadable content to a decision maker who has stalled in the buying process. This is a legitimate opportunity to see if you can get things moving forward again.
  2. Blast the downloadable content to your existing clients to remind them that you are still there. Everyone likes to know that others are looking out for them.
  3. Print the downloadable content out in color and include that with seminar or workshop materials. Give them something of value that doesn’t ask them for a signature at the end.
  4. Include it as part of your follow-up to a conference call or onsite meeting when appropriate. Again, this is another way you can separate yourself from the competition and interact with the prospect in ways that benefits them and you.
  5. Use downloadable content to add credibility to your product or service. Independent research, case studies, and white papers remind the prospect of what you discussed and can be used to affirm your position. You’re also helping your internal champion “sell” you to all the people involved in the decision process.
Take Your Content Marketing & Biz Dev Efforts to the Next Level Content marketing does more than help you generate new leads — it can also drive the success of your sales team. If you invest in content marketing, be sure to develop a process for equipping your sales team with the resources you create and encouraging them to share the content. If you want to learn more about how to integrate your content marketing and business development efforts to maximize ROI in both areas, don’t miss our latest eBook Biz Dev’s Guide to Inbound Marketing.