Category: Marketing

Ah, the age-old question; can sales and marketing work together? Unfortunately, there’s been a lack of alignment between the two over the years. While the ultimate goal for both may be the same, the way each gets to it may differ. Working closely together can have many advantages and can help propel the business forward if done properly. Here are some advantages to integrating your sales and marketing teams.

Can Sales and Marketing Work Together?

Communication is the answer

In some instances, sales and marketing teams can be pitted against each other. This is usually due to a lack of communication. This is where teamwork can play a major role. With the marketing team pumping out the content of the service, products, or industry they want to promote, and the sales team being the face of the business, it would only make sense to have them in constant communication. The sales team is directly speaking with prospects through email, phone calls, or face-to-face interactions. Therefore, it would seem that the marketing team would want to ensure that the same information that’s been relayed to customers is the same as what’s being created. Creating content as a team can attribute to better leads and, ultimately, more money in everyone’s pocket. A win-win for all involved.

Time and energy spent on leads that are unqualified is a dead-end scenario. With regular communication, information can pass smoothly between departments. If something isn’t working, teams can solve it by talking it out. Sales will be less inclined to blame marketing for unworthy content and marketing will be less likely to blame sales for being too pushy. As a result, a healthier and more successful environment is created altogether. Trust and rapport will improve when shared visions and goals are put into place. Campaigns will be more impactful and potential buyers will be impressed enough to follow through with a sale. Analyzing results over a month, the quarter, or the year will get everyone on the same page and spark motivation.

Merging buyer personas

Developing and defining the same buyer personas within both departments will help target the most accurate audience. Who exactly is the ideal client? Are there specific challenges they face? What do they do and how do they make decisions? What kind of buying habits do they have? Fully stepping into the customer’s shoes will ensure both teams know exactly what to provide. If sales and marketing can combine their practical and theoretical knowledge, it will result in the right product for the right customer.

Key performance indicators

Sharing the same KPI between sales and marketing is also a must. Sales will focus on new accounts, closed deals, and upsells, while marketing typically focuses on lead quality, brand awareness, and lead funnel progression. Adopting the same mindset with revenue growth, pipeline growth, and audience and employee engagement may increase revenue exponentially.

The proof is in the pudding (or the percentages)

If these points haven’t been enough to drive home how well sales and marketing can perform if they come together, there have been multiple studies and research to prove it. According to Precision Marketing Group, 95% of buyers will purchase from someone who provided content throughout the entire buying stage. Therefore, this highlights the importance of marketing and sales creating a seamless and uniform experience. Additionally, 67% of businesses improve upon closing deals when sales and marketing play as a team.

According to Review42 and Zoominfo, aligning both teams can mean 209% more revenue from marketing and a 36% higher customer retention. Misalignment could mean a 10% loss in revenue every year, whereas alignment could mean a 20% increase in the annual growth rate. 55% of marketers are unaware of which assets are most useful to their colleagues in sales. These statistics merely scratch the surface, yet still, prove the point on sales and marketing alignment.

Merging sales and marketing will ensure that a seamless experience for the buyer, client, or customer. In fact, having the same voice across all platforms will build trust, excitement, and a feeling of security for the buyer. These qualities will ultimately lead to more sales. Isn’t this the whole point? If you’re wondering if sales and marketing should remain separate or not, keep this idea in mind. The two need each other in order to thrive.

Additional Reading: Sales and Marketing Alignment

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You’ve probably heard that content is “king” in the digital marketing space. Maybe you’ve read somewhere that content marketing is 62 percent more cost-effective yet it brings in 3 times more leads than paid promotions, ads, and other outbound strategies. Or perhaps the fact that adopters boost their conversion rates by up to 6 times compared to non-adopters.

However you look at it, content is an effective tool for marketing and setting your business up for success. But what is content marketing, really?

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a strategic process in which marketers consistently produce and distribute relevant, informative, and engaging content to create value for a target audience. This proven practice is the core of digital marketing, which is aimed at improving search rankings, enhancing brand awareness, and generating interest in products or services.

In other words, content marketing is all about creating and publishing great content that resonates with your target audience (aka customers). It’s a vital component of any solid marketing strategy, and it’s easy to see why.

Different types of content are at the heart of pretty much any kind of online interaction with your customers. It helps consumers sail through the buyer’s journey, from initial search to discovery and eventually making the purchase decision.

In saying so, content helps brands generate more leads, increase sales, and grow their businesses. If leveraged creatively and correctly, it can maximize content return on investment by making sure that each piece of content — be that a video, infographics, article, email, blog post, or any other format — gets in front of the right audience and at the right time.

Content marketing is not about the mechanical process of publishing one piece of content after another. You’ve got to learn how to produce and promote inspirational, educational, informative, useful, and compelling content that’ll reach the right readers on the right platform. It must be content that your target audiences want to consume, so that it can inspire the desired action, such as a purchase, email subscription, etc.

Why Is Content Marketing Important?

Content marketing campaigns are fairly new but have already proven to be quite effective. Let’s look at the top reasons why savvy brands have embraced this type of marketing.

Benefits of Content Marketing:

It attracts leads for free

Every business needs to attract customers to stay afloat, there’s doubt about that. This is where content marketing comes in handy. Instead of coughing up $2 per click using ads, you can pull in 10,000 or more customers to your website for the price of posting a YouTube video or writing a blog post.

If you have a good content marketing strategy, every blog post, video, article, or Ebook will help bring customers for years and years. This means that content marketing offers a lifetime ROI. A paid ad will attract a customer only once, but when you create content it can drive traffic to your website or online store for years, making an asset rather than an expense.

It’s a tool for staying competitive

The internet has provided an almost level playing ground for every business on a global scale. That means a small boutique shop in Tallahassee, Florida is competing head-to-head with a giant retailer like Walmart or Amazon. Thankfully, there’s another equalizer: content.

That’s right; over 90 percent of all brands and modern businesses have adopted content marketing, from industry titans like P&G, Apple, and Coca-Cola to your favorite taco food truck.

If you’re not using content, you may be losing business to competitors. If you do, you’ll be a leg up on your rivals that don’t use content marketing. It’s that trivial, but incredibly important.

It helps you engage with an evolving consumer base

Technology is fast-evolving, and it’s changing the way your customers make purchase decisions. Today, consumers go to social media, use Pinterest, watch YouTube videos, or ask friends for recommendations via messengers. Content helps you reach your target audience wherever they may be.

It is highly personalized

Content marketing involves studying your typical customer. What’s their demographic? What are their interests, dislikes, or desires? By doing so, you can tailor your content to resonate well with your readers. This helps not only drive lead generation but also increases conversion and sales.

It saves money!

As we’ve already mentioned, content marketing costs 62 percent less than advertising, sales, and other outbound marketing campaigns. Even more impressive, content delivers ROI for many years to come. That’s because it is not a one-and-done type of marketing.

Wrap-up

Content marketing is the strategic practice of providing free media-form content to customers to get their attention and interest in return. This type of marketing is designed to boost brand awareness, improve search engine rankings, increase lead generation, and ultimately convert them into loyal customers. It can also be an excellent tool for PR and customer service.

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We are a premier internet digital marketing company providing:

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• Online presence
• Website Design
• Local SEO Strategy
• Email Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Marketing Campaigns
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• And More

Our marketing services goal is to continually over-deliver to each and every client we work with. We are a team of SEO experts, web design wizards, social media master-minds, and online reputation management specialists. With over 10 years of experience, we have developed a system that ensures the success of our clients with our products and services.

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Digital marketing, although it has been around for several years now, is still relatively new. In addition, each year it becomes more complex. The excitement for all of the new tools and channels can lead marketers into a trap of focusing too much on how and then forgetting to focus on the why. This is why it is important to make sure that you set up digital marketing goals that are clearly defined.

There are more and more channels to use to reach your customers and there are even more sophisticated data tools for digital marketers to use. Collecting data across several channels and creating a customer profile provides brands with a better way to target individuals in order to create more personalized experiences for their consumers. Consumers can be reached using their preferred digital channels, which could be the web, social media, mobile, email, or a combination of these things. Brands can communicate in these ways to improve their customer journey.

Defining Digital Marketing Goals

Setting goals and measuring against them is critical for qualifying the success of an online marketing initiative. Here are some tips for defining and measuring digital marketing goals that are effective.

Amount Spent Versus Earned Conversions

 One of the easiest and simplest goals for experts to measure and define is the amount of money that is spent on the digital marketing campaign compared to the number of conversions into customers that pay. Acquisition strategies are one area that most marketing experts spend a lot of money on. This might include Google Ads, Facebook ads, partner affiliations, email campaigns, etc. Each of these has costs associated with them. A marketing team needs to measure how much of their budget they spend on each of these channels and then look closely at how many conversions each of these strategies turns into. This will show how effective the campaign really is.

For example, if you are spending a ton of money on Facebook ads and the conversion rates are low, a change is necessary. Look closely at all of the money that is being spent and if it is not bringing anything into the business, it is time to reevaluate.

It is important to make sure that you set a target for lead conversions. You can then measure this against the amount of money that is spent. Make sure that you are meeting this goal each month. If you do not achieve your goal, changes need to be made. Using smart data tools can help you reach your consumers where they are and help determine the best channel to use in order to catch the attention and gain the conversions that you are looking for.

Customer Retention

 Acquiring new customers is only one aspect of digital marketing to consider. Additionally, it is important to make sure that you are retaining your current customers. Retaining customers is more profitable than obtaining new ones. The reason for this is because getting new customers is expensive and overall returning customers tend to spend more in the long run. One study shows that 80 percent of the future revenue of a company will come from only 20 percent of their current customers. One reason for this is because each sale in the future is going to provide a larger gross margin because the cost of purchases is not measured against the cost of buyer acquisition.

To define this goal a marketer will need to look at the increase in the average purchases from their current clients. Engagement measurements should also be considered. Since retaining customers is so important, retention goals need to be considered as these are critical for digital marketing plans. Data and other marketing technologies can be used in order to come up with retention strategies for your consumer base. This might include emails, personalization, and loyalty programs that can help make reaching strategy goals more manageable.

Win-Back Ratio

 At some point in the customer lifecycle, they will lag or revert. Trying to pull them back in, is an objective that marketers need to set and work towards. Setting goals for win-back ratio is an important aspect of digital marketing. Product suggestions, abandoned cart emails, personalized benefits, and special offers are all good tactics to help keep your customers coming back. Try these different options and keep track of what works for your particular customers. Spending time researching how to keep your customers engaged can really pay off.

Defining your digital marketing goals and then carefully measuring them is the best way to determine the success of each campaign. Understanding how well each strategy works will lead to the most success when it comes to digital marketing.

Naples SEO Company | Providing the BEST SEO Company in Naples, FL

We are a premier internet digital marketing company providing:

• Naples Search Engine Optimization SEO services
• Online presence
• Website Design
• Local SEO Strategy
• Email Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Marketing Campaigns
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• And More

Our marketing services goal is to continually over-deliver to each and every client we work with. We are a team of SEO experts, web design wizards, social media master-minds, and online reputation management specialists. With over 10 years of experience, we have developed a system that ensures the success of our clients with our products and services.

Our SEO agency is here to ensure your website is ranking high. Our goal is to top position. Exactly where the best most qualified traffic is. Give us a call for your FREE Consultation.