How To Sell Brand Publishing To Your President
So you’re thinking of ways to propose brand publishing to your sales-centric and profit-minded boss. In most cases, said supervisor has been in the game for a long time. He or she believes only what they can see, feel and completely understand. It’s human nature for those in senior leadership to rely 100% on a sales and marketing approach that they fully understand, know and trust. There is really no fault in having this point of view. Often times being able to control what you know how to control can be more effective than floundering around experimenting in a world of chaos. However, relying solely on what you’ve done in the past can and will lead to missed opportunities to grow the business. As new approaches establish themselves as the more efficient new norms, you must avoid being late to the party.
Consider the concept of a “sale.” There are three main elements that form a foundation on which a sale is made. Those elements are (in no particular order) credibility, contact, and trust. Until the introduction of content marketing and brand publishing, there was no option available that could accomplish all three of these building blocks beyond your sales team’s direct human interaction.
Without fail, there is a point when your sales team will need to meet with a prospect. While this step remains a required part in a sales transaction in the water and wastewater market, that meeting can take several forms and is no longer limited to person-to-person. The point still remains that in order for any interaction, there must be an introduction. Introduction is the most important step. What is so intriguing is that opportunity in which you connect initially is directly impacted by the content you have created and the story you are telling.
Content marketing gives you a story, a background, legitimacy in the minds of your potential customers. It is the essence of the credibility building block. Trust comes from the exchange you are proposing. You are offering non promotional and helpful information because you have the knowledge that can actually help your prospects. That same information is what they crave to consume. They don’t want a sales pitch, they want help (and in some cases entertainment).
When looking at the crucial “contact” piece of the trifecta, where you promote your content is key. If you aren’t tracking who is interacting with your content, you lose out on this piece. Take a business as traditional and intimate as retirement planning for example. In a recent interview, Sheri Fitts, Chief Marketing Officer at Sheridan Road Financial, said "Truly helpful content creates a relationship faster than a cold call ever will."
She went on to explain that the consensus among plan advisers is that referrals — whether from CPAs, attorneys, bankers, other advisers, clients or providers — are the best way to prospect. The worst way is through cold-calling, especially by third-party firms that do not understand you or your business.
It’s important to note that content marketing can’t completely replace all other forms of your prospecting process. It will however make every other aspect better and make an impact on your bottom line.
So how do you get started? Getting help from experts who can help create content marketing and get it distributed is a good place to begin. One easy way to start writing is to tell stories about successes and challenges with clients or participants.
Regardless of how you execute your content marketing strategy, know this for sure: company presidents who ignore it will do so at their peril.
Image credit: "Cool CCTV," Phil Campbell © 2008, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/