HubSpot Coaching and Training Blog

Blogging is a critical marketing vehicle for businesses today.  Blogging helps to increase SEO rankings and organic traffic, it establishes trust and authority for prospects, and helps organizations to continually evaluate their market niche.  Blogging is really effective, but it isn't necessarily easy.  We see many businesses struggle with blogging, and it's one of the many reasons that we get hired as an inbound marketing agency.  Sometimes our clients lack the bandwidth to create content for their blog, or they don't' know what to write about.  

If you're struggling with similar issues, or are trying to expand your keyword strategy, your sales team is a fantastic resource.  Blogging is about addressing the challenges that your customers face on a daily basis.  An example for Great Island Tech. would be a business that's looking for help with writing their blog.  Your sales team talks with prospects and customers on a daily basis.  They are an invaluable tool in architecting, scaling, and maintaining an effective and relevant blog strategy. Having sales' involvement in the blog also helps them do their job better because they will have a wealth of relevant, and timely information to provide to customers.

Some benefits of using sales for your blog:

-As a marketer, you have better, more relevant blog content, but also better content for your nurturing sequences and offer creation.

- The sales team will likely have better conversations with prospects.  Today, sales is a consultative process, and the ability to dig deep into customer needs, and empathize with their challenges is critical to sales success.  Having sales' involvement in your blog strategy only deepens their desire to ask critical questions and empathize with prospects. Examples might be changing question formats, or asking different questions all together that dive deeper into why a prospect is experiencing challenges.  The sales team has these conversations all day, every day and that's what makes them such a valuable resource for your blog.   

Here's how we work with sales to get blog-worthy content for our clients.

We let them know what's in it for them - No, it's not a commission check, but it will likely result in more of them.  Right off the bat, we paint a picture for the sales team.  Imagine having a sales call where your client outlines a number of challenges to you, and you can follow up with blog posts that your company has written on every one of those challenges.  That'd be good right?  Right, so we need your help in obtaining, and staying current on those challenges.  As a marketer, you want the good stuff, the nuances that your competitors aren't thinking about.

We Hit Record - Your sales team likely won't be able to just list off those nuances in 10 minutes.  If they could, then so could your competitors.  Record at least half a dozen sales calls.  Listen closely when reviewing.  It's like jazz music, what's not being said but implied?  What can you deduct about the prospect based upon how they respond to questions?  What's bothering them?

We Regroup and Replicate - If you can, it's best to make it a recurring meeting.  Blogging is about keeping relevant, useful content above the fold.  This means that rolling out relevant content quickly is essential.  We recommend scheduling frequent, recurring meetings with sales in order to keep the content "fresh".  During these meetings, have them(sales) talk about the conversations that they're having with clients.  In the meetings try to uncover three actionable challenges for the marketing team to create content about.  If you have an editorial calendar, this is a great time to bring it in, and  map out the timing of specific posts.

We Share in the Results - Once your content is published, either via a blog post or a new offer that you've created, share in the success of completion.  Urge your sales counterparts to promote on their own personal social networks, and open yourself and your team up for feedback. This can be a really fun and rewarding process that both sales and marketing look forward to and value as an integral part of their job success.

This process takes time to refine; it's iterative but we've found that once the initial work is done, inertia takes over and we actually have MORE involvement from sales and sales leadership than we could have ever hoped for. The results that we're seeing by involving sales in the process are strong with both increases in traffic and conversion rate spikes.    

In the long run we see this as a small step towards a much larger mission of sales and marketing alignment.  By including the sales team in the overall strategy for your blog, sales will have a vested interest in its success and the results will show.

Ideally you'll have a chance to try this with sales, and then scale it out to every role that a prospect or customer might have; Customer Service, Billing, Support, etc..  The more people you can get involved in your content creation strategy, the better.

Making the switch from outbound marketing to inbound marketing is sort of like "Going Green".  The switch has a profound impact on organizations.  It changes the conversation that businesses have with their customers.  It transforms the way sales delivers value to prospects.  

In addition to the many benefits of inbound marketing, there are by-products that are equally beneficial.  "Going green" has ROI-proven benefits, but it's also (in most circumstances) the right thing to do, and that has a ripple effect.  Same goes with inbound marketing.  Prospects dislike having messaging imposed on them, and inbound marketing can often help bring in customers simply because your company has aligned with something positive.

Saying "Yes" to inbound marketing is saying "No" to interruption-based outbound marketing.  

You saw the commercial where your dream truck towed that huge, heavy trailer up hill while on fire over Niagra Falls in a blizzard.  You went online and saw the same truck all blacked out, looking sweet.  You browsed all of the features and add-ons, envisioned (the more attractive version of) yourself driving at 80 miles per hour through the desert to high-five some dudes at Joshua Tree before going out on a hard core bike ride.  Oh yeah, it's on.  You liked them on Facebook, watched the videos, even BUILT one online.  It's time for a test-drive.

Lookout dealership, here you come.  Upon arrival, you drive past those sweet trucks all lined up, park your car, and enter. Here comes this guy who introduces himself as a salesman, and frankly, he looks nothing like Chuck Norris. He's as likely to sell you a Prius as he is that bad-ass truck.  What gives? You want to run screaming back to your website experience.

Car dealerships are primary examples of  "clunky" experiences from website to "in store".  It's not their fault though because every car has a separate value proposition, persona, and target while the store and salespeople are required to sell all models.  This is a huge challenge, and one not easily solved.

Your businesses is likely easier, but the question still begs to be answered: Is your sales process in line with what you've worked so hard to establish through your Inbound marketing efforts?  This is what we talk about when we're refer to "Sales and Marketing Alignment".

When you place yourself in the shoes of your customer, what do you envision them wanting?  They want consistency, they want to trust the research that they conducted on your website, and they don't want to repeat themselves at every step in the process. But how can this happen if they just get "dropped off" as leads to sales?  

Here are 5 tactics to help you bring sales and marketing closer together and help you create a consistent experience from end to end.

1. Close the loop - Powerful marketing tools like HubSpot now allow you to integrate into equally powerful sales tools like Salesforce.  The result is that you can now tie specific marketing activities and initiatives to specific sales.  This is information that empowers the sales team with context, and the marketing team with data.
2. Assign mutual metrics - Alignment will never really work if the sales and marketing teams are aiming towards different targets.  Try to assign metrics and incentives that help bring the two practices together, rather than drive them apart.  Look at things like outcome profitability, lead-to-customer %, and average deal size.
3. Celebrate together - Gone are the days of closed-door, high-end signed-deal scotch sessions (sorry sales).  By celebrating together, you align on key milestones, share credit across the organization, and strengthen the relationship between the two parties.  Another huge benefit of celebrating together is that both teams see how important each others work was towards the success.
4. Plan together - Plan around specific initiatives, conferences, and geographical location.  By planning together, sales and marketing can synthesize messaging, assign real goals and metrics, and create a seamless experience from marketing through closed deal.
5. Meet together - Just like celebrating together, meet at least once a month as a team (sales and marketing together) in order to look at key metrics, identify new opportunities, and regroup on lessons learned.  When it really comes down to it, time spent outside of the trenches in either planning mode or regrouping mode are invaluable in building a strong organization, rather than just a strong team.

These strategies are the tip of the iceberg in aligning sales and marketing teams.  The future is sure to demand an even stronger alliance between sales and marketing. Software like HubSpot and Salesforce will continue to deepen the level of insight, context, and value for both teams.  By implementing organizational strategies to strengthen the relationship between sales and marketing, these softwares will, without any question, improve your bottom line and help you work smarter as an organization.

You order a bottle of house red for the table. You've called ahead and made sure that the table has a romantic view.  Getting to know each other is becoming natural as you order food for the both of you.  To you're surprise, that's something she's always wanted someone to do and no one ever has.  The food arrives, and really it's good.  The night is looking up. and then it happens….That little tickle in your nose that you're trying to suppress transforms like an ice burg into an all out sneeze.  It's a good one too. The table shakes enough that everyone's looking.  The piano player didn't completely stop, but he definitely paused, in a way that that suggests, not so subtly, "really dude?".  Then you look at her.  The sneeze, it was placed perfectly in her salad.   There's salad on her face. Lettuce, right there, no mistaking it, on her cheek.

You have an apology to make and it better be a good one if this isn't going to be the first and only date you have.  These types of missteps can make a deal go sour in a heartbeat, and its truly how their handled that is the deciding factor between the next step, or whammy.

Make no mistake, this new digital marketing world is all about building relationships and building a relationship online is hard.  Ruining a relationship online, on the other hand is easy, really easy.  Sometimes you can't even control it, like slow connection speeds or offline disruptions.  Other things are wholly in your control.  

Some Guidelines:

"We apologize for any inconvenience"

It's right up there with "We regret to inform you".  Canned responses that take no ownership of user frustration, make no real apology, and generally sound robotic have no place in your online material, not anymore.  It's not always about what you say, but about how you say it.  These types of canned responses make people feel like luggage. Try this on for size, "We're sorry"  Or take it up a notch like Mini did last week.

Let your content's hair down

You're not the DMV, so you don't need content that sounds like it.  The internet has given buyers a very compelling gift, the gift of choice.  This is an opportunity to differentiate your brand from your competitors.  Your content, how you use it, and you willingness to be bold is your greatest weapon.  Use it wisely.

Mind your Manners

Are you pleased that someone has engaged, purchased something, or recommended your product or service?  Let them know it! Say "thanks!".  Let people know that you appreciate their business.  Be a bit playful.  Social Media is one of the greatest tools that you can use to show some love.  Bonus points if you do it in an unexpected way.  Taking people by surprise in a good way is lethal at creating an audience for your business.

Monitor your own behavior

Start keeping tabs on what you buy online.  What drove you to the purchase? Collect these landing pages, offers, etc. and use them as a model for your business (where applicable).  This is a great way to identify marketing strategies that are effective and appropriate for your business.

Trust is a Metric

Relationships aren't one-sided.  They require mutual respect, understanding, and trust.  Anything that betrays your prospect's trust is poison to your business.  Trust is built, from how you handle the awkward moments, not the good times.  We trust people when they show up on time.  Being honest about what your product or service can't do, or the why your pricing is high, or when the competition might be a better fit are huge opportunities to build trust. You can't be all things to all people, but the people who need you badly need to trust you.

If you're like most businesses online, then you're looking for repeat customers, referrals, and recommendations.  Building a strong and lasting digital relationship founded in trust is the best way to get you there.  Inbound Marketing is almost perfectly designed to build this relationship. When used effectively, tools like HubSpot can help you build the types of relationships that will help you business scale and grow with confidence.

We work with many HubSpot customers who need additional training to get themselves up to speed with HubSpot. 

"Content precedes design.  Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration" - Jeffrey Zeldman

A hubspot employee once told us, "Blogging is like Jogging" and it's something that's stuck around.  It's a great saying for a number of reasons. In order to stay in shape you have to stay consistent.  If you don't jog consistently, you will be sore, your fitness won't be effective, and you'll be plagued with injury.  

But there's another reason that's it's stayed with us.  Blogging is like jogging because blogging is hard.  It's an essential part of any inbound marketing strategy, but it's hard to consistently produce quality, honest, unique content that's keyword rich, action oriented, and valuable to your target persona.  It's hard to carve out time that's not billable.  Anyone can put on a pair of shoes and move faster than a walk.  But doing it well is another art form in and of itself.

While the "rules" of blogging will change with search engine updates, social behavior, and software tools like HubSpot, there are things that will remain common denominators of any quality blogging strategy.

Here are four that we feel are essential:

1 - Unique Content - With the Panda update for Google, filtering out what Google considers to be "duplicate" content is now a top priority.  The idea being that if a user didn't like the content that they found on the first result, chances are that they don't want that same content served up in the second result, and the third, and so on.  For Businesses, this means that an inbound marketing strategy focused on creating truly unique content is now essential.  This doesn't mean that you can't use snippets from other peoples blogs as quotes, or write responses, but it means that the content you create needs to add value to what has already been written.

2 - Write for your audience - In reality, your website visitors care about themselves, not you.  They want to know how your content effects, informs, or concerns them.  This is why understanding your target persona is crucial.  Don't write for you, write for them.  Write about what you know.  Your subject matter expertise is important, but make sure that you are using language that your audience an identify with and references that your audience will understand.  This keeps them engaged with your content, rather than working out obscure references and language.  It's probably a good idea not to insult your audience too.  Concern is fine, as long there's a way for them to address the concern (ideally with your product/service).  Insult, however, is for the school cafeteria.

3 - Make it easy - Readers Scan.  Give them navigation within the post by using images, bold text, bulleted lists, and other navigational elements to help them achieve what they are going to do anyways.  If your blog just looks like a bunch of words, your readers will just move on to something that doesn't look like it's as much work.

4.) Focus on what's not going to change - This is a concept that Jason Fried from 37Signals writes about a lot (and he got from Jeff Bezos of Amazon).  What is it about your industry or business that is not going to change?  Are your customers always going to want fast service, reliable products, or an intuitive online experience?  Focus on the aspects of your business that are timeless, and write about that.

Hopefully these four quick points help your business stay vigilant, and focused on your blogging strategy for 2013.  With a consistent routine and the right type of "training", you will surely see results.  A good blogging strategy is like any good workout plan.  You have to know what you're measuring, you have to work towards specific goals, and you have put in the hard work.

Paintings are subjective.  You either like them, or you don't.  Some paintings are more universal, and that's why there are museums that people pay big money to go to. Museums are confusing, though.  You can almost never find the bathroom on your own, you can't touch anything, and the food is expensive. Your website is not a painting.

Delight.  It's kind of a hard thing to hate.