How can PR support sales? It’s a topic that often comes up for discussion for marketers looking to allocate their marketing budget to external resources. Here at Whiteoaks, we’re firm believers in our ability to demonstrate ROI for our clients, and we fully understand that the relationship between marketing and sales needs to be productive, to ensure everyone is aligned and working toward the same business goals.
We asked several marketing pros what their thoughts were around the power of PR and how it reaches beyond the marketing department and into supporting sales efforts. The discussion, in a Twitter chat, revealed some interesting food for thought.
Content That Resonates
Having your sales and marketing departments aligned is crucial for ensuring ROI. Sales teams are going to benefit from sharing content that helps to educate customers and prospects, and it also helps to build trust and establish your company as an expert in its industry.
A1: Content which educates and helps customers and prospects, not sell to them. By providing audiences with valuable information (for free), it will build trust supporting the sales process. Articles, blogs, guides and whitepapers are all great tools to do this #WOinsights
— Hayley Goff (@hayleygoffy) February 2, 2018
A1: The reality is that a lack of marketing/sales alignment often creates barriers to successful content marketing. What sales really wants and needs is buyer-centric content — content that communicates value that’s matched to the needs of specific customer personas. #WOinsights
— Becca Keyes (@BeccaKeyes) February 2, 2018
PR that generates leads
You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again, content is still king and it’s what will help your sales team to generate those important business leads. The key is to get an understanding of what content resonates well with your target audiences. This will help to create that initial dialogue which can lead to a sale. Hint – it often won’t be ‘about you’.
All audiences – whether prospects or existing customers – have come to expect relevant and highly targeted content so sales should expect tightly refined PR materials which will quickly strike a chord with their targets
— Suzanne Griffiths (@SuzGriffiths) February 2, 2018
A2: Sales can use materials such as press releases on their social channels by sharing them within groups they're a member of, news coverage can be repurposed within sales materials and by participating in events #WOinsights
— Cairine Chandler (@CairineChandler) February 2, 2018
Marketing and Sales Working Together
If a business wants to realise and measure the value coming out of its PR efforts then the sales and marketing teams need to support each other. By taking an integrated approach, the needs of your business are being put first because the departments are focusing on the same business objectives by approaching the same target audiences with consistent messaging.
A3: Everyone should be on the same page, working toward the same goal. Working closely together helps to ensure strategic personalisation – every B2B is different, and what works for one may not work for another #WOinsights
— Sarah Bickerstaff (@sarahbickerstaf) February 2, 2018
Working with sales is essential, though the relationship with product and tech teams is important too for credibility. Ultimately you need everyone's support.
— Yospace (@yospacedotcom) February 2, 2018
A3: It's crucial! You want to be feeding as much information to sales as possible to ensure they can reach out to the right prospect's at the right time #WOinsights
— Daniel Bailey (@DaJoBa) February 2, 2018
The Social Opportunity
The concept of social selling has been concreted throughout some organisations, yet others are still playing catch-up when it comes to ensuring their sales teams are active online. It’s something that businesses need to consider if they’re planning on establishing and retaining relationships with prospects and customers.
A4: Absolutely, social should be used by sales teams to engage and influence prospects to generate new business. Professionals that use social selling techniques will increase their sales pipeline, improve engagement with customers and will be more motivated #WOinsights 1/3
— Hayley Goff (@hayleygoffy) February 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/holly_uc/status/959421206385643520
A4: Absolutely! Facebook has reported over 1 billion active users and Linkedin is a great platform for social selling in B2B. You need to be where your audience is #WOinsights
— Cairine Chandler (@CairineChandler) February 2, 2018
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our #WOinsights chat. There were plenty of great discussions taking place around how PR is key for sales teams. If you’re looking for more from our Whiteoaks Insights series then be sure to read Lisa Hancox’s blog discussing the real questions marketers should be asking at the start of each year.
