We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.
1. Nailing the First Five Minutes of a Business Conversation— Salesforce
If your sales organization is not prepared to sell into the C-Suite, you need to get there. Middle managers are no longer the only people you need to sell to—top-level executives are being brought into sales conversations more and more in today's B2B sales. This article offers insight straight from a corporate COO, who says that he gives a vendor less than five minutes to establish relevance and credibility. In those five minutes, he looks for three things.
2. How to Attract Millennials, the Hardest-to-Reach Generation — Convince and Convert
Next year, 75 percent of internet use will be mobile—and a big reason for this is the changing habits of millennials. How do you reach a generation that wants its content à la carte and on-the-go? The trick is better understanding how they consume content and how those habits change by platform, moment, or simply mood. This article digs into how to build a vibrant—and revenue-smart—content strategy that coincides with mobile lifestyles.
3. 9 Lines Singlehandedly Ruining Your LinkedIn Connection Requests — HubSpot
Most prospects have tens (or even hundreds) of pending LinkedIn invites to respond to -- which means that when they finally get to yours, it only gets mere seconds of attention. In such a short span of time, a single bad line can condemn your invite to the “ignore” pile. If you want your invites to make it all the way to your prospects’ inboxes, here are nine lines to avoid and what to say instead.
4. The Simple 3-Step Process for Creating a Winning Content Marketing Strategy — Copyblogger
This is what happens when you document your strategy, again according to CMI’s research:
- You’ll be far more likely to consider yourself effective at content marketing.
- You’ll feel significantly less challenged by every aspect of content marketing.
- You’ll generally consider yourself more effective in your use of all content marketing tactics and social media channels.
- You’ll be able to justify spending a higher percentage of your marketing budget on content marketing.
Content marketing strategy ultimately boils down to three simple components. This post shares how to get started.
