Smarketing: Explanation, Benefits & Tips

1. Smarketing: Explanation, Advantages & Tips  

Smarketing: Explanation, Advantages & Tips  

Do you know the problem of marketing and sales not acting as a unit? As an experienced PR and marketing manager, this situation is all too familiar to me. A few years ago, it was often still common that the teams barely knew what the other team had in terms of processes, structures and specific goals. After more and more companies recognized how important the integration of the teams is, the constant optimization of collaboration has become part of daily business in an increasing number of companies.   

And this is where Smarketing comes into play: In this article, you will learn among other things what this strategy is about, why it is so important, what advantages and disadvantages it brings and how to best start implementing it.   
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What is Smarketing? 

As you've probably already guessed correctly, the term "Smarketing" is a merger of the terms "Sales" and "Marketing". It is about a strategy that aims to eliminate the traditional separation of the two areas and to link them instead. All marketing and sales activities should thus be coordinated and aligned.  
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Marketing and Sales - what is the difference?   

The essential difference lies in the specific tasks and goals pursued. Depending on the industry, target group and offer, responsibilities within marketing and sales can differ in their weighting, so that I would like to present a classic division to you:   

The marketing team usually focuses on generating attention and creating interest and trust in products and services. This includes activities such as market research, target group definition, product development, content creation for marketing and sales channels, public relations, and continuous analysis and optimization. The primary goal is to inform, inspire, and convince potential customers.   

The sales team usually focuses on the direct sale of products or services. This includes personal sales talks, negotiations, customer care, order processing, and contract closures. The main goal of sales, therefore, is to make a purchase or contract.  

In summary, one can say that marketing lays the foundation to attract potential customers and convince them as optimally as possible, while sales focuses on converting these qualified customers into paying customers. Both functions are crucial for the success of the company and should ideally work together seamlessly.
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Why is Smarketing so important?   

More and more companies are already taking a Smarketing approach because it can bring significant advantages. You will now learn what these are and what disadvantages you should weigh up against them:   

Advantages of Smarketing:   

• Efficient collaboration: The integration of marketing and sales allows the teams to work together more efficiently, as information can be exchanged quickly and easily, and coordination within the team is simpler.

• Improved lead quality: Smarketing also allows for more accurate qualification of leads, as the teams work closer together and can therefore focus on potential customers.

• Shorter sales cycles: The close cooperation and transparency often also shortens the sales cycle, as the leads qualified by marketing can be converted more rapidly into paying customers by the sales team.

• Consistent customer experience: The integration creates a consistent customer experience, as marketing and sales activities are aligned.

• More effective data analysis: The joint use of data in Smarketing enables comprehensive analysis, allowing for better decision-making to continuously optimize marketing and sales strategies.

Disadvantages of Smarketing:   

• Cultural change: The integration often requires a cultural change in the organization which can cause resistance and adaptation problems depending on the team structure.

• Communication challenges: Seamless communication between marketing and sales is crucial, but often not yet established. In order to avoid problems, Initial understanding of open communication needs to be established.

• Technological challenges: The introduction of shared technologies requires not only investments but also time and energy.

• Potential goal conflicts: If goals between the marketing and sales team are not clearly defined, conflicts between the teams can arise.

• Dependence on data quality: Smarketing heavily depends on the quality of the available data. If this quality is not given, this can lead to incorrect analysis and decisions.

As you can see, Smarketing brings some advantages, but also has disadvantages, the latter often focusing on the initial phase of collaboration. In the long term, you can promote teamwork, foster innovation, and ensure better customer orientation with Smarketing strategies, which is ultimately crucial for business success.
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Integration of Marketing and Sales - the key factors   

In the following, I will give you an overview of the most important factors to enable seamless collaboration between marketing and sales.   

• Set common goals and strategies so that both teams work towards a common goal.

• Promote transparent communication between the teams about customer needs, leads and current market events, so that all departments stay up-to-date.

• Create a common information pool where the teams can feed in all data and analysis. This can identify trends more quickly, evaluate campaigns and adapt strategies in real time.

• Integrate common technologies, such as marketing automation tools, analysis tools and CRM systems (Customer Relationship Management), thus you will create a unified platform for both departments.

• Ensure a Smarketing funnel by viewing and optimizing marketing and sales activities as a whole. Prospects are thereby seamlessly accompanied from Smarketing lead generation through qualification to completion.

Source: https://111percent.world/lexicon/smarketing
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Tips and steps for implementing Smarketing

I have introduced some of the key factors for integrating marketing and sales. Now let's get to the actual implementation or individual steps. In order for these steps to be successfully implemented, you should ensure that the most important foundations are met or at least develop over time:    

A solid basis of trust is important. Even if marketing and sales belong together, you should not assume that both teams will harmonize immediately and interact excellently. Therefore, it makes sense to plan trust-building measures, especially at the beginning. In this way, you design an important foundation for cooperation and can identify reservations and problems in cooperation at an early stage.

Transparent communication is also crucial. This includes all team members being able to view relevant information and figures, make regular updates and stay up to date through meetings and briefings. Transparent communication channels and media support a productive and efficient exchange.    Just as important is a

common concept, in which the teams also define common objectives. Only when both departments have a unitary idea of how they generate their Smarketing leads and ultimately customers as a team, this approach can be designed successfully.  Finally, a clear

allocation of responsibilities should be made. In this way, you ensure that all upcoming tasks are completed in a timely and professional manner, nothing is left behind, and there is a specific point of contact for all concerns.   
⁠10 concrete steps for implementation:   

Let's come to the concrete steps that are important in order to set up and expand your Smarketing. Depending on the individual situation, the order may be different. Just like the focus on individual steps, which can be very different depending on how well/badly (your) company is set up in the respective area.  

Define clear goals:

1. Clear and measurable goals are important for collaboration. This could include optimizing the Customer Journey, more qualified leads through Lead Scoring, shortening the sales cycle, and increasing revenue.
   ⁠Create common processes:
2. Develop uniform processes for both teams over the entire sales funnel. This includes lead generation, qualification, transfer to sales, and the final sales close.
   ⁠Promote open communication:
3. Allow for and always ensure open and regular communication between the teams to promote cooperation.
   ⁠Implement common technologies:
4. Use sensible technologies like CRM systems and marketing tools, to ensure uniform data exchange and increase efficiency.
   ⁠Implement evaluation criteria:
5. Define clear criteria for evaluating leads to ensure that both departments use the same quality standards.
   ⁠ Use analytical tools:
6. Implement measurement and analysis tools to track progress. This enables data-driven optimization of the Smarketing strategy.
   ⁠Plan feedback loops:
7. Regular feedback loops are important for marketing and sales to learn from each other. Analyzing successes and failures promotes long-term optimization of strategies.   
   ⁠Continually Adjust:
8. Be prepared to continually adjust your Smarketing strategy. The (business) world is constantly changing, and flexible adaptation is crucial to remain successful.
   ⁠Offer Further Training:
9. Ensure that all employees have the necessary skills and knowledge for successful Smarketing implementation.
   ⁠ Strengthen Team Cohesion:
10. A sense of team belonging between marketing and sales is important for long-term successful cooperation. Therefore, regularly plan team activities and workshops to break down barriers and create a positive working atmosphere.  Tools to support Smarketing:  

There are now many tools on the market that can help you successfully implement your Smarketing strategies. It is important to note that the tools regularly receive adjustments and updates, so you should keep yourself informed regularly.    

In the following, I would like to give you just a few examples. Which tools are best suited depends, among other things, on the company size, the challenges, the budget, as well as individual requirements.    

HubSpot is a CRM platform with software and support to systematically assist companies in their growth and create better customer experiences. It offers an integrated platform for marketing, sales and customer service, and enables seamless collaboration between departments, as well as comprehensive functions for managing leads, contacts and deals.    
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• Hubspot Sales Hub
  Salesforce is also a CRM solution. The cloud-based platform is intended to enable the management of leads, sorting of support requests, maintaining customer lists - no matter which industry the users come from.   
• Salesforce Sales Cloud
  Mailchimp is particularly a newsletter tool for small businesses. Besides email marketing, the platform is now present in almost all disciplines of marketing and offers products in the areas of customer analysis, social media, content creation, or CRM.   

• Mailchimp
  Semrush is a SaaS platform for online visibility and content marketing. With over 50 tools from areas such as SEO, content marketing, paid campaigns, social media, and market research, it is a powerful all-in-one solution for online marketing.  
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• Semrush
  Buffer is a social media management tool that simplifies the planning and publishing of posts across various platforms. This promotes a consistent and timely presence.   
• Buffer
  With the tracking tool, company data can be analyzed centrally, performances of marketing activities, content and own products can be measured. It supports your Smarketing through the evaluation of visitor data, conversion rates and the understanding of user behavior.   

• Google Analytics
  Hootsuite is designed to simplify planning, creation and analysis of social media campaigns on all major platforms, from Facebook to Instagram to Pinterest. For social teams, it can facilitate their work by providing a centralized inbox with all messages from the various social networks.    

• Hootsuite
  Canva is a user-friendly design tool that facilitates the creation of attractive graphics and visual content such as advertisements, visuals for social media posts, or presentations. Instead of the classic design software, the software advertises that no design knowledge is required.   

• Canva Pro
  Future Smarketing Trends - What's Next?   

There are many trends and it remains to be seen which ones will prevail. I have summarized five trends for you, which I believe will gain even more importance in the coming years.   

As in so many areas, the

integration of AI will also play an increasingly important role in Smarketing, e.g. for data analysis, the creation of personalized marketing content or the identification of qualified leads.   Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

can provide a great experience and are expected to be increasingly integrated into marketing campaigns and sales presentations in the future to create better experiences and make products or services tangible.   The topic of

Social Selling will also continue to gain importance. Marketing and sales will have to cooperate increasingly on social platforms in order to reach customers, build relationships and conclude sales directly via the platform. The customer experience is increasingly becoming the focus and is increasingly supported by

multichannel strategies, in order to send the correct message across various channels and optimize customer approach across the entire Customer Journey.  Last but not least: Companies will increasingly focus on

sustainability and ethical marketing . This plays a decisive role for Smarketing, as it allows the promotion of environmentally friendly initiatives and a positive customer approach.Conclusion

As you see, Smarketing is not just a buzzword, but a strategy that is proving itself as a game-changer in an increasing number of companies. This is particularly due to it involving a

holistic view of marketing and sales structures. Internal processes are optimized so that they run in favor of prospects and customers. Sales and marketing thus pull together and can achieve more than ever. The integration brings challenges, especially in terms of the necessary cultural change, the often unfamiliarly transparent communication between the teams, and the technological innovations. But it's worth tackling these challenges as they will decrease over time.

The time invested and resources needed for the linkage of both departments and the implementation of new tools is a

worthy investment, because it is only with a well-thought-out strategy and a strong focus on the customer that companies can still be long-term successful today.. Denn nur mit einer durchdachten Strategie und einer starken Kundenorientierung können Unternehmen heute noch langfristig erfolgreich sein.