OVERVIEW
Sales enablement and content marketing are both critical
components of any effective marketing strategy. But they’re often viewed as
completely separate functions that are done independently of one another. The
reality though, is that for them to be most effective, they need to work
together.
This blog will provide an overview of both to help you
understand the value of using them together in your business.
WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING
The Content
Marketing Institute defines content marketing as,
“Content
marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and
distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a
clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer
action.”
Okay, but what does that really mean?
CMI expands their definition by adding,
“Instead
of pitching your products or services, you are providing truly relevantand
useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their
issues.”
So to summarize, what that means is that content marketing
is about providing the customer with useful, relevant information that explains
how and why the product or service actually solves a problem. Instead of
focusing on the technology used in the product, or the features that are
included, content marketing focuses on the solution the product provides to the
customer. Content marketing may also include information on what benefits the
customer will gain by using the product or service.
Customers look at your product or service because it can provide
them with a solution to a problem or issue they need to solve. They aren’t
interested in why or how a product works; they’re only interested that it
works.
In other words, the primary focus of content marketing is
NOT about the product or service and IS about the customer and their needs.
WHAT IS SALES ENABLEMENT
HubSpot defines sales
enablement as,
“Sales enablement is the iterative process of providing your
business’s
sales team with the resources they need to close
more deals. These
resources may include content, tools, knowledge, and
information to
effectively sell your product or service to customers.”
Okay, that’s pretty straightforward, but to expand on that
definition just a bit more, Seismic adds
this,
“Sales
enablement is the strategic process of providing salespeople with the tools
they need to consistently have valuable conversations with customers at each
stage of the customer’s problem-solving life cycle. Sales enablement includes
the information, content, tools and processes salespeople need to succeed at
all stages of the sale.”
So basically, sales enablement is the process of providing
the sales teams (I say teams, because sales enablement really should include
both inside and outside sales functions as they are both customer-facing) with
all of the training, tools, product information, and customer-facing collateral
and materials that they will use as they engage with customers at all stages of
the sales funnel. This provides sales with the information they need to be able
to answer customer’s questions (i.e., sell effectively) and help move the
customer down the sales funnel.
In other words, the primary focus of sales enablement is
still about providing the customer with the required information about a
product or service. In the case of sales enablement, the information just comes
to the customer through the sales team instead of the customer accessing the
information directly.
One other consideration needs to be noted as well. If your
business sells through channel partners, sales rep firms, or other third-party
channels, sales enablement needs to include these organizations as they too are
part of your sales organization.
COMMON FOCUS
Content marketing and sales enablement also have a lot in common.
- Both content marketing materials and sales enablement materials are created (or at least should be reviewed) jointly by the sales and marketing organizations
- Both are focused on providing relevant, useful information to their audiences
- Both provide information about the product or service
- Both are used to help educate customers
- Both are used as part of the sales process
- Both are designed to help optimize the customer’s sales experience
- Both are designed to help move customers down the sales funnel
- Both are designed to lead to closed sales
As you can see, both content marketing and sales enablement
are actually very complementary to and supportive of each other. This is why
when they are used together they provide a strong platform for sales success.
MISCONCEPTIONS STILL ABOUND
Although sales enablement and content marketing are
obviously more effective when used together, there are still misconceptions
that abound.
The two biggest misconceptions are:
1. Content
marketing is considered to be more top-of-funnel focused, as it provides general
information to potential customers when they’re doing initial product research
2. Sales
enablement is considered to be more mid- and bottom-of-funnel focused, as it
provides sales team with more detailed information they can use to engage and
interact with customers who have made the decision to move forward and are
already further down the purchase path
Nothing could be further from the truth.
While in the past there may have been some validity to those
beliefs, it is no longer true. Today, sales enablement and content marketing
are used together up and down the sales funnel. Although how, when and where exactly
they are used may vary from product to product and industry to industry.
The reality is that sales enablement and content marketing
are both part of the customer engagement process and both have responsibility
for driving customers down the sales funnel. And just like the sales and
marketing organizations, both are equally critical to the success of the
business.
Sales enablement includes not only the product training,
tools and processes that sales teams use, but also leverages and uses the
material and information that content marketing develops for customers. As
such, to be most effective, sales enablement and content marketing should be
used together.
SUMMARY
While the focus of sales enablement and content marketing
may initially seem to be somewhat different, in reality it isn’t. The actual
goal of both is to provide the information the customer needs. Whether the
information is delivered directly to the customer (i.e., content marketing) or
indirectly through the sales teams (i.e., sales enablement), the end result is
the same – to provide the customer with all of the information needed at all
stages of the sales funnel to move them down the funnel towards a purchase
decision.
© 2020 – Richard Hatheway, Catalyst Strategic Marketing
All Rights Reserved
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