2017 has seen a major seismic shift in the application of media and social channels to both empower and disrupt players in the corporate and political landscape. A whole new generation of media pundits and social media users are finding new voice and power over established brands.

So what are brands and marketers to do in this new, volatile world, where media channels are both a vehicle for enthusiasts, and a weapon for the disgruntled?

The case for Smarketing - the integration of sales and marketing efforts - is strong, but implementation of a new way of doing things is never simple, and organisational inertia is a common cause of failure. In preserving the status quo by maintaining the current, comfortable way of doing things, businesses often put their long-term viability at risk.

When inbound marketing strategy first became popular among marketers a little over a decade ago, Australian marketers were less than eager to jump on the inbound bandwagon. While the rest of the world was reaching consumers on previously untapped digital platforms and using their content in innovative ways, it seemed as though the Aussies were, for the most part, still using those old intrusive outbound strategies.

For 74% of companies, converting leads into customers is a top priority, according to Hubspot. The same study, however, shows that just 32% are concerned with sales enablement. These statistics show the dreadful gap between marketing and sales that is costing companies all over the world money they never even knew they could have.

An integrated strategy that combines your marketing campaign with your sales efforts can help to bridge this gap, and convert more leads that your marketing team collects into clients your sales team can effectively work with. Read on to find out more about how smarketing can benefit your business. 

For as long as marketing has been around, advertisers have used outbound marketing to reach potential clients. But the old method of putting your brand out in the world— and being as in-your-face as possible about it so you can be heard over the competition—just doesn't work any more.

Do your sales people and marketing people reside in, as Ben Firman puts it, a "state of co-operative competition that readily descends into finger-pointing and arguments about strategy, budget and resource allocation?"

Your company is not alone, as outdated sales and marketing structures still litter the business landscape.

What can be done to get them to work better together, in order to meet the needs of the marketplace today? 

Every day brings something new that was created by artificial intelligence. The question is no longer if AI will change business, but how to get started.

If your marketing strategy isn’t invested in social media, you’d be wise to reconsider.  Why? Because that’s where your customers (and prospective customers) are.  According to Hubspot, 72% of internet users are on Facebook, 73% of Facebook’s 1.3 billion users go there for “professional purposes,” and 63% of Facebook and Twitter users are looking for information unrelated to friends and family.

We can agree that publishing quality content is revered over quantity. Yet, it’s important that we’re sharing enough content to generate the results we desire. Statistics reveal that, for example, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month received almost 3.5 times more traffic than companies that only shared 0-4 monthly posts. Also, consistently posting on social media networks keep followers coming to our pages.

With content marketing being a top focus for brands, how do you separate your posts from the sea of content being published daily? From your blog articles to your email messages, social media posts, webinars, videos, and podcasts, it’s crucial to create content that engages and moves your audience to action. People are inundated with content today more than ever…yet, compelling content wins every time.