More and more businesses are taking advantage of content marketing to increase sales and brand recognition. Many businesses invest in content marketing, but their employees don't use social selling to promote it. This presentation for the Northern Virginia Technology Council focuses on how sales professionals and business owners can use content marketing to develop a productive social selling channe.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SALES
PROFESSIONALS
How sales professionals can use social media to
generate leads and develop trusted advisor status.

2. John Beveridge is the
founder and President of
Rapidan Inbound, an
inbound marketing
agency and HubSpot-certified
partner based in
McLean, VA.
Vice Chair
Biz Dev, Marketing and
Sales Committee
Twitter @JohnMBeveridge
Email john.beveridge@rapidanstrategies.com
Phone 703.878.1234
www.b2binboundmarketer.com

3. B2B buyers use content to buy
“When comparing the eventual winning vendor to
the rest of the considered vendors, 61% of
respondents agreed that the winning vendor
delivered a better mix of content appropriate for
each stage of the purchasing process.”
DemandGen Report – 2014 B2B Buyer
Behavior Survey Report

4. START WITH A STRATEGY

5. What are your social media objectives?
• Who are you trying to reach?
• What problems or opportunities impact them?
• What is your situation?
• What resources do you have?
• What is your objective?

6. Who are you trying to reach?
Ideal Customer Profile for businesses
• Industry?
• Company size?
• Location?
• Demographics?

7. Who are you trying to reach?
Buyer Personas for individuals
• Job title?
• Demographics?
• Aspirations? What is a win?
• Watering holes?

8. Identify problems and opportunities
3 primary categories
• Save money
• Save time
• Increase revenues
How can you help targets solve for these wins?

9. What is your situation?
• Employee of large company
• Access to content
• Employee of SMB company
• May have to create content
• Small business owner
• Will have to create content
What resources are available to you?

10. What is your objective?
• Lead generation?
• Personal branding?
• Develop partnerships?
Set goals for your social media efforts

11. EXECUTE YOUR
STRATEGY

12. Your prime directive
BE HELPFUL

13. Top tips for execution
• Earn the right to sell with content
• Be consistent
• Automate
• Measure and iterate

14. Earn the right to sell with content
• Forget the long-winded hard sell
• Your content
• Your company’s content
• Third-party content
Regardless of the content you use, add your personal take
when sharing it

15. Be consistent
• Make social selling part of your daily routine
• Be patient, it takes time to develop your brand
• Take the time to create and curate content
Take the time to develop a social selling channel

16. Automate for efficiency

17. Automate for efficiency
• Scheduling and monitoring tool for LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+
and Foursquare
• Custom content feeds
• Analytics module
• Free version available, Pro version for $9.99/month

18. Automate for efficiency
• Daily custom content feed
• Free version available, Pro version for $45/year

19. Measure and iterate
• Use analytics to improve social selling
• Which posts get the most views?
• Which posts get the most engagement?
• Which posts get the most shares?
• Which networks and times are most productive?
Use free and paid analytics sources

20. DON’T FORGET THE
PRIME DIRECTIVE

21. Your prime directive
BE HELPFUL

22. Blog Post
Social Media Marketing for Sales Professionals
bit.ly/SPSocial