GUIDE
Key Differences.
03.
Marketing Nurtures,
Sales Closes
Another key difference between
marketing and sales materials is
their use in the buyer’s journey. Mar-
keting content is deployed early
and throughout the top and middle
of the funnel to nurture prospects.
The goal is to educate prospects
over time and build awareness and
consideration for your brand. Today,
since many B2B buyers do much of
this research independently, this
content must be informative and
easy to understand.
On the other hand, sales materials
need to consider a few things. First,
your prospects will have many ques-
tions after their self-guided educa-
tion about your company, and you’ll
need to predict what those ques-
tions will be and have answers ready.
Your conversations with customers
and prospects come into play at the
bottom of the funnel
when they are ready to shortlist solu-
tions and make purchase decisions.
They serve as ammunition for sales
reps to close deals and beat the com-
petition. By conflating marketing and
sales collateral, you lose sight of when
and how content should be deployed
for maximum impact – and you also
risk repeating a message that your
prospect has already seen that doesn’t
answer their questions.
It’s certainly possible for some content
pieces to serve hybrid functions across
the funnel. For example, an analyst re-
search report could be used in mar-
keting to build credibility and by sales
to strengthen value propositions. But
this should be the exception and not
the rule. As a best practice, separate
content for awareness, consideration,
and decision phases.