The correlation between blogging and garnering greater awareness, leads and sales is stillfuzzy to many…and understandably so.
In this post, we explain how content creation is an important aspect of any business strategy AND how to blog effectively for greater awareness and qualified leads to assist with the sales process.
In short, people buy differently nowadays than they did in years’ past. Instead of immediately picking up the phone when there’s interest in a product, consumers head to Google to do research. Did you know that approximately 60 percent of customer research¹ is conducted online prior to talking with a salesperson?
And because buyer behavior has changed, those who have a product or service to sell need to approach the situation in a way that’s congruent with how today’s consumer wants to be sold to — both online and off.
Today’s Sales Process is Human
In the past, being a sales executive meant that you held the power and control in a conversation because you had all of the information that the prospect wanted and, ideally, needed. There was no such thing as full transparency.
Today, sales has evolved to a point where the consumer is in control. The consumer can comparison shop because he has all of the information he wants — at his fingertips….whether it’s from your company or from a competitor. Therefore, today’s sales exec also must be armed by knowing the business from top to bottom so that he or she can adequately answer the questions being asked.
For Offline Sales Success Today…
If a prospect wants a “latest features” demo, sales can provide that.
If a prospect wants to discuss the product’s architecture, sales can discuss that.
If a prospect wants a run-down from A to Z of the product, sales is well-versed and equipped to do that.
A conversation about the market? Sales can handle that, too.
They know what’s in the development pipeline, as well as how those new features will positively affect their prospects.
They realize that full transparency is needed for trust.
Sales must be human in order for potential customers of today to respond in kind.
However, since prospects today aren’t picking up the phone until they’ve done a majority of their research, a website must also be armed with these important questions that prospects want and need to make a decision so that they can progress further down the sales funnel.
You Ask, They Answer: How to Blog Effectively to Garner More Awareness and Qualified Leads for Your Business
Chances are, if you poll your sales team they’ll be able to come up with a list of 15-50 most frequently asked questions they receive on a day-to-day or weekly basis.
To capitalize on these inquiries in a digital capacity, the most powerful thing you can do for your business is to blog. Each time you publish a new page to your website in the form of a blog or website page, it counts as a new piece of real estate that shows up in search engine result pages on your company’s behalf.
Each newly published page equals one more answered question, one more way for prospective customers to find you, one more way to get research done before talking to a sale rep, and one more way that you’re grabbing hold of a competitive advantage in your market.
To break it down, below are a three recent stats¹ on how blogging can catapult your company’s visibility and traffic:
- Both B2Bs and B2Cs increase traffic with more published blog posts.
- B2Cs saw a more pronounced increase with more than 300 published blog posts.
- Similar to the first chart, the impact that blogging has on inbound traffic on a monthly basis is shown in the above graph.
Due to increased traffic, companies with 1 – 10 employees saw the highest number of leads from publishing 300+ total blog posts. Companies that published 301+ total blog posts got more than 3.5X as many leads as those that published 0 – 50 blog posts.
Due to incrased traffic, companies with 11 – 25 employees also saw an increase in the number of leads from publishing 300+ total blog posts. Companies that published 301+ total blog posts got more than 2X as many leads as those that published 151 – 300 blog posts.
Due to increased traffic, companies with 26 – 200 employees and 201+ employees that published 300+ total blog posts got 1.5X as many leads as those that published between 0 – 25 blog posts.
Your Digital Strategy = Your Business Strategy
Put simply, in today’s world, a company’s digital strategy should equal its business strategy. There’s no separating the two. For greatest success, an online presence should mirror a company’s best sales rep so that your website will answer their questions, and, in turn, move prospects down your sales funnel. Today’s buyer will more than likely fill out a form or pick up the phone to speak with one of your sales reps if they like what they see on your website.
Creating a digital presence that mirrors and complements what your well-built-out, evolved sales team is doing is what’s called for in today’s business landscape.
In Closing: Create and Improve
Turn your business’ website into a well-oiled sales machine — and then continue to improve and evolve it. See what content people are clicking on and responding to, then create more and improve what you already have on your site.
For Online Success Today…
If a prospect is looking for a latest features demo, create a call-to-action and landing page that allows them to sign up for a demo on the spot.
If a prospect wants to discuss the product’s architecture, create a whitepaper that explains this.
Learn more about the market landscape? Create a webinar about this.
Learn about what’s in the development pipeline, as well as how those new features will positively affect them — write about it in your blog.
Be fully transparent to create trust.
Sales — online or offline — must be human in order for the potential customers of today to respond in kind to your brand.
Do the work that’s required to turn your website into a well-oiled machine with the right content. In turn, your sales team will benefit from receiving leads that are well-qualified, along with the sales intelligence that’s needed for a successful conversation, conversion and close.
