by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 22, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
By repurposing and thoughtfully packaging the content you have already published, you can assist your sales force in closing deals.
How many of your sales force’s calls turn into appointments? Probably very few. More and more of today’s buyers don’t want to speak with sales reps about products.
But, then, who will buyers speak to? A LinkedIn survey of 1,500 purchasers and influencers found that 86% of buyers will listen if sales professionals provide insights about their business. What’s more, 92% of buyers engage with a professional if that person is a known industry thought leader.
So, what if your sales force approached prospects not as a sales representative, but as a source of information, insight, and thought leadership? What if you already had the tools to help your sales staff achieve this reputation? If you are publishing original content, then you do.
Let them have content
Arm a sales rep with targeted content to share with prospects during specific moments in the purchase process, and it will advance his or her reputation as a source of knowledge. That can be the key to getting a foot in the door, advancing through the final stages of a purchasers’ decision, or closing the deal.
Here are four easy ideas for repurposing the content you have already created to assist your sales force.
1. Simply share.
Encourage sales representatives to follow your company and its content producers on social media and to share relevant articles with their networks. They can repost both your original content and curated articles as well.
2. Get visual.
Turn your evergreen content into easy-to-read infographics or another visual format. Send with the sales representatives to meetings with prospects, or encourage them to email the content to certain contacts as a lead-nurturing exercise.
3. Gather news.
In planning your content, you likely consider industry news, trends, and happenings. Keep a list of these points and supporting articles, and have the sales team distribute to their contacts on a regular basis, like a newsletter, to demonstrate knowledge of the business landscape.
4. Build case studies.
Develop several case studies from your company’s success stories. Organize them around specific pain points that your buyer personas face. Provide these to the sales team with a list of key points from each study to use as either talking points or to send as follow-up emails to prospects facing the same challenges.
These are a great starting point for bridging the gap between the marketing department and sales force with content. But don’t let it stop there.
Set up a role-playing exercise with your sales team, where you are the customer. Analyze their pitch and see how content can fill the holes. It’s likely you have built a lot of content around many of the reps’ talking points, which they can use to further inform their pitches and to use as lead-nurturing collateral.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 21, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Fronetics invites you to participate in a survey on how companies in the logistics and supply chain industries use content marketing.
If there’s one thing we can say about the ever-changing B2B marketing climate, it’s just that: it’s ever-changing. Keeping pace with shifting industry trends, innovations, and challenges can be daunting. But knowledge is power when it comes to creating a vital and robust marketing strategy.
In 2014, Fronetics decided it was time to gather hard data on how logistics and supply chain companies were using modern marketing tools like content. We conducted an industry-wide survey, gathering a valuable snapshot of the marketing landscape.
Now it’s time for another look at the data. So Fronetics invites you to participate in our 2016 surveys on content use in the logistics and supply chain industries. The survey takes about 3 minutes to complete, and no personal or company data will be reported. Additionally, you can indicate your preference to receive the completed report.
Key findings from the 2014 content use report point to companies using content primarily to build brand awareness and generate leads, with blog posts being the most popular content format. While all respondents reported using content marketing for a relatively short time, the majority had already seen a positive impact on their business.
Fronetics is curious to know, two years later, about the ongoing impact of content marketing. In addition, we’d like to find out if the industry is using content in new ways. Has content use expanded? Are blogs still the most popular format? What challenges are B2B companies facing when it comes to content creation and distribution?
The answers to these and more questions can provide vital insights as you shape your company’s marketing strategy for the future. Especially when it comes to modern marketing techniques, knowledge is power.
Take the content survey by clicking on the button below. Be sure to indicate your preference to receive the results. We look forward to your responses!
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by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 17, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
A look at the world’s top business leaders show they possess both financial savvy and personal acumen.
We measure today’s top business leaders on a variety of scales, including personal acumen and their company’s financial performance. Regardless of how a leader is gauged, one thing is clear: 21st century leaders must have strong engagement and stellar interpersonal skills on multiple fronts — from the numbers to corporate responsibility to how to best motivate employees.
The Harvard Business Review suggests the world’s best-performing CEOs share three crucial traits: long-term thinking, short-term savvy, and a relentless focus on employees. HBR’s annual data-driven annual survey of top CEOS in the world weighs companies with an 80/20 formula — 80% based on financial performance, and 20% based on ESG (environment, social, and corporate governance performance).
The top leaders, by the numbers
The tension between short- and long-term decision-making affects top leaders’ financial performance, since overall strength is not based on a single positive financial quarter, HBR reports, but rather the cumulative effect of consecutive strong quarters.
“They really are running today’s business while trying to create tomorrow’s business,” Dan McGinn, senior editor at Harvard Business Review, said in a recent podcast about how CEOs manage the challenges of focusing on long- and short-term growth of business. “They’re dealing with a very fast-changing global landscape.”
The top three business leaders in HBR’s survey — Lars Rebien Sorenson of Novo Nordisk, Martin Sorrell of WPP, and Pablo Isla of Inditex — all had different paths to the top, although 84% of CEOs are promoted from within. Only 24% of HBR’s top leaders have an MBA, signaling that the coveted business degree is not integral to becoming a top leader. Of note is that only one of the top 10 HBR leaders is from the United States — Jen-Hsun Huang of Nvidia — because of the generally lower ESG numbers for U.S.-based companies, McGinn said in the podcast. None of the top 10 are women.
The metric commonly referred to as “Corporate Responsibility,” ESG importance is rising in the United States, but is still outpaced by European companies. This is only the second year that the HBR survey included ESG, which resulted in Amazon CEP Jeff Bezos dropping from the top 10 to number 76 on HBR’s list.
According to a recent study by Callan Associates Inc., 29% of U.S.-based asset owners incorporate ESG risk factors into their investment decisions, up from 22% in 2013. This demonstrates the small but growing role of ESG.
Focus on millennials
In addition to being on top of the ever-changing socio-political world, top business leaders may have to consider a shift in their corporate culture because of the rising number of millennials in the workforce.
Forbes estimates that by 2020, millennials will comprise nearly 50% of the workforce. Successful business leaders need to know how to best motivate and manage this workforce segment who, according to HBR’s McGinn, have different sets of values and different ways of thinking about their careers. Companies today have to adapt their culture to this growing part of the workforce, he says.
Leadership traits that stand the test of time
Industrialist Andrew Carnegie, often credited with being one of the world’s most successful business leaders, met with journalist Napoleon Hill early in the 20th century to relay what would become his “31 Traits That All Business Leaders Have,” a guidepost for those looking to follow in Carnegie’s footsteps.
The personality traits, although more than 100 years old, are still relevant in today’s business world.
Hill published two books that included Carnegie’s traits: Think and Grow Rich (1937), and Think Your Way to Wealth from 1948. He posited that top traits of great leaders include:
- Having a company purpose and a plan for attaining it
- Being motivated
- Coordinating efforts with talented workers
- Being disciplined, persistent, creative and decisive
- Being diplomatic and tactful, enthusiastic and likable
- And treating others with respect
The top traits have stood the test of time and, mixed with the significance of today’s financial and corporate responsibility, create the ideal 21st century business leader.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 15, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
People don’t want to read it. It does you no good. So why are you still using your blog to talk about your business?
It seems like a natural use for your company blog. But I’m here to tell you that writing about your products, services, and business is hurting your blog more than it’s helping it.
You shouldn’t write posts to push certain products. You shouldn’t conclude every post with promotional language about your company and what it does. In fact, your business should be virtually invisible in your blog content.
That may seem counterintuitive to some. But it all goes back to basic content marketing principles: Demonstrating expertise and building trust will drive profitable customer action when the customer is ready to purchase.
Why your sales pitch is bad for business
Today’s consumers have no tolerance for overt, interruption-based marketing. You can probably think of examples from your own life to prove this point.
For example: when you’re trying to find something to watch on TV, how often do you stop on a channel to watch a commercial? Probably never, right? If you’re flipping around, it’s probably because you’re looking for content that is appealing to you, not seeking advertisements.
Or, consider this scenario: You are in the market for a new car. You’ve done extensive research on different makes and models and have narrowed your list down to a choice few. You head to the dealership to do a few test drives. Once there, you are greeted by an enthusiastic salesman. Brushing aside your questions, he launches into his pitch about his dealership’s unbeatable prices and repeatedly pushes a model that you that isn’t what you’re looking for. Turned off by his tactics, you make a quick exit.
Remember those two examples when you think about blog readers and internet browsers. They have their pick of the 27 million pieces of content shared on the internet every day. If they sense a sales pitch, they’ll ex out of your website faster than a Google search query.
What’s more, studies show that B2B buyers are about 60% of the way through the purchase decision-making process before ever engaging with a sales person. That means they are actively avoiding sales pitches in favor of their own research. If your blog is just another avenue to pitch your products and services, your content will fall on deaf ears.
Well, then, what should you write about?
DemandGen’s 2016 B2B Buyer’s Survey Report offers some interesting insight on why buyers end up choosing a particular vendor. After timeliness of vendor response (98%), 97% of respondents said that the winning vendor “demonstrated [a] stronger knowledge of the solution area and business landscape.” Not that the vendor had the most modern products. Not that they got the best deal. That the vendor understood the solution area and business landscape.
That’s what your blog should be all about.
Write about the problems your products solve (without mentioning your products). Write about the kinds of businesses you can help (without mentioning your name). Use content to demonstrate your expertise and to inform prospects about the solution area and business landscape in which your clients operate.
See, it’s not about you. It’s about them. They want a vendor who understands their pain points and how their business operates. If you and your content provide value, offer information, and demonstrate expertise, your audience will come to know you as a trusted source of knowledge.
And that’s who buyers purchase from. Vendors who understand their business. Not those that can only talk about themselves.
So, please, don’t use your blog to push your products or your business. Salesy and self-promotional language will only turn buyers off. Instead, use this platform to show your prospects that you understand their situation, and they’ll come running when it’s time to make a purchase, no sales pitch required.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Nov 14, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Manufacturing & Distribution, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain, Transportation & Trucking, Warehousing & Materials Handling
Fronetics is conducting a survey to determine the benefits and challenges of social media for companies in these industries.
Two years ago, Fronetics surveyed a number of individuals working in the logistics and supply chain industries, including those employed by manufacturing, warehousing, and transportation companies. The survey’s goal was to find out how these companies were using social media, and if they were realizing any benefits or encountering any challenges by participating.
Interestingly, 100% of respondents reported having used social media for 5 years or less. Despite this relatively short implementation period, the majority (68%) said that their companies had already realized benefits from participation — primarily increased engagement with customers, increased market intelligence, and increased business intelligence.
As things go in the technology space these days, social media looks quite different than it did two years ago. What’s more, companies in these industries have, presumably, been using these tools for longer. Have a better understanding of social platforms and more opportunities for businesses impacted the benefit to users?
Fronentics is conducting a new survey to find out. We invite individuals working in the warehousing, manufacturing, and transportation industries — or those in other supply chain and logistics fields — to participate.
The survey takes about 3 minutes to complete. Responses will be reported in aggregate, and no identifiable information (individual or company) will be shared.
We look forward to hearing about your experience with social media!
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