Every company can benefit from utilizing effective content to drive sales and close more deals. But how can your marketing and sales departments work together to produce more effective content?
HubSpot’s Principal Inbound Agency Strategist, John-Erik Pszenny, spoke at Experience Inbound 2019 where he explained how creating this synergy can help your company reach its peak performance with increased sales and improved communication with existing customers and potential buyers.
In this session he covered:
- Improving your customer relationships through personalized video
- Defining an effective content strategy
- Using this newfound synergy to close more deals
Below, we cover how to achieve these key takeaways for your business…
Takeaway #1: Improve your customer relationships through personalized video
Life is busier than ever as endless emails, meetings, and phone calls find their way into your day. The reality is, opportunities for face-to-face sales are declining. This makes creating digital relationships with your customers very important.
John recommends using customized and tailored videos directly for your customer as the future of digital relationships.
Videos are consumable, efficient, and direct. Videos save time by decreasing the back and forth between your company and your customers. Less back and forth means less room for confusion and misinterpretation.
Creating personalized videos allow you to connect with your customers, give demos, and cut down on email. Implementing the use of video makes it easy to target potential buyer’s pain points and your customer’s specific needs. It is vital that your company does many different things to engage, connect, and relate to existing and potential customers.
Vidyard allows you to:
- Feed video data from your videos back into HubSpot to score leads, segment customers, and trigger nurture workflows
- Push viewer engagement data to contact records in HubSpot so you know who’s watching what, and can tailor your sales outreach accordingly
Standing out from the competition is a crucial way to stay top of mind to potential customers during the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey.
Takeaway #2: Define an effective content strategy
Content marketing is much different today than it was five to ten years ago. Why? The way customers buy is different. Customers no longer want to be sold to -- they want help making an informed decision. According to CEB Global,
“Before a seller even contacts a buyer, he or she is already 57-percent of the way through the sales process.”
That’s over half way!
So how can your product and your company stand out from the competition? By providing real, rich, and compelling content. Every phase of the customer journey can benefit from implementing these ideas in your company.
Effective content can come in the form of videos, infographics, customer testimonials, and referral reviews. In fact, according to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Survey,
“Almost all consumers (92-percent) trust recommendations from strangers over those from brands.”
Focusing on testimonials will let potential and existing customers know they are not alone. Testimonials demonstrate that other people and companies experience similar problems, have similar questions, and most importantly, love your product and service.
Let it be known!
Takeaway #3: Marketing and sales synergy - work together for peak performance
Now that we know what forms of effective content your company can implement, how do we ensure we’re creating the right content for prospects? If your marketing team is going about this process alone, you’re doing it wrong.
Your marketing department should be giving effective content to your sales team, while your sales department should be providing feedback and results from interviews and actual sales. This loop of collaboration will help shape new content for your marketing team.
Analyzing the metrics of your trackable data can make all the difference in separating your company from the competition. 
Sales and marketing collaboration is a vital aspect of understanding who your existing and potential customers are, and what they respond to best. Without collaboration, your company will never hit its peak level of performance.
Weekly meetings between your sales and marketing departments can increase productivity and efficiency, leading to cost-effective content marketing and more deals closed.
Review: Takeaway Summary
So, what did we learn here today?
➤ Use personalized videos to connect with existing customers and potential buyers. Videos tailored specifically for a customer lets them know their specific needs matter while optimizing your companies time.
➤ Provide real, rich, and effective content. Customer testimonials and referral reviews allow potential buyers to understand that people love your product and love working with your company.
➤ Department collaboration is crucial for company success. Sales and marketing should be in constant contact to ensure peak productivity. This loop of collaboration will help shape new content and close more deals.
Special thanks for John-Erik Pszenny for speaking at Experience Inbound 2019 and sharing his expertise on inbound marketing. His session stressed the importance of combining personalized video and effective content with sales and marketing synergy. By applying these strategies, you can ensure optimal performance for your company.
How do you see using this information to help your business? Which of these strategies can you implement right away to see results?
Let us know in the comments below!
