If sales is the elder statesman of dirty words, then content is the new kid on the block. Everyone talks about it, it gets given a bad name, and some people abuse it. However, it could just be the key to unlocking your sales campaigns.
Get your content strategy right, and your sales campaigns have another pillar supporting them. Layer in effective distribution techniques and youâre cooking on gas.
So much goes into brilliant content marketing, a lot of it unseen. And it doesnât end when you hit publish, either. Content can last for a lifetime, remaining evergreen so your sales campaigns consistently have something to lean on.
Here, Iâll be looking at some pillars of great content and how you can layer that into your sales campaigns.
This is just a summary version of a longer, more detailed opinion piece â so donât panic if Iâve missed anything. Hopefully, Iâve caught it in the longer one. If youâd like the full version, just drop me a message on LinkedIn.
Enjoy.
Content is what you make it
Ah, content. It feels like itâs talked about to death these days, but I canât help but feel that thatâs a testament to the power of it. Because the truth is, even if the world is saturated with content, people recognise that you canât do much without it.
Whether youâre B2C or B2B, content makes up the foundations on which your business is built. However, it is what you make it. It is as good as the effort you put into the creation and strategy of it.
It doesnât matter if youâre producing whitepapers of Instagram reels, what goes in is what comes out.
Using it as part of your sales efforts, however, is a different kettle of fish. Getting the outreach right in the first place isnât easy, so layering in content adds to the complexity â however, the two go hand in hand in todayâs world.
No oneâs buying from a silent persona â back up your outreach with some authority
So, sales campaigns. Whatever form of outreach you are (or should be) conducting, it wonât or is unlikely to work if youâre not positioning yourself as a source of authority. That means knowing what youâre talking about, and communicating it regularly.
Itâs a bit like putting wallpaper up on your chosen channels. If the walls are blank, no one is going to consider you as a source of authority because thereâs nothing to read, watch, listen to, or consume.
Your content is your golden opportunity to speak to the problems that your audience has, so itâs critical that you use this chance to hit the mark and solve some real problems whilst not giving away all your secrets and thinking.
However, quite often, clients are buying the thinking in your business â not necessarily the product. So itâs crucial that you display your thinking and show youâre more than just a product in your content.
Conversely, if youâre consistently distributing content on your chosen channels, youâll instantly be able to demonstrate your thinking to the visitor.
This means that when you conduct outreach and the prospect comes to check you out online, youâve got something ready for them to read or consume. It could just be the tipping point in a conversation.
Building authority isnât a walk in the park though. It takes consistency, commitment, and control â the three Câs in our book.
Consistency
Keep showing up. Itâs as simple as that. If youâre sporadic with your distribution, you might see some returns. But if you show up consistently, youâll be recognised by algorithms and audiences alike in terms of when to expect your content.
Because humans are creatures of habit, they like to know when content is going to be dropped. If you study the biggest creators on, say, LinkedIn â youâll find that they publish their content at or around the same time every day.
This then creates a cadence that they can stick to, meaning their audience comes to expect content at a similar time and the creator has a format they can follow that allows them to build rhythm, routine, and structure.
Consistency also has its advantages when it comes to the algorithms of platforms such as LinkedIn. Showing up regularly on LinkedIn feeds the beast and shows it that youâre genuinely trying to add value and network â anything else is a plus.
Despite any social network algorithm being (almost) a mystery, to a certain extent, you should play the game and feed it. There will be those that shout from the back saying thatâs not true, and you should do your own thing. And theyâre rightâŚto a point.
Itâs a fine balance between doing what works for you and what works for the algorithm.
The only ways we recommend playing the algorithm game are as follows:
To be consistent. Show up, and keep showing up. The algorithm wonât reward people who are hardly there and then expect results after one post.
To engage and give value. Itâs social networking after all. The more you put in, the more you get out.
Be nice. Always. The world is hard enough as it is these days, so we could do with being more kind.
The rest, such as preferred formats for the platform or specific times to post, is entirely up to you. Create your own playbook, as long as itâs consistent.
Commitment
You have to really, and I mean really, be launching face-first into your content game. You canât half-bake it. For your efforts to work in the long term (more on timescales later), you have to be committed to the cause and in it for the long haul.
Content-based results rarely happen overnight. And even if they do, theyâre usually one-offs.
So you have to remain committed, even on the days that youâre not âfeeling itâ. As you can probably tell, commitment goes hand in hand with consistency. Be committed to the consistency, be committed to the content.
Because thatâs the thing: you have to care about your content. You have to be proud of everything you send out the door. Else whatâs the point? If you donât care about it, and youâre not committed to it, then who will?
Control
Finally, you have to have complete control over your content. What youâre publishing, when youâre publishing, who youâre publishing to and for, and why youâre publishing.
Control in your content might sound like a made-up feature just so that I could say the âThree Câs of Contentâ, but itâs not.
Control is critical because having your finger on the pulse of your content means that you can scale up or down as you need to.
It also means that you know precisely what youâre trying to achieve and why, and who youâre doing it for. Pillars of any good content strategy.
Using content in sales outreach
Pairing your content with sales outreach is tricky. As far as Iâm aware, not many people do this, but it can be a crucial step to warming up the conversation and nurturing a prospect.
Sure, you can distribute to your heartâs content and repurpose it until youâre blue in the face, but what about delivering a beautifully prepared piece of content directly to the prospect?
Now, your outreach should be personalised anyway and always with the aim of building relationships in the first instance. âDonât sell, build relationshipsâ is always the way we steer businesses. So if youâre building a relationship, there might be a natural point for you to say something similar to:
âItâs interesting you mention XXX, we recently wrote XXX on the subject and I wondered if it could be useful for you.â
Iâm not saying that you should use that template, Iâm simply suggesting that handing the content directly to the prospect can be an effective way of speeding up the sales cycle and demonstrating your thinking â rather than just pitching your services (no one should be doing that in 2023).
However, thereâs a caveat to this. You canât just blanket send the same article to 100 prospects â you have to find the right time to deliver the content, personalise it, and ensure itâs relevant. Relevancy is key, otherwise, youâll look automated and pretty foolish.
Something to take away
If thereâs anything to take away from this summary article, itâd be this:
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- Focus on consistency, commitment, and control in your content.
- Personalise your outreach and distribute content personally
- Donât be a silent wallflower â put yourself out there and show your thinking.
- Use your content again. And again. And again. Stretch it far. If youâre bored of your content, your audience is only just starting to notice.
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Of course, itâs more nuanced than that. There are KPIs to consider, analytics, iteration, cadence, themes, and more detail on the strategy. Fortunately, this has been a summary article of a more comprehensive opinion piece that you can get your hands on simply by dropping me a message on LinkedIn.
Adding authority to your sales campaigns has never, and I mean never, been more important than today. With so many businesses, consultants, freelancers, and agencies competing for the same customers, itâs crucial that you stake your claim and demonstrate your thinking.
After all, customers are buying your thinking as well as your products and services. So go show them what youâve got, and donât be shy.