Revenue: A Content Strategy's Missing Link.

Recently I've been amazed - if not slightly perplexed - by how quickly marketing is taking more control over lead conversion funnels. But marketing teams have a long way to go before they can take more ownership of the funnel, and it's typically in the one area where digital marketers can feel slightly less "comfy": Committing to a number.

Oh yeah. For sales, the number is everything. It probably goes hand in hand with the personality style. Think about it: when a sales rep first interviews for a job, agrees to their annual plan, or even considers additional territory responsibility, the first question is: what number will you sign up to? And nine times out of ten, the answer is straightforward and non-chalant. After all, sales live and die by hitting their numbers. Whether it's been thought through or not is a trivial matter, really. The intention is there.

Marketing, on the other hand, is a different story. But to better understand the psychology behind the hesitation, it's important to better understand lead conversion funnels, how they operate today, and how they will evolve in the not-too-distant future.

Top of Funnel (education, awareness) is the backbone of a content strategy. Have you ever heard your head of digital marketing say: "It's going to take about 9 to 12 months to bake a proper content strategy?" Guess what, they're right. Especially if you're starting from scratch. The entire concept of content marketing is to "entice" suspects into becoming prospects, and eventually becoming brand advocates. That doesn't happen overnight. They need to see you as an expert, an educator, a guru of your chosen field. Once the credibility is established, so are your chances of converting those prospects into customers. Examples of strong top of funnel content pieces are white papers, eBooks, blogs, info graphics and introductory videos. Unless you have a "really" good content strategy, top of funnel activity tends to be more generic, and speaks to horiztonals and generalities of your business and industry, as opposed to a specific point solution.

Mid-funnel (consideration, evaluation) is the second phase of a content strategy. This is where you become much more focused and targeted. Prospect A has read a couple of blogs, downloaded a white paper. Okay, cool. Your next step should be to provide targeted content (hopefully with a marketing automation tool at your disposal) that speaks to specifics - targeting your prospect's interests more narrowly, causing them to take specific action. Examples of this include targeted videos, eBooks and product comparison charts. And by all means, don't commit the digital sin of forgetting the calls to action.

Bottom of Funnel (selection and decision) is the "crown-jewels" of a content strategy. By this point you should have clearly defined your prospect's industry and interests and your differentiators. The message that your content delivers should resonate like a glass of chilled ice-tea on a warm summer day. Case studies, testimonials, ROI calculators are all tools that you should be able to clone into an online environment. By this point, Pavlov's bells should be ringing and the salivation has already begun.

So what does this have to do with revenue? The age of data and analytics is here, however there are three key elements that digital content marketers must begin adopting in order to bridge the sales and marketing divide:

1. Understand the plight of sales: Get to know your sales team innately, understand their targets and objectives, and get them bought into the process that you are about to implement. Explain that the strategy will take time, but that you promise to deliver measurable results, whether good or bad. Which leads us to point two.
2. Adopt Lord Kelvin's philosophy: If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. Set up objectives and targets from the start that commit you to a number. It doesn't matter what number, but show your teams you have the strength to commit. You'll gain respect, and yes, be held accountable. But isn't that the point?
3. Track and report regularly. You can do this by hand if you're the daring type, or you can implement a host of marketing automation tools (Hubspot, Pardot, Marketo, etc) to help guide you. Be clear and transparent on your activities, and fess up when a campaign or activity needs tweaking.

Sales and Marketing, when properly married to a mutually agreed content strategy, should be the happiest couple in the world.