Capture emails and generate qualified leads using gated content

While an active blog can drive thousands of marketing qualified leads, gated content tends to drive better, sales-qualified leads. B2B businesses generate more ROI from their content efforts by hiding their most valuable resources behind a form. Doing so enables sales teams to gain direct access to highly qualified customers who have demonstrated a clear need and expressed interest in learning more about how you can help them successfully achieve their goals.

Types of gated content sales reps can use include:

• Case studies
• Checklists or worksheets
• Ebooks
• Webinar recordings
• Whitepapers

Instead of making all your content available to audiences, keep high-impact resources behind a contact form. That way, sales reps can capture readers’ email addresses and phone numbers, which they may use to initiate a sales conversation.

Delve into actionable data with original research and reports

Data is everywhere and clever brands package the data they gather to develop actionable insights. This content helps their customers make better business decisions. Companies like CoSchedule, DocSend, and Yesware have taken a data-driven approach to content marketing by processing large swaths of data to identify important industry-wide trends that affect businesses around the world. Often, smart salespeople use the research their brand has developed to call out stats that may encourage potential customers to want whatever the sales rep is selling.

Three ways to implement data storytelling include:

• Analyzing active user behaviors and data
• Conducting surveys of your target audience or user base
• Using public data sources—from government archives, industry sources, or on social media

Furthermore, many brands now use original research and reports to drive brand awareness and positive public mention. Some of the best examples of data storytelling from brands are:

• A Scientific Guide to Posting Tweets, Facebook Posts, Emails, and Blog Posts at the Best Time by Buffer
• Authority Report: The State of Tags in Digital Media by Parse.ly
• What We Learned from 200 Startups Who Raised $360M by DocSend

Demonstrate ongoing success through client case studies

Sales prospects who are unfamiliar with your brand or have reservations about the cost of your proposal need to understand the tangible value of your offer. A proven track record of success is often enough to justify costs and close the sale. Case studies are invaluable resources that detail the specific challenge a client faced, the action you took to help solve their problem (or the action they took using your product or service), and the results the clients saw with the help of your product or service.

When entrepreneur Neil Patel added three case studies to his personal site, the results were astounding: Sales grew 185 per cent. When customers know exactly what you have done for your clients in the past, they get the sense you can replicate that success with their business.

Other case studies worth mimicking are:

• BuzzStream Nine-Month Engagement Case Study by Fractl
• How Storytelling Is Helping Chase Build Its Brand by Contently
• San Francisco 49ers: Leveraging Passion At Scale by Pixle

Give clients an insider look with product manuals

Salespeople who offer potential customers a firsthand look at how a product works build trust with prospects—it shows they have nothing to hide. Sales teams can reference product manuals on sales calls and in written correspondence to give buyers a taste of what they can expect when they purchase your product. This helps alleviate the common customer concern that product onboarding is difficult and a huge distraction for new users. In fact, companies waste millions each year procuring systems and technologies that go relatively unused.

For example, to overcome a buyer’s reservation about how other people at their company may adopt your solution, sales reps can strategically use clear and succinct product manuals. Modern-day product manuals, to a certain extent, have taken on the form of a knowledge base too. And to build a great knowledge base, marketing expert Gregory Ciotti recommends:

• Avoid making assumptions. Be clear and unambiguous with your instructions and be generous with images, videos, and screenshots.
• Prioritize your content’s readability. Add bullet points, callouts, line breaks, and subheadings to break up text. Use language your users will be familiar with instead of technical jargon.
• Organize your articles in logical groupings and categories. Group related articles and include recommendations for similar reads in case customers want to read more.
• Use plain titles. Knowledge-base articles are not clickbait. Customers want to find something specific and shouldn’t have to click through several ambiguous titles before finding the information they need.

Reach new audiences as a guest blogger

Guest posting on influential sites was the primary driver of growth for Buffer, a budding social media management app, as it acquired its first 100,000 users. For Groove, guest blogging allowed the help-desk software company to reach an audience of more than 1 million people.

Brand representatives use guest blogging as another way to reach a large and targeted audience. Instead of building their own readership, companies publish content on sites that are influential within their niche to develop thought leadership and attract new customers at scale. There are four steps to follow to become a guest blogger on any site.

1. Identify a list of the most influential sites in your niche that are well-read by your target audience.
2. Start a relationship with the publication’s editor in an in-person meeting, over email, or onsocial media.
3. Provide a portfolio of your writing to show you can meet their editorial standards.
4. Pitch topics their audiences want to read.

To convert any traffic you receive into qualified leads, link to a targeted landing page in your byline. Reference related articles from your site in the post in order to drive additional referral traffic.

Good Selling!