The Inbound Marketing Sales Playbookv5-1

THE ULTIMATE
Inbound Marketing
and Sales Playbook
About the Authors
As Content Marketing Manager, Ramona approaches Marketing not only as a

profession, but as a creative outlet. She has a passion for all things artistic and
she strives to create content that is educational, yet quirky and entertaining
as well.
RAMONA SUKHRAJ Ramona has a B.S. in Marketing from the UCONN School of Business and is also
Content Marketing Manager
a frequent contributor to HubSpot blog. Outside of IMPACT, she is a movie and
IMPACT
@ramonasukhraj pop culture buff and fierce advocate of free hugs.
Molly is the Manager of Operations for DMTraining. She manages the day-
to-day while dabbling in everything from marketing and sales to technology,
training and team-building. Molly has a passion for learning and leveraging
new knowledge and experiences. Outside of DMTraining, Molly is a hard
core Pittsburgh sports fan, enjoys staying active by running and golfing, and MOLLY DEPASQUALE
Manager of Operations
unwinds by reading and playingthe piano.
DMTraining
@DMTMolly
Anna is the Learning and Technology Coordinator for DMTraining. She

creates and manages reinforcement training materials, while simultaneously
furthering DMT’s marketing efforts. In her free time, she can be found reading,
ANNA ADAMCZYK writing, running, and taking on a variety of new creative pursuits.
Learning and Technology
Coordinator
DMTraining
2 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

Table of Contents
Part 1: Inbound Marketing Basics 5

Chapter 1: What is Inbound Marketing? 6
Chapter 2: Website Optimization Checklist & SEO 11
Chapter 3: How to Do Email Marketing Right 17
Chapter 4: Getting Started with Social Media 23
Chapter 5: Creating Original Content 27
Part 2: Sales & Inbound Marketing 33

Chapter 6: How Inbound Marketing Affects Sales 34
Chapter 7: Understanding the Website’s Role in the Sales Funnel 40
Chapter 8: How to Approach Inbound Leads via Email 42
Chapter 9: Using Social Media for Sales 46
Chapter 10: Using Content to Delight and Renew Customers 48
Conclusion: Connecting Inbound Marketing and Sales 49
Design by Christine Austin, @ItsChristine_A

Introduction
For decades, sales and marketing executives both here and abroad lived a bit
of a rivalry. Partially because of accountability and partially due to pride, the
two departments sat at odds with each other despite sharing many of the
same overarching goals.
With the rise of inbound marketing, however, came the ideals of

“smarketing” and “sales enablement” that called for alignment between the
teams.
In order to provide leads that sales could actually close, marketing needed to
create content that would attract the right people and in order to create that
content, sales needed to communicate what leads were looking for back to
marketing.
To reach their common goals, the two departments now need to work
together and in this guide, we aim to teach you exactly how.
We’ll start by laying out the basics of the inbound marketing methodology
and how it works in Part 1. Then in Part 2, we’ll explain how sales can adopt
and work within this methodology to close even more business for your
organization.
Ready to get started? Let’s go!

PART 1:
Inbound Marketing
Basics
Written by:
1 What is Inbound
Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a marketing approach designed to bring the buyers to

you, instead of you seeking them out. Sounds too good to be true, right?
Unlike traditional marketing methods that aim to get in front of as many

people as possible, wherever possible (i.e. Billboards, Commercials,
Tradeshows, Press Releases in major publications), inbound marketing is
about pulling in customers who are already actively looking for what you
offer.
It’s not about forcing your company or product on your audience, but making
it easier to find when the audience needs it.
The most common ways of doing this is using a mix of 5 main areas:
Search Engine
Website Optimization Optimization
Email Marketing Social Media
Original Content
Creation

By aligning these 6 areas with your customer’s interests, needs, and pain
points (we’ll discuss how in the next few sections), you will naturally attract
qualified traffic to your website that your marketing team can convert and
your sales team can ultimately close.
The Benefits of Inbound Marketing
LOWER COSTS
By making use of free or low-cost digital channels such as a website, email,

and social media, inbound marketing costs approximately 62% less per lead
than traditional outbound marketing. Because of this, not only does your
company save more upfront, but it increases your return-on-investment in the
long-run.
Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound
marketing (Source)
3 out of 4 inbound marketing channels cost less than any outbound

channel (Source)

Increased Visibility/Awareness
Along with this focus on digital methods, comes increased awareness and
visibility. The internet has leveled the global marketplace. Regardless of the
nature of your business, anyone can find and access your website or social
media profiles.
Despite this vast audience, inbound tactics like website and search engine
optimization help make sure that you are being found by the right audience
for your brand; those who may actually make a purchase.
In addition, being active on social media helps expand your reach even
further; using the large daily audiences on those platforms to share your
message on a more targeted, concentrated scale.
Increased Website Traffic
Most inbound marketing methods are centered around getting a prospect to

visit or complete activity on your company website. When done correctly,
naturally your website traffic will increase with individuals reading your blog,
downloading your resources, and contacting your team.
92.34% of companies using inbound marketing increase their traffic.

(Source)
Companies with 51 to 100 Twitter followers generate 106% more traffic

than those with 25 or fewer. (Source)

More Qualified Leads
When you’re creating quality content that addresses your ideal buyer’s needs,
solves their biggest pain points, and is optimized for search engines, the
people arriving on your website will be a better fit for your product
and company.
Even if they are not initially, by creating educational content for each stage
of their natural buying cycle, you can help guide them towards feeling
comfortable enough to make a purchase or talk to a member of your
sales team.
Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound

practices. (Source)
Greater Trust & Credibility
The goal of inbound marketing is not to be overly promotional or “sale-sy.”
Instead, as we mentioned earlier, inbound tactics are focused mainly on

educating, entertaining, and offering real value to prospective buyers. It’s
about sharing your expertise and giving people the answers they need to
make an informed buying decision.
This altruistic approach builds trust. When you’re give something of value
away without asking for something in return, prospects know that you’re not
just out for the final sale; you’re interested in helping them.

Furthermore, by sharing your industry knowledge, you show your audience
that you actually know your stuff. You build credibility by demonstrating an
actionable understanding of your audience and industry, beyond the basics.
61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that delivers
custom content and are also more likely to buy from that company.
(Source)
Increased Sales
All in all, inbound marketing leads to increased sales, when compared

with Outbound methods. With more qualified traffic and greater trust,
the prospects that arrive in your sales team’s lap are those that truly feel
comfortable doing business with your company.
They have been primed by your educational content and know what to expect
from you or a competitor. With more knowledgeable leads, your team will
spend less time selling, and more time closing.
57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company

blog (Source)
42% have acquired a customer through Twitter, 57% through LinkedIn,

and 48% through Facebook. (Source)

2 Website
Optimization
Checklist & SEO
Website optimization with inbound marketing in mind, is an intricate

process. It involves a lot of moving pieces that need to be manipulated,
ranging from your design and code to your written content and
lead generation.
In this chapter, you will find a detailed checklist of these pieces (adapted from
one shared by Tresnic Media). Before you dive into these arenas, however, you
must have a thorough understanding of your business, its audience, and
its objectives.
More specifically you should:
have clearly defined buyer personas
understand their buying behavior and typical decision making process
have a well-defined value proposition
Once you have these in line, use the yes or no checklist below to ensure that
your website is ready for your inbound initiatives.

Your Design/UX
Does your homepage have a:
Clearly stated value proposition?
Imagery/video that resonates with your buyer persona?
Do you have a way to contact you at the top of every page (i.e a
phone number, call-to-action to a form)?
Social Proof
Testimonials
Certifications
Awards
Affiliations
Partner Logos
Social Followings
Do you have clear navigation?
Can people access the most important parts of your site easily
and quickly?
Is your website’s design mobile-friendly (adapts to tablets, different

browsers, and phones, etc.)?
Is your website design consistent with your brand style guide? (color
choices, fonts, etc.)

Your Code
Is your website’s code technically optimized for SEO? Review the SEO
Basics at the end of this chapter then confirm that there’s a targeted
keyword in each page’s:
Page Title?
Section Header?
Meta Description?
Img Alt Tags?
Page URL?
Do you have a sitemap? (Type “[your website]/sitemap.xml” into your
browser to check)
Do you have Google Analytics or another tracking code set up?
Are you tracking goals/conversions within your analytics?
Your Content
Do you have a blog?
Do you publish at least one new blog article a month?
Are you creating and sharing premium content? (i.e. eBooks,

infographics, quizzes, tools, etc.)
Do you have Case Studies or Customer Success Stories published on

your website?
Do you have testimonials from happy customers on your website?

Lead Generation
Are you collecting email contacts?
Email Subscribers?
Blog Subscribers?
Do you have a general contact form?
Do you have Premium Content/Resources page?
Do you have page-specific landing pages for each offer?
Your Social Media
Do you have your social media accounts linked up to your website?
Integrations/Management
Do you have a CMS (Content Management System) with

blogging capabilities?
Do you have a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool?
Do you have an email marketing or marketing automation system

integrated with your website?

SEO BASICS
In order to be fully optimized and help your pages rank higher in search
results, your focus keyword should appear in all of the following “On-Page”
SEO areas: URL, Page Title, Section Header, Section Subheader (if applicable),
Main Content, Image ALT Text, and Meta Description.
To illustrate this, let’s say you are creating a new page centered around the
keyword: “Organization Optimization”:
Page Title (H1) (Max. 70 Characters): Organization Optimization

Through [Your Company’s Name]
Section Header (H2): How Can [Your Company]’s Technology Help

Your Organization Optimization?
Page URL: http://www.yourwebsite.com/organization-optimization-

technology
Main Content (Within the first 200 words): “Effective organization

optimization can help improve your employee experience,
company culture ..”
Image ALT text: organization-optimization-through-technology
Meta Description (Max. 150 characters): Learn more about how [Your
Company]’s technology for organization optimization can benefit your
business.

OPTIMIZE IMAGE ALT TAGS
Every image on your website needs to have an alt tag or alternate tag. These
tags provide a description of the image if a user cannot view it for one reason
or another (i.e. a slow connection, an error, etc.) These tags can be crawled
and indexed, thereby helping your rank for the included keywords, and
chances of being found by your buyer personas.
Additional Educational SEO Resources:
Search Engine Optimization Kit (HubSpot)
Learning SEO from the Experts (HubSpot)
A Step-By-Step Guide to Flawless On-Page SEO (HubSpot)
How to Create a Landing Page (HubSpot)
With these areas in line, your website will be fully-equipped to attract,

convert, and nurture people into leads that are informed and ready to talk to
your sales team.
If your website is not set up to be successfully found, perform like a well-oiled

machine, and seamlessly gather contact information and enter them into
your database, there will be no leads for your sales team to even begin with.

3 How to Do Email
Marketing Right
Email marketing may be one of the oldest digital marketing tactics, but it
remains one of the most effective.
Marketing email conversion rates are 3x higher than those of social media,
according to McKinsey & Company, and according to Salesforce, 95% of those
who opt into receiving email from companies find them useful.
There are plenty of marketers who abuse email out there, but when done
strategically, email marketing can push all of the right buttons and help your
prospects feel more comfortable making a purchase.
When done right, it can nurture your contacts down the sales funnel so that
when your team reaches out, they are well-versed in your product and what
your company has to offer.

Tip #1: Personalize It
Nothing screams spam or email blast more than a generic greeting like “Dear
Customer” or even “Good Morning, Music Lover!” Replace these with “Hi
John!” or “Jane, Check this out!”.
Addressing your prospect by name automatically grabs their attention more

than you would without it. Depending on the extent of your contact database,
you can also customize the content of your email to incorporate information
about the recipient’s:
Gender
Age
Occupation
Location
Company Name
These little extra details will give your email a more human touch and also
help the message feel more relevant -- not like a cyber “cold call.”
Tip #2: Be Concise
We live in an age of instant-gratification. In order to have an impact, you

need to deliver your message as quickly as possible or risk losing your
prospect’s attention.
While this can seem easier said than done, look for clever ways to keep your
written copy short.

For example, tease the message at hand in your email, then link out to a video
or a page on your website with more detail. This will not only keep your text
short, but it will pique your readers’ interest and get them to click through to
learn more.
You can also try incorporating icons, diagrams, or more bulleted lists.
All of these tactics will help keep your email short and to the point and lower
the risk of losing your audience before you’ve even made your point.
Tip #3: Use Visuals
As we mentioned above, visuals are essential to keeping your copy concise

and easy to digest, but they can also be the difference between a truly
engaging email and one that gets deleted.
90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and images are

processed 60,000X faster than plain text. To get your message across
effectively, you need to capitalize on this wiring by enhancing your email copy
with high-quality, on-brand imagery.
Try incorporating some of these visual elements into your next email:
Gifs / Videos (or a thumbnail link)

Headers
Crests / Badges
Charts / Diagrams / Graphs
Icons / Emojis

Remember, every audience is different, so you’ll need to know your buyer
persona and test each visual out to find which is most effective.
Tip #4: Target/Segment the Recipients
The goal of most email marketing isn’t simply just to deliver a message, but
to prompt an action (i.e. a click back onto your website, a purchase, a form
fill, etc.)
In order to elicit this kind of active response, your message needs to resonate
with the recipient. It needs to be relevant to their needs and situation and
interest them. Afterall, no one is going to take action on something they don’t
care about, right?
The easiest way to increase relevance and improve the response to your
emails is through targeting and segmentation, or separating your contacts
into different groups depending on certain characteristics or activities.
You wouldn’t send a B2B prospect visiting your website for the first time the same
email as a B2C that you’ve already spoken to, would you?
With multiple segmented lists, it will be easier not to.
Rather than “blasting” something out to your entire list, you can pick and
choose which make sense for the email at hand (or frame the same message
in different ways based on that list’s interests).

Just as you would in Tip #1, use the information in your database to segment
your contacts into different groups. Your lists may be based on:
Age
Location
Job Title
Industry
Site activity (i.e. Offers downloaded, pages visited, etc.)
Position in the sales funnel
Interests

Tip #5: Optimize for Mobile
Nearly 50% of all emails are opened on mobile devices -- that includes 64% of
decision-makers.
If these numbers aren’t enough to make you realize that your emails should
be optimized for mobile viewing, just a look around any city street.
Anyone and everyone is on their phone or mobile device. It’s a staple of our
everyday lives and in order to effectively reach your audience you need to
adapt to this behavior.
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Email width should be no wider than 600px
Test your font size. Larger is usually better on a mobile device.
Use single-column designs
Keep your subject line short. Most mobile screens can only display 4-7
words before getting cut off.
Make clicking easy. Make sure your CTA button or link is the largest,
most prominent feature of the email.

4 Getting Started with
Social Media
Social media is probably one of the most misunderstood inbound marketing

tactics today, but with its diverse audience and low costs it is also one of the
most invaluable.
Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Instagram, social media

offers a unique opportunity to meet and connect with your ideal buyers on a
more personal level. It offers you the chance to communicate directly with
individuals and show the more “human” side of your brand.
In this chapter, we will outline overarching tips to help you develop and
maintain a strong social media strategy that will help your sales team close
deals:
1. Maintain Consistent Branding

2. Publish Regularly
3. Engage in Conversation

Tip #1: Maintain Consistent Branding
Your social media profile is an extension of your business, team, and its
offering, so treat it accordingly.
When someone arrives on your profile, you want it to feel cohesive with
everything else that they know about your brand -- not as if it belongs to
another organization.
To help maintain brand consistency on your social media profiles remember

the following:
Stick to your brand’s visual style guide. Use the same font, colors, and
symbols as you would on website or any other marketing assets.
Know and maintain your voice. Before you post or share anything, ask
yourself “would my brand typically say this? Would it click with my
audience?”
Straying from your established brand runs the risk of sending mixed
messages. This can lead to confusion about what can be expected from you
and ultimately, alienate your audience.
Tip #2: Publish Regularly
Publishing to social media once in a while may help fill your timeline, but it
will not help you maintain an audience or establish relationships with your
audience.

Work with your team to outline a regular publishing schedule for each of your
social media channels.
Regularity, like brand consistency, helps establish a sense of reliability in

your audience (a very important trait in a company you’re considering doing
business with).
If you are new to social, use these best practices to help you get started with
choosing appropriate scheduling times. For example:
Twitter: 3-5 original tweets a day (morning, afternoon, and

evening/night)
Facebook: 1 post a day (original content or shared)
LinkedIn: 1-2 posts a week (original content or shared)
After at least 3 months, you will have a good idea of when your audience is
active and what they are engaging with. Based off of this data, you can better
determine when, what, and how often you should be publishing on each
platform.
Tip #3: Engage in Conversation
At the end of the day, the goal of social media shouldn’t be to generate sales
(though it is a nice bonus). It’s goal should be to be, well, social.

Social media’s biggest opportunities for business lie mainly in attracting and
delighting users, or in other words, introducing new people to your brand, and
maintaining a connection with existing followers, fans, or customers.
But this doesn’t happen by posting content alone. You need to actively engage
in conversation with people on your profiles and take note of what they have
to say.
What are your fans or followers talking about? What are they complaining
about? What do they love about your product or service? What do they expect
from it?
Listen to these comments. Respond to them. Ask questions and offer

solutions.
Aside from costly market research and user testing, social media is one of
very few chances for a business to get feedback directly from their consumer.
How can you spark a conversation on social media?
Ask a question
Share relevant news from external sources (along with your

point-of-view)
Respond to comments from others
Monitor trending topics and align your content with it
Host a contest requesting submissions on your profile

5 Creating Original
Content
The heart of inbound marketing is in the creation of original content.
Content creation is your organization’s opportunity to prove its knowledge

and give itself an original voice. It may include:
Blogging
Creating Infographics
Creating Videos
Writing eBooks, Whitepapers, etc.
Hosting Webinars
Unlike simply sharing industry news or curating advice from other sources,
creating content gives you the chance to incorporate insights from your own
personal experience, develop an image as an innovator and “thought-leader”
in your industry, and address pain points or concerns expressed personally by
your consumers on social media, sales calls, etc.

Creating original content can also help aid your search engine optimization
efforts by creating more pages to be crawled by search engines and making
more resources available to be shared.
While content creation is a vast topic, here are three general tips to help guide
your strategy.
Tip #1 Make sure your content is

keyword-focused
Content creation is pointless if you are not writing about things your audience
actually wants to read and is actively searching for.
Remember, in inbound, your goal is to get found as a solution when people

are searching, but this can only be done if you know where they are looking.
Getting found begins by thoroughly researching and knowing your buyer

persona. What are their pain points? What are their interests? Where do they
turn for information? How do they get it? What are they sharing on
social media?

Answering these questions will provide you with the background information
you need to start brainstorming topics and keywords that would be of interest
to your audience.
You can also take the reverse approach and use tools like HubSpot Keywords,
Google Analytics, or Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) to
determine what people are already typing into search engines to find your
website.
With these in hand, you can then develop topics around these keywords.
People are already actively looking for solutions using these terms so use
them to your advantage.
For example, if your audience is searching the keyword, “improving your

business ROI” you can consider titles like:
Here’s Why Improving Your Business ROI is So Important
5 Ways Improving Your Business ROI Will Change Your Life
6 Secrets to Improving Your Business ROI
Note: Notice how the exact keyword appears in each example. Matching the
term, is important to increasing your search rank for it. The exact keyword
should also appear in your page title, H1, etc. as we outlined in Chapter 2’s
SEO Basics.

Tip #2: Diversify Your Content
While blogging and eBooks are essential to SEO success, don’t be afraid to
experiment with different types of formats. Diversification helps keep your
audience’s attention and caters to different forms of communication and
expression.
For example, if you’ve done comprehensive research perhaps an infographic

may be a more effective way of sharing it than a lengthy PDF -- or better yet,
you can go after twice as many leads by offering the same information in both
formats.
Here are just a few of the different formats you can try adding into your
content mix:
Infographics Generators
Videos Newsletters
Webinars eMagazines
Quizzes (written or online) Memes
Polls Reviews
Worksheets Podcasts
Check-Lists Interviews
Printables Surveys
Lists Data/Reports
Calculators

Take into account your team’s resources and try incorporating a variety
of content into your library. Over time, you can take a look at your leads
generated, shares, views, etc. to determine which methods are most popular
and effective.
Tip #3: Follow the 80-20 Rule
The 80/20 Rule (or Pareto Principle) is Content Marketing 101. When planning
your content, make sure that no more than 20% of what you’re creating or
sharing is promoting your own business or product. Going beyond this can
create a very “salesy” tone of voice for your brand, rather than helpful.
The more you help your audience (without expecting anything in return), the
more perceived value your brand will have in their eyes. So, be sure to keep
the majority of your content (the remaining 80%) educational, entertaining,
or informative.
When you must self-promote in your content, frame your pitch in terms of
the benefit it will bring to your user.
For example, if you’ve added a new comment feature to your product, instead
of simply announcing it, write an article about how your user can reach their
goals or improve the way their organization is run using it.
Product and company updates are great, but you need to explain why they are
important to your reader to get and keep them interested.

Putting it All Together
With these essential principles and tips in hand, you’re all set to start
planning an inbound strategy that will help fill your pipeline with engaged,
qualified, and enthusiastic leads. But this is just the beginning.
In part 2 of this playbook, we’ll dive into how your sales team can use all of
the tactics outlined in this part to help your leads sign on the dotted line.

PART 2:
Sales & Inbound
Marketing
Written by:
6 How Inbound
Marketing Affects
Sales
All’s fair in sales and marketing. That was the battle cry until the consumer
took over.
As you could see in part 1, times have changed. Sales no longer controls the
flow of information in the buying process, the customer does.
This change has significantly influenced the role of sales and marketing, and
has increased the need to work together to align their efforts.
Let’s look at three ways inbound marketing applies to sales and can make
selling easier.
34 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Follow DMTraining:

1. Defining Clear Targets
Who are we trying to reach? This should be a question that everyone in your
organization can answer -- especially the sales team.
Have you ever had the experience of someone trying to sell you something
that would only be useful to your retired grandfather?
This type of sales blunder can be avoided with the help of the inbound
marketing team.
They have developed clearly-defined buyer personas in order to help sellers

personalize their communication and outreach. As we learned earlier, no one
wants to hear about something that is not relevant to them.
Smart sellers adapt an

inbound marketer’s mindset
to position and express the
company’s value proposition
exactly how their ideal buyers
would want to hear it.
Buyer personas help your

marketing team create
targeted content that will attract qualified, potential buyers for your sales
team from the get-go.

2. Warming Up Leads
What is this lead trying to accomplish? Consider this question with each new
opportunity.
Inbound marketers spend endless amounts of time creating, testing,

tweaking, perfecting (and then doing it all over again) to find ways to
generate quality leads.
They create content to attract and educate prospects that they’ll then
segment and cultivate until they are ready for sales.
Sales and marketing should be in agreement on what defines a qualified lead

and how to move them down the road on the buyer’s journey. You need to
determine which stages of the funnel
are appropriate for a salesperson to
follow up with and which should be
sent to marketing.
For example, someone who signs-up

for the free trial of your product and
someone who subscribes to your blog
should get two different follow-ups.
Marketing preps and seasons

the leads for the sales team. Then, with the information provided by the
marketing team, sales is ready to acknowledge the level of interest, further
understand the needs, and take the appropriate action step.

3. Content Creation
Inbound marketing teams spend a large majority of their time creating

content.
All content (whether it’s a blog article, eBook, social post, etc.) is created
with the goal of targeting prospects at various phases of the buyer’s journey
to help entice and educate while moving
them closer to the “close” or purchasing
stage.
Sales should make use of these well-

thought out pieces to help progress the
sale. It makes the desperate thought of
“I’ll just send them a proposal!” after an
initial call fade away.
Content created by the marketing team gives sellers more options for next
steps and follow-ups with prospects.
It also serves the purpose of delighting existing customers with valuable

information. This builds stronger customer relationships and when it’s time
for a renewal or upsell, sales has a better shot at retaining the business.
In an aligned organization, it’s marketing’s job to help sales more fully

understand the qualified leads they get and the information that would
be most valuable to them. Sellers need to open their eyes to the endless
opportunities that inbound marketing provides.

Collecting Sales Data with an Inbound Mindset
It’s also important to note that marketers are constantly testing and
analyzing new campaign ideas. They are ready to pivot at a moment’s notice
based on the data streaming in -- but sales professionals can be much more
reactive with their actions and strategies.
As their jobs require a great deal of human interaction, it can be easy for
salespeople to get caught up in anecdotes and not see the reality in the facts,
but at the end of the day:
Data should guide your thinking and actions; not just your gut.
Fortunately, sellers can adopt an analytical inbound marketing mindset by

tracking day-to-day activities using a CRM or even a free service like Google
Sheets.
Looking at the numbers and data behind your selling process will be the only
clear cut way of determining what’s working and what isn’t -- without getting
emotions involved.
The only way to see improvement is to track in the first place, so don’t get
too attached to a certain email template or follow-up approach. If it’s not
working, you need to be ready to rethink and rework it at a moment’s notice.

That being said, start keeping tabs on:
How much time you’re devoting to researching prospects
How many first appointments you have each week
How many opportunities you have in each stage of your pipeline
How long an average sale takes
Email reponse and click rates
The ratios between how these metrics affect each other
Being aware of these numbers will help you make informed decisions about
what you should be changing or tweaking to progress your sales strategies.

7 Understanding the
Website’s Role in the
Sales Funnel
Your website is an extremely powerful device, especially for attracting and

capturing new leads. It’s like a ‘sales assistant’ that works 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. It’s constantly working to collect new information about
incoming leads and opportunities.
Buyers go through about 57% of the purchasing process before ever

talking to sales. (Source)
Sellers need to make use of this information to become more efficient and
productive.
There are many aspects that make a website an effective lead-generating tool,
but the primary one is content.
Typically, the marketing team deals with development of the content.

However, sales and marketing should work together to ensure they are in
agreement about what the path to purchase looks like and then map relevant
content to match each phase of the buyer’s journey.

With the help of inbound marketing, you’ll never make a “cold call” again.
Let’s take a quick look at the funnel to help visualize what that might look
like:
AWARENESS
At the top of the funnel, we have “suspects” or people that fit into our buyer
personas and may potentially need our product and/or service. Content in this
stage could be focused on attracting your audience via your website, blog, or
SUSPECTS
social media.
CONSIDERATION
Once someone becomes aware of your product or service, they may express
interest and become a “prospect”. At this stage, it’s time to inform and
educate the prospect about your company so they will consider it as a
PROSPECTS
solution. Content may include material about how your product/service
addresses a challenge or pain point specific to your buyer persona.
PREFERENCE / INTENT
By this stage, you’ve gauged the interest level. This is an optimal time to
LEADS
nurture a prospect with information related to what they’ve already accessed
or downloaded.
PURCHASE
By the purchase stage, the prospect is highly qualified and has expressed
CUSTOMERS
interest in moving forward to a next step. Content in this stage might include
a case study or success story about how you’ve worked with companies similar
to theirs in order to seal the deal.

8 How to Approach
Inbound Leads via
Email
When we’re in a constant battle for attention, sales emails can be tricky, but
with inbound marketing you can make them work for you with these 3 quick
changes.
1. Think First
When you get the name and details of a prospect from the marketing team it
can be tempting to see what templates you have in your arsenal and fire off
the first one you find. It’s best to reach out as soon as possible, right? -- Wrong.
While it’s important to be timely,

it’s even more important to do some
research before sending any emails.
You might be thinking, “What’s the

point of doing more research if we
already have our buyer personas in
place?”

It’s this kind of thinking that will get your email deleted. Challenge yourself
to personalize your outreach to that specific contact. It’s the only way to truly
connect with your prospect.
Try this:
When doing your research ask yourself questions that will help personalize
your outreach. For example:
What’s their background?
Do they know anything about my product/service?
What are their pain points?
Am I talking to the decision maker?
If not, how will the person I’m speaking with lead me there?
Finding out the answers to questions like these will help create a targeted
message that speaks to that particular lead by building a sense of trust and
authenticity.

2. Benefits, Not Features
Instead of writing your email with the idea that you need to highlight the
features of your product or service, try focusing on the benefits. Pinpointing
how you will add value, especially if the benefits are quantified numerically,
will help your prospect envision how it will make their life easier as well as
positively impact the bottom line.
Try this:
Instead of writing, “Our company offers

an affordable CRM solution with multi-
layer analysis built-in,” try something
like, “Our CRM helps financial services
companies like yours, manage their sales
process by increasing efficiency of sales
activity with simple data visualization and
on average, increasing revenue by 12%.”
This is specific, to the point, and spells

out exactly how your solution could help.
Remember, selling is about storytelling and appealing to the emotions of your
audience in order to encourage them to take action.

3. Call-to-Action
A call-to-action helps minimize the ‘waiting game’ and encourages the

prospect to take the next step. Being honest about your intentions (“I want
you to buy already!”) and helping your prospect decide how they want to
proceed is essential. Give them a way to take action, whether it’s to learn
more about your offering or to let you know they’re not interested.
Try this:
Keep it short and specific. Consider writing something like:
“If you’re interested in learning more

about how [my company] can help
you [increase sales], then let’s talk on
Wednesday at 1 PM or Friday at 11 AM.
However, if you’re currently not looking
for [my product/service], please shoot me
a quick reply letting me know.”
Depending on the reply you get and

the level of interest, a great way to
stay in touch and top of mind with
a prospect is by sharing a CTA that links to a relevant and valuable resource
from your website. This will further nurture the prospect as well as show
them you are interested in their business and you want to help them.

9 Using Social Media
for Sales
When it comes to using social media for sales, sellers should take a page
from the inbound Marketer’s book. The easiest (and completely free!) way of
developing your sales persona through social media involves sharing content.
Sharing is Caring
You’re most likely connected to co-workers, past and present clients, or even
new prospects on social media.
Engaging with this network by sharing content is essential when it comes

to social selling. It’s all about creating relationships, establishing trust, and
being viewed as a credible resource that people want to work with.
Sharing useful, timely, and informative content will accelerate your sales.
By sharing the right content, that helps inform your industry, you
demonstrate your individual value as well as that of your company. It can
help differentiate your offering from the competition and put you in a better
position to close the final sale.

Also, make sure to reciprocate. If our audience is sharing your content,
consider interacting with it by commenting or “liking” it. This shows you are
interested in them and provides a natural start for further discussions.
Overall, remember, quality over quantity. Limit the amount of items you’re
sharing to ensure the content is truly quality and you’re not overwhelming
newsfeeds with more updates than your reader can digest.
DO share: DON’T share:
eBooks blatant sales promotions
videos product/service features
blog posts repetitive messages
case studies
industry updates
Knowledge is Power
Social media is a great tool to research your prospects and clients. Do you
have a meeting coming up? There is an abundance of information available
about all of us on the internet, which means there is absolutely no excuse to
come to a meeting unprepared.
Check out your contact’s personal and company LinkedIn and Twitter feeds.
Staying on top of what’s new with your contact, in addition to any changes
happening in their company will help you better understand their needs and
make your conversation more relevant.

10 Using Content to
Delight and Renew
Customers
“Never stop selling” applies to past, present, and future clients. You don’t
want to gain a new client just to forget about them once you’ve delivered the
product or provided the service.
Rather, you want to provide an exceptional customer experience that will lead
to repeat or referral business.
You want to ensure that your customers stay engaged, entertained, and
enlightened every step of the way, even if they are no longer active.
Stay committed to your customers. Make sure they’re receiving a company

newsletter if you have one. If not, send them some content offers from time
to time. If you’re connected with them on social media, make sure you’re
posting relevant information that could be useful to them.
Taking the time to gather feedback from clients will provide fuel to improve
your process and create new content. Like everything in sales and marketing
- testing, measuring, and analyzing the sentiment among past, present, and
future clients is critical.

Conclusion: Connecting
Inbound Marketing and Sales
So all was fair in sales and marketing, until the consumer took over and
“smarketing” was born.
Sales and marketing are two halves of the same team. Both sides are trying to
achieve the same overall goal: generate qualified leads, satisfy the customer,
win the renewal.
However, it doesn’t always feel like sales and marketing are playing the same
game. The goal may be the same, but how it is accomplished appears different
to each team. True “smarketing” requires alignment fostered by frequent and
direct communication and a mutual understanding.

LET’S GET STARTED
Ready to learn more about improving your
online marketing?
We’re showing professionals like you what works, and what

doesn’t in today’s digital landscape. Let’s strategize about some
ways to take your marketing efforts to the next level.
IMPROVE MY MARKETING
DM Training believes time management, tracking, and the
words salespeople say matter. That’s why we don’t merely
provide training, we provide the tools to manage and
measure success. Our comprehensive process impacts
the entire sales organization by continuously teaching,
reinforcing, and encouraging real behavioral change. We
do this by closely collaborating with our clients to create a
customized training plan.
Are you interested in taking your sales and marketing to the

next level? Sign-up for a free sales training consultation.
CONTACT US

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THE ULTIMATE

As Content Marketing Manager, Ramona approaches Marketing not only as a

Anna is the Learning and Technology Coordinator for DMTraining. She

2 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

Part 1: Inbound Marketing Basics 5

Chapter 2: Website Optimization Checklist & SEO 11

Chapter 3: How to Do Email Marketing Right 17

Chapter 4: Getting Started with Social Media 23

Chapter 5: Creating Original Content 27

Part 2: Sales & Inbound Marketing 33

Chapter 7: Understanding the Website’s Role in the Sales Funnel 40

Chapter 8: How to Approach Inbound Leads via Email 42

Chapter 9: Using Social Media for Sales 46

Chapter 10: Using Content to Delight and Renew Customers 48

Conclusion: Connecting Inbound Marketing and Sales 49

Design by Christine Austin, @ItsChristine_A

3 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

With the rise of inbound marketing, however, came the ideals of

Ready to get started? Let’s go!

4 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

Inbound marketing is a marketing approach designed to bring the buyers to

Unlike traditional marketing methods that aim to get in front of as many

Email Marketing Social Media

6 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

The Benefits of Inbound Marketing

By making use of free or low-cost digital channels such as a website, email,

3 out of 4 inbound marketing channels cost less than any outbound

7 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

Increased Website Traffic

Most inbound marketing methods are centered around getting a prospect to

92.34% of companies using inbound marketing increase their traffic.

Companies with 51 to 100 Twitter followers generate 106% more traffic

8 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound

Greater Trust & Credibility

The goal of inbound marketing is not to be overly promotional or “sale-sy.”

Instead, as we mentioned earlier, inbound tactics are focused mainly on

9 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

All in all, inbound marketing leads to increased sales, when compared

57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company

42% have acquired a customer through Twitter, 57% through LinkedIn,

10 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

Website optimization with inbound marketing in mind, is an intricate

More specifically you should:

have clearly defined buyer personas

understand their buying behavior and typical decision making process

have a well-defined value proposition

11 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

Does your homepage have a:

Clearly stated value proposition?

Imagery/video that resonates with your buyer persona?

Do you have clear navigation?

Is your website’s design mobile-friendly (adapts to tablets, different

12 | THE INBOUND MARKETING SALES PLAYBOOK Share this eBook:

keyword in each page’s:

Img Alt Tags?

Do you have a sitemap? (Type “[your website]/sitemap.xml” into your

Do you have Google Analytics or another tracking code set up?

Are you tracking goals/conversions within your analytics?

Do you publish at least one new blog article a month?

Are you creating and sharing premium content? (i.e. eBooks,

Do you have Case Studies or Customer Success Stories published on