In many B2B companies, content has become a tote word. Whether it is a SEO blog article, a product demonstration or a sales argument, everything is aggregated under the “Content Marketing” label. Result: strategic confusion, operational ineffectiveness, and dilution of key messages.
It is time to restore an essential distinction between two approaches to fundamentally different purposes, audiences and temporalities: Content Marketing and the dirty enablely.
Two separate purposes, two complementary strategies
Content Marketing aims to attract, inform, qualify. It is aimed at a large audience, often anonymous, upstream of the sales cycle. It responds to a logic of “sweater”: create value to generate attention, traffic, then leads.
The Sales Enablelyhe tools out the salespeople to speed up conversion. He intervenes once the lead is identified, in a “push” logic. He does not try to introduce a brand, but to take the decision.
Confunding amounts to using a television spot to conclude a meeting in a meeting room: the format is unsuitable, the message is poorly calibrated, and the impact collapses.
Comparison table: Content Marketing vs Sales Enablely
| Criteria | Happy marketing | Dirty enablely |
|---|---|---|
| Objective | Attract, educate, qualify | Convince, reassure, conclude |
| Audience | Large, unknown, top/midfunnel | Identified, qualified, in purchase cycle |
| Channel | Blog, SEO, social networks, newsletter | CRM, Sales Call, Personalized Email |
| Typical contents | Background items, webinars, guides, podcasts | “VS” pages, comparisons, customer cases, objections, security & compliance sheets |
| Kpis | Traffic, leads, commitment | Win Rate, closing rate, sales cycle |
| Production | Marketing managed | Co-constructed with the sales team |
What you lose to mix everything
- Poorly allocated resources
Content teams produce content designed for SEO … that salespeople try to reuse at the end of the cycle. Result: ineffectiveness of content and frustration on both sides.
- An incoherent prospect experience
A lead reads a generalist article at the top of the funnel, then receives a commercial email which pushes it to a demo without any transition. The gap of tone and content slows down the commitment.
- A reduced commercial impact
In the absence of suitable content, salespeople improve or recycle generic supports. The message loses in precision, the perceived value decreases, the closing moves away.
Concrete case: Plezi, Lelsy, Yousign
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Plezi Clearly segmen its content according to their use. Its marketing guides capture top-funnel intentions, while its automated campaign models are mobilized in the Nurturing and commercial prequalification phase.
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Selsy Structure its production of content around the customer life cycle: attract (SEO, white pods), convert (targeted demonstrations, use cases), retain (knowledge base, customer webinars).
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Yousign Invested in trust resources around the electronic signature (EIDAS compliance, GDPR) to reassure decision -makers at the end of the cycle. These contents are not designed to attract traffic, but to secure the purchasing decision.
How to structure your content intelligently
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- Create two separate roadmaps
A content marketing roadmap for the top and middle of the funnel, a Sales Enable Roadmap in collaboration with the sales teams.
- Create two separate roadmaps
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- Align content on the sales cycle
For each step (contact, objection, negotiation, closing), identify the friction points and create the corresponding content.
- Align content on the sales cycle
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- Train the sales teams in the use of content
Good sales assistance content is useless if it is not used. Integrate content directly into the CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce) via playbooks or contextual libraries.
- Train the sales teams in the use of content
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- Measure with the right indicators
Content marketing is not measured on the same scale as the Sales Enablely. Avoid judging a compliance sheet on your traffic. Evaluate it on its use rate and impact in closing cycles.
- Measure with the right indicators
The “hybrid” content trap
Some content can play an intermediate role: case studies, customer testimonies, video demonstrations. But their effectiveness will depend on their precise targeting and their distribution. A customer testimony positioned on a SEO page will not have the same effect as included in a commercial recovery email.
Clarify to better convert
Put all the content in the same bucket creates blur. However, content is a formidable weapon … provided that it is used with precision.
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- Content marketing attracts.
- Sales Enablely converts.
Confusing both is risking neither doing nor the other correctly.
It is not a question of volume, but of purpose. In a B2B cycle, each content must have a clear mission. Without this distinction, you produce words. With it, you produce performance.
