Let's talk about Sales

Blogs are like fish in the sea. Stars in the sky. Leaves on trees in a forest. There are billions of them, they’re all unique, and many are never seen by a human. Why do we spend so much time writing and publishing them? Who are they for? Are they written for existing website visitors or customers? Are they used to send to your newsletter list? Are they there to attract new visitors?

Content marketing is a popular go-to in B2B and SaaS marketing, but brands sometimes report mixed success. When I start working with new brands that have struggled to get the results they want, I typically find that one or more of three common issues is at fault: There’s a lack of a proper content strategy that considers business goals and your audience There’s a lack of consistency There’s no established content marketing workflow Today, we’re going to talk about the last bullet point: Your content marketing workflow.

As popular as emails are for B2B communications, an enormous amount of business is still happening over the phone. Sales calls (including both phone and video call) specifically play a vital role in the B2B and SaaS buying process, ranging from cold calls, to booked demos, to ongoing communications to customize and close deals. There truly is an art to a great sales call, but it’s also like a science, too.

How often have you been stuck staring at a blank page, hoping the words come to you? We’ve all been there, and it’s due to a lack of a standardized writing system. Ideally, when you receive a content brief, it should be easy to jump right in and get cracking because you know what to do and how to do it. But many writers still struggle with getting started—and as someone who has been there, I’m here to tell you that content outlines are your best friend.

If you’re using a spray-and-pray approach to content marketing and hoping to get the desired results, spoiler alert: you’re doing it wrong. This approach wastes precious time that could be spent driving actual impact and wastes resources that are already hard to come by. But if you want to operationalize your strategy and give it a structure, a content calendar is the perfect tool to help you do that. There are many free tools like Google Sheets that you can use to get up and running in no time.

Product and marketing teams pour their hearts and souls into creating an incredible product line-up and a go-to-market strategy. But if the money-making pages, a.k.a. your product pages, don’t give potential customers what they want, it’ll cost you thousands of dollars and negatively impact your bottom line. A terribly designed product page does three things: Creates a negative user experience Increases bounce rates Reduces conversion rates So, if you don’t give users what they want, they won’t think twice before navigating away from your website.

Budgeting for content marketing can be a task. You’ve got limited resources and increasing pressure from leadership to show results. It’s enough to make any marketer’s head spin. But what if I told you that you’re not alone? Many marketing leaders out there are dealing with the same fears and uncertainties when it comes to allocating a budget for content marketing. Maybe you’re worried that you won’t have enough budget to execute a successful content marketing strategy, or perhaps you fear that you’re wasting your budget on ineffective tactics.

Sales enablement is a priority for many businesses right now, to the point where it’s almost a buzzword. There are tools, strategies, and even entire job roles in businesses' dedicated exclusively to sales enablement. But is there really such a thing as sales enablement? The answer is both yes and no— sales enablement exists as a goal, and there are plenty of tools and resources designed to help with that.

Resource pages should exist to help buyers buy, or users help themselves. They can also be a boon to SEO efforts if done correctly. Why else would we put these resources on our websites? The truth is, however, resource sections are often an afterthought. Over time, they can become the junk drawer of our websites. By defining our objectives and understanding what we can accomplish with resource sections, we can structure the best resource page possible.

When you’re going through a rebranding process, you need to get your internal team on board. While that may not sound as difficult as developing a rebranding strategy and revamping your brand (however extensively), it can actually be a significant challenge for plenty of businesses. Simply put: If your own team doesn’t buy into your rebrand, your customers won’t, either. Everyone needs to commit to it, and that may mean selling the new branding to your internal team members much like you will your customers.