by Elizabeth Hines | Aug 12, 2026 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2016 and has been updated for 2026 with new research on how B2B buyers use social media, peer reviews, and AI to research vendors.
When we first wrote this post, the big news was that B2B buyers had started using social media to research vendors. That’s no longer news. Today’s buyers move between LinkedIn, YouTube, peer reviews, industry communities, and AI tools like ChatGPT before they ever talk to a salesperson. And by the time they do reach out, most have already decided who they like.
Here, we walk you through what the latest research says about how B2B buyers research vendors, which channels matter most, and what supply chain, logistics, and manufacturing companies should do about it.
Quick answer: do B2B buyers use social media to research vendors?
Yes. Social media is one of several channels B2B buyers use to research vendors, alongside peer reviews, word of mouth, and increasingly AI tools. LinkedIn’s research found that nearly two-thirds of B2B buyers say social video helps shape their buying decisions. Buyers also do most of their research on their own, so your social presence is often how they first judge whether you’re credible.
Buyers do most of their research before they talk to you
The biggest shift in B2B buying is how much happens without you. In the 6sense 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report, which surveyed nearly 4,000 buyers:
- Buyers made first contact with sellers about 61% of the way through their buying journey.
- Buyers, not sellers, initiated 79% of engagements.
- 94% of buyers had already ranked their shortlist by preference before engaging sellers.
- The vendor that won the selection phase went on to win the deal 77% of the time.
In other words, buyers are forming opinions about your company long before your sales team gets a chance to make its case. Social media, your website, reviews, and AI answers are doing that selling for you, whether you’re managing them or not.
How B2B buyers use social media today
LinkedIn is still the center of B2B social
For supply chain companies, LinkedIn is where buyers, partners, and future employees are most likely to see you. Buyers use it to check out your company page, see what your leaders are posting, find out who they know at your company, and get a feel for your expertise. A quiet or outdated LinkedIn presence sends a signal, and it’s not a good one.
Video is shaping buying decisions
Video has become one of the most influential formats in B2B. According to the LinkedIn B2B Institute, nearly two-thirds of B2B buyers say social video helps shape their buying decisions. The same research found that vendors known across the whole buying group from the start are 20 times more likely to be bought than those known only through an expert recommendation.
For supply chain companies, video is a natural fit: facility tours, equipment demos, customer stories, and short explainers from your own experts all help buyers see what working with you would actually be like.
Peers and reviews still carry weight
B2B buyers trust other buyers. TrustRadius’s 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect report found that most buyers consult customer reviews during their purchase journey and more than half speak with a peer along the way. Industry groups, LinkedIn conversations, and word of mouth from people buyers already trust remain some of the strongest influences on a shortlist.
AI is now part of the research process, too
The newest research channel is AI. Forrester reports that 94% of business buyers now use AI in their buying process. And in G2’s 2026 research, 51% of B2B software buyers said they start their research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google, up from 29% a year earlier.
That matters for social media, too. AI tools pull from what’s published about you across the web, including your LinkedIn presence, reviews, and mentions in industry publications. A consistent, active presence makes it easier for AI tools to understand and recommend your company. Here’s more on how logistics companies get recommended by ChatGPT and AI search.
What buyers expect when they find you
Whether a buyer finds you on LinkedIn, through a peer, or in an AI answer, they’re looking for the same things:
- Proof you understand their world. Content that speaks to their specific industry, challenges, and terminology.
- Real expertise. Insight from people at your company, not just promotional posts.
- Evidence. Case studies, customer stories, and specifics that back up your claims.
- Consistency. The same story on your website, LinkedIn, review sites, and sales conversations.
- A fast response. When they finally reach out, they expect to hear back quickly. Here’s why lead response time matters so much.
How supply chain companies can show up where buyers research
- Keep your LinkedIn company page current. Update your description, services, locations, and featured content so it matches your website. For logistics-specific guidance, see how to use social media in transportation and logistics.
- Get your experts posting. Posts from real people at your company often reach more buyers than company page posts. Your team members can be some of your best brand ambassadors.
- Invest in short video. Facility walkthroughs, project highlights, and quick tips from your team give buyers a reason to stop scrolling.
- Ask happy customers for reviews and referrals. Make it easy for satisfied customers to vouch for you on Google, LinkedIn, and industry directories.
- Show up in industry conversations. Comment on trade publication posts, participate in association groups, and share takeaways from trade shows.
- Connect social to your pipeline. Track how social and AI referrals turn into website visits, leads, and opportunities in your CRM.
Questions we’ve gotten about B2B buyers and social media
Q: Which social media platform is best for B2B supply chain companies?
A: For most supply chain, logistics, and manufacturing companies, LinkedIn is the top priority because that’s where buyers, partners, and candidates spend time professionally. YouTube is a strong second for video content like facility tours and demos.
Q: Do B2B buyers really make decisions based on social media?
A: Social media rarely closes a deal on its own, but it shapes which vendors make the shortlist. Since buyers do most of their research before contacting sellers, your social presence often forms their first impression of your company.
Q: Should our employees post on LinkedIn or just the company page?
A: Both. The company page is your official presence, but posts from real people, especially leaders and subject matter experts, tend to earn more engagement and trust.
Q: How does social media affect AI search?
A: AI tools draw on information published across the web, including professional profiles, reviews, and industry mentions. A consistent, active presence helps AI tools understand what your company does and makes it more likely you’ll be recommended.
Want to reach more buyers where they research?
Fronetics works exclusively with supply chain, logistics, and manufacturing companies, and we help clients build a presence on LinkedIn, in search, and in AI answers that turns researchers into buyers. Get in touch to talk about where your buyers are finding you.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | May 19, 2026 | Blog, Content Marketing, Manufacturing & Distribution, Marketing
An application engineer has a problem to solve by Friday. She needs a component that holds tolerance at high temperature, ships in under eight weeks, and won’t trigger a requalification. She is not going to call your sales team to find out if you have it. She’s going to search, open three datasheets, download a CAD model, and maybe ask ChatGPT for a shortlist. If your company isn’t part of that research, you’re not part of the decision. That’s the first rule of marketing to engineers.
Engineers are some of the most thorough, skeptical, and self-directed buyers in B2B, and they reward suppliers who make their jobs easier. Here’s what they need from you, and how manufacturers can deliver it.
Key takeaways
- Engineers do most of their supplier research online, before sales is involved.
- Specs, data, and application proof beat polished brand claims every time.
- Brand familiarity still matters: engineers lean toward suppliers they recognize.
- Your website, technical content, and AI search visibility now do the work a sales rep used to do.
What is marketing to engineers?
Marketing to engineers is the practice of reaching design, application, and manufacturing engineers with the technical information they need to evaluate, specify, and recommend a product or supplier. It’s less about persuasion and more about removing friction: making specs easy to find, proving performance, and showing up wherever engineers research.
It’s a core piece of any B2B manufacturing marketing program, because in most industrial purchases the engineer is the person who puts your part on the drawing, or takes it off.
How do engineers research suppliers today?
Engineers spend 62% of the buying journey researching online, according to the 2026 State of Marketing to Engineers study from TREW Marketing and GlobalSpec. That same research found technical publications and vendor websites are still their top sources of product information.
The broader B2B picture points the same direction. A Gartner survey of 646 B2B buyers, published in March 2026, found 67% prefer a rep-free buying experience, and 45% used AI during a recent purchase.
In practice, an engineer’s research usually looks like this:
- Define the requirement (performance, material, size, compliance, lead time).
- Search Google, distributor sites, industry directories, or an AI tool for candidate suppliers.
- Compare datasheets, specs, and certifications side by side.
- Download CAD models, application notes, or test data.
- Reach out only once a supplier looks like a real fit.
By the time an engineer fills out your contact form, they’ve often narrowed the field to two or three options. Your marketing decides whether you’re one of them.
What do engineers want from supplier marketing?
Specs they can find in seconds
Hiding datasheets behind a form or a “contact us for details” button is one of the fastest ways to lose an engineer. Put key specifications on the product page in plain HTML text, not just inside a PDF. It helps engineers, and it helps search engines and AI tools understand what you make.
Proof, not adjectives
“High quality” and “industry leading” mean nothing to an engineer. Test results, tolerances, failure rates, certifications (ISO 9001, AS9100, IATF 16949), and application stories mean a lot. If you can’t prove a claim with a number or a standard, cut it.
Application context
Engineers want to know how your product performed in a situation like theirs. Short application notes and case studies that explain the problem, the constraint, and the result are some of the most useful content a manufacturer can publish.
Tools that save time
CAD downloads, configurators, cross-reference charts, selection guides, and calculators all earn repeat visits. They also signal that you understand how engineers actually work.
Direct access to expertise
When an engineer is ready to talk, they want to talk to someone technical. Make it clear how to reach an application engineer, and route technical questions to people who can answer them.
Why does brand still matter to engineers?
Engineers like to think they choose purely on specs, but familiarity plays a real role. In the TREW and GlobalSpec research, 53% of technical buyers said brand familiarity influenced their most recent purchase, and 70% said they were more likely to choose the better-known brand when evaluating technically similar solutions.
That’s the case for consistent visibility: publishing technical content, showing up in trade publications, being present at the right trade shows, and staying in front of engineers between projects. When two parts look equal on paper, the supplier they’ve heard of usually wins.
How is AI search changing how engineers find suppliers?
More engineers now start with questions like “Which manufacturers make PTFE seals rated for cryogenic service?” in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews. They don’t fully trust the answers yet (the same research put trust in AI answers at 4.7 out of 10), but they use them to build a starting list.
To show up in those answers, manufacturers need:
- Product and capability pages that state clearly what you make, for which applications, and to what specifications.
- FAQ-style content that answers the exact questions engineers ask.
- Consistent company and product information across your site, distributor listings, and directories.
- Mentions in trade publications and industry sites that AI tools treat as credible.
Our SEO and AI optimization work focuses on exactly these signals.
Marketing to engineers: what works and what doesn’t
| What works |
What doesn’t |
| Ungated datasheets and specs in HTML |
Specs locked behind a form |
| Test data, standards, and certifications |
Vague claims like “best in class” |
| Application notes and case studies |
Generic brochures |
| CAD downloads and selection tools |
“Call for details” |
| Access to an application engineer |
Routing every question to sales |
| Steady presence in trade media and search |
One big push per year |
Where should manufacturers start?
If your team is small, start where engineers spend the most time: your website. Audit your top product pages and ask three questions. Can an engineer find the key specs without downloading anything? Is there proof behind every claim? Is it obvious how to get a technical answer?
From there, build a steady stream of technical content, starting with the questions your sales and application engineers answer most often. Then connect that content to a broader manufacturing lead generation program so that research turns into real conversations.
Make it easy to choose you
Engineers don’t want to be sold to. They want to be informed, quickly and accurately. Manufacturers that make specs easy to find, back up every claim, and stay visible where engineers research will earn more spots on more shortlists.
If you’d like help building a program that reaches the engineers who specify what you make, see how we work with manufacturers.
FAQ
What is the best way to market to engineers?
Give engineers the technical information they need without friction: ungated specs, test data, certifications, application notes, and CAD files. Then stay visible in search, AI tools, and trade publications so they recognize your name when it’s time to choose.
Should manufacturers gate datasheets?
In most cases, no. Engineers expect datasheets to be freely available, and gating them often sends engineers to a competitor. Gate deeper resources like design guides or calculators instead, if you gate anything.
Do engineers trust AI search results?
Not fully yet. The 2026 State of Marketing to Engineers research rated technical buyers’ trust in generative AI answers at 4.7 out of 10. Engineers use AI tools to build a starting list, then verify with datasheets and vendor websites.
How long does it take to see results from marketing to engineers?
Most manufacturers see early gains in search visibility and engagement within three to six months. Pipeline impact usually follows over six to twelve months, depending on sales cycle length.
Related reading
by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 3, 2026 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
In account-based marketing, a sales rep is rarely selling to one person. They’re working a short list of high-value companies, each with a buying committee that includes operations, procurement, finance, and IT. The ABM sales cycle is long, and every stage stalls for a different reason. The right content, handed to the right person at the right moment, is what keeps a target account moving.
Below, we break the ABM sales cycle into seven stages and show the content that helps sales at each one. It’s the same framework we use when we build account-based marketing for supply chain companies, whether that’s a 3PL going after enterprise shippers or a manufacturer selling into national distributors.
What is the ABM sales cycle?
The ABM sales cycle is the path a target account takes from first awareness of your company to signed contract and, ideally, a larger relationship over time. Unlike a traditional funnel, which starts with a pool of leads and filters them down, an account-based sales cycle starts with a named list of companies. Marketing and sales then work together to reach every decision-maker inside those accounts.
That difference matters for content. In a lead-gen funnel, one ebook might serve thousands of prospects. In ABM, content has to speak to a specific industry, a specific account’s situation, and a specific role on the buying committee.
Why buying committees make content more important
B2B buying groups keep getting bigger. Forrester’s State of Business Buying, 2026 found that, on average, 13 internal stakeholders and nine external participants influence a purchase decision. The same research found procurement serves as a decision-maker 53% of the time, and more than 60% of buyers purchase some kind of trial before committing.
Your sales rep will never meet all 22 of those people. Content is how your message reaches the ones they don’t meet, and how your champion makes the case for you when you aren’t in the room.
Content for each of the 7 stages of the ABM sales cycle
1. Get on the account’s radar
Before anyone at a target account takes a call, they should have seen your name. Targeted LinkedIn ads aimed at the account list, industry point-of-view articles, and original benchmark data build familiarity with the people you’ll eventually ask for a meeting. The goal here isn’t a conversion. It’s recognition.
2. Land the first conversation
Generic outreach gets ignored. A short, account-specific one-pager that shows you understand the company’s network, volumes, or growth plans gives your rep a reason to reach out. Pair it with one case study from a similar company and the first email reads like it was written for them, because it was.
3. Get past “not now”
Most first responses are some version of “we’re fine with our current provider.” Problem-focused content helps your champion see the cost of staying put: a cost-of-inaction analysis, a guide to a challenge their peers are facing, or a two-minute explainer video they can forward internally.
4. Reach the whole buying committee
This is where account-based content earns its keep. Each role has different questions, so give each one its own answer:
| Role |
What they want to know |
Content that helps |
| Operations |
Will this disrupt my team or my customers? |
Implementation plan, onboarding timeline |
| Procurement |
Is the pricing fair and the contract sound? |
Pricing structure overview, compliance and insurance summary |
| Finance |
What’s the return, and when? |
ROI model, total cost comparison |
| IT |
Will it integrate and is our data safe? |
Integration and security documentation |
| Executive sponsor |
Does this support our strategy? |
One-page executive summary |
5. Reduce the perceived risk
Switching providers is risky, and buyers know it. Case studies from peer companies, a structured pilot plan, and a sample KPI and SLA scorecard show exactly how you’ll prove performance. Specifics beat promises: on-time percentages, order accuracy, dock-to-stock times, whatever the account will actually measure you on.
6. Help them make the decision
Your champion has to sell you internally. Make it easy with a business case template they can fill in, an ROI model built on their numbers, and a mutual action plan that lays out next steps and dates for both sides.
7. Grow and expand the account
In ABM, the signed contract is the start of the account, not the end of the cycle. An onboarding guide, quarterly business review reports, and a joint customer story keep the relationship strong and open doors to new sites, services, and contacts. Happy customers also become your best references for the next target account.
How do sales and marketing share ABM content?
None of this works if the content sits in a shared drive nobody opens. A few habits keep it in use:
- Build the account list together. Sales knows which accounts matter. Marketing knows which ones are already engaging.
- Map content to stage and role. A simple grid of the seven stages against the buying committee shows where you have gaps.
- Give reps a short playbook. For each stage, list the one or two assets to send and a sample message to go with them.
- Track engagement by account. Watch which people at each company open, click, and visit, and pass that to sales quickly.
- Feed insights back. Objections reps hear on calls are your next pieces of content marketing.
Turning your target list into closed accounts
A strong ABM program gives your sales team something useful to say at every stage, to every person involved in the decision. If you already know the accounts you want to win, we can help you build the campaigns and content to reach them. Learn more about our ABM services for supply chain and logistics companies, or see how we approach supply chain marketing more broadly.
Frequently asked questions
How long is a typical ABM sales cycle?
It depends on deal size and complexity, but enterprise deals in supply chain and logistics often take six to 18 months. Larger buying committees, RFP processes, and pilots all add time. Content helps by answering questions before they become delays.
How is ABM content different from regular content marketing?
Regular content marketing is built to attract a broad audience. ABM content is built for a defined list of accounts, so it’s more specific to an industry, a company’s situation, or a role on the buying committee. Many programs use both: broad content builds awareness, and account-specific content moves deals forward.
Do we need personalized content for every account?
Not always. One-to-one ABM uses fully custom content for a handful of top accounts. One-to-few groups similar accounts, such as food and beverage shippers, and tailors content to each group. One-to-many uses lighter personalization across a larger list.
Which stage of the ABM sales cycle needs the most content?
Reaching the full buying committee usually needs the most, because each role has different concerns. If you’re starting from scratch, build role-specific briefs for operations, procurement, and finance first.
Related reading: Account-based marketing for the packaging industry | Warehouse RFPs: what buyers ask for and how 3PLs make the shortlist
by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 23, 2020 | Blog, Content Marketing, Covid-19, Marketing, Strategy
The benefits of a B2B blog are too important to overlook. Plus: Three companies that excel at content creation.
If your company blog has gone the way of the bears in winter, there is good reason to bring it back to life. That stale page on your website is more important than may realize. When months and even years go by without a single update, you’re missing out on company blog benefits.
Let’s cut straight to the stats:
- 70% of respondents in a Databox survey said SEO is better than pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for generating sales. (Can you guess what a leading driver of website SEO is?)
- Blogs are among the top 3 tools used in content strategies (HubSpot 2020).
- 51% of companies say updating old content has proven to be the most efficient tactic implemented (SEMrush, 2019). (See our post on reworking content for SEO here.)
- 67% of companies use organic traffic to measure content success (SEMrush, 2019). (You guessed it: A blog is a key tool in boosting organic search traffic.)
- 72% of online marketers say content creation is their most effective SEO tactic.
- Companies with blogs generate 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages than those without.
In other words, a company blog brings benefits beyond just being a source of information, a tool to communicate with prospects, and to build brand. Despite new technologies, text will — as HubSpot points out in its 2020 State of Marketing Report — always be the foundation of search. And no place allows you to add descriptive text for improved search rankings as much as a company blog.
Not seeing company blog benefits? Here are 4 common pitfalls.
But as the significant number of hibernating company blogs shows, the pitfalls tend to come in spades. If your B2B blog is currently on snooze, let us guess the reason falls into one of the following categories:
- Unforeseen events: The most recent example is, of course, the Covid-19 pandemic. Faced with massive upheaval, supply chain companies, in particular, had to reshuffle resources. Although a crisis could be the time to step up communication and position the company as a leader, some blogs went dark after releasing a statement on the pandemic and its impact on the business.
- Unrealistic expectations: More than a few B2B blogs have run out of steam when immediate results fail to materialize. The disappointment tends to stem from unrealistic expectations. As much as everyone wants that first blog post to bring in a bucketload of leads, content marketing takes time to build momentum; but, done right, it is designed to turn into a tidal wave of improved search authority. Let patience rule and you will be rewarded.
- Lack of resources: To stand out in a crowd of tough competitors is not accomplished in an afternoon. Managing a successful company blog takes time. Other than outsourcing, there really is no way around it. If the blog is run on the fly or is low on the list of priorities, the results will suffer along with the motivation to keep going.
- Lack of strategy: Publishing for the sake of publishing will get you nowhere. Who are you writing for? What keywords are they using? How do you evaluate performance? Even well-written content can miss the target if it is not tailored around the audience you want to reach.
- Lackluster content: Although we always stress the need for consistency and keyword optimization when it comes to blog content, there is yet another aspect that is just as important — quality. A company blog that does not benefit your target audience will not benefit you. The most successful B2B blogs combine SEO best practices with useful, high-quality content.
B2B blogging done right: 3 examples of great blogs
For inspiration, it always helps to look at the organizations that get it right. And there are many to choose from. Take a look at three that have realized company blog benefits with engaging and purposeful content. Although conceptually different, the visions of these blogs align with the goals of each company, whether it’s generating leads with persuasive analytics or carving out a niche in social responsibility.
1. Cerasis: Market insights
The transportation management company was one of the early adopters of B2B blogging — and the results have been impressive. And Cerasis is not letting up. The company has published 15 blog posts in July alone, a pace few can — or don’t necessarily need to — match.
2. General Electric: Global vision
A multibillion-dollar corporation has the benefit of ample resources — and GE is putting them to good use. General Electric Reports intelligently humanizes the company with a stream of stories on the impact of GE products on global progress and employee spotlights that tie into current events.
3. Comscore: Analytics first
A look at Comscore’s blog leaves no doubt about its specialty: the collection and analysis of internet data. Comscore draws upon its vast resources to create content that is found nowhere else. The ability to showcase such detailed expertise is sure to sway a target audience looking to leverage customer behavior online.
Time to crawl out
The impact of an effective B2B blog can be huge. It requires research and vision to get started, persistence to keep it up, and analysis to evaluate the performance. In the end, the benefits of a company blog contribute to the health of your entire organization.
How about waking that bear up again?
Read more:
Key step to moving beyond survival mode: Revising B2B buyer personas
Trade show cancellations call for contingency plans (It’s urgent)
by Elizabeth Hines | Jun 9, 2020 | Blog, Content Marketing, Covid-19, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Too busy? Don’t want to invest in-house? Here are 4 prime reasons organizations opt to outsource content marketing.
No other lead generation tactic is more important to technology marketers than content assets. The new Gartner research — trade shows come in second place — shows the importance of paying heavy attention to how your organization positions itself online. If the Covid-19 repercussions left you no choice but to cut back on marketing or if you have been juggling more than ever, consider the case for outsourcing content marketing to stay competitive and excel.
At a time when some of the biggest supply chain trade shows have been either canceled or postponed, count on content assets to grow in significance. Is your organization up to the task?
In our work with both supply chain startups and multi-national corporations, we have noted a few returning reasons for outsourcing content marketing.
Do you recognize yourself or your organization in any of the following?
Outsourcing content marketing: 4 reasons organizations decide to seek outside help
Too much to do
When content marketing is the umpteenth task on an endless to-do list, the results will suffer. This scenario is particularly common among startups where everyone is wearing as many hats as possible in anticipation of the next round of funding. The haphazard approach to what is being published on social channels and on the blog does the company no favors and leaves the person in charge — frequently with limited marketing experience — feeling frustrated. Instead of letting keyword-optimized content carve out a brand niche and build website SEO, the effort goes nowhere although the will to succeed is strong.
The alternative: Partner with a content marketing agency and turn the focus on your core expertise.
No consistency
The effectiveness of content marketing relies on consistency. But being consistent is a major challenge for supply chain companies, especially when trying to recover from months of unprecedented disruption. As we explained in this post, consistency feeds SEO. Let it slip, and you lose in the online search race. In this case, sudden trade show cancelations may have forced the in-house marketing team to a quick pivot, from executing the company marketing strategy to pouring all efforts into making trade show contingency plans. Add a product launch to the mix and chances are content production will come to a standstill.
The alternative: Keep SEO humming and your online presence strong with an outsourced marketing team invested in your success.
Desire to scale but costs are too high
Needs can arise quickly. There may be a trend that a company wants to jump on or a sudden change in the business environment that warrants the need to scale up content marketing quickly. Several of our clients have sought out Fronetics because they lacked certain marketing capabilities and did not necessarily want or have the resources to make the investment in-house. That is particularly true under current circumstances when some organizations are battling budget constraints and disruption. If an organization wants to capitalize on video marketing, for instance, it can be both time-consuming and costly to train team members or go through a rigorous hiring process.
The alternative: Leverage a team out outsourced content experts to fill the gap without adding fixed costs.
Lack of analysis
The motions of content marketing are repetitive — researching, strategizing, executing, analyzing, revising — but they are so for a reason. Even the most well-intentioned content strategy can fail when an organization does not act on analytics. But for busy organizations, it is not uncommon for those last pieces of the puzzle — analyzing and revising — to be left undone.
What types of content worked well this quarter? How did the email messaging fare? What was the click-through-rate? During the past few months, when disruption ruled, it is hardly surprising if not every step was optimally performed. Yet, it can all the same be damaging to the overall success of the marketing effort if the metrics are allowed to go unnoticed for too long.
The alternative: Let content count with an outsourced marketing team that constantly needs to prove ROI.
Considering the significance of content assets, it pays to do it well. Is outsourcing content marketing right for you?
Read more:
by Elizabeth Hines | May 6, 2020 | Blog, Content Marketing, Covid-19, Current Events, Marketing, SEO, Strategy, Supply Chain
So much to say, so little time. Supply chain marketing during Covid-19 — leaning in is better than backing out.
Turmoil does not quite begin to describe the situation that supply chain companies have experienced lately. The Covid-19 pandemic threw in just a few weeks the finely calibrated, just-in-time supply chains into a state of disarray. In the midst of the struggle to get product from Point A to Point B — while also ensuring the health and safety of employees — many companies had little choice but to adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach.
We saw it ourselves as our clients were suddenly buried in challenges that only weeks earlier had posed no issues at all — securing electronic parts overseas, locating warehouse space, finding freight forwarders, moving product out of port, and more.
If supply chain marketing during Covid-19 had to take a backseat during the initial phase of the crisis, beware of staying quiet for too long. Letting your marketing channels sit idle for an extended period, or drastically scaling back at a time when communication matters more than ever, is not a risk-free strategy.
Let us explain why:
Covid-19 supply chain marketing: Lean in or risk losing ground
Go silent — or stay strong
In the wake of the first shockwaves of the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain companies understandably had to devote extensive resources to regain their footing. Few industries felt the impact as deeply as the supply chain. For some, the disruption opened up a flood of new business, sending the entire organization scrambling to keep up. For others, it meant every budget line item had to be scrutinized.
At the same time, we noted another challenge brewing for busy organizations: Maintaining a strong online presence during a tumultuous time. How do instill confidence in current customers and gain new leads if you say little or nothing at all?
After the first flurry of crisis-related marketing emails that many of us received (“We are here to help”), some companies — overwhelmed by the scope of work — let their social media accounts go silent and blog pages seized being updated.
The risk? Taking a break or withdrawing altogether could put your organization in a worse position later.
A McKinsey study underscores this point — conventional downturn strategies can actually hamper recovery. The performance analysis of 700 high–tech companies during two decades of market contractions showed “making obvious moves (for instance, cutting costs) as well as counterintuitive ones (such as increasing sales and marketing expenditures) quickly can improve a company’s position when the recovery begins.”
Interestingly, the best-performing companies increased their marketing and advertising spend relative to their competitors, but also compared to their own spending when times were better. However, from our perspective, the issue is far from just spend but identifying the most effective marketing channels and tactics at a time when resources may be scarce.
Weaken SEO — or make it soar
The risk of cutting back on supply chain marketing during Covid-19 also extends to search engine optimization (SEO). Rather than a one-time project, SEO needs constant attention to hum. It is the foundation of your effort to improve the quality and quantity of unpaid website traffic by increasing the visibility of your site or page to search engine users.
SEO and content go together
The completion of a well-designed website is only the beginning. If there is anything SEO demands more than anything else, it is content. You simply cannot ace one without the other. New, key-word optimized content is what makes SEO tick. Google Search has for years used a freshness algorithm to index pages. This means fresh content gets rapidly indexed and lands higher in search rankings than older content.
Backlinks — other reputable sites linking to your content — are also crucial to building SEO. When you provide up-to-date, insightful content, chances increase others will notice and link back to your site, especially during a time when so many are online searching for information. The same goes for backlinks and traffic to your site generated by social media.
So, what is the risk of going quiet?
The short of it: SEO can suffer. If content was the backbone of your marketing strategy before the pandemic hit, your organization has likely established a history of domain authority and is, as a result, in a better position to weather the storm. But not even the best of sites can escape the reality of what matters to search engines. Although you can still squeeze juice out of old keywords, lack of new content puts your organization at a disadvantage when search engines evaluate your pages in competition with countless others.
So much to say — can you find the time?
In many respects, supply chain marketing during Covid-19 comes down to this: Who would you want to do business with during a time of great uncertainty? What signals do you want to send to your audience? What do you want to tell them? As challenging as it may be, leaning in is better than backing out.
