Breaking Down LeadG2’s Inbound Marketing and Sales Enablement Strategy with Shaye Smith

In this episode, we’re breaking down our own approach when it comes to inbound marketing and sales enablement as a company that specializes in...inbound marketing and sales enablement! Here, we ask questions like:

• How do we approach developing content that resonates with our target audience?

• How do we empower our sales team with the tools, resources, and information needed to effectively engage and convert inbound leads?

• And how do we ensure sales and marketing alignment to facilitate a seamless transition from lead generation to the sales pipeline?

Joining Dani to answer those questions and so many more is Shaye Smith, Director of Marketing here at LeadG2! Shaye shares some great pieces of insight, like:

• Why utilizing owned content is key to not only educating prospects but to also helping them through the buyer’s journey.

• How tapping into the thought leadership and expertise of your own team can be a major boon to your current content strategy.

• And lastly, how creating smaller pieces of content from a larger piece of premium content can be an affordable and efficient way to deliver helpful solutions to your ideal customer.

LeadG2’s Current Inbound Marketing Strategy

“Just to start,” Dani says. “Can you provide an overview of LeadG2’s current inbound marketing strategy? What do we do, and how does it align with our business objectives?”

“So, our inbound marketing strategy really exists as a mix of:

• Content Strategy

• Search Engine Optimization

• Digital communications channels (social media, podcasts, email, newsletters, etc.).

“And our strategy expands into thought leadership, branding awareness, and sales enablement efforts.

“So, we want to attract those qualified leads to our owned media, which is our website, where we house our expertise, share the problems we solve, but also where we offer resources to meet them where they are at in the buyer’s journey.

“Through those channels, we drive them to the site, delivering the content they need, when they need it, and then we convert them.

“As a part of that inbound strategy...we nurture them and get them closer to a place where our sales team can intercept them, if they’re a sales qualified lead, and engage and communicate with them as a prospect.

“Then, with the sales enablement piece we can enable them, through the funnel, to get closer to a sell.”

The Two Types of Content that Drive the Most Leads

“Perfect,” Dani says. “You touched on a bunch of different tactics and channels, everything from SEO to podcasts like this one...if you were to name one or two that you think are the most effective in driving leads for LeadG2 on the marketing side, what stands out?”

“So, our blog is one of the key tactics,” Shaye says. “We spend a lot of time researching our target persona, their buyer’s journey. What questions are they asking?

“There’s so much that goes into that blog, right? It’s not just writing a piece of content. It’s keyword research, target persona research, and buyer’s journey research. So, delivering content through the blog is a heavy, heavy piece of our strategy that we spend a lot of time on.

“And then premium content, or hub content. We create educational pieces that people would want to convert for. Will they give us their email address, or will they download a piece of content in exchange for the value that they will get?

Those two pieces are key. There are so many other things that go into it. But, if you don’t have good content in those two areas, then you’re really lacking a lot.”

What Goes into the Content Creation Process?

“So, who creates our content?” Dani asks. “What is the overall process of developing content for us?”

“We really value the thought leadership and the expertise that we have on our team. We rely on our team as the driver and subject matter expert behind our content because we want our content to deliver value. Our people are who deliver the value on strategy and the many things we do here at LeadG2.

“So, what does that look like?

• Target Persona and Buyer’s Journey Research: “We just went through our target persona and buyer’s journey workshops. We do research, and we ask and tell people to do research.

• Analyze Existing Content: “We look at content we have, what we’ve already done. We ask: Does it work? Does it not? Do we need to do more like it? Do we not?

• Keyword Research: “Amongst the marketing team, or our content team, there is someone looking at keyword research and the topics that we deem important for our marketing, strategy, campaigns, etc.

“From there, we map out strategies and then blog topics.

“It is a team effort, for sure. My whole team touches almost every blog post in some way, whether it’s research, creation, curation, or content delivery. Between the three of us, we touch almost every piece of content.

“And then, at some point, we rely on an outside person to be that subject matter expert, to deliver that expertise. So, you really could be looking at four people on almost every piece of content to make sure it’s quality and delivered through the best channels.

“It’s a big process, but it’s cool.”

Sales and Marketing Alignment is Key

“Whether you have a sales team of 8,000 or 8,” Shaye says. “It’s really important that whoever is overseeing the marketing strategy has communication and is aligned with whoever is leading the sales effort.

“I meet with our Director of Sales, Elissa, and we talk about any holes that are in the sales process, where they need content to support those conversations.

“Enabling salespeople with that content to sell once that lead is converted is just as important as that lead conversion content at the start.”

Multiply Your Content

“What trends are you excited about?” Dani asks. “Anything that’s peaking your interest?”

“One thing I’m passionate and excited about diving into this year is really looking at ways we can multiply our content. For example, creating sub-content from a premium piece of content.

“I love this so much and think it’s so effective in an  inbound marketing strategy. Because if we’re spending all this time on a premium piece of content (an ebook, a checklist, or even a podcast), from there you have almost endless opportunities to create content.

“From there, you could create multiple blog posts. You could create tons of social media posts for your team. There’s really so much. It could turn into a speaking engagement.

“So, we’re really looking at ways to multiply our content, how we can do that effectively and efficiently.”