I don’t use InsideSales.com, but the more I look at it the more I think maybe I should be. I don’t know if I’m their ideal target customer, though. It seems like they target medium and large businesses. These companies have sales teams that need the best information possible so they know what leads present the best opportunity.
InsideSales.com is a platform or software that provides all the tools a salesperson or sales team needs to increase sales. It seems to offer lead scoring, forecasting, communication and more. And it seems like the platform has grown in popularity over recent years.
As I look at things more it seems that InsideSales.com could be used by most businesses; especially B2Bs. Large and small companies generally want to grow and using software like InsideSales.com can help.
If you want to discover more about them check out their site.
We’re going to pivot and look at what InsideSales.com is doing with their blogging strategy. It seems they view blogging as at least a complementary effort in their own marketing strategy.
1. Resources
Content marketing is not just about blogging. It’s one piece. Content marketing doesn’t require a business to use different types of content, but the businesses that really believe in it often do commit to creating various forms of content.
And it seems that InsideSales.com falls into that category. They have an entire Resources section on their site. They do their own research, which is very cool. They publish videos, white papers, ebooks, events and more. They have their own community.
It’s all very cool and they do all this and have their own blog.
They’re all in on content marketing and they have found multiple channels that work or that they’re at least experimenting with.
2. 5 Days A Week
It looks like InsideSales.com has committed to five posts a week for a long time. That’s obviously a big commitment, but it’s a good one if you can stick with the schedule.
It’s not a firm rule, but in general if you want to attract an audience with content the more content you produce the more likely you are to attract more people.
You can attract a large audience with one article, but it’s extremely difficult. Your odds of failure are very high. If you produce a higher quantity for a longer period of time you’re more likely to hit some home runs and bring in that audience you seek.
I’m a believer that quantity also breeds quality. The more you write the better you become. You see what works and what doesn’t. You experiment. You push yourself and over time you become really good at what you’re doing. Blogging is no different.
The more InsideSales.com blogs the better they’ll become and I’m sure it’s already showing to be worthwhile with traffic to their site via blog posts.
3. Topics
The major topics that InsideSales.com uses on their blog are sales-related. And it’s obvious why they do that. They sell sales software. Their target clients are in the sales industry trying to increase sales for their companies. Sales is what the audience lives and breathes. If you want to attract that audience you have to write about sales.
But InsideSales.com also drifts into other areas that the audience cares about. Here is one example of a post where they discussed time management secrets. On the surface that doesn’t seem sales-related, but it is in the sense that salespeople are busy and want to use their time wisely. It’s a more general topic, but still something that matters to the target reader.
When you’re blogging, look at your target reader. If you’re in the B2B world, focus on what the reader needs to do to do well at their job. Focus on those topics and you’ll attract them to your blog, then website and hopefully to your company.
4. Recaps
We’ve talked about this type of post before and it comes up sometimes on business blogs and I always like it.
InsideSales.com puts on a conference each year it looks like. At the conference or summit they had Jill Konrath as a speaker. It’s great for those in attendance to hear from a great speaker like Jill, but a lot of people won’t be at the conference.
InsideSales.com does a great thing by turning part of Jill’s presentation into a blog post. They don’t give away all the tips and insight that Jill shared, but you can see that they turned it into a really great and valuable blog post.
You can repurpose content from other areas to create blog posts. You can recap conference presentations. You can use podcast episodes. You can repurpose interviews, videos and many other forms of content. Even conversations with industry leaders can be turned into blog posts.
5. Good Story & Data
This post really engaged me. I was taking mental notes on how to approach sales, but from a blogging standpoint it really has some good things going on.
First, you have a great little anecdote to kick off the post. The intro is about the InsideSales.com going to a business and observing how one salesperson was seemingly more successful than others. Even that salesperson didn’t realize that they were doing something different. This kind of story can really pull people into a post.
Second, after that intro the post moves right into the point of the article, which is that most sales reps don’t call enough times. They don’t out enough. It’s one thing to say that, but InsideSales.com shares some data to backup the claim. They share a study that found that it can take six times to connect with an executive for a sales call, but that reps only call an average of two times. That data really makes the point of the post hit home.
This is a great post. It’s a simple format, but one that can work really well over and over again even if you’re using the same data.
Conclusion
It’s really cool to see a company go all in with content marketing. InsideSales.com has invested effort, resources and money into multiple types of content including blogging. And they’re not just doing a little blogging. They’re blogging five times a week and it seems to be paying off for them. This company is focused on sales and they are investing in blogging. That’s at least a little indication that blogging can help to increase leads that can lead to more sales.