MARKETING DEVELOPMENT REPRESENTATIVE: KEYS FOR SUCCESS

Much like a sales development representative (SDR), an MDR spends a lot of time talking to and supporting leads directly. But, while SDRs focus on leads that they can convert right away, MDRs focus more nurture-focused role, acting as an educator and a partner.

While most MDRs sit within the sales function, they effectively bridge the gap between sales and marketing, working closely with both teams. Day-to-day, a marketing development representative has five key responsibilities:

• Connecting prospects and existing customers with the right content to either convert them into customers or extend their lifetime value
• Following up directly on content engagement and discovering why prospects engaged with content to inform future marketing efforts
• Inferring lessons from prospect interactions and using that knowledge to improve content strategy and provide valuable feedback to both sales and marketing teams
• Gathering nuanced anecdotal information about potential customers and determining if they fall into any of your typical buyer personas
• Accelerating content journeys when appropriate to keep the sales funnel moving at the right pace for each prospect

Through those sales activities, MDRs maximize the value created by marketing’s content, bringing it into a sales context and carefully nurturing prospects until they’re ready for the sales pipeline.

Never underestimate the value of a well-nurtured lead. While proper nurturing might not return the fastest results, it’s been shown that effectively nurtured qualified leads spend around 47% more than leads that have been left alone as they pass along the funnel.

It’s this combination of marketing and sales best practices that makes the MDR such an pivotal role in modern organizations. But, to fulfill their role effectively, there are a few essential capabilities that MDRs depend on.

#1) Ensure content accessibility

It’s the MDR’s job to provide marketing leads with the right content at the right time. Practically, that often means managing vast asset and resource libraries and dusting off the perfect piece at a moment’s notice.

That job becomes very difficult if their organization’s content isn’t easily searchable and discoverable. The MDR is a responsive and agile role – one that can’t afford to get caught up in long manual trawls for content that may or may not exist. To avoid this issue, teams can also consider more efficient ways of producing content, like repurposing modular content.

A highly accessible content library can hugely accelerate the MDR’s workflows and empower them to spend more time doing what they do best – nurturing and educating MQLs.

But accessibility isn’t just important for the MDR themselves. When content is more accessible to customers, that also makes their life much easier as well. Think about device compatibility and accessibility requirements. The easier it is to pick up and use, the more powerful your value proposition becomes.

There are already a lot of variables to consider when matching prospects with content. Who are they? What stage of their journey are they at? What unique challenges are they facing? If you also have to factor in accessibility decisions like which devices they’re using or if they have any specific accessibility requirements, that makes a tricky job even tougher.

When your content is accessible by design, matching becomes much easier. The more people can easily pick it up and engage with it, the more buckets it will fall into for matching – helping your content do more, and your MDRs do what they do best.

#2) Deep visibility of content engagement

When a prospect engages with a piece of content, the MDR needs to know. But knowing if someone has engaged with content isn’t enough. To determine the next best action for each individual prospect, the MDR should be able to clearly see exactly where, when, and how they’ve engaged with the content. 

Whether it was content sent via cold outreach or a follow-up piece from a direct demo request, an MDR needs to be able to answer several important content engagement questions, including:

• How long did the prospect spend engaging with the content?

• What did they look at for the longest?

• Which pages held their attention?

• What turned them off and stopped them from engaging?

This data informs the lead qualification process. It allows better next-step decisions, supports lead generation, and improves overall lead quality. It helps marketers improve their content strategy and measure key performance indicators over time.

The answers to those questions will also give the MDR a strong idea of which content to offer to the prospect next and better inform which actions MDRs should take as a next step.

These actionable insights are also an incredibly effective tool for improving the quality and precision of content over time. Tracking trends in engagement can help the marketing team understand what’s consistently working with their content, and what isn’t – empowering them to continuously improve their content and deliver more of what their audience really wants.

#3) Rapid and simple personalization

Every interaction an MDR has with a prospect can tell them a lot about what that person wants from content, and ultimately needs from your organization. But to be at their most effective, MDRs need ways of practically turning that insight into tailored actions quickly.

Matching prospects up to existing content pieces is a good start to building strong relationships. But if MDRs can easily personalize content to each prospect’s needs, they can drive far stronger results.

The ability to rapidly personalize content without compromising on its visual quality – or needing to become a graphic designer overnight – can hugely increase the efficacy of not just MDRs, but any team that distributes content.

It enables MDRs to go beyond simply being custodians of content. Instead, they become a champion for prospects, not only seeking out what they need but actively creating the perfect pieces of content when they don’t exist already.

Crucially, that doesn’t have to involve writing huge swathes of new copy either. With simple personalization capabilities and drag and drop functionality, such as those on offer with Turtl, MDRs can quickly take meaningful steps like:

• Populate content pieces with industry-specific case studies

• Cut irrelevant sections from content pieces to build rapport keep readers engaged

• Merge multiple content pieces into something entirely new

• Quickly update content as topics or messages become outdated

In the sales process, an MDR supports sales development reps by qualifying and nurturing, which shortens the sales cycle and increases efficiency. They ensure leads are actually ready for the sales rep or account executive, and that they're not just inbound leads who happened to download an ebook. This makes it much easier to get sales qualified leads into the funnel.

Their crucial role streamlines the sales process and leads to higher conversion rates and revenue for the organization. 

MDRs support lead generation and lead nurturing, making sure the role marketing plays doesn’t end at MQL handoff.

They also support data collection for in depth product knowledge and campaign optimization. They bridge the gap and align objectives, creating genuine joint interest between sales and marketing.

They are often the missing link in many B2B revenue teams.

Content best practice naturally empowers the MDR

Being an MDR isn’t just about sending content or follow-ups. With excellent communication skills, excellent understanding of your product and process, and the ability to personalize at scale, they make high quality leads count.

The result of having an MDR on board? A better-aligned team, more new customers, and a well-oiled revenue engine.

Hiring MDRs—especially those with a background or bachelor's degree in marketing—can transform your content into closed deals.

If you want to scale and improve efficiency, it might be time to hire MDRs, equip your MDR teams with automated content production tools, and empower them to turn hand raises into real revenue.

In this blog post, we've covered that with closer collaboration between sales and marketing teams in the form of an MDR, your business can go further, faster.