by Fronetics | Jul 13, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
Using search marketing as part of your content strategy can increase web traffic and, thus, visibility for your business.
Search marketing, formerly “search engine marketing,” uses both paid (SEM) and unpaid strategies (SEO) to increase traffic to your business’ website. These two efforts work together to improve the likelihood that potential customers searching the internet will find your content.
Let me explain. When an individual searches for something on a search engine like Bing, Google, or Yahoo, the query brings him/her to a Search Engine Results Page, or “SERP.” Since we read from top to bottom, the person first sees the results that fall at the top of the SERP. Studies overwhelmingly show that the further down on the page that a link falls, the less likely someone will click it. What’s more, people rarely click on results beyond the first page. Thus, it is critical to rank as highly as possible on SERPs to entice potential customers to click through to your site.
So, how do you rise to the top? This is where search marketing fits into your content strategy.
SEO (Unpaid)
SEO (search engine optimization) is optimizing your content to improve how it ranks in search engine listings. This requires gaining a basic understanding of how and why search engines classify webpages and then catering to those factors where possible.
The search engine’s goal is to bring the most relevant results to someone who enters a search query. They use complex algorithms to determine how relevant a website is based on the query. So, if you type “best restaurant in Boston,” the search engine will scan the entirety of the internet to bring you a list of websites, in order, that are most likely give you an idea of the best Boston restaurants.
Each engine’s algorithm is slightly different, highly sensitive, and a closely held secret to keep websites from maliciously optimizing their content. Google, for instance, uses about 200 factors in its search algorithm, some of which are public knowledge, and most of which are not. This makes SEO somewhat of an art.
The best bet for optimizing your content is to consider those known factors while remaining true to your content. You want the people who are looking for you to find you. Here are some tips.
1) Use keywords throughout your content.
Algorithms crawl the internet to scan text of all kinds (websites, PDFs, documents, etc.) to find content that matches search queries. Identify several keywords that someone who is looking for products or services like yours might use in a search query, and use them throughout your content. It is likely even more effective when you use keywords in URL titles, headings and subheads, and paragraphs near the beginning of the page.
2) Use keywords in meta tags.
Webpages contain data, called meta tags, that search engines read to understand the main idea of the page. These are invisible to the average reader (unless you know where to look). Most important for SEO are the title tag and the meta description.
3) Distribute content through social media.
Social media is increasingly important to search algorithms because these platforms help determine what content people are using and engaging with organically. Post on your social media channels with links back to your website to improve your social media referral traffic metric and, thus, your SEO.
4) Encourage inbound links.
To understand how trustworthy and authoritative a particular website is on a certain subject, algorithms consider inbound links, or other sites linking to the website. HubSpot has some excellent advice on how to grow inbound links.
5) Make your site mobile-friendly.
As web traffic increasingly derives from mobile devices, search engines are rewarding websites that are mobile-friendly. If your website is not responsive or, at least, optimized for mobile, your search ranking will suffer.
6) Create frequent, quality content.
When you regularly publish content that is valuable to your target audience, search engines will “learn” that you are a trustworthy publisher with up-to-date information. Also, the more your content resonates with your target audience, the more they will post and share it, which means more referral traffic and inbound links, which likewise increase SEO.
SEM (Paid)
Search marketing through paid methods like pay-per-click (PPC) or paid advertising helps get your content in front of your target audience, regardless of how it would rank organically. Google AdWords is the most popular paid search platform used by marketers, followed by Bing Ads.
Google AdWords will show your advertisement to people who search with predetermined keywords. You pay per click, meaning you pay a fee for every person who clicks on your advertisement, regardless of how many people Google shows your ad to.
You can imagine that a number of advertisers vie for the same keywords. Google actually auctions off ad space with each search, ranking ads by bid (how much you are willing to pay per click) and quality score (does your content answer the searcher’s need?). To increase the success of your PPC you should:
- Identify relevant keywords that potential customers might use when searching for your products or services.
- Conduct comprehensive research of keywords with tools like Keyword Planner.
- Speak your audience’s language with dynamic keyword insertion.
- Determine which words you wish to bid on, and create groupings of these words to pair with ads.
- Identify and eliminate irrelevant words unlikely to appear in keyword searches.
Remember, search engines cater to the searcher. So, the more relevant your content is to someone who is searching for you, the more likely they will find you and want to do business with you.
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by Fronetics | Jul 11, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
This is part two of a three-part series on Twitter for B2B. See part one, Twitter for B2B, and part three, How to Use Twitter Analytics.
If you’re not sure what else to tweet, try these 20 ideas.
Twitter is an excellent platform for sharing news and reaching your customers, but it sure can be a lot of work. Our recent social experiment showed us that engagement is highest for Fronetics when we tweet around 40 times a day. That takes a lot of time and energy — not to mention, a lot of content.
You, too, may find yourself frequently strapped for quality tweeting material. We’ve got some ideas to not only fill your feed but to keep your followers interested and engaged.
A few things to remember
Keep in mind the 4-1-1 rule, an idea popularized by Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi and Tippingpoint Labs: “For every one self-serving tweet, you should re-tweet one relevant tweet and, most importantly, share four pieces of relevant content written by others.” This prevents your Twitter account from seeming too self-promoting, which quickly will turn off followers, and it reinforces your business’ position as a helpful source of information and knowledge.
Remember, also, that you don’t have to tweet just text. You can also share photos, videos, Slideshares, and links. Mix it up to keep things interesting.
With that said, here are 20 ideas to get you tweeting.
Tweet this
1) Release news.
Twitter has become the new newswire, where stories break and people turn for to-the-minute information. It’s a great place to offer updates about product releases, changes in service, or other company announcements. But also you can share news that might affect your followers or your supply chain: severe weather, acts of terror, or economic or political events.
2) Share company or industry data.
We’ve written before about the potential for data-as-content. Tweeting stats, data, and other numbers relevant to your audience is a great way to get started. You can type out the information in less than 140 characters or create a quick infographic or image.
3) Mine Reddit.
Reddit is an endless source for content of any kind. Create a multireddit with industry-specific subreddits so you can quickly browse what’s trending to share with your audience.
4) Recycle an old blog post.
Be it a week or a few years later, there’s no shame in reposting content after some time has gone by. Maybe it’s relevant to current events. Maybe it got overshadowed by another breaking story or event when it was originally posted. Maybe it did really well the first time, and it’s still relevant. Regardless, tweeting about an old post can drive new traffic to some of your best content. You can always frame it as “ICYMI” (in case you missed it) or a “Best of” post.
5) Praise your suppliers.
Sharing a positive experience with a business partner is great exposure for the partner and good karma for you. It also shows your audience that your behind-the-scenes operations are running smoothly, which reinforces confidence in your products or services.
6) Share a meme.
An internet meme is a humorous piece of media (most often a photo) shared online from user to user. Show your brand’s personality by posting one that will make your followers smile.
7) Thank inspiring speakers from an industry conference.
Did someone give a particularly interesting presentation? Tag them and thank them. Maybe they’ll follow you or retweet you, giving you lots of exposure.
8) Throw it back.
Post an old photo or an old tweet on a Thursday to participate in Throwback Thursday (#TBT). “Old” doesn’t have to mean decades ago, by the way. People frequently use content from earlier in the year — even earlier in the week.
9) Reveal your favorite follow.
Do you really enjoy news or content from another user? Share that person’s Twitter handle with a quick explanation of the kind of tweets followers can expect. You’re offering valuable information to your audience — and you’ll get excellent exposure for your business if the user has a large following and engages with your tweet by liking or retweeting it.
10) Celebrate holidays.
Wish your followers happy and safe holidays, and show photos of your employees celebrating special events. Remember holidays aren’t limited to major religious or patriotic days of observance. International Women’s Day, Bring Your Child to Work Day, and National Ice Cream Month can inspire content. Days of the Year is a great resource for little-known holidays. Did you know that July 11 is International Town Criers Day?
11) Comment on trending topics.
See what people in your network are talking about. The Trends column on the left of the homepage shows popular topics of conversation tailored to you based on your followers and accounts you follow. If a trending topic involves something you have experience with, offer insight and information to help position your company as a thought leader in the industry.
12) Retweet your executives.
Get exposure for your management team or other content spokespeople in your company by retweeting them.
13) Quote someone famous.
Everyone can relate to inspirational quotes. Tweet your favorites or create graphics to share. Or, follow leaders and thinkers you admire and retweet particularly poignant thoughts.
14) Praise an industry leader.
Tag someone to tell them that you liked their book, article, or post. Congratulate newly appointed executives of competitors and business partners. Recognize someone for a courageous business decision, successful quarter, or outstanding support of a charitable organization.
15) Hold a contest.
Build excitement about a product by asking followers to post photos of creative alternative uses with the hashtag #HowNotToUse. Have them share their best recipes using your wholesale food products. Or ask for submissions to name your newest cargo ship. (Boaty McBoatface?) Whether you give a prize or not, people are competitive by nature and will enjoy participating.
16) Answer an FAQ.
Ask your customer service team for a list of customers’ most frequently asked questions and regularly tweet out answers.
17) Ask a question.
Whether “What do you think of our new product?” or “Do you have plans for the long weekend?” there’s no better way to get a response than to ask a question.
18) Conduct a poll.
If you’re looking for a specific answer, use the poll button to see what your followers are thinking. It can be related to your business or just for fun. Try both and see where you get the most engagement!
19) Share photos of company events.
Days of service, employee milestone celebrations, executive retreats: photos help followers attach faces to your business name. It also gives them a behind-the-scenes look at company culture and builds a positive image of your employer brand.
20) Retweet what your network is sharing.
Share helpful, informative, or entertaining content from the users you follow. You not only offer value to your followers, you also let the user know you like their content and prompt them to do the same for you.
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by Fronetics | Jun 29, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Participating in social media is not about earning followers; it’s about building relationships.
Posting content to social media is a great way to earn followers. But a follower doesn’t necessarily equal a customer. That’s why it’s important to keep in mind that participating in social media is not only about earning a large following; it’s about building relationships with those people.
An article published in Entrepreneur says it best, “Content equals marketing; conversation equals a relationship.” Using social media to converse with people and form relationships is what will ultimately drive sales.
Research from Social Sprout shows that social media messages to brands from customers rose 110% between 2014 and 2015. And that number keeps going up.
So, don’t just hand out your content like a business card and walk away. Customers increasingly expect businesses to converse with them through social networking, so it is critical that your business is online and ready to respond.
Here are five tips to build relationships on social media:
1) Be the person representing a brand.
Represent your company, but be a real person to whom your customers can relate. Do not appear as a brand who is a person; show up as a person who has a brand.
2) Be a real person.
Be personable and real. Open yourself up to conversations that show a bit of the real you. Nothing builds a relationship better than making a genuine connection. In other words, be a real person, not a personality.
3) Show who you are.
In addition to sharing information and knowledge related to your business, don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a bit of what matters to you in your posts. Photos of bring-your-child-to-work day, pets who regularly visit the office, or even your extra-large coffee during a particularly busy week tell a story that your followers can relate to. These kinds of things are excellent starting points for conversation!
4) Show that you care.
To build a relationship of trust, people need to feel that you care about what is important to them. Go beyond just liking, retweeting, or leaving an encouraging message on your followers’ posts. Actually put yourself out there and respond, invite dialog, and demonstrate that they are someone you value.
5) Be a regular.
Show up on a regular basis to interact with your audience and answer questions. And make sure to respond quickly when someone reaches out to you. Don’t underestimate the power of being there when a customer needs you. Remember 7 in 8 messages go unanswered for 72 hours, so if you can be the brand that is always there, you’re head-and-shoulders above the crowd.
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by Fronetics | Jun 28, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Reddit is a gold mine for relevant, engaging content to share with your social media followers.
You probably have heard that Reddit is useful in content marketing. But what, exactly, is it, and how do you use it?
Reddit is a news website/social network in which registered users submit content, such as posts and links, which the community of users (called redditors) curates by voting up or down. The more positive votes, the higher the content will appear on the page. Users also can comment on the content, and their comments are organized by the same up-down voting system. The discussion by redditors is often the most important part of any post.
Content is organized into categories, called subreddits. Subreddits can be as broad as News and Music and as specific as Supply Chain Risk Management and 3-D Printing News. Users can subscribe to a subreddit to have popular posts from that category published on their homepages.
Reddit, which ranks as the 9th most popular website in the U.S. and 31st globally, refers to itself as “the front page of the internet” for a good reason. Whatever the industry, topic, or perspective, there is content about it, ready for you to share.
That’s what makes Reddit great for content marketers, who are always looking for content to distribute to followers to keep them engaged. It is also intuitive to find and share exactly what you need.
5 easy steps to get started on Reddit
1) Sign up
First, you must register. Go to Reddit.com and click the “Sign Up” link in the upper-right-hand corner. Mobile users can download the Reddit app.
2) Get to know the community
After setting up a user account, you begin following a default set of subreddits, including topics like Art, Jokes, and Sports. Access them by clicking the “My Subreddits” dropdown menu on the upper-left corner of the homepage. These default subreddits are great for learning about the community.
3) Customize your subreddits
Find subreddits in your niche. It can take time to browse individual subreddits, but you can slash your search time by creating a multireddit, which is a custom dashboard of content around your particular topic of interest. First, find subreddits you want to include with the subreddit search box . This lets you search for all subreddits related to a keyword (for example, supply chain technology). Narrow down further with advanced search options.
4) Create a multireddit
Next, compile a master list of subreddit names, organized by topic, and save them in a multireddit. So, sign into your account, then go to the Reddit front page, and click on the dotted line on the left side. Click the “Create” button, and type in a name for your multireddit. (You can’t use spaces or symbols in the multireddit name.) When you’re finished, click “Create.” You can then filter the posts you see by those that are:
- Hot: Posts that receive the highest engagement (upvotes/comments)
- New: The most recent posts
- Rising: Posts that are gaining popularity
- Controversial: Posts that receive an equal mix of upvotes and downvotes
- Top: The most popular posts of all time
- Gilded: Posts that received reddit gold
- Promoted: Sponsored content
5) Share
Once you find a link you would like to share on social media, you can queue up content directly from Reddit using Buffer and/or IFTTT. If you have the Buffer extension installed in your browser, you’ll see its link for each Reddit post. Click the link and schedule the Reddit post in your Buffer queue. You can also set up IFTTT recipes, which connect your Reddit activity to Buffer.
Can you post content on Reddit? Yes, but directly marketing your business and self-promotion is not allowed. Instead, create a presence by being relevant within a specific community. Check out reddiquette and FAQs to learn what posts are acceptable. Essentially, 10% or less of your posts and dialogue should link to your own content.
Posting your content can benefit your business. If your post rises to the front page of Reddit, it can drive more than 200K visitors to your content, get picked up by other websites, and garner a ton of social shares.
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by Fronetics | Jun 23, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
HubSpot users also saw 3x more leads and 4.1x web visitors per month after a year using the software.
A study has found that using HubSpot for your inbound marketing can increase sales revenue by 72% in 12 months.
A 2016 MIT Sloan student analysis showed that HubSpot’s inbound marketing software provides users a substantial boost in quality leads, which converted into more sales. In year two of using the software, customers continued to see impressive increases.
The in-depth report was a compilation of customer survey responses and web data gathered over a 24-month period for HubSpot users from 2013 to 2015. It looked at three fundamental aspects of marketing methodology:
- Attracting new visitors to the user’s website
- Conversion of these visitors into customer leads
- Closing those leads into actual sales
Leveraging tools to streamline and magnify marketing and sales efforts is important for all businesses in the supply chain and logistics industries, but it can be especially important if your business is small, or has limited resources. HubSpot proved to be a competitive solution, with cost-effective results that increased leads, customers, and revenue.
Report highlights
Attracting new customers
- Users averaged 3x more leads per month after a year.
- Websites averaged 4.1x more visitors per month after a year.
Conversion of website visitors into leads
- Approximately 83% of the HubSpot customers experienced an increase in their conversion rate of leads into customers.
- Size of the business did not matter; all saw significant increases in site traffic and lead conversion rates.
Closing those leads into sales
- 72% of HubSpot customers saw an increase in sales revenue in one year.
Other findings focused on substantial support in meeting goals and the ease of attracting the right customer persona for optimum results.
- 96 % of customers surveyed said that HubSpot helped them meet their marketing goals.
- 68% of customer respondents felt that their efforts generated better quality leads while using HubSpot.
- Increased customer satisfaction was reported by 46% of HubSpot users since they began using the program.
Is HubSpot right for your business?
HubSpot is a marketing platform that takes all of the inbound marketing methods that were once separate services and consolidates them into one integrated software package. It provides marketing analytics, lead intelligence, A/B landing page testing, CRM integration, email service integration, eCommerce integration, and API integration.
From one location, you can blog, tweet, optimize, then capture and nurture leads. It drives the right customers to you using extensive research specific to your industry. It pinpoints your competitors and potential customers, including their typical pain points, interests, and questions.
A separate 12-month study conducted by Overgo involving both B2B and B2C businesses compared companies using HubSpot to those who did not. It found:
- An average increase of 170% in organic traffic after one year, whereas those using HubSpot saw an average organic traffic increase of 590%.
- HubSpot received 125% more (B2B) and 294% more (B2C) leads than companies not using HubSpot. (Several of the B2B companies received fewer leads because their targets are multi-million dollar deals, a much smaller avenue of opportunity.)
The difference was attributed to the tools HubSpot offers its customers, which include:
- Ranking opportunities – a feature that shows which keywords offer your business an opportunity to get ranked on the first page of search results.
- Conversion opportunities – shows which keywords are attracting a lot of traffic but not converting, then suggests ways to increase conversion.
- Long-tail opportunities – suggests keywords where ranking could improve substantially if you add a certain word or phrase.
- Competitors – compares your site’s ranking and search volume to your competitors.
- Campaigns – helps organize keywords into campaigns for tracking and measurement.
HubSpot’s inbound marketing software has consistently provided a relatively fast and high return on investment for the majority of B2B or B2C companies, no matter their size.
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by Fronetics | Jun 21, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Try these tips to attract potential customers to follow your business on LinkedIn.
This is part three of a three-part series on LinkedIn for B2B businesses. Check out part one, LinkedIn for B2B: Getting Started, and part two, How to Hire Talent through LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is a goldmine for organizations looking to build professional relationships and generate more quality leads. The 433+ million member base presents an enormous opportunity for your company to earn new business. But once you set up your company page, how can you start attracting those members to follow you? We’ve got 10 steps to get you started.
Keep in mind: Attracting followers can work like a domino effect — if you find the right people, that is. When you form an authentic LinkedIn relationship with someone, someone who is genuinely interested in your business and the content you distribute, that person is more likely to like, comment on, or share your updates. Then that person’s network will see that s/he engaged with your business. Not only does this provide exposure for your company, but also offers an endorsement of sorts. It encourages other people in your followers’ networks to follow you as well.
10 steps to attract LinkedIn followers
1) Entrust your colleagues.
Send around a company-wide email encouraging your employees to add your company to their LinkedIn profiles. When they do, your company name and logo show up on their profiles. Additionally, they automatically become followers of your company page and will receive your updates. If you can encourage them to like, share, and comment on your content, even better.
2) Tell your customers and partners.
Follow your customers and business partners on LinkedIn to prompt them to do the same for you. You can also let them know that you have a company page by including it in customer newsletters, your email signature, or other regular communications with them. Engage with their content on LinkedIn to stay top of mind and to get your business’ name in front of their followers as well.
3) Follow your competitors.
Get insight into what the competition is up to and how they are interacting with their followers. Make sure to like and comment on their content since their networks will see this activity (and, thus, your business’ name). You may even go further by following some of their customers and partners — you never know where a new business relationship might start!
4) Add a follow button to your website, social accounts, and content.
Don’t forget to add LinkedIn to your follow buttons on your website, blog, and other social media profiles. You can also add it to the share widgets on your content assets, like blog posts, emails, and landing pages. Doing so provides potential followers with an easy way to locate your company page or to share your content with their networks.
5) Write a blog post about it.
Announce the launch of your company page with a celebratory blog post. Enrich your post with keywords that resonate with your target audience, so potential customers searching the Internet might come across it and want to connect with you. Make sure to share the post through your other social media channels to encourage your followers there to find you on LinkedIn as well.
6) Join group discussions.
LinkedIn groups facilitate conversations about popular issues and hot topics in your industry. Though company pages cannot participate, individual employees partaking in the discussion represent their companies. (In fact, your company name is displayed under the employee’s name when they start a discussion.) Encourage your executives and other company leaders to find and join groups that relate to your business and to actively participate in dialogue. They can also share company updates or blog posts in these forums. Other group members will recognize their expertise and form a favorable opinion of the company — perhaps favorable enough to follow it.
7) Post regular content.
Keep yourself in your followers’ eyes by posting content at least several times a week. Keep in mind it doesn’t have to be all original content. In fact, it’s a smart idea to mix it up and share articles and posts by others that you find interesting. Users who come across your company page will recognize you as a source for frequent, relevant information, and will want to follow you to stay in the know.
8) Like, share, and comment on others’ content.
The more you interact with different members’ content, the more brand exposure you’ll get. Remember, the connections in members’ networks see details of your interaction in their newsfeeds. The more you interact with different people, the larger your reach.
9) Follow industry news and post on LinkedIn Pulse.
Keep up to date with the latest happenings and topics of conversation in your industry on LinkedIn Pulse. It’s a great way to gain inspiration for content. And posting to Pulse is an excellent way to attract followers. Millions of people browse and engage with Pulse conversations every day, so publishing can offer great exposure for your business.
10) Strategically utilize sponsored updates.
Your content can reach users outside of your company page’s followers and visitors through sponsored updates. The Campaign Manager tool will insert particular posts into a targeted audience’s LinkedIn newsfeeds. You just set your budget and choose cost-per-click or cost-per-1,000 impressions, and voilà! While few companies have the budgets for daily sponsored updates, these campaigns can be really effective at attracting followers when you have particularly compelling content to share.
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