The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

When you think of what characteristics make a successful company, marketing campaign or team there are certain traits and factors that help to sort out the best and worst, the winners from the losers. This is true with inbound marketing and lead generation programs as well. 

While you can easily measure site traffic, Twitter followers, and how you rank for keywords on Google, it’s a little more challenging to measure what I contend is one of the most important benefits of inbound marketing – thought leadership.

When I discuss inbound marketing with new clients and prospects they tend to focus on tangible items such as search engine optimization (SEO), keyword rankings and the effect that blogging has on generating leads and building their contact database. This is natural considering that inbound marketing projects sometimes get funded from monies reallocated from SEO consultants, email marketers and social media firms. These tangible results (or promise of results) make it easier for a CFO or Controller to sign off on, rather than the possibility of intangibles such as thought leadership.

Things have fundamentally changed in the media industry, and I’m excited to have the privilege on November 8^th to discuss why inbound marketing will be critical to the next evolutionary phase for media companies.

Currently, a majority of the media companies (TV, Radio, Print etc.) are not using inbound marketing (blogging, thought leadership, lead generation, email marketing and social media) as part of their strategy to increase the number of leads their salespeople are getting—or leveraging it as a way to drive a more retainable revenue stream via their service and advertising offerings.  

So you drank the inbound marketing Kool Aid and it’s the sweetest you’ve ever tasted. Your team is churning out blog content, and your landing pages are generating leads at a rate you’ve never seen before. Give yourself a pat on the back—you’ve made it further than many other companies (including your competitors). Now that you’re generating leads like a pro, it’s time to look closely at that often misunderstood, nebulous area known as the middle of the funnel.

Recently I wrote a blog post about how dynamic websites with frequently updated content are rapidly replacing legacy “corporate brochure” sites. This trend has never been more evident than after hearing the announcement by HubSpot at Inbound 2012 that they are moving to a more personalized visitor experience.

Do you think it has become more difficult to set sales appointments in today’s business climate? How hard is it for you to reach decision-makers? How many sales calls does it take you to schedule one appointment? How much time and effort do you put into preparing for a sales call?  How persistent are you in following up on the sales call? 

Whether you’re just getting started, or you’ve been involved with your organization’s lead generation efforts for years, at some point, you’ll hit the wall when it comes to content creation. It can be daunting to come up with something new to say every day. The next time you need something to write about, try one of these tips.

A couple of weeks ago, we posted “How to Get Started with Business Blogging.” The reaction to this post has certainly exceeded expectations; as we have received an incredible amount of email from business owners, sales managers, marketers and sales people who all want more information. They see the benefit of having a business blog, and they understand—and want to own—a thought leadership position with their customers and prospects. They have a real need to establish a better lead generation system because the one they have right now (or not at all) is simply not cutting it.

Cold calling can be an inefficient use of a sales person’s time and talent. As a manager, I want sales people spending the majority of their time on activities that are directly tied to revenue. It’s important for our sales people to be in front of clients and prospects helping to address business challenges—which is why we at Cox Media Group Louisville recently launched an inbound marketing effort, led by our blog LouisvilleEdge.com. We believe it’s the perfect next step to elevate ourselves from our competition. It gives us the ability to provide real-time information on topics that are important to our clients. Here are six reasons that we thought an inbound marketing campaign was the right investment for us.

If you're still looking for a New Year's Resolution, go ahead and add engaging with Twitter to that list of possibilities. By the time you're done reading this, you'll see why it's worth your time as a seller.