Salespeople struggle with social marketing because they are not content creators. Marketing departments don’t want salespeople creating content, even when they have the ideas and the writing chops. Their sales managers surely don’t want their salespeople slaving over a blog post when they should be on the phone.
But there is no content marketing without content. There is little nurturing without the tools with which to nurture. That means you need ideas and insights packaged in a way that can be easily disseminated by the sales force.
Getting Started
This problem of creating enough content isn’t as difficult as it might seem. If you need to provide your sales force with content with which to nurture your dream clients, this is one way you can get started.
First, start by making 10 lists of 10 items each. You might start with the 10 biggest challenges your dream clients are facing now. Another good list might be 10 mistakes that keep your prospects from getting the results they want. You might also write the 10 biggest lessons you’ve learned serving your clients.
Once you have 10 lists of 10 items, you have enough content for 111 blog posts. The first blog post is the list of 10 lists. Each list is itself a blog post. Then, each of the 10 points on each list is a single blog post. Content problem solved.
But wait. There’s more.
Second, learn to repurpose your work. Every list of 10 might also be an eBook. That might be a very natural way to package those ideas. You might also find many eBooks by identifying some thread that runs through any number of the lists you already created. You might also find three or four white papers.
A lot of people in management and leadership worry about sharing ideas like this because they believe their competitors will steal their ideas. That is fearing the wrong danger. The greater danger is not arming your sales force with the value creating ideas that allow them to nurture their dream clients, making deposits over time, and establishing themselves as someone with whom it is worth doing business. You need to create content.