A Content Marketing Plan Is all about Sales

You’re comfortable doing business the way you’ve been doing it for years. We get that. But there’s an inherent problem with that. Your customers and prospects aren’t; their buying habits have changed—dramatically. Technology has been driving this content marketing train for a while now, and the painful reality is that if you don’t jump onboard, your potential customers will be leaving the station without you. Stale metaphors aside, you really need to get on track with how business is being done and create a content marketing plan. Okay, bad puns behind us now, let’s get to the meat of it.

How a Content Marketing Plan Can Save the Sales & Marketing Marriage

We all feel the pressure to be as efficient at our jobs as possible. Metrics dictate our decisions, follow us around, and predict our relative success … or failure. No one feels this more profoundly than salespeople. After all, if you distill it down, our jobs depend on their success. If nothing’s being sold, nobody’s getting paid. Having said that, the sales team isn’t in it alone. Marketing is an integral arm of sales. Traditionally, they have begrudgingly co-existed in many organizations—kind of like a bad arranged marriage. Both know they have an obligation to be there, yet they’ve discovered they don’t always speak the same language. There’s a disconnect that threatens to derail the best intentions of—what should be—a fruitful union. Content marketing is proven to attract prospects, and sales should be happy to embrace this methodology, because it will deliver the kind of leads they have been demanding for a long time.

What Is Content Marketing? Oh, You’re Already Doing it—Now Plan on Making Money from it!

You know that rabbit hole you go down each time you read an article online and then click on one link, only to click on another, which has you reading an article about the pros and cons of this and that, eventually taking you to a product page? From there, you start clicking down the customer reviews—some of which may even redirect you to another product entirely? Which takes you down that rabbit hole all over again?

That zig and zag through the content marketing minefield is just how business is done these days—both for B2C and B2B endeavors, whether you realize it or not. But wait! The good news is that it’s mining gold … and it can for your industrial manufacturing business when you get on the other side of it. 

Do You Understand Your Company’s Brand Essence?

Striving for balance in life leads to feeling centered: strong, even-keeled, and in control of your destiny. Achieving this in your personal life can be accomplished in a variety of ways—people do yoga, meditate, run, hike, travel—whatever serves as an enjoyable counterbalance to the demands of everyday life.

Connect with Consumers Through Your Brand Essence

Social media plays an important role in how consumers discover, research, and share information about industrial manufacturing brands. If social media is not a part of your brand development strategy, learn to embrace Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and the likes because it will only lead to heightened company success. According to Nielsen, Sixty percent of consumers researching products learned about a specific brand through social networking sites. Additionally, Nielsen found that 53% of social networkers follow brands. It is cycle that feeds itself—and it’s evident that a social media presence is critical for communicating your brand essence. If you haven’t adopted a social media strategy, the time is now to do so.

Why Your Marketing Technology Needs to Include Content Marketing Services

Stock market making you crazy? While we know the sage advice is to wait it out, what about your business? You can’t afford to have your business sit on the sidelines, can you?

While the stock market volatility may point to some underlying ecomomic issues, you need to prepare for a less than robust economy and a more competitive environment in your markets. If you think you can be competitive with old marketing strategies and a website that is as old as Justin Bieber, it’s time to get moving!

Because Your B2B Brand Strategy May Still Need Fixin’

We hear all too often the strains of, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” reasoning for not updating brand messaging or revising outdated websites. What you aren’t doing, in reality, is adhering to a consistent and congruent brand development strategy. But do you really know how many opportunities you may be missing out on by not making these changes? What is your gauge for broken? If you don’t remain relevant and contemporary, prospects may be passing you by because you look “broke” to them. Your assumptions may be shortsighted and costly. 

Your Logo Represents Your Company Brand

Nike’s swoosh, McDonald’s golden arches, and Apple’s semi-eaten apple. What do these three have in common? They are all widely recognized logos. When you see the swoosh, you know what it symbolizes. You might think that industrial brand strategy for your company doesn’t need to include a logo. But just how important is a logo for your industrial manufacturing company? The short answer is: a logo is very important.

Have a Healthy, Heart-Hitting Company Brand

Why is Walt Disney World® magical? Why are Volvos safe? Why are Jeeps® adventurous? Each of these answers boils down to one thing: brand essence. It is the emotion your brand conveys. In other words, it is the emotional heart—some would say, soul—of your brand. So, Disney World, Volvos, and Jeeps evoke feelings of magic, safety, and adventure, respectively, among their customers. Better yet, these characteristics are associated with these companies even by people who don’t buy Jeeps, Volvos, or go to Disney. Well done.

Last Updated on 6/11/2020

The Connection between Brand and the Bottom Line

Years ago, management guru Peter Drucker said, “Because the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”