Avengers is a Registered Trademark of Marvel Inc.
It’s no secret that the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie is set to be another box office success. It has already been declared the second-best movie debut on record, following Marvel’s Avengers, which ranks as number 1. So, it’s safe to say that Disney knows what they’re doing when it comes to movies.
According to Anthony Wing Kosner, Disney’s success can be attributed to their unique strategy. They intentionally release only a few, high-budget movies throughout the year. These movies, which center around well-known “intellectual property”, attract fans of all ages from around the world.
Kosner reduces this strategy to a very simple equation: Distribution + Trust = Market Power
And this makes sense. Disney has been successful because of their ability to reach audiences of all kinds—not to mention their rich history of creating fantastic movies. Their distribution strategy of making those few, highly anticipated movies is what gives them the ability to constantly release record-breaking films. At the same time, if people didn’t trust Disney’s ability to create great movies, then they wouldn’t be able to consistently break records. Thus, a carefully crafted distribution strategy paired with the public’s trust has lead to them virtually dominating the market.
It’s relatively simple to see how this equation can work for marketing and sales. Quality content that is distributed effectively to sales reps, who in turn use it to build value and establish trust with customers, results in increased sales.
As Stephen Diorio pointed out in his article, “It’s Time To Get Serious About Managing The Quality and Distribution of Your Marketing Content,” content has become the driving force that affects the success of both marketers and sales reps. If marketing and sales follow Kosner’s simple equation, 2015 may be the year marketing content is properly managed by all.
Distribution
Just as movie budgets are increasing, so are content marketing budgets. Executives are finally realizing that well-crafted content can be leveraged to close more deals.
Together, sales and marketing departments need to establish the company as an industry “thought leader” in order to differentiate themselves and further saturate the market. As Diorio creatively puts it, “An ounce of thought leadership is worth ten pounds of “me too” content when it comes to improving marketing effectiveness, differentiating your brand, and giving customers the relevant insights they are seeking.”
The second step is getting content in front of customers. Quality content doesn’t become “quality content” until it’s in the hands of sales reps, and they are able to use it to communicate value. That’s why distribution is so crucial in the equation.
Content needs to be effectively distributed to sales reps so they can conduct meaningful conversations. This means that the tool through which content is distributed needs to be dynamic and agile, much like Mediafly SalesKit. SalesKit not only allows for flexibility during presentations to clients, it also enables collaboration on projects and cuts down on a sales rep’s daily administrative work.
Trust
It is important to remember that the customer won’t see the value you are communicating to them if they don’t trust you. Like we’ve mentioned before, these days sales reps need to be seen as “trusted advisors”.
A Forrester study revealed that in today’s digital age, 70-90% of the buyer’s journey is complete prior to engaging with a vendor. The ability to properly communicate an idea is just as important as the idea itself. Now that most communication is done when the buyer is already halfway through the sales funnel, it’s more important than ever for sales reps to have the resources to provide support to customers as well as build long-term sales relationships.
In short, this simple equation demonstrates how important marketing content is to businesses today. It’s about time content marketing becomes more than just advice to a business on how to gain customers. Instead, it should be the core marketing discipline. Those who choose to invest in content now will be the ones to reap the benefits.
“With great trust and great content distribution comes great market power.”
-Kelly Cronin
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