7 Steps to Content the Sales Team Will Actually Use

Content integration is the key to ensuring your content gets put to use – and to maximizing your content marketing ROI. Every department within the organization needs to be plugged into your content marketing activities. Sales, obviously. HR. Operations. Investor relations. Customer service. Yes, even finance. And it’s a two-way street: You tell them what’s being published and how it can benefit their efforts (so they use it!) and they feed you info about what’s happening in their worlds, so that the content you produce resonates better with the audience and adds value across the customer lifecycle.

7 Steps to Content the Sales Team Will Actually Use

Ask the sales team what they need. This doesn’t mean the sales team gets to set content strategy (sorry folks) but they should have their voices heard.

Ask them what they’re hearing. Your sales team is on the front lines talking to prospective buyers. No one knows better than they do what buyers are asking about.

Build a content library that’s optimized for sales to use. It should be easy for the sales team to a) find the right content for the right buyer at the right time and b) use that content.

Include content links within email templates. Everyone within the organization – not just sales and marketing – should have a consistent email footer, and it should include a call to download the quarter’s big rock asset.

Start a weekly marketing update – or add content to your weekly update. Give sales a heads up on what’s been published over the week and how they can use it. Offer them templates for sharing the content directly with prospects and in their social channels.

Before a big content release, hold an internal meeting to explain the goals behind the campaign, who you’re targeting, and how sales can help you achieve your goals (which of course are for the good of everyone).

Produce a quick one-page guide and a short video tutorial for sales (and SMEs!) on how to access content from the library and how to share it in their social channels.