Why you need to understand what B2B buyers think about content [Infographic]

Why you need to understand what B2B buyers think about content [Infographic]

If you want to attract B2B buyers with content, you need to understand what B2B buyers think about content.

93% of B2B companies use content marketing.  If you want your content marketing efforts to be effective you need to understand why B2B buyers consume and value content.  When you understand what B2B buyers think about content you can create and distribute the right content – content that will help you grow your business by driving profitable customer action.

The CMO Council, Content ROI Center, and Netline conducted a survey of 352 senior-level B2B buyers, influencers, and decision makers with the objective of determining content’s role in influencing B2B buyers in the purchase process.

Why do B2B buyers consume content?

B2B buyers turn to content for a number of reasons including to:

  • Learn about new market developments and industry practices;
  • Discover new solutions to address a specific problem;
  • Address a project or a program being undertaken by their company.

Why do B2B buyers value content?

B2B buyers value content because it:

  • Keeps them current on new techniques;
  • Provides strategic insights and shapes their purchase specifications;
  • Educates them about industry issues, problems, and challenges.

content B2B buyers

Source: CMO Council

Understanding what B2B buyers think about content and why they use content will enable you to create, curate, and distribute content that speaks to B2B buyers and attracts new customers and engages current customers.

If you consistently create, curate, and distribute content that B2B buyers find valuable, you will realize results.

 

 

Why you need to understand what B2B buyers think about content [Infographic]

Why you need to understand what B2B buyers think about content [Infographic]

If you want to attract B2B buyers with content, you need to understand what B2B buyers think about content.

93% of B2B companies use content marketing.  If you want your content marketing efforts to be effective you need to understand why B2B buyers consume and value content.  When you understand what B2B buyers think about content you can create and distribute the right content – content that will help you grow your business by driving profitable customer action.

The CMO Council, Content ROI Center, and Netline conducted a survey of 352 senior-level B2B buyers, influencers, and decision makers with the objective of determining content’s role in influencing B2B buyers in the purchase process.

Why do B2B buyers consume content?

B2B buyers turn to content for a number of reasons including to:

  • Learn about new market developments and industry practices;
  • Discover new solutions to address a specific problem;
  • Address a project or a program being undertaken by their company.

Why do B2B buyers value content?

B2B buyers value content because it:

  • Keeps them current on new techniques;
  • Provides strategic insights and shapes their purchase specifications;
  • Educates them about industry issues, problems, and challenges.

content B2B buyers

Source: CMO Council

Understanding what B2B buyers think about content and why they use content will enable you to create, curate, and distribute content that speaks to B2B buyers and attracts new customers and engages current customers.

If you consistently create, curate, and distribute content that B2B buyers find valuable, you will realize results.

 

 

Content and Social Media: A Perfect Match for Customer Engagement and Business Growth

Content and Social Media: A Perfect Match for Customer Engagement and Business Growth

content and social media

Content and social media are integral to business growth

Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog written by Kecia Gray, Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Communications, Transplace. Transplace is a premier provider of transportation management services, intermodal, truck brokerage, and SaaS TMS solutions.  Transplace successfully leverages social media and content to expand the company’s brand awareness and thought leadership.  The company’s LinkedIn page, Facebook page, and blog were named as “favorites” in a survey conducted by Fronetics.

At Transplace, social media has become an integral part of our marketing and communications strategy and key to expanding our brand awareness and thought leadership in the logistics and transportation space.  Our marketing and communication team has had the opportunity to utilize multiple social channels, including:

While we consistently post content to all of these channels, what has been and continues to be important to our social strategy is creating our own original content and utilizing it within a more aggressive approach on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Sharing content on these channels has allowed our newest blog to achieve fast success in under a year’s time.

Content Is King…

Within any industry, there is always significant opportunity to create original thought leadership content that is informative and insightful.  When developing a social media strategy, our foremost goal was to establish a thought leadership blog resource for the market, in addition to providing engaging and personalized content across social channels that was easily sharable. Our main objectives focus on connecting with customers, and creating content that resonates with the members of our industry and provides value to their businesses. By distributing this content across our social channels to foster sharing, conversation and engagement, we’ve continued to gain influence with our targeted audiences.

…And Metrics Are Key

Because of the rapid pace of developing content, it’s important to track and report on levels of engagement to optimize and repurpose information. We created a social plan that included a comprehensive calendar to capture the topics and content items we’d be working on throughout the year. For maximum integration, we purposely aligned new pieces to marketing campaigns and corporate objectives such as events, transportation services and current industry issues. In addition, we established benchmarks and metrics that were important for us to track, such as followers and level of engagement. Analyzing the data allowed us to regularly monitor and evaluate our program, maximize what worked and adjust areas that did not meet expectations.

Incorporating Talent for Quality Thought Leadership

We have also taken advantage of the significant opportunity for Transplace employees at all levels to contribute quality thought-leadership posts across a number of channels. We’ve learned that the best place to utilize this content is on the company’s logisticallyspeakingblog.com. Some of the posts we’re most proud of turned out to be the most popular of 2014, including:

  • A motivating guest blog post highlighting our dedication to our customers – from George Abernathy, our president and CCO.
  • An insightful commentary on the growth of Transplace in light of a recent acquisition – from Frank McGuigan, president of transportation management at Transplace.
  • An informative infographic recap of our signature event, the annual Transplace Shipper Symposium, highlighting some amazing speakers.

To ensure we always stay up-to-date and focused, our team holds quarterly meetings in which we share key highlights, metrics and snapshots of the program quarter by quarter. The time is used to plan for what’s coming up in the future, brainstorm new ideas and make changes as needed.  We always make the utmost effort to continually update our program and assess our short and long term goals – an important aspect to any social program!

How is your organization utilizing social media and thought leadership content?

Content and Social Media: A Perfect Match for Customer Engagement and Business Growth

Content and Social Media: A Perfect Match for Customer Engagement and Business Growth

content and social media

Content and social media are integral to business growth

Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog written by Kecia Gray, Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Communications, Transplace. Transplace is a premier provider of transportation management services, intermodal, truck brokerage, and SaaS TMS solutions.  Transplace successfully leverages social media and content to expand the company’s brand awareness and thought leadership.  The company’s LinkedIn page, Facebook page, and blog were named as “favorites” in a survey conducted by Fronetics.

At Transplace, social media has become an integral part of our marketing and communications strategy and key to expanding our brand awareness and thought leadership in the logistics and transportation space.  Our marketing and communication team has had the opportunity to utilize multiple social channels, including:

While we consistently post content to all of these channels, what has been and continues to be important to our social strategy is creating our own original content and utilizing it within a more aggressive approach on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Sharing content on these channels has allowed our newest blog to achieve fast success in under a year’s time.

Content Is King…

Within any industry, there is always significant opportunity to create original thought leadership content that is informative and insightful.  When developing a social media strategy, our foremost goal was to establish a thought leadership blog resource for the market, in addition to providing engaging and personalized content across social channels that was easily sharable. Our main objectives focus on connecting with customers, and creating content that resonates with the members of our industry and provides value to their businesses. By distributing this content across our social channels to foster sharing, conversation and engagement, we’ve continued to gain influence with our targeted audiences.

…And Metrics Are Key

Because of the rapid pace of developing content, it’s important to track and report on levels of engagement to optimize and repurpose information. We created a social plan that included a comprehensive calendar to capture the topics and content items we’d be working on throughout the year. For maximum integration, we purposely aligned new pieces to marketing campaigns and corporate objectives such as events, transportation services and current industry issues. In addition, we established benchmarks and metrics that were important for us to track, such as followers and level of engagement. Analyzing the data allowed us to regularly monitor and evaluate our program, maximize what worked and adjust areas that did not meet expectations.

Incorporating Talent for Quality Thought Leadership

We have also taken advantage of the significant opportunity for Transplace employees at all levels to contribute quality thought-leadership posts across a number of channels. We’ve learned that the best place to utilize this content is on the company’s logisticallyspeakingblog.com. Some of the posts we’re most proud of turned out to be the most popular of 2014, including:

  • A motivating guest blog post highlighting our dedication to our customers – from George Abernathy, our president and CCO.
  • An insightful commentary on the growth of Transplace in light of a recent acquisition – from Frank McGuigan, president of transportation management at Transplace.
  • An informative infographic recap of our signature event, the annual Transplace Shipper Symposium, highlighting some amazing speakers.

To ensure we always stay up-to-date and focused, our team holds quarterly meetings in which we share key highlights, metrics and snapshots of the program quarter by quarter. The time is used to plan for what’s coming up in the future, brainstorm new ideas and make changes as needed.  We always make the utmost effort to continually update our program and assess our short and long term goals – an important aspect to any social program!

How is your organization utilizing social media and thought leadership content?

Top 10 supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014

Top 10 supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014

top 10 supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014

Here are the top supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014

2014 is over and a new year has begun.  We look back at the content we created and shared in 2014.

Looking at content focused on the supply chain and logistics industries, there are three topics which garnered the most interest:

  • The use of social media and content marketing;
  • Supply chain talent;
  • Technology.

Here are the top ten supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014 based on pageviews. #1 receiving the most pageviews.

1. Internet of things and its impact on supply chain management

The Internet of Things trend is quickly approaching and will impact the way we live and work through increased productivity and efficiency. Supply Chain Management will continue utilizing these advanced technologies to improve factory workflow, increase material tracking, and optimize distribution to maximize revenues. Read the full blog post.

2. Social media and the logistics and supply chain industries

Within the past five years companies within the logistics and supply chain industries have begun to see social media as a strategic tool and have begun to actively use and leverage social media. A survey conducted by Fronetics Strategic Advisors looks, broadly, at the use of social media within the logistics and supply chain industries.  The report discusses use, motivations, preferences, benefits, and challenges. Read the full blog post.

3. The Santa Supply Chain [Infographic]

Santa’s supply chain was the first to run “in the cloud.” Read the full blog post and check out the infographic.

4. Social media and content marketing works, just ask freight logistics company Cerasis

Looking at the manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, transportation, distribution and freight industries there are a few companies that have emerged as leaders – companies that exemplify the business value of creating and executing digital, social media, and content marketing strategies. Cerasis, a freight logistics company, is one of these companies.  Read the full blog post.

 5. How to solve the supply chain talent crisis: a supply chain recruiter shares his ideas

The supply chain industry has a talent crisis. The question is: how can we solve this crisis? To answer this question I turned to Rodney Apple, founder of the SCM Talent Group.  Apple has worked as a supply chain recruiter for the majority of his 19+ year career within the staffing industry and he has filled more than 1,000 positions within the industry ranging from executive-level in Fortune 500 headquarters settings to leadership and staff-level roles across large networks of manufacturing and distribution facilities within North America.  Apple’s role affords him the ability to witness the talent crisis from the perspective of the industry, the company, and the job seeker.  Read the full blog post.

6.  Cerasis talks content marketing and social media (guest post by Cerasis’ Adam Robinson)

The purpose of this series of blog posts is to give others in our industry and especially those in the manufacturing industry, a guide to create an effective digital, social media, and content marketing strategy which will produce results for your company. If you have followed the Cerasis blog since its launch in March 2013, you have noticed that we work really hard at executing our strategy. The reason we work so hard is because we are passionate about educating the marketplace on information that matters to them. In that way, we want to be the de facto expert in the manufacturing and logistics industries. If we can help those who are our customers and potential customers (manufacturers and distributors) with best practices around logistics and freight, as well as manufacturing industry news, we are continuing our mission of driving long term value (even if we give the information away for free). The result (we hope and have seen) is that people view us as the expert and will want to engage us in a long term relationship as their logistics services provider. We hope this is helpful and you learn something from it!  Read the full blog post.

7.  How social media can make David a formidable challenge to Goliath

 3PL provider Coyote Logistics is one of the fastest growing companies in North America. The company’s incredible growth (five-year growth: 3,585 percent) and tenacious spirit has not gone unnoticed. Forbes included Coyote in its list of Most Promising American Companies; Supply & Demand Chain Executive listed Jeff Silver, Coyote CEO, as one of their “Pros to Know;” and the company was listed as one of the best places to work by the Chicago Tribune.  There are undoubtedly many factors that have contributed to the success of the company.  Coyote’s approach to social media is likely one of the company’s keys to success. Read the full blog post.

8. Want to fill the supply chain talent gap? Re-brand the supply chain.

Here’s the thing – the supply chain industry is perceived by those outside the industry as having no “wow” factor whatsoever.  If the supply chain industry is going to attract new and qualified talent, it needs a face lift.  It is time for the supply chain industry to re-brand itself. Read the full blog post.

9. 10 free tools to help you measure your social media ROI

Without a comprehensive social media strategy, your message may be getting lost in the chatter. There are a number of tools that will help you monitor your online influence and, effectively, make the necessary adjustments to ensure your efforts are paying off.  Here are 10 free tools to help you measure your social media ROI.  The basic features of each of these tools are free.  Read the full blog post.

10.  Supplier Scorecards: Tracking Supplier Performance

Regularly tracking your relationship with your suppliers and their performance toward your expectations is critical to ensure the success of your business. One mechanism for tracking this is the supplier scorecard. A scorecard is in essence a report card for your supplier. Supplier scorecards when used effectively can help maintain a healthy supply chain and will benefit both parties. If not used effectively supplier scorecards can damage the supplier relationship and hurt both businesses.  Read the full blog post.

Top 10 supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014

Top 10 supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014

top 10 supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014

Here are the top supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014

2014 is over and a new year has begun.  We look back at the content we created and shared in 2014.

Looking at content focused on the supply chain and logistics industries, there are three topics which garnered the most interest:

  • The use of social media and content marketing;
  • Supply chain talent;
  • Technology.

Here are the top ten supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014 based on pageviews. #1 receiving the most pageviews.

1. Internet of things and its impact on supply chain management

The Internet of Things trend is quickly approaching and will impact the way we live and work through increased productivity and efficiency. Supply Chain Management will continue utilizing these advanced technologies to improve factory workflow, increase material tracking, and optimize distribution to maximize revenues. Read the full blog post.

2. Social media and the logistics and supply chain industries

Within the past five years companies within the logistics and supply chain industries have begun to see social media as a strategic tool and have begun to actively use and leverage social media. A survey conducted by Fronetics Strategic Advisors looks, broadly, at the use of social media within the logistics and supply chain industries.  The report discusses use, motivations, preferences, benefits, and challenges. Read the full blog post.

3. The Santa Supply Chain [Infographic]

Santa’s supply chain was the first to run “in the cloud.” Read the full blog post and check out the infographic.

4. Social media and content marketing works, just ask freight logistics company Cerasis

Looking at the manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, transportation, distribution and freight industries there are a few companies that have emerged as leaders – companies that exemplify the business value of creating and executing digital, social media, and content marketing strategies. Cerasis, a freight logistics company, is one of these companies.  Read the full blog post.

 5. How to solve the supply chain talent crisis: a supply chain recruiter shares his ideas

The supply chain industry has a talent crisis. The question is: how can we solve this crisis? To answer this question I turned to Rodney Apple, founder of the SCM Talent Group.  Apple has worked as a supply chain recruiter for the majority of his 19+ year career within the staffing industry and he has filled more than 1,000 positions within the industry ranging from executive-level in Fortune 500 headquarters settings to leadership and staff-level roles across large networks of manufacturing and distribution facilities within North America.  Apple’s role affords him the ability to witness the talent crisis from the perspective of the industry, the company, and the job seeker.  Read the full blog post.

6.  Cerasis talks content marketing and social media (guest post by Cerasis’ Adam Robinson)

The purpose of this series of blog posts is to give others in our industry and especially those in the manufacturing industry, a guide to create an effective digital, social media, and content marketing strategy which will produce results for your company. If you have followed the Cerasis blog since its launch in March 2013, you have noticed that we work really hard at executing our strategy. The reason we work so hard is because we are passionate about educating the marketplace on information that matters to them. In that way, we want to be the de facto expert in the manufacturing and logistics industries. If we can help those who are our customers and potential customers (manufacturers and distributors) with best practices around logistics and freight, as well as manufacturing industry news, we are continuing our mission of driving long term value (even if we give the information away for free). The result (we hope and have seen) is that people view us as the expert and will want to engage us in a long term relationship as their logistics services provider. We hope this is helpful and you learn something from it!  Read the full blog post.

7.  How social media can make David a formidable challenge to Goliath

 3PL provider Coyote Logistics is one of the fastest growing companies in North America. The company’s incredible growth (five-year growth: 3,585 percent) and tenacious spirit has not gone unnoticed. Forbes included Coyote in its list of Most Promising American Companies; Supply & Demand Chain Executive listed Jeff Silver, Coyote CEO, as one of their “Pros to Know;” and the company was listed as one of the best places to work by the Chicago Tribune.  There are undoubtedly many factors that have contributed to the success of the company.  Coyote’s approach to social media is likely one of the company’s keys to success. Read the full blog post.

8. Want to fill the supply chain talent gap? Re-brand the supply chain.

Here’s the thing – the supply chain industry is perceived by those outside the industry as having no “wow” factor whatsoever.  If the supply chain industry is going to attract new and qualified talent, it needs a face lift.  It is time for the supply chain industry to re-brand itself. Read the full blog post.

9. 10 free tools to help you measure your social media ROI

Without a comprehensive social media strategy, your message may be getting lost in the chatter. There are a number of tools that will help you monitor your online influence and, effectively, make the necessary adjustments to ensure your efforts are paying off.  Here are 10 free tools to help you measure your social media ROI.  The basic features of each of these tools are free.  Read the full blog post.

10.  Supplier Scorecards: Tracking Supplier Performance

Regularly tracking your relationship with your suppliers and their performance toward your expectations is critical to ensure the success of your business. One mechanism for tracking this is the supplier scorecard. A scorecard is in essence a report card for your supplier. Supplier scorecards when used effectively can help maintain a healthy supply chain and will benefit both parties. If not used effectively supplier scorecards can damage the supplier relationship and hurt both businesses.  Read the full blog post.