Six Tips To Integrate Sales, Marketing, And Communications, Online And Off

As I was researching Cashing in with Content: How innovative marketers use digital information to turn browsers into buyers, I poked, prodded and analyzed the websites, marketing programs and sales strategies of quite a few diverse organizations.

I’ve noticed that many B2B companies, as well as consumer and non-profit organizations, don’t do a particularly good job of integrating their various communications programs and aligning them with the sales process. Sadly, the failure to integrate sales, marketing, and communications, both online and offline, will always result in lost opportunities.

One of the most cost-effective ways to help drive sales is to look for ways to leverage the programs you’re already doing by re-purposing the content for other initiatives.

Too often, organizations spend tons of money on, say, a PR program that targets a handful of journalists, but they forget to communicate the same information to clients and prospects. Or a company’s advertising program designed to generate new sales will drive people to a website that doesn’t match the message of the ads, resulting in lost interest.