Ever heard about content quotas?
Probably not. However, we have all heard the term sales quota., According to Revenue.io, “a sales quota is a specific target that sales reps need to hit within a given amount of time. Quotas are usually numerical, in that they must be a certain dollar amount of contracts signed, revenue generated, or count of goods sold.”
The site goes on to say that “sales reps, sales managers, and sales teams all have quotas. They are the standard by which performance is measured in both B2C and B2B sales. Quotas serve as benchmarks for evaluation, performance improvement, and testing. Quotas are also typically compensated, so reps have an incentive to achieve them.”
Now, Marcus Sheridan, a content marketing veteran, suggests adding a new term for salespeople: content quotas. This does not refer to the amount of content placed on a website. Instead, it suggests that salespeople, realizing the value and power of content marketing, will want to prepare credible, quality, informative content frequently and post them on a company website to help boost their own sales figures.
Where Content Quotas and the Jansan Industry Come into Play
Content marketing has proven effective when manufacturers want to discuss an issue such as a cleaning or health-related challenges and how effective cleaning — using the client’s product — addresses those challenges.
“The essence of this strategy,” writes Joe Pulizzi, author of Epic Content Marketing, “is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.”
The salesperson’s goal is to establish themselves as an expert by helping and advising their customers and potential customers. Customers will start to relate to you as a credible resource. When you think about it, who better to do this than the people who are out marketing these products day after day? Invariably, your salespeople know your products and the challenges end-customers face better than anyone else.
When salespeople become regular content providers, they shift from selling to teaching. Teaching their customers techniques and procedures and how to provide services and products that can help them operate their business and facilities in a more cost-effective and efficient manner can be immensely powerful. The salesperson has now become a guide, an instructor, a teacher, and an expert. This helps build trust and loyalty, helping to make the salesperson a partner in their customer’s business. This is what effective jansan industry marketing content is all about.
Further, according to sources such as HubSpot, a leading inbound marketing firm, such content does lead directly to sales:
- Sixty-one percent of internet users research products online before making a buying decision.
- Buyers go through about 57 percent of the purchasing process before ever talking to the sales department.
- Website conversion rate is six times higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters. (The conversion rate refers to converting a prospect into a customer.)
- Brands relying on inbound marketing save more than $14 for every new customer acquired.
- Inbound marketing delivers 54 percent more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound marketing.
- Nurtured leads (customers cultivated due to reading quality content) make 47 percent larger (costlier) purchases than non-nurtured leads.
- Organic search leads have a 14.6 percent close rate, while outbound marketing leads (traditional sales techniques) have a 1.7 percent close rate.
The Takeaway on Content Marketing
As most marketers agree, some forms of traditional marketing will always be effective and part of the sales process. However, the internet has opened innovative marketing opportunities that should not be underestimated. This is especially true when it comes to jansan industry content marketing. Quality content marketing can lead to sales even if it requires content quotas.
Robert Kravitz is president of AlturaSolutions, Which Provides Content Marketing Strategies for the Professional Cleaning Industry. He can be reached at: solutions@alturasolutions.com