Looking for blog post ideas? Try using these resources to create topics that are original, relevant, trendy, and — most of all — relevant to your business.
That’s all very well and good, but what happens when you have no idea what to write about?
As usual, the internet is coming to your rescue. Here are four of our favorite online tools to help you generate blog topic ideas.
4 online tools to generate blog post ideas
1) HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator
Remember Mad Libs? Give HubSpot three nouns, and its Blog Ideas Generator will give you blog ideas.
While not exactly a Mad Lib, this tool is a great way to focus on topics where you want to cultivate your authority. It’s an excellent way to generate blog post ideas for a topic cluster, in line with existing pillar content.
2) Alltop
Co-created by legendary business advisor and author Guy Kawasaki, Alltop describes its goal as helping you to answer the question “what’s happening” in topics that pertain to your business.
Essentially, it’s a list of recent posts from the most trusted blogs on each topic. Select your topic, and you’ll get posts relating to that topic from the top blog in each industry. It’s gives you a great “in” on the most important conversations going on among thought leaders in the supply chain — and your goal is to become one of them.
3) Ubersuggest
It may not be the best tool for coming up with actual post titles, but Ubersuggest is a great way to generate general topic ideas for new posts. Enter a word or phrase, and Ubersuggest produces a long list of results containing the word or phrase followed by related phrases.
4) Twitter
[bctt tweet=”Yes, you read that right. Twitter can actually be a great way to generate blog post ideas.” username=”Fronetics”]
Try running a Twitter search using your keyword proceeded by a hashtag (#procurement, for example) to get a list of tweets containing your keyword. Twitter also has the bonus of being likely the most up-to-date conversation you can find on the web.
If your supply chain company isn’t active on social media, know that your competitors are. Here are three ways social media can help the supply chain, improving processes and expanding your audiences.
I remember my first supply chain job after college. My boss was stuck on the word “social” and didn’t see any value in social media at the time. He believed that you came to work to be productive and that social media was counterproductive. There was no need for a crossroads between social media and the supply chain.
Fast forward a few years — ok, maybe more than a few — and there are still plenty of supply chain companies that aren’t utilizing social media to help grow their brands. Social networking isn’t about being social; it is about facilitating communication and collaboration, distributing content, and engaging with target audiences. It’s about making processes more efficient using innovative technologies, like automation tools.
[bctt tweet=”Social networking isn’t about being social; it is about facilitating communication and collaboration, distributing content, and engaging with target audiences.” username=”Fronetics”]
As part of a comprehensive content marketing strategy, social media can actually help your supply chain company meet ROI benchmarks. Utilizing social media increases your brand’s visibility and promotes transparency. The distribution of high-quality, thought provoking content will help your target audience see you as an industry leader, which will help you boost sales and increase customer engagement.
Here are three ways social media can help the supply chain improve communication, increase information sharing, and engage with new (and current) customers.
Video: 3 ways social media can help the supply chain
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Still apprehensive about diving into social media? Try not to focus on the ‘social’ aspect. Instead, focus on using the tools available through social media platforms as a means to get things done.
Looking to increase leads? Increase engagement with potential customers through content? Find innovative ways to grow your target audiences? Find ways to support these goals through social media.
And if you’re not comfortable in the social media world (we think you need to be), find younger professionals on your team that are. Encourage these employees to find new and exciting opportunities to increase visibility and engagement through social media.
What ways do you think social media can help the supply chain?
Most agree the supply chain is integral to our economy. But what, exactly, comprises the U.S. supply chain economy?
Ask a random sampling of 10 people on the street whether or not the supply chain is an integral part of the U.S. economy, and, more than likely, you’ll get at least 8 affirmative responses. But ask that same random sampling to talk in detail about the supply chain economy, the jobs it contains, and how it pertains to innovation, and you’ll most likely hear crickets.
While most Americans recognize the value of the supply chain, the details remain fuzzy. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, economists Mercedes Delgado and Karen Mills attempt to clear things up. They identify the industries that comprise the supply chain economy, quantify the number and quality of jobs it contains, and assess how much it matters for innovation. Here’s a summary of their findings.
What is the supply chain today?
First off, Delgado and Mills define the nature and scope of the supply chain industry, making the key distinction that supply chain industries are B2B, meaning that they sell to businesses and the government, rather than B2C, or business-to-consumer.
Industries that comprise the supply chain include traditional suppliers, like “metal stampers or plastic injection molders — businesses that manufacture parts to be used in a final good.” The authors, however, point out that thinking of the supply chain purely as a manufacturing sector is a flawed model.
In fact, “only 10% of employment in the [U.S. supply chain] economy is in manufacturing, and 90% is in services.” Jobs in this 90% include “many different labor occupations, from operation managers, to computer programmers, to truck drivers.”
Delgado and Mills take their analysis a step further, identifying the subcategory of “supply chain traded services – i.e., those that are sold across regions like engineering, design, software publishing, cloud computing, and logistics services.”
It’s worth noting that supply chain traded services have the highest wages in the supply chain economy, averaging at $80,800 annually — 3 times higher than traditional “service” jobs.
[bctt tweet=”The U.S. supply chain accounts for 37% of domestic jobs, employing some 44 million people at “significantly higher than average wages.”” username=”Fronetics”]
The U.S. supply chain accounts for 37% of domestic jobs, employing some 44 million people at “significantly higher than average wages.” The supply chain also accounts for a high proportion of the innovative activity in the economy as a whole, with STEM jobs, “a proxy for innovation potential,” at “almost five times higher in the supply chain economy than in the B2C economy.”
The authors point out that the prevalence of higher-paying jobs and innovation is a result of the fact that “supply chain industries have downstream linkages to multiple industries, which allows the innovations they create to cascade and diffuse across the economy, potentially increasing the value of those innovations.”
Policy recommendations
After defining and discussing the modern U.S. supply chain economy, Delgado and Mills move toward policy implications.
“Our supply chain economy framework leads to a more optimistic view of the economy,” they write. “If we were to focus on supporting supply chain services, particularly those in traded industries, the result might be more innovation and more well-paying jobs in the United States.”
They make three key recommendations for national economic policy, focused on improving suppliers’ access to skilled labor, buyers, and capital:
Invest in skilled labor.
Support regional industry clusters.
Ensure that suppliers have access to capital.
The bottom line: the supply chain industry is robust and dynamic, with “a crucial role in driving innovation and creating well-paying jobs.”
The idea of “bringing manufacturing back” is stale and reactionary. Delgado and Mills instead suggest that “we must shift our policy solutions to focus on cultivating the supply chain service jobs that will drive America’s economy forward.”
If you want to be a better delegator, you have to assemble a strong team and make sure they use you as a resource, among other things.
We’ve all heard it: the ability to delegate is critical to being an effective leader. And yet it’s one of the hardest leadership skills to master.
Giving over control isn’t easy, but effective delegation is crucial to keep your business running smoothly — and to keep you sane!
Here are our top 5 tips for supply chain leaders to become better delegators.
5 tips to be a better delegator
1) Choose your people.
This is about assembling a strong team you can trust. If you know you have smart, capable team members, you can be confident in the work they’ll perform for you, even if you’re not breathing down their necks.
2) Be clear.
[bctt tweet=”Setting up your team for success starts with clarity about your expectations. This means unambiguously communicating your goals for a project, as well as a timeline for benchmarks and completion. ” username=”Fronetics”]
Setting up your team for success starts with clarity about your expectations. This means unambiguously communicating your goals for a project, as well as a timeline for benchmarks and completion. Your expectations should be challenging, but reasonable. And it’s your responsibility to make sure they’re understood.
3) Be a resource.
It’s important that your team knows that once you’ve handed over a task, you’re still available for clarification and support. Make sure good communication patterns are in place, and that your team feels free to come to you with questions and issues.
4) Inspire results.
This one is about helping your team understand the bigger picture of why a project is important or worthwhile, and about leading without fear or blame. To be fully committed to a project, your team members need to understand how the work they’re putting in is contributing to a larger result.
5) Let go.
Repeat this ten times every night before you fall asleep: “Micromanagement is counterproductive.” Leaders like to be in control. But once you’ve delegated a task, clearly communicated your expectations, and set up open lines of communication, it’s time to step back and trust your people, as well as your own leadership abilities.
Bonus tip
Say thank you! Providing written, verbal, or public recognition for a job well done is an important element of inspiring your team to perform for you the next time they step up to the plate. And an important element of your being a better delegator.
What tips do you have for becoming a better delegator?
You have to take the long view with content marketing, allowing time for your strategy to develop, your brand to build authority, and your sales cycle to play out.
When you undertake a new content marketing program, you’re making a big investment. So it makes sense that you want to start seeing immediate results. But it’s important to understand from the get-go that content marketing doesn’t really work like that. Yes, you’ll start seeing incremental results within the first few months. But what we tell our clients is that things aren’t really going to start cooking with gas until the 12-18 month mark.
I’ve written before about why you shouldn’t give up on content marketing after a short period of time. While you’ll probably see growth in web traffic, improved social reach, and generally better engagement metrics like time on page, you’re not likely to see new leads or sales to speak of in the first few months after instituting a content marketing strategy.
And that can be hugely frustrating. But the key is understanding that content marketing isn’t a gimmick, and it’s not a short-term strategy. It’s a long-term solution that, if allowed to germinate and grow for the long haul, helps you build brand awareness, grow your audience, and generate new leads and sales. When it comes to content marketing, your goal is to be the tortoise, not the hare.
First off, content marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. You need to develop a strategy that works for your business, and that doesn’t happen overnight. When we first engage with a client at Fronetics, we generally take 30-45 days to do an in-depth dive into the company’s data to develop a custom strategy that aligns with the client’s specific business goals. It feels exhaustive at times, but it always ends up paying off.
[bctt tweet=”According to the Content Marketing Institute, 11% of companies without a documented content marketing strategy find their efforts successful, compared to 60% of companies with a strategy in place. ” username=”Fronetics”]
Keep in mind that only 11% of companies without a documented content marketing strategy find their efforts successful, compared to 60% of companies with a strategy in place. And that number rises to 86% when the company designates someone to lead the strategy.
The bottom line? Skipping this step to rush to results will pretty much ensure that your efforts won’t be worth it.
Building trust
In addition to the time it takes to develop a strategy, becoming an authority — and earning the trust and loyalty of your audience — takes time. Your goal is to be a consistent source of information and value, building your brand as an expert in the area.
It goes without saying that this doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s extremely well worth the effort and the patience. Remember that the average B2B buyer consumes between two and five pieces of content before making a purchase decision. If you can position your business as the premier expert on the subject by having the best, most informative, most helpful content available, you’ll have a leg up in the buyer’s decision.
Let the sales cycle play out
Once your strategy is documented and in place, and you begin to create and curate consistent, well-researched, high-quality content, there’s also the process of letting your sales cycle run its course. You need to allow your target audience time to find you and complete thorough research about you and your competitors before making a decision.
After all, content marketing can’t shorten your sales cycle. But lead nurturing with content can keep moving your prospects down the sales funnel. And content can help your sales team close deals. But you can’t expect a buyer to read your first blog post today and make a big purchase tomorrow. That’s just not realistic.
I cannot urge you enough: Don’t give up on content marketing before you give it time work. Hang in there long enough for your initial investment to pay off, and don’t be afraid to adjust your strategy along the way. If you stick with content marketing, it will generate those leads and sales you’re looking for.
Supply chain and logistics marketers need to incorporate social advertising into their content market strategy (and budget) to stay on top of marketing’s biggest driver.
The way audiences use social media channels is constantly changing. As marketers, we need to make sure we’re adapting to these changes. One of the biggest changes we’ve seen so far in 2018 is the increased use of social advertising.
Social advertising is a paid form of paid digital advertising on social media platforms. For example, the advertising platforms provided by Google, Twitter, and Facebook involve “targeting and presenting ads based on relationships articulated on those same services.” Oftentimes, social advertising is one part of a larger marketing strategy.
Sounds easy enough to implement, right? Well, there are so many options and so many more users. If you’re taking the time and money to invest in social advertising, you need to ensure that you’re using the right platforms and getting in front of your target audiences.
[bctt tweet=”With over 3.5 billion internet users worldwide, it’s easy to see the reach ads on social media platforms can have. Facebook alone has over 2 billion daily active users. 2 billion! ” username=”Fronetics”]
In Social Media Examiner’s new report, it’s hard to dispute that social advertising is anything but powerful. With over 3.5 billion internet users worldwide, it’s easy to see the reach ads on social media platforms can have. Facebook alone has over 2 billion daily active users. 2 billion! That’s a lot of opportunities for distributing your content and gaining new followers.
Here are some powerful statistics to prove the weight of social advertising and why it’s worth your time and pennies.
Infographic: A look at social advertising for B2B marketers
For the first time in years, Social Media Examiner’s report revealed that marketers are more focused on lead generation than cultivating a loyal fan base. What does this mean for you? The focus has shifted from engagement to metrics and automation.
As marketers, we need to watch for increased use of chatbots and other marketing automation tools that can help supply chain marketers become more efficient and more successful in earning and converting leads.
