All content is not created equal. There is good content. There is bad content. Good content drives profitable customer action. Bad content does not drive profitable customer action.
You need good content.
What is good content? Here are 3 elements of good content:
1. Good content is original
Good content is content that is unique. It is not content that is copied and pasted. It is not regurgitated content. Not only is original content SEO friendly, original content is customer-friendly. 70% of consumers prefer to get to know a company through original articles.
2. Good content stands out
There are more than 27 million pieces of content shared each day. If you want your content to get lost, create bad content. If you want content that stands out you need content that differs from that of the rest of the pack. You can make content stand out by using winning headlines, graphics, images, infographics, and with great writing.
3. Good content attracts and engages current and prospective customers
Every single piece of content that makes it onto your website and blog needs to be content that is created with your current and prospective customers in mind.
Faced with constraints of time and volume, quality often takes a hit. In some cases the company itself creates and distributes content of poor quality. In other cases, the company chooses to outsource content creation, but does not do their due diligence with respect to the outsource partner and the quality of content that is created.
Good content is not inexpensive. That being said, good content is worth its weight in gold. This is not something I just say, this is something I know. I gave several low cost content options a try.
I began by conducting a search for companies that offered low-cost content (content that costs less than $20 per blog post). I then narrowed the field down even more by researching which of these companies had the highest rankings and customer satisfaction rates. I then selected two companies and decided to give it a go.
The results were dismal. The content was not good content.
If you want content that is good content and will drive profitable results you need to invest. You need to either invest in someone in-house, or you need to conduct your due diligence and find an outsource partner that can create good content for your company.
Interested in learning more about content? Check out these articles:
Content marketing is among the hottest topics in marketing and media. However, most companies should stop their content marketing efforts – immediately. The reason these companies should stop is because, despite the hipness of content marketing, they will not realize a positive ROI and will not grow their business through content marketing. In short, many companies are just plain wasting their time and money.
Everybody – companies and customers – has stuff. Joe Pulizzi, Founder of the Content Marketing Institute, discusses the importance of not only recognizing this reality, but also the importance of acting on it.
The majority of companies fall prey to focusing on content stuff within a vacuum. But, as Pulizzi points out: “For content marketing to work, we need to link the corporate stuff with the customer stuff through content.”
What does this mean? This means that in order for content marketing it be effective you need strategy. Strategy is what enables you to link what you know as a brand (corporate stuff) with customers’ needs (customer stuff) through content.
The importance of strategy is underscored by the results of a 2014 study. The study found that 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing. 60% of companies who have a documented content strategy in place consider their efforts to be effective as compared to 11% of companies with no documented content strategy in place. Similarly, the study found that companies who put a person in charge of content marketing were more likely to be successful than those who did not (86% vs. 46%).
If your company is employing content marketing and does not have a strategy in place, stop. Create a strategy, put someone in charge, then re-start your efforts. With a strategy in place, content marketing will drive profitable customer action.
I wrote a guest blog for freight logistics company Cerasis in October which discussed how companies within the manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, and industrial industries can increase their B2B visibility on LinkedIn.
The catalyst for writing the blog were results from a recent survey focused on the supply chain and logistics industry. 58% of respondents rated LinkedIn as “very impactful,” and 37% rated LinkedIn as “somewhat impactful.” At the same time, respondents reported challenges associated with strategy (33%) and a lack of understanding about the application of social media (24%).
Leveraging LinkedIn
There are over 3 million LinkedIn company pages. Being present on LinkedIn is critical, but is not enough. To maximize your LinkedIn presence you need to take steps to increase your B2B visibility. Here’s how:
Create a compelling company page
Your company page is an extension of your company. Make sure that the page is compelling, informative, and presents your company as a leader within the industry.
Be active
In addition to keeping your company page up-to-date, you need to be active on LinkedIn on a daily basis. LinkedIn groups are great. Actively participating in LinkedIn groups will allow your company to: 1) gain business and market intelligence; 2) introduce you to new, interesting, and relevant topics; 3) help you increase brand awareness; and 4) position your company as an industry leader.
Distribute content
If you want your content to be seen you need to get it out there; you need to distribute your content. Distribute your content and curated content via your company page and (when relevant) within the LinkedIn groups to which you belong.
Employee engagement
Your employees are your brand ambassadors. Empower your employees to be active within LinkedIn groups as representatives of your company. Encourage employees to share your content and industry content with their connections. Additionally, encourage employees to share open positions with their LinkedIn connections, and to identify great talent within their network.
Prospect for leads
LinkedIn is an effective prospecting tool. Use LinkedIn to prospect for leads and to build your sales pipeline.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a management consulting firm focused on strategy and inbound marketing. When it comes to inbound marketing we take a different approach than other firms. This is because of our business experience and background. We know ROI is important, so our approach is data driven and produces results.
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is very different from traditional, or outbound, marketing. Inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that attracts people to your company and product. By aligning the content you publish with your customer’s interests, you attract the right traffic – traffic that you can then convert, close, and delight over time. Outbound marketing, in contrast, uses methods including: buying ads, buying email lists, and cold calling.
Inbound marketing works
Research conducted by HubSpot found that inbound marketing is more effective than outbound marketing:
We understand that developing and implementing an inbound marketing strategy can seem daunting. We are here to help. We are happy to take a few minutes and look at your current strategy and give you ideas on how to start, or suggestions on what you can do to make your current strategy more successful. We are also happy to talk with you about what we can do.
If you are, like many other people, stretched for time and also struggle with strategy and execution, we can also talk to you about what Fronetics does and how we can help. We know some people prefer to do it themselves, and others prefer to outsource.
We’d love to talk with you about how you can grow your business through inbound marketing.
LinkedIn is the largest social network for professionals. There are more than 332 million users – and this number is growing rapidly. An average of 2 users joins LinkedIn every second.
There is the perception that LinkedIn is only for job seekers, and that a red flag will be raised if those who are employed update their profile. Neither is accurate.
Here are 6 reasons you need to be on LinkedIn even though you have a job:
Your personal brand matters
People are looking at your LinkedIn profile to learn more about you. And it isn’t just recruiters or potential employers looking on LinkedIn. Clients, colleagues, and even your current employer look to your LinkedIn for information on who you are, what you have done, and what you do.
Networking is often thought of as a (dreaded) job search action item. However, thinking about networking in this manner will leave you at a disadvantage. Networking is an action item necessary for your professional and personal growth.
LinkedIn is an incredible network building tool. Leverage it and “Network your face off.”
Industry groups
Being involved in relevant LinkedIn groups will help you grow your network. It will also help you stay up-to-date on what is happening within your industry, and give you the opportunity to get involved in the conversation.
News
Company and individuals are posting content, and having conversations on LinkedIn every day. These conversations and the content posted are chock full of relevant news.
Be a brand ambassador
Is your company hiring? Share the posting with your connections. Also, take the time to look through your connections; is there anyone who might be a good fit for the position? If so, reach out to them. Bonus: your company may compensate you for referring a candidate if they are hired.
Opportunities
You may not be looking for a new position, but what if the perfect position fell into your lap? If you are active on LinkedIn and have optimized your profile, you may find that people begin reaching out to you and present you with opportunities.
Have a job? Be active on LinkedIn. Not being active is more likely to raise a red flag.
Pipe fitters, mechanical engineering technicians, welders, machinists, electronic assemblers, and operators of computer-numeric-controlled machines are the workers that are most needed. The problem is workers with these skills tend to be older and are at, or nearing retirement. According to Ben Dollar of Deloitte: “As workers retire, it’s becoming harder to find people with these traditional skills.” The Boston Consulting Group predicts that the number of job openings requiring these traditional skills will increase to 875,000 by 2020.
Companies with positions related to IT, software development, software engineering, and computer science are also struggling to fill positions (and get current employees up to speed). In an effort to help train the next generation of manufacturing talent, Siemens USA has donated more than $3 billion worth of manufacturing software to colleges over the past 18 months.
Eric Spiegel, Seimens USA CEO:
The digital world is coming very fast. There will be jobs. People may not count these jobs in IT and software development as manufacturing jobs, but they really are related to manufacturing.”
Seimens plans to fill 7,000 more people for these positions by 2020.
What positions is your manufacturing company struggling to fill?
