Smarketing. It’s so much more than a cute buzzword. What’s more, is that the results of Smarketing, if used correctly, can be an incredible tool for your organization.
For those of us not yet familiar, Smarketing is a term made popular by Hubspot, and refers to the internal alignment of a company’s Sales and Marketing efforts toward the same goal. How that is done, and to what extent, largely depends on the size and type of company. However, the importance and results of Smarketing can be a great advantage to companies of all sizes and kinds.
Why Smarketing?
So why should you start implementing Smarketing immediately? Very simply, times have changed. The way people buy and shop has changed. Gone are the days when the salesperson held the keys to the information kingdom.
The way people buy and shop has changed. Gone are the days when the salesperson held the keys to the information kingdom.
Today, if someone wants more information about ANYTHING they don’t start by tracking down a salesperson. They Google it. Then they Google the competitor. Then they watch videos of the product, read articles about the product, Google reviews and testimonials, do more comparison shopping, ask their friends on Facebook for advice, watch a few cat videos and perhaps a musical.ly… then… finally, they might talk to a salesperson before they purchase.
Your marketing efforts have (hopefully) already begun adjusting to this change in buyer behavior. By implementing Inbound Marketing, you are doing your best to attract customers to your website or social media accounts by offering information and content that they will find useful. But, if these marketing efforts are not linked to sales objectives they are still just adding to the noise! This is where Smarketing comes in and directs both departments toward a winning, shared goal.
How to Implement Smarketing
If you are reading this you are hopefully aware of and understand how Inbound Marketing works. If not, take a moment and read a few of our other articlesexplaining the process in detail.
It seems pretty obvious that Marketing efforts provide warmer leads for sales through the different steps of the Inbound Methodology. Smarketing simply ensures that both departments are aware of, and agreed upon, the end goal. In order to get to this point, Hubspot offers a 6 step outline. We have found this is a great place to start.
HubSpot’s 6-step process to implement Smarketing
- Have a regular Smarketing meeting to align goals. Regular meetings should be created to keep the conversation between Marketing and Sales ongoing. This is a great chance to share recent wins, or bottlenecks to productivity.
- Agree on an SLA that relates to revenue and quota. Remember our article about the Service Level Agreement? This document should connect as many Marketing efforts to Sales as possible. Think; “How does this help Sales sell more?
- Agree on an SLA about activity. How is Sales doing with the SQLs coming from Marketing? Is there a reason so many are being rejected or falling away?
- Measure the entire funnel. Find areas in the sales funnel where more opportunities lie. Are there places to save money or to capitalize on more leads?
- Invest in sales enablement. Invest time and money into tools that can strengthen the communication between Sales and Marketing.
- Respect the customer journey. Work your communication around where the customer is in the Buyer’s Journey.
That’s Step 1
As we stated, we believe that this is a great first step toward a successful Smarketing effort, however that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The more time invested into communication and synergy between the two departments, the more obvious it will become that more can and should be done. Regularly reevaluating the relationship between Sales and Marketing, including the SLA documents created, will continue to strengthen the tie and lead to more focused goals.