by Elizabeth Hines | Dec 5, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Companies in the supply chain and logistics industries should take note of these 4 trends that are gaining traction as we move into 2018.
Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute recently revealed his predictions for the biggest trends in content marketing for 2018. As the founder of CMI, Pulizzi dedicates his time discussing how content marketing has evolved with leading marketers from around the world and keeps his finger on the pulse of content marketing trends.
Most of the predications we discussed for 2017 are still holding true as we roll into another calendar year. Supply chain and logistics companies are still working overtime to nail down a true content marketing strategy. Native advertising is still the “gateway drug” to content marketing. And the growing dependence on mobile devices has continued to skyrocket.
What does this mean for 2018?
The key trends from 2017 continue to highlight the importance of good content. With over one million new-data-producing social media users each day, high-quality content is the only way to stand out from the masses. As you start to strategize for next year, and beyond, be sure to consider these trends in your supply chain marketing plans.
4 content marketing trends for 2018
1. Original content is king
A recent report claims that Apple is planning to invest over $1 billion on original content. Why the hefty price tag? As competition in the mobile space continues to heat up, brands need to do more to stay relevant. Valuable, original content can help companies like Apple grow its audience and keep its current customers coming back for more.
What does this mean for you? Pulizzi believes that this trend will offer companies multiple options to monetize their content. Either through direct sales to customers or advertising and sponsorship opportunities, supply chain and logistics companies will be able to cash in on their original content.
Make sure to keep a close eye on your competitor’s content. More and more companies will see the value in original content and look to build loyalty and support from their growing audience.
2. Creating vs. purchasing
For those supply chain and logistics companies that don’t have the time or resources to invest in creating original content, acquisitions will offer a pricey solution. 2018 will see a spike in content marketing brand acquisitions, giving companies full-service content options. Back in August, Netflix acquired Millarworld, a comic book publisher, hoping to gain traction with cutting-edge content in a host of different mediums.
While 62% of companies outsource their content marketing, the rise in acquisitions highlights the value of content creation and distribution. The decision to create content vs. buy will depend on the size of your wallet.
3. Content marketing budgets on the rise
According to Marketingmag.com, content marketing will become a $300 billion industry by 2019. That’s a lot of money being spent on content creation and distribution, which can only mean one thing: content marketing budgets are increasing. 39% of marketers expect their content marketing budgets to increase this year.
More brands are seeing the effectiveness of content marketing over traditional advertising. Moving away from traditional advertising and optimizing your content marketing strategy will make your marketing budget dollars stretch further and work harder in getting your content in front of the right people.
4. Content marketing overlap
Many of us are familiar with Marcus Sheridan’s story about the success of his pool company and starting the Sales Lion. Desperate to save his company, Sheridan threw himself into content marketing and created the most-visited swimming pool website in the world. Sheridan’s biggest take away? Marketing is a team sport. “Want content marketing to work? Involve everybody on your teams,” writes Sheridan.
Content marketing doesn’t work in a silo and without leadership. For content marketing to be most effective, leaders need to give clear ownership to someone over your content marketing strategy. From there, everyone needs to get on board, creating a culture of content. Your sales teams should integrate your content marketing into their sales processes. Your PR team should meet regularly with your social media experts.
“To say you have a culture of content is to say that everyone who works for your company understands the value of the information you provide and participates in making that information useful,” writes Marcia Reifer Johnston.
Overlap is bound to happen in your content marketing endeavors. The key is to have clear leadership over your strategy and regularly communicate your goals and initiatives, so your entire team can be engaged in your efforts.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Dec 4, 2017 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
Making the shift from doing to leading can be challenging for any supervisor, but great leaders need to master the skill of delegating.
Delegating is a true skill set. Some leaders find it very difficult to let go of the control over daily tasks. They spend their time focusing on mundane details, instead of passing the work to their qualified team members.
To be an efficient leader, you must develop the skill of moving tasks off you plate. Delegating is a great way of encouraging your team members and creating new opportunities for their professional growth and development.
“True organizational productivity requires engaged, informed personnel willing and eager to work toward the organization’s mission and vision. And it all starts with a simple concept that’s amazingly hard for some people to implement: letting go of control,” writes Laura Stack for Vistage.com.
And though letting go of control can be very difficult, the increasing pressure of having all the responsibilities fall on you can have major impacts on the quality of your work. If delegating doesn’t come naturally to you, practice! In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Director in PwC’s Leadership Coaching Center of Excellence Jesse Sostrin suggests three practical tips for easing into the art of delegating.
3 tips to master the skill of delegating
Choose the right people
If you want to save time and focus on leading your staff, you need to have a strong team behind you. A large part of feeling comfortable delegating is having trust in the people that support your efforts. Knowing you have smart, capable team members allows leaders to be confident in the work that’s taking place. To get the most out of delegating, set up a reporting structure and make it known that you’re available for help. Then step back and give your team the space to do their jobs.
Inspire their commitments
Fully committed team members understand how their work is contributing to the big picture. “Once you’ve defined the work, clarified the scope of their contribution, and ensured that it aligns with their capacity, carefully communicate any and all additional expectations for complete understanding. This is crucial when you have a precise outcome or methodology in mind,” writes Sostrin. Make your expectations challenging, yet achievable. And always keep your door open. Open lines of communication are key in ensuring your team understands your expectations and is committed to the work.
Stay engaged, but not involved
Being too involved can lead to micromanaging. Being too hands-off can lead to missed opportunities to offer support and help. Finding the balance between the two is crucial in being an efficient delegator. You need to find the spot where you can offer support but give your team the space they need to feel confident in their own abilities. Not sure where that sweet spot is? Ask! Some employees will appreciate a little more guidance, where others will want to figure it out on their own. As you practice delegating, you’ll get to know your team better and learn the best ways to support them. And never shy away from sharing praising when a task is done correctly.
Delegating is a must for saving time and money in any office. However, delegating is much more than just assigning tasks. When done correctly, it creates opportunity and empowerment for your staff, as well as yourself. It will take a bit of practice, but it’s never too late to start mastering new skills.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 29, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Marketing, Social Media
Also in social media news November 2017: Snapchat opens conversation tracking “Snap Pixels,” Facebook links Messenger to your News Feed Ads, and Instagram Stories hits 300 million daily active users.
The holidays have everyone thinking about shopping and meal planning, but social media is staying focused on expanding and improving. There’s been a big push by the most popular sites to introduce users to new content. And businesses are seeing increased options for getting in front of potential customers.
Here’s your social media news for November 2017.
Facebook Rolls Out Its Self-Discovery “Explore Feed”
Facebook has officially rolled out its new Explore Feed, which will help users discover more content across the social media network. Explore will recommend content that it thinks you might find interesting, including posts, articles, photos and videos from users and Pages that you don’t currently follow.
“We’ve heard from people that they want an easy way to explore relevant content from Pages they haven’t connected with yet,” says Facebook in a statement on their website. Businesses should be optimistic about the potential for users interested in content like theirs to find their pages through the new Explore Feed.
On mobile, the Explore Feed is accessible via the “More” menu in the bottom navigation section, while it’s housed along the left sidebar within the “Explore” section on desktop.
Instagram Stories Expands to Your Camera Roll
Instagram Stories now allows users to upload any photos and videos from their cameras. In the past, Instagram limited Stories to photos and videos taken in real time to give viewers “glimpses” into a user’s day. The social media network felt this update offers more flexibility and creative choices to its users.
Twitter Launches Self-Serve Advertising
Twitter has officially rolled out its self-serve advertising subscription to the public. Twitter’s Promote Mode will automatically amplify a business’s tweets to reach the best audience and grow followers. Promote Mode was designed with the goal of letting small businesses and personal brands more easily run ad campaigns on Twitter’s platform by automating them, for the price of $99 per month.
Facebook Messenger Makes Sponsored Messages Available to Businesses
Facebook announced that in the next few months advertisers will be able to send promotions to customers who have previously communicated with the brand directly through Messenger. “When it comes to communicating with a brand, 54.4% of U.S. social media users said they preferred messaging channels, including Messenger, over email, phone and online chat,” writes Facebook on its website. Facebook’s goal is to create a more personalized experience for customers by having promotions come through Messenger, instead of on a generic post.
Facebook Rolls Out News Feed Ads that Link to Messenger
With Facebook’s new messaging platform, businesses and developers can take the customer experience to a new level by creating news feed ads that directly open to Messenger conversations. According to Facebook, this new ad format “combines the powerful audience targeting and selection capabilities of ads on News Feed” with “the identity and canonical nature of Messenger conversations” and is available to all Facebook advertisers.
Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status Hit 300 Million Daily Active Users
Up over 50 million daily active users since June, Facebook reports that Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status have reached 300 million daily active users. These numbers are almost double SnapChat’s daily active users, once again showing the increasing popularity of Facebook and its counterparts.
Facebook Rolls Out Facebook Polls with Photos
Always wanted to know what people think about your brand and your competitors? Now creating polls to get the answers is easier than ever. Facebook officially launched Facebook Polls with the option to add pictures or GIFs. Businesses will be able to track polls about their products or services, as well as the feedback. “Facebook Polls will provide an easy way to spur conversation, gather opinions or organize plans.”
SnapChat Opens Conversation Tracking “Snap Pixel” to Marketers
SnapChat recently introduced Snap Pixel, a conversation tracking tool that allows brands to measure the effectiveness of video snap ads on their site traffic. Marketing Land reports that the new Snap Pixel will soon be available to all advertisers as a measurement tool and for retargeting purposes by the end of the year.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 28, 2017 | Blog, Manufacturing & Distribution, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Manufacturers who are active and engaged on Facebook are more likely to introduce product innovation than those who are not.
If you’re killing time during business hours on Facebook, you may actually be onto something valuable. Well, no, — scrolling through your sister-in-law’s vacation album is unlikely to help your business. But recent studies show that staying attuned to user feedback on Facebook may actually help manufacturers create better products.
The practice in question, social listening, is the process of monitoring social media to identify and assess what users are saying about a company, individual, brand, product, or service. We’ve written about how social listening can help your business — you can gain market intelligence and learn how your company, products, and services are being perceived.
But two researchers from the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) have taken things a step farther. They studied data from nearly 3,000 German manufacturing and service firms to analyze the role that Facebook plays in the innovation process. What they found was that the probability that a company introduced a product innovation was significantly determined by firms’ adoption of a Facebook page and by the activity by users, measured by both quantity and quality.
The researchers, Irene Bertschek and Reinhold Kesler, discuss their findings in detail in this article published in the Harvard Business Review. So you can skip to the bottom line, we’ve pulled out a few key takeaways for manufacturers:
Negative comments are your friend…
…if you take them seriously.
While you might cringe when you seed a negative customer comment on Facebook, what the researchers found was encouraging: “Surprisingly, only the share of negative user comments was significantly predictive of innovation, perhaps suggesting that customers were helping to steer companies away from bad ideas.”
To make this work for you, it’s important that you pay attention to negative reviews, actively engage with them, and pass along relevant information to the people within your company who can address the issues. For more ideas, check out this post for tips on dealing with negative customer comments.
Simply being on social media isn’t enough — you need to be actively and intelligently engaging.
The study found that companies who were “using keywords in their posts that encourage users to leave feedback were significantly more likely to release a new or improved product.”
In other words, to gain the kind of valuable feedback that allows your products and services to improve, you need to be intelligent about soliciting it. “When developing social media strategies,” suggest Bertschek and Kesler, “companies should not only focus on marketing aspects, but also consider the potential for the firm’s innovation success.”
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by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 27, 2017 | Blog, Current Events, Marketing
It’s time for retailers to cut their dependence on holiday season shopping, and take advantage of opportunities to generate demand over a more sustained period of time.
When was the last time you stood in a pre-dawn line at a Black Friday doorbuster sale? If it was within the past years, you’re actually part of a dwindling minority of shoppers. Increasingly, customers are in shopping mode all the time, and deals that are restricted to a limited timeframe or buying mode are only a source of frustration.
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, brand-building expert Denise Lee Yohn makes the argument that retailers are over-dependent on the holiday shopping season, as the retail landscape has shifted seismically in the past decade. “It no longer makes sense to rely on disproportionate revenue from the holiday season to make up for the softness in sales during the rest of the year,” she argues.
Accommodate the way people shop today
So what does this mean for marketers? Yohn suggests that it’s time for brands to rethink how they promote themselves during the holidays and beyond, with marketing dollars better spent accommodating the ways people shop now.
“Customers don’t want retailers to dictate their shopping schedule,” says Yohn. Shoppers at every price point are becoming more accustomed to buying whenever the interest strikes them. They often shop from their mobile devices or in the stores during post-season sales, rather than at times traditionally associated with peak retail activity.
In their book Absolute Value, Itamar Simonsen and Emanuel Rosen posit the idea that people are now engaging in what they call “couch tracking,” or “keeping track of what they learn about products from reviews, friends, and news items on an ongoing basis.” This means that customers are likely to have well-formed preferences long before they have a specific plan to purchase. “Therefore,” concludes Yohn, “it doesn’t make sense for retailers to try to influence product or brand decisions only during discrete windows of time.”
In case you need further convincing, Yohn also points out that a disproportionate emphasis on the holiday season isn’t to a retailer’s best advantage even from a logistic perspective. “The large fluctuations in demand wreak havoc on supply chain, labor management, and accounting.”
It’s time for retailers to cut their dependence on holiday season shopping, and take advantage of opportunities to generate demand over a more sustained period of time. Millennials and other shoppers are increasingly choosing to spend discretionary dollars on experiences like recreation, travel, and eating out, rather than on products like clothing and shoes. To keep pace, Yohn suggests that “a year-round approach would likely help retailers compete with restaurants and other experiences which people seek out throughout the year.”
How to better distribute your marketing dollars
Here are three key takeaways for retailers looking to put marketing dollars to better use:
1) Encourage year-round “self-gifting”
Millennials are nearly as likely to buy something for themselves as someone else during the holiday season. Encouraging this tendency year-round could lead to more consistent purchasing rather than waiting for a holiday occasion.
2) Delay holiday-specific messaging
This one may seem counter-intuitive, but not having a holiday-specific message during fall months will actually help you capture wider demand. You also buck the trend of creating deal-fatigue, as shoppers quickly get weary of holiday promotions that start in October.
3) Make technology your friend
Says Yohn, “The technology and analytics now exist for retailers to better predict what people want and when they want it, so they should use these capabilities to move away from the traditional seasonal approach.”
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