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I'm not a big fan of predictions, but here's one I can safely make: Content marketers are going to get much cozier with sales this year.
The practice we call content marketing largely serves the needs of marketers––spreading awareness, gaining thought leadership, and producing leads. Influencing sales, while inching forward, has ranked dead last among organizational goals for B2B content marketers, according to the Content Marketing Institute.
That's going to change. Like any marketing discipline that grows up, driving sales opportunities and aligning closely with the sales team is a necessary part of the matriculation process. Ask marketers how to do this, though, and many will shrug.
Truth is, the process is multifaceted. But there is one simple, smart tactic marketers can implement tomorrow to increase the visibility and relevancy of their content among sales. Create a living Sales FAQ (frequently asked questions) document.
These questions come from our buyers, about general topics and hints, down to specific products on the market. To find out which questions to address, we typically turn to a wide variety of sources including search terms, online forums, and social networks.
But how often do we ask the sales team––those on the front lines of our organizations––what questions prospects and opportunities pose to them? Not often enough.
An internal Sales FAQ allows marketers to get at these questions without being bombarded with overly specific asset requests. By making it easily accessible, sales reps can add questions as they come up. These can range from high-level how-to's to in-the-weeds ROI inquiries. Keeping them organized in a single, updatable document will help you see how the trees make up the forest, so to speak, and allow your content team to spotlight trends.
Addressing these burning questions head on will make the content you produce hyper-relevant, timely, and prized by sales.
If you're with me so far and saying, "Cool. I'll send out an email tomorrow with a Word doc attached," hold up. There are a few things to keep in mind to make this effort a success, rather than another forgotten email in the inbox.
The point of a Sales FAQ is to make easy to update with new questions or ideas and to reference old ones. So don't just create a doc and shoot it in a group email. Store it online. You could put it on Google Docs, your intranet portal, or even a sales community forum, if you have one.
The Sales FAQ shouldn't be a request forum. You need to make that clear at the outset. What you are asking for is actual questions directed at the sales staff posed by prospects and opportunities. Make sure team members realize this and ask them to relate the questions as closely as possible.
The goal isn't to create a list of wants from sales reps (there are other places for that), but to hear from opportunities in their own words. It's up to the content team to interpret the FAQ and build this needed content.
Listen, if you need to send out a link to the Sales FAQ through a group email, go ahead. But this isn't a one-and-done initiative. You need to frequently remind the sales team to update the FAQ, and don't forget to respond to their updates regularly so they feel know they're getting the content team's attention.
Shoot the occasional email with highlights and content created from the Sales FAQ. Use Chatter to remind team members to update it, and encourage them to share new questions on Chatter. Share some of the most pressing questions at team meetings, and the content that addresses those concerns.
If content is going to matter this year––and every year after––it needs to address all the questions of buyers, from the top of the funnel down to the last touch. One of the best ways to identify those questions, and tackle them with content, is to build out a living Sales FAQ and get the sales team sharing.
Jesse Noyes is Senior Director of Content Marketing at Kapost. He got his start in the newsroom and today his goal is to ensure Kapost's content meets the best editorial standards, that Kapost tells the best stories and spreads the word through social media channels.
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