ServiceNow’s growth as a business solution has been phenomenal. What started out as an ITSM tool is now the ‘Platform of Platforms’ that’s reaching deeper and deeper into the enterprise with each six-monthly family release.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean partners are finding it easier to market and sell their ServiceNow services and expertise. Value-added selling of top-end SaaS solutions is challenging, no matter how great the product is.
Here are some of the challenges you may be facing:
- Generating sufficient qualified leads
- Articulating your expertise and experience with the platform
- Standing out from other ServiceNow partners
- Producing sales and marketing collateral that clearly presents highly technical concepts
- Effectively aligning your marketing initiatives with your sales initiatives
Tips for Building a Better Content Strategy
An effective content strategy will address these challenges and is a vital requirement for growth in the ServiceNow ecosystem.
Developing and implementing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy takes time and effort. But regardless of where you are on your marketing journey, here are six tips to help you progress towards closing more deals:
1. Focus on your areas of ServiceNow expertise
Every ServiceNow partner is different. These days, the platform is so expansive that unless you’re one of the largest partners in the ecosystem, it’s impossible to deliver expertise across every module, competency or vertical.
Instead, you’ll have a Unique Value Proposition which, along with your company’s purpose, vision and mission statement, will form the basis for developing a marketing strategy focused on attracting your ideal clients.
2. SEO is about ‘user intent,’ not just keywords
Having a clearly defined mission will enable you to put some marketing fundamentals in place, including choosing ideal keywords to drive your SEO strategy, which in turn will lay the groundwork for your content strategy.
While keywords are still the foundation of an effective search engine optimization strategy, these days, SEO is no longer about stuffing your content with keywords; Google’s algorithms demand much more than that. To be ranked in search results you need to offer up quality content that provides value to searchers and delivers on the intent of what your prospects are looking for.
3. Organize your content into ‘topic clusters’
Effective SEO involves organizing your website into topic clusters: a structure that maximizes the opportunity to showcase your specific areas of ServiceNow expertise.
Search engines are looking for high-quality, credible content to showcase to its searchers, and the more content you have on a particular topic, the more credibility you’ll develop on that topic.
4. Get the most out of your Subject Matter Experts
Your architects, developers and the other super clever people on your team possess a wealth of knowledge you can use to build brand authority and demonstrate your company’s expertise.
But your Subject Matter Experts don’t have the time (or possibly the inclination) to create polished content. Therefore, you need to put systems in place to extract your SMEs’ knowledge effectively so you can turn their insights into captivating sales and marketing collateral.
5. Develop a content calendar
Use the content generated by your SMEs to fill up a content calendar. Planning out content several months in advance helps keep the momentum going. Choose blog topics that showcase your Unique Value Proposition and expertise.
Ideal blog topics answer questions your prospects are asking, but the competition are not answering.
6. Align sales and marketing efforts
One of the keys to your company’s success is ensuring your marketing and sales teams are aligned around a common set of revenue-driving goals.
While this alignment has traditionally been difficult to achieve for many companies, it’s the secret to unlocking results that aren’t attainable if sales and marketing remain siloed.
This alignment involves: creating ideal buyer profiles and buyer personas, defining where the handoff between marketing and sales occurs, creating lead views for the sales team, and creating SLAs between sales and marketing.
Need Help with Your Content Strategy?
A successful digital marketing strategy for ServiceNow implementation services involves defining a clear message and a targeted approach to engaging with your prospects.
Our ServiceNow expertise means Think Points is ideally positioned to help you develop a powerful marketing strategy attuned to the unique solutions you bring to the ServiceNow partner ecosystem.
We offer a content roadmapping service or book a meeting with Simon to discuss improving your content strategy.