For business and technology consulting companies, it’s a great accomplishment to partner with a world-renowned company like Microsoft. The challenge is, there are many Microsoft partners, and it can be challenging for prospective customers to differentiate the innovators from the imitators.

In the Dynamics business application space, and with online services like Office 365 and/or Azure, achieving Gold or Silver level certification is a great feather in your cap, which assures your consultants have completed thorough training, testing and have the competency to deliver.

Once a customer goes to the Microsoft Pinpoint partner site, and starts browsing for a competent consultancy to work with on their CRM, marketing or ERP implementation, they want more assurance than a competency tier. The assurance of customer success stories, blogs, and whitepapers are valuable, reusable content assets for lead capture and nurturing leads through the pipeline.

Seeing Business Value through the Cloud

Companies across North America are adopting cloud-based solutions like:

• Dynamics CRM Online
• Dynamics AX
• Click Dimensions for digital marketing
• Hosted or cloud based self-service portals

When technical installation/implementation isn’t required, and configuring the software to your customers’ business processes is a top priority, companies want to make sure your company has a good balance of tech savvy and business acumen. For on-premises deployments of Dynamics ERP or CRM, custom development and configuration to a customer’s business needs is critical.

Technical certifications aren’t necessarily the best indicator of a Microsoft Dynamics partner’s ability to tailor Dynamics for a customer’s detailed requirements. Publishing thought leadership content to your website is a great way to demonstrate your experience and expertise.

The Dynamics MCC (Microsoft Community Contributor) or CRM MVP programs are great examples of how content from experts can build your company’s authority, reputation and trust.

The Price of Success

If you have accomplished Dynamics consultants, a great sales team, and an executive team that is consistently occupied with managing a busy Microsoft practice, finding the time to write blogs, whitepapers or creating infographics is challenging.

A contract freelance writer with Dynamics experience is a great resource. Your consultant utilization might be at maximum capacity now, but a few months from now, you might have availability you didn’t expect.

Consider collecting some topics from recent client engagements which were either challenging, or your consultant hit a home run on. You might have a workaround, solution accelerator or industry vertical you have deep expertise in. Writing stories about “the hero’s tale” of recognizing a business problem, conquering it and reaping the rewards makes for a good story.

Even as it applies to software like Microsoft Dynamics.

Envision how to Ignite Your Client’s Business

You know those Microsoft conferences you attend, gather information at, and often don’t do anything with it? What if you were to include some of it in your blogs? Take some of those business cards from Dynamics ISV partners and exchange guest blog posts to help each other generate business opportunities?

A freelance writer could write your guest blog, and you can reap the benefits of fresh, insightful content. The right content pieces can paint a picture in your prospects’ mind of what it will be like to work with you.

• Extended, evergreen blogs on topics like mobility, security or industry-specific problems you can solve
• White paper content on specific use cases which you have tailored Dynamics for, like how many partners have tailored Dynamics CRM for event management, member management or charity donations management
• Multi-step serial blogs on how you progressed through a client project like a significant upgrade, complex deployment or building a product
• A Dynamics CRM infographic, packed with statistics you gathered from your own clients about their Dynamics project ROI, or even industry research about ERP or CRM
• An e-Newsletter, previewing some of the great content listed above, as well as targeted landing pages

Once you have some great inbound content developed, you can reuse many of them, updating content as required. If business slows down, and you need to generate new marketing campaigns, having a library of share-worthy content to share is a great way to fill the opportunity funnel. You shouldn’t stop creating fresh content, though, but a strong foundation of reliable thought leadership pieces is critical to digital marketing success.

If you are looking for a reliable, experienced freelance writer for your Microsoft Dynamics practice, let’s connect soon! You can follow me on Twitter, connect with me on LinkedIn, or set an appointment on my calendar with the link near the top of the page.

Please take a look through my Slideshare presentation below on thought leadership content for Microsoft Dynamics partners for additional information.