Content is powerful. In fact, if you’re looking to top the marketing charts (aka ranking high on Google or having great SEO), 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority. Inbound marketing is rooted in a solid content strategy. Here are a few stats you need to see about content:

• 55% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. 
• 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing.  
• Content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising.   
• 72% of marketers said that having a good content strategy was a major key to their success. (Source)

The question is not whether content is important or powerful for a successful marketing strategy, but the issue is where does all of this great content come from?

Why Your Sales Team Needs Inbound Marketing

We recently picked the brains of some of LeadG2’s experts on ways to generate content ideas. This list compiles different ways that your company can create great ideas based on data, research, and your target audience.  

The area we want to focus on today is your sales team. First, if your sales and marketing team aren’t in sync, you need to take a step back and assess that relationship. But if all is groovy, your sales team is one of the most valuable marketing assets you have for your company. They know your target audience and prospects more than anyone. They know their pain points and their questions.

And why are people searching for content on the world wide web? To answer their questions. To solve their problems. To make their lives easier. Now, don’t you want YOUR content in their face when they need it? Yup, that’s inbound marketing, and yup, that’s why your sales team should play a role in this! 

Use Your Sales Team's Knowledge to Generate Content

Salespeople can be a great source for both blog post ideas and content. They engage with prospects and the market every day. They're hearing questions and overcoming objections, and their responses to these questions and objections are great content for blog articles because this is what your prospects want to know, read, and learn. THE CHALLENGE is how do you get your salespeople to get the info out of their heads and into the blog? How do you get your salespeople sit down and write? Dean Moothart, our director of client solutions, shared a video that touches on this subject, check it out!

Once the sales team commits, which they secretly want to do anyways, what can you use from their library of knowledge to create killer marketing content? As an inbound marketing and sales enablement company that relies heavily on our sales team for marketing content, here’s some of our best tips to fully utilize the expertise, insight, and knowledge of your salespeople to create marketing content that converts, bringing your website more traffic and bringing the sales team more qualified leads.  

1. Find out what questions they are most commonly hearing from prospects and customers

What are the top 5 questions salespeople are getting on sales calls? 

2. Find the trends and concerns among different industries they work within

Salespeople know the industries they’re selling in. What’s top of mind for industry professionals? What are the latest trends? 

3. Help them enhance their sales process 

Are there sales scenarios they find themselves in where they could use specific types of content or resources that would help them better engage and communicate with prospects?

4. Share stories that will resonate with other prospects

What stories do they hear in the sales process? Could you turn this into marketing content to attract other prospects who are likely experiencing the same things?  

5. Pick their brains on the social media conversations 

What are people in your target audience discussing on the LinkedIn or Facebook industry groups they are a part of? 

6. Support with stats 

Are there areas of their sales process that statistics and data help move a prospect? Create a post with supporting statistics they could share with a prospect – but that would also be enticing to a prospect that might not know of your company yet and who might find you through a web search. 

7. Help with calculations 

Are there calculators or checklists they use with prospects in the sales process? Could you create an online calculator or interactive pdf checklist that could aide their efforts while also attracting the eyes on interested prospects? 

8. Explain your processes 

Sometimes great content is actually about you! How are your systems and processes a step above your competitors? This content, while not shared as frequently, is great to have later in the sales process and it also gives prospects a glimpse of who you are and the quality you deliver. 

9. Dig into the pain points 

Are your sellers hearing the same pain points consistently? Have the marketing team conduct research around this—that not only serves the sales team’s efforts—but attracts prospects who are having these same pain points.  

10. Get laser-focused on topics for specific industries you want to target

If you serve multiple industries, create content specific for them. Sales teams can share insight on tips specific to each industry to help curate and create content that attracts the eyes of the prospects in specific industries as well as helps them aide in conversations with the prospects in these industries or nurture them through the sales process.  

There’s no doubt that content drives revenue and there are ways to encourage your sales team to contribute to your marketing content efforts that not only benefit the marketing team, but also benefit their sales efforts throughout their sales process.   

Don’t miss this opportunity to help feed your content calendar with quality content, attract new prospects with their subject matter expertise, and establish thought leadership for your company and your individual sellers by using the expertise that you already have on your team!