Work By Pierre Metivier | CC BY 2.0
I recently attended Inbound 2014, Hubspot’s annual conference, which focuses on a wide range of marketing and sales tactics and methodologies. As the name suggests, the conference focused largely on inbound marketing and how Hubspot and their partners could impact messaging and content to ultimately win new business.
I found it fascinating that despite the focus on inbound marketing, outbound marketing was still an important topic covered in many of the sessions. This made it clear that many organizations are struggling to find the right mix of integrating their inbound and outbound tactics in order to have a well-rounded, successful marketing strategy.
My role at Mediafly is a unique hybrid of marketing and sales, so I’m able to experience and see the value in both strategies. During the conference, I learned a number of ways organizations are using both inbound and outbound tactics successfully. Here are the three takeaways on how to effectively integrate your inbound and outbound marketing and sales strategies:
Develop a Cohesive Messaging Strategy
Developing and enforcing consistent messaging for a larger organization can be difficult to navigate. With a myriad of marketing materials to create, it can be easy for company messaging to get lost in translation, particularly on collaborative efforts with a large number of cooks in the kitchen.
Steps must be taken throughout the entire production lifecycle to ensure that the message you’re trying to convey as well as your brand/product messaging are completely harmonious. If these two elements are at odds with each other, even slightly, it can undermine your company in the eyes of a prospect. This is not to say that all marketing materials need to be worded the exact same way. Rather, every individual marketing element must tie back to the ultimate goal of your strategy, supporting either your overall company goals or the goals for the campaign, itself. Keeping these goals aligned will facilitate a cohesive strategy while strengthening the consistency of your messaging across multiple formats.
Be Professionally Persistent
One strategy I harp on continuously is being ‘professionally persistent’. This approach focuses on thoughtful outreach to prospects while regularly beating the drum to drive product awareness. If prospects see and hear your brand’s messaging regularly, even if they aren’t initially interested, they will develop familiarity with your company.
If you ensure that the content and tone of your messaging is consistent, frequent, and compelling, your potential customer will be more likely to think positively about your solution when their need arises. This concept can be used for marketing and sales, as professional persistence enhances the entire ecosystem of product awareness.
Establish a Feedback System
One of the most important elements of any campaign is a strong feedback mechanism. Without an established system for feedback, your teams have little way of knowing what is successful and what isn’t. Marketing teams must be regularly made aware of the reality that salespeople actually face. At the same time, salespeople need to clearly communicate their needs to marketing. This is especially important when developing your overall strategy of inbound and outbound tactics, since marketing and sales contribute to both.
Additionally, marketing and sales need to collaborate to ensure that messaging is pertinent to the prospect’s stage in the buyer’s journey. It’s up to both teams to share this kind of information in order to maximize each other’s individual efforts and ultimately win more business.
Here at Mediafly, our platform provides reporting and analytics that help save considerable time gathering this kind of data. Our clients use this information to inform many different aspects of the feedback loop:
- Specific data on users and regions
- Actual statistics on what content is being used
- Overall usage of new or ever-changing marketing strategies
If you keep these suggestions in mind, aligning your inbound and outbound strategies doesn’t have to be an afterthought. While inbound and outbound may seem radically different, considering them merely as elements of your overall strategy can strengthen their effectiveness and drive cohesion between departments.
How does your organization integrate their inbound and outbound strategies?
John Burns is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Mediafly, Inc. and writer for the Mediafly Sales Blog. Please have a look at some of the products and solutions John has had a hand in selling: SalesKit and ProReview.
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