This post originally appeared on HubSpot’s Sales Blog. To read more content like this, subscribe to Sales.
Sales can be a bit like detective work at times. It would be nice if you could take everything your prospects said at face value. But, as any sharp salesperson knows, buyers aren’t always forthcoming or totally honest about what they’re really thinking.
In my job at HubSpot, I chat with marketers very often about what problems they’re facing. One of the most common issues I hear about is lead flow — a marketing department generates hundreds of leads per month, but many of them aren’t closing.
Nobody knows where to turn. Sales points fingers at marketing. Marketing points fingers at sales. They both shrug, unsure of how to proceed.
There is no doubt that for many software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, a free trial is a key component of their customer-acquisition strategy. Large amounts of their marketing budgets are focused on driving leads into a free trial. Many of them will also run email nurture streams and calling campaigns in the hope that users will activate the trial and convert to customers.
This isn’t enough.
What do you think to yourself when you see someone’s Twitter avatar is the default image of an egg? Chances are, you probably assume they are either inactive, a fake account, or someone not worth following.
While almost all businesses understand that the egghead approach isn’t doing them any justice, they often fail to understand that a plain, flat Twitter cover photo can be equally as off-putting to potential followers.
When I go on vacation, I completely turn off work … but I don’t stop marketing.
Of course I don’t actually work while I’m on vacation. It wouldn’t truly be a vacation if I did. I use my out-of-office reply to continue marketing while I’m gone. Below is my most recent one.
Content as a marketing strategy is reliable and cost-effective, but only if it generates high-quality leads. To succeed, you must not only create and promote content, but also analyze and optimize the content.
If your content marketing results are falling flat, here are 7 reasons why it might be happening and what you can do about it.
More than 75% of marketers believe their commitment to content marketing will continue to increase over the next year. This isn’t surprising when you consider the return: Companies that have adopted content marketing techniques see conversion rates six times higher than those who haven’t.
When paired with data-driven content, an aggressive promotions cycle can increase your chances for top-tier placements — and these placements arguably have the biggest impact.
In a web environment where majority of respected publishers offer content for free, many media companies find themselves facing unfortunate economic realities. Incentivizing subscriptions and maintaining a paywall has become increasingly difficult; consumers are flocking to free sources of premium content, leaving publishers with a core of loyal customers and few new prospects.
This post originally appeared on HubSpot’s Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post.
A study by Baymard Institute found that 68.5% of consumers abandon their online shopping carts.
That equals a lot of lost revenue for brands.
A company won’t survive if it doesn’t meet its revenue goals. That’s why revenue isn’t just the sales team’s problem — it’s every department’s problem. An effective marketing team will set up the sales team for success by generating valuable leads and nurturing them until they’re ready to be passed to sales reps.
But the partnership doesn’t end there.
