Paula Crerar, Sr. Director, Content and Product Marketing at Brainshark walks through how to get started in the world of content marketing. http://www.brainshark.com/

1. How to Jump Start Sales Productivity
with Content Marketing

2. Challenges: New Buyer Cycle
Marketing Sales
Source: Sales Benchmark Institute

3. Challenges: Sales Content
• 40% time spent looking/creating content
• 1 hr/week = $300k more per year
• Inconsistency of message
Sources: CMO Council, IDC

4. Content Marketing:
Beyond SEO & Awareness

5. Sales Training

6. Prepare and Train
Positioning for target audiences
Benefit statements
Testimonials and case studies

7. Source: Marketo

8. 88This presentation contains confidential information of Salary.com
Profile:
• Organization size: Over 750 FTE’s
• Sales buying role: Decision maker or heavy Influencer, user
• Title: Comp Analyst
• Reports to: VP HR (smaller firm) or VP/Dir Comp (1000 FTE+ sized firm)
• Characteristics/motivation/personality:
– HR person who is analytical, proactive, provides analysis and not just data.
– Has a stronger relationship with finance than with the person being paid.
– In a smaller organization, he’s a comp program planner, designer, developer,
implementer, provides program support. In larger organization, focused on
data/analysis only and his boss will be the program planner, designer, etc.
– Has peers but few reports, if any. Peers are comp analysts who focus on a unit
or group (exempt/non exempt, sales/execs, international) or region.
• Where they gather, what they read: He looks for opportunities to self-
educate, WorldAtWork. Gathers best practices and does not want to reinvent
the wheel
Persona: Andy Analyzer

9. 99This presentation contains confidential information of Salary.com
Persona: Andy Analyzer
Salary.com Impact
• Perception of Salary.com: Questions the validity of the data and
the methodology, the sources. Asks the RIGHT questions
• Data sources : Various surveys
• Which solutions to propose:
– CAMD
– CompAnalyst Full Suite
• How they use our solution: Will use all features including
creating salary structures.
• Our value add: We meet/exceed their need for real reporting and
for making comparisons/modeling.
• Key Messages:
– Highly reliable, updated data combined with software to make it easy to
market price, stay competitive and not overpay
– Time saving, modeling and analysis tools designed by certified
compensation professionals using comp best practices. Ensures
accuracy, internal pay equity. Helps you model costs and scenarios so
you can make smarter decisions, back up your proposals with data and
reports.
– Low implementation time/costs compared to consulting firms. More
analysis and time saving features than lower tier competitors.

10. Sykes – Sales Training

11. Success Tips
Get buy-in from
sales management
Get Sales involvedRun training sessionsSales methodology

12. Sales Content for Great Sales
Conversations

13. Prospecting and Social Selling

14. Sales Communications Later in the Cycle

15. 5 Characteristics of Sales Content
Effectiveness

16. Sales Content Effectiveness: Actionable
Captures attention
A new idea or insight
Shows subject matter expertise
Easy to consume and share
Has a call to action

17. Sales Content Effectiveness: Reusable
• Can it be used for internal sales teams and
channels?
• Viewed and shared across any device?
• Can it be personalized by sales reps?
• Can it be easily updated?

18. Sales Content Effectiveness: Targetable
• Map to personas
• Provide for every stage of the sales cycle
• Tag to identify when to use

19. Sales Content Effectiveness: Findable
• Organized in one repository
• Catalogued, searchable
• Versioned

20. Sales Content Effectiveness: Trackable
• Is the content being used?
• By whom?
• When?
• How much?
• Alerts
• Is it engaging?
• Is it converting?
Also track training content

21. 3 Ways to Maximize Your Sales Content

22. Reengineer Your Content Production
Process
Put someone in charge
Reengineer so it’s actionable
and reusable.

23. Reorganize Your Sales Content
Target to personas and stages
in sales cycle
Architect it so it works across
programs, channels, devices
gCreate an editorial calendar

24. Systemize content targeting, delivery
and measurement
Consolidate, catalog, target,
update, approve, and manage
your content assets
Implement tracking to measure
usage, conversion, and training

25. Thank You!
Resources:
http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/
Sign up and get the research
Whitepapers, videos and more
http://www.brainshark.com/campaigns/sales-communications-
resources.aspx
Thought Leadership Selling blog
http://www.thoughtleadershipselling.com/
Brainshark blog
http://www.brainshark.com/ideas-blog.aspx
pcrerar@brainshark.com
@pcrerar