Content Marketing for Sales and Business Development Professionals: Making the Perfect Pitch

You understand the importance of building and maintaining strong business relationships and creating long-term value. You also have a lot of expertise that you can use to connect with your clients and prospects.
 
Effective content marketing in the sales or business development field requires writing engaging marketing emails, blog posts, e-books, and social media posts about the topics your audiences cares about. By sharing your knowledge, you can build your clients’ trust, respect, and loyalty.
 
Here are some of our best tips to build the kind of content marketing that you need to thrive in today’s marketplace.

1. Build a better website

On every page, your website gives you the chance to tell your brand’s story. Make the most of this opportunity. It’s essential to keep website copy fresh and engaging. Dull copy or out-of-date information turns off visitors, making them wonder about a company’s competence or diligence. Make sure your website — or each client’s website — has well-crafted content and a consistent brand voice.

If you’re not blogging, you’re missing a golden opportunity. Blog posts are one of the most effective ways to appeal to your website visitors. These conversational posts of 400 to 650 words are the perfect format to offer tips, comment on trends, and provoke thought. Like other first-rate website copy, well-written and brand-consistent blog posts enhance your brand’s credibility, expand its reach, and build loyalty.

2. Write top-quality marketing emails and product descriptions

To enhance your brand placement, expand your market, and turn leads into customers, you need effective marketing emails and product descriptions. Marketing emails are one of the most direct and personal ways to reach your clients and customers. However, almost everyone’s email inbox is inundated with messages from businesses and brands. 

The two major challenges with marketing emails are to persuade the recipient to open your email and to continue reading it once they’ve started. To achieve good email open-rates and get results, it’s essential that marketing emails have intriguing subject lines and professionally written copy.

Likewise, a well-written description of your services, or of your clients’ products, can make all the difference. Smart marketers know that it’s not just the visuals that sell a product or service, it’s also the story. A business needs a story that speaks to its clients or customers and connects with their needs.

3. Establish your expertise

Usually appearing in trade publications and industry blogs, a bylined article will position you as an industry leader. About 800 to 1,200 words in length, they inform audiences about a hot topic or an industry trend. Because bylined articles must meet editorial standards to be published, they’re usually written by professional writers, who interview the thought leader and research other resources to produce the article.
 
Similar in many respects, except for length, e-books (6 to 12 pages) and white papers (10 to 40 pages) cover a compelling industry topic in greater depth. In addition to demonstrating your expertise, these professionally written digital publications will build trust and establish you as an industry leader. And they’re particularly effective in producing good leads. Because people perceive that e-books and white papers have high value, they’re often willing to provide you with contact information in exchange for a free download of the publication.

4. Reach out and stay connected

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms are a great tool to reach out to potential customers, clients, and partners and to maintain your relationship with them. By constantly sharing content specifically crafted for your social media audience, you can keep your brand at the top of your audiences’ minds.

Like any specialized tool, however, social media isn’t very useful if you don’t know how to use it properly. Many companies cannot keep pace with the various social media platforms and lack the in-house expertise to craft effective updates to keep their feeds fresh and relevant. Well-crafted content makes the difference between engaging your social media followers or having them skip over you updates.

Content marketing can offer great rewards in the sales and business development field, but it takes a lot of time and effort. And it requires a professional touch. If you need a hand translating your expertise and resources into effective marketing materials, the professional writers at Prose Media are ready to assist. We can create high-value content and help you engage with clients — or your clients’ customers — through website copy, social media updates, and other content. Sign up today for free, no-obligation access to our platform. We would love to see what you have in mind.