by Fronetics | Oct 8, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Digital marketing helps increase brand awareness, convert leads, and drive measurable business value. But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to execute. Here are 4 digital marketing failures and how to get back on track.
Highlights:
- While digital marketing is extremely effective, proving ROI is often the top challenge for marketers.
- If your content isn’t SEO-friendly, readers may not even have the chance to see what you’re writing because it is so far down in their search results.
- Though it’s often more time consuming than written content, visual content, including infographics and video, are the most popular form of content right now.
B2B buyers want information, and they’re inundated with it. Are you ready for this? There are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day, and that number is only accelerating with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). Over the last two years alone, 90% of the data in the world was generated.
Because of at its core it leverages data to target audiences, digital marketing has been a successful solution for marketers. But it’s not that easy.
Here at Fronetics, we’re big believers in analytics. And while digital marketing is extremely effective, proving ROI is often the top challenge for marketers. Without data to back up your efforts, how do you prove your digital marketing strategy is working? And with all those quintillion bytes of data being created every day, how do you stand out from competitors?
The simple answer is using analytics to evaluate your efforts and to determine what is working and what needs to be tweaked. Digital marketing strategies have to be fluid and easily adaptive to change. Companies have to grow and shift with the times, which means that marketing plans have to evolve.
Here are four digital marketing failures, which you can easily identify through analytics, and how to fix them.
4 digital marketing failures (and how to make them right)
1.Lack of strategy
Many marketers understand the power of digital marketing but think they can jump in without a strategy. And not just a strategy that you thought of over coffee, but an actual documented strategy. Why? Because a documented digital marketing strategy will help you work smarter and more effectively.
In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute, those with a documented content marketing strategy:
- Are far more likely to consider themselves effective at digital marketing
- Feel significantly less challenged with every aspect of digital marketing
- Generally, consider themselves more effective in their use of all digital marketing tactics and social media channels
- Were able to justify spending a higher percentage of their marketing budget on content marketing
Having a fundamental understating of your digital marketing plan and a strategy for executing that plan is crucial for success.
2. No search engine optimization
Google is responsible for 94% of total organic traffic. That’s almost ALL organic traffic. SEO means creating content for your digital assets so they will be prioritized by Google in search queries related to your brand or products. It’s time for digital marketers to learn the basics of Google’s algorithms and understand how the content they’re creating can rank better against the competition.
61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority. If your content isn’t SEO-friendly, readers may not even have the chance to see what you’re writing because it is so far down in their search results.
3. Quality is lacking
While this seems obvious, it’s worth repeating. If the quality of your content is bad, no one will read it, regardless of what value it offers. The same goes for content about which you find yourself saying, “it works,” or “it’s fine!” If there are 27 million options, who would choose “fine?”
Do an honest evaluation of your digital assets, or have a neutral outside party do so for you. Is it original, informative, and well-written? Make sure that your copy is edited, and that it is free from grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and awkward phrasing. If you want people to read your content, you should make sure that it’s worth reading.
And don’t shy away from visual content. Though it’s often more time consuming than written content, visual content, including infographics and video, are the most popular form of content right now.
4. Lack of posting consistency
Inconsistently publishing content is one of the primary reasons readers become disengaged with a particular brand. Having consistent, high-quality content helps establish your company as a thought leader in your industry. Even publishing one more blog post a week can significantly boost your readership.
Try experimenting with the amount of content you publish per week. For example, if you currently publish two times a week, try bumping it up to three times for one month. The following month, maybe you try bumping it to four. You’ll find your sweet spot when you’re increasing engagement but are still able to handle the production schedule and it’s not impacting the quality of your content.
What other digital marketing failures have you encountered?
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by Fronetics | Oct 4, 2019 | Blog, Current Events, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Also, this month in social media news: a court rules LinkedIn cannot stop third-party scraping public information and Facebook expands “Today In” section.
After a relatively quiet month in the world of social media news, social platforms have been hard at work making changes to provide a better user experience and cut down on spam accounts. This is good news for B2B marketers looking to stand out amongst all the competition.
With the growing influence of social networks, social channels have been challenged with making sure the information shared on their sites is authentic and “real” news. In response, social platforms have been working to sort through fake accounts and streamline ways to detect and remove these accounts, which often result in major losses of followers.
But this decline in user accounts does not mean that social media platforms’ influence is declining. In fact, social media usage is at an all-time high, and networks are pushing out new updates, features and policies to keep users happy.
Here’s your social media news for October 2019.
Facebooks announces new business tool for Messenger
Looking to increase leads and engage with new audiences? Facebook is trying to help. The social network introduced a new package of tools for the 40 million active businesses on Messenger, including booking appointments and lead generation workflows. As the new features were announced, Facebook also reported the Discovery tab will be phased out. According to Facebook, “Businesses engaging with potential leads in their preferred channel are seeing results, and finding it easy to continue the conversation and seamlessly nurture leads in Messenger.”
Twitter tests new ‘topics’ shortcut
Twitter users may soon be able to follow topics in the same way they would follow users. Users can see tweets about topics they choose (like digital marketing, supply chain procurement, or even sports) in the home feed. Individual tweets will be monitored through machine learning and chosen to be included in specific topics.
Though only in the testing phase, the new shortcut would help users discover the exact content they need and want without following a specific account. The Verge reports that Twitter is also working on other ways to improve the user experience, including searchable direct messages, the ability to re-order the photos in a tweet after you have attached them to a new post, and plans to add support for Apple’s Live Photos.
Court rules that LinkedIn cannot stop third-party data scraping of public information
hiQabs has been collecting public user information on LinkedIn to create analytics for employers that accurately identify employee patterns and help with retention efforts. But LinkedIn has tried to block the “data scrapping,” alleging that hiQ was violating the CFAA, as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Until now, when a San Francisco appeal’s court told LinkedIn to take a step back. The court’s decision means the CFAA doesn’t apply to public information, including information collecting via social media platforms. This decision could have major implications for social platforms looking to protect user privacy. We’ll continue to closely monitor any updates from this case in next month’s social media news.
Facebook expands “Today In” section
“Today In” has been running in six U.S. cities since January 2018, and has over 1.6 million people who have opted to receive regular local updates from Today In within the newsfeed. Facebook just announced they’ll be expanding the news section to 6,000 more U.S. cities and towns, bringing local news to “news deserts,” areas with limited local news available.
“Today In” showcases the biggest news stories and happenings in local regions. With declining engagement rates, Facebook created the separate newsfeed in an effort to boost engagement and discussions around topics that matter to local areas.
Facebook clarifies privacy settings for Groups
Public, closed, or secret? What do these privacy settings mean? Users across Facebook’s platform weren’t sure, so the network has changed the wording describing the privacy settings for groups. To make these settings clearer, groups now have the option of public or private. Facebook writes:
“We’re making this change because we’ve heard from people that they want more clarity about the privacy settings for their groups. Having two privacy settings — public and private — will help make it clearer about who can find the group and see the members and posts that are part of it. We’ve also heard that most people prefer to use the terms “public” and “private” to describe the privacy settings of groups they belong to. “
The changes leave privacy settings more straight-forward. Public groups show anyone who is a member and all the content shared within the group, while private groups will only show members and content to users that join the group.
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by Fronetics | Oct 2, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Our infographic gives you everything from the basics to the specifics of using Reddit for B2B marketing.
Highlights:
- Reddit is a social platform made up of thousands of individual forums where users can post content and vote on its relevance and value.
- The first rule of Reddit: avoid overt brand promotion and sales pitches.
- Creating your own subreddit is the best way to make Reddit a high-value marketing channel.
Reddit calls itself the “frontpage of the internet.” And for good reason. The social networking site boasts over 300 million active users, as well as 140,000 active communities and a whopping 14 million pageviews per month. However, when it comes to using Reddit for B2B marketing, it’s still a relatively untapped channel.
Our infographic is your ultimate guide to using Reddit for B2B marketing. Read on to find out more about this platform and how you can put it to work for your business.
What is Reddit?
Since the site was founded in 2005, Reddit’s user base has skewed young. However, as millennials come of age and rise to positions of influence within the B2B purchasing landscape, Reddit is becoming an increasingly effective way to reach your target audience.
At its most fundamental level, Reddit is a social sharing website built around users submitting links, pictures, and text, which the community can then vote on. Similarly to Quora, the content that’s voted as best rises to top visibility, while downvoted content becomes less visible.
The structure of the site resembles an intricate message board, divided up into hundreds of thousands of subfolders, called “subreddits,” which function as specific forums. Imagine just about any topic you can think of, and there’s probably a subreddit for it. In fact, for thinking about Reddit for B2B marketing, the following subreddits could be of interest:
If you’re looking for industry discussion on a specific marketing topic, it’s likely you can find a relevant subreddit. While each subreddit has different moderators and regulations, there’s one common thread that runs through the entire site: there is a premium placed on authentic content and interactions – and a disdain for overt self-promotion.
(Made with Canva)
Using Reddit for B2B marketing in 5 steps
Now that we’ve covered the basics about what Reddit is and how it works, let’s talk about how to make it part of your marketing strategy.
Step 1: Determine your target subreddit(s).
In the same way that a good digital marketing strategy begins with identifying your target audience, determining your target subreddits is the starting point for successfully using Reddit for B2B marketing. While the massive quantity of subreddits can be overwhelming, consider the following three questions to zero in on the right subreddits for your business:
- Does the subreddit relate to your business’ brand or products, as well as any specific keywords that shape your digital marketing strategy?
- How large is each subreddit’s audience? (Note: bigger isn’t necessarily better. A larger audience has the potential to generate more traffic, but it’s easier to establish your brand’s presence in a smaller subreddit.)
- How much engagement does the subreddit generate?
Once you’ve determined a few relevant subreddits with various audience sizes and high engagement, you’re ready to begin posting.
Step 2: Post links… to websites other than your own.
Before you start wondering why we’re encouraging you to promote other pages, there’s another facet of Reddit to consider. The platform takes the idea of Karma to a literal level. On Reddit, your reputation is referred to as your “Karma score,” and it’s determined by your level of positive participation on Reddit, measured by the number of upvotes you receive. As your Karma score rises, your posts become more visible.
One of the most effective ways to boost your Karma score, particularly when you’re starting out, is to post links to content that the subreddit community finds relevant and generate conversation. It’s important to make sure you don’t repost content that another member of your subreddit has already posted, as duplicates can hurt your Karma score.
Step 3: Share valuable content… that’s not a sales pitch.
When posting content to your target subreddits, the path to success is quite simple. Post content that offers value to the community. This means engaging in discussions, asking and answering questions, and, at all costs, avoiding blatant sales pitches.
Sam Holzman of ZoomInfo explains it this way: “Sharing a link to a product page will signal that you’re a marketer who wants to promote products, not an engaged community member. On the other hand, a blog post about the benefits of a particular product will be more useful to your fellow community members and, as a result, is more likely to be upvoted and commented on.”
Step 4: Advertise on Reddit.
While blatant sales pitches on Reddit are a sure way to a low Karma score, the platform does offer its own native advertising. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, Reddit Advertising is a relatively inexpensive way to boost the visibility of your content on the platform. However, it’s important to note that Reddit doesn’t offer the type of analytics as Facebook and Twitter.
Sponsored posts on Reddit appear at the top of targeted subreddits for a specified duration. You pay for duration as well as the number of impressions you receive. Sponsored posts look like any other Reddit posts. Advertising on the platform isn’t necessary for success, but it can help establish a visible presence, particularly at first.
Step 5: Create a subreddit.
Creating a subreddit isn’t easy – it requires a significant time investment to start and maintain. However, doing so is the best way to turn Reddit into an extremely valuable marketing channel. Once you’ve established your presence, creating a branded subreddit gives your customers and prospects a forum to interact, with you and with each other.
Particularly at the outset, you’ll likely need to promote your subreddit on other platforms. Post links to it on your other digital assets, and you could even offer an incentive for engaging on your subreddit.
Your branded subreddit is also an ideal place to offer customer service. Holding exclusive Q&As, referred to on Reddit as AMAs (“Ask Me Anything”), is another effective strategy to drive traffic and engagement on your subreddit.
The bottom line on Reddit for B2B marketing
Reddit is a rich resource for marketers and a fertile ground for marketing your brand and products. The platform is best thought of as a place to share and engage with high-quality, valuable content, rather than as a place for overt promotion. Effectively using Reddit for B2B marketing requires an investment of time and energy, but the results can be well worth the effort.
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by Fronetics | Oct 1, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Consumers are more likely to trust content generated by their peers, which means higher conversion rates at a lower cost for your brand. Is your brand benefitting from user generated content?
Highlights:
- User generated content is content created by users of a specific brand or on a specific platform.
- Images and video of real people using your products or talking about your services will create trust and loyalty for your brand.
- Don’t be afraid to engage with your audiences over social media, respond to comments, and answer questions.
Video transcript:
I’m Katie Russell, a marketing strategist here at Fronetics, and today I wanted to talk to you about user generated content. Also known as UGC, user generated content is one of the hottest topics in digital marketing right now, but there are many businesses that don’t know how to use this tool to their advantage.
Let’s start with the basics.
What is UGC?
User generated content is content created by users of a specific brand or on a specific platform. It’s highly effective and comes at little or no cost to your business.
With that said, a lot can qualify as UGC including: comments on your blog, testimonials on your website, social media posts, blog articles, videos, Instagram stories, The list goes on and on. What it comes down to is that UGC is really any form of content that comes from a customer or a user.
So, what are the benefits of UGC?
Authenticity
We know that consumers are more likely to trust content generated by their peers, which means higher conversion rates at a lower cost for your brand. This also means the content is authentic and genuine reviews from buyers. Does it get any better than that?
Inexpensive
Since your brand is not generating the content, you don’t have to invest in the time and resources to create it.
What’s hot in UGC right now?
Visual content
Visual content is by far the most popular among audiences, so visual UGC is a no brainer. Images and video of real people using your products or talking about your services will create trust and loyalty for your brand.
Snackable content
We all know that the attention span for content is extremely short these days. When reposting UGC, focus on short, funny and positive content. Content that leaves users feeling informed and entertained will perform best for your brand.
Enlisting influencers
Whether it’s a famous celebrity or a micro-influencer that’s respected within your industry, brands involving influential people in their marketing campaigns can expect higher ROI from UGC.
Don’t forget to follow-up
Once you’ve grabbed the attention of your community with a successful UGC campaign, it’s up to you to capitalize on the momentum. Don’t be afraid to engage with your audiences over social media, respond to comments, answer questions. Have questions about starting a UGC campaign as a part of your digital marketing strategy? Visit us at fronetics.com.
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by Fronetics | Sep 26, 2019 | Blog, Current Events, Marketing, Social Media
Having the right social media image sizes for each platform is a key part of creating visually appealing posts.
Highlights:
- Each social media platform has its own set of image guidelines.
- Choosing the right social media image sizes ensures that your content is as visually appealing as possible.
- We like Canva Pro for quick resizing of images and graphics.
Social media is all about the visual. Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, having the right image can make or break the effectiveness of a post. Social media image size might seem like a relatively unimportant facet of choosing an effective image for a post. But you might be surprised to discover how important it can be.
An incorrect social media image size can make your post less visually appealing than it could be, and it can even erode how the number of impressions a post receives. Because each platform has its guidelines for sizes — and because each image type (profile picture, cover photo, etc.) has different size restrictions — determining correct social media image size is no easy task.
The infographic below gives you a complete guide to the various image size requirements on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Once you know the correct social media image sizes, you can set your photo editing software to the correct dimensions.
Social media image sizes: by the network
(Made with Canva)
Facebook
Facebook is perhaps the crown jewel of social media platforms, boasting 1.5 billion daily active users. While the platform is text-friendly, images are key to creating engaging content on the platform. An important thing to remember when it comes to images on Facebook is that they will display differently on your page’s timeline as compared to a user’s newsfeed. This means that your choice of image dimensions should be based on where you want your viewers to see your image.
Image dimensions:
- Cover image: 800 x 312
- Profile image: 180 x 180 (though it will display as 170 x 170 on desktop, and 32 x 32 as a thumbnail)
- Shared post image: 1200 x 630
- Shared link preview image: 1200 x 628
- Event image: 1920 x 1080
- Highlighted image: 1200 x 717
Instagram
Instagram is all about the visual – which means that it’s crucial that your brand’s presence on the platform is driven by high-quality images. As a rule, the platform scales down photos to 612 x 612, but it’s still recommended that shared images be set to 1080 x 1080 to optimize quality.
Image dimensions:
- Profile image: 110 x 110
- Image thumbnail: 161 x 161
- Shared photos: 1080 x 1080
- Shared videos: 1080 pixels wide
- Instagram Stories: 1080 x 1920 (minimum 600 x 1067); maximum 4 GB
Twitter
Twitter has 313 billion monthly active users and has recently updated its image guidelines.
Image dimensions:
- Header image: 1500 x 500; maximum 5 MB
- Profile image: 400 x 400; maximum 2 MB
- In-stream image: 440 x 220
LinkedIn
While the network may not be thought of as a highly visual platform, images on LinkedIn make a big difference in terms of post engagement. With 467 million registered users, it’s the world’s largest professional network. Having polished, well-sized images on the platform can go a long way toward maximizing its potential for professional networking and industry visibility.
Image dimensions:
- Banner image: 1584 x 396; maximum 4 MB
- Profile image: 400 x 400 (minimum 200 x 200); maximum 10 MB
- Company Cover image: 1536 x 768
- Shared image: 350 pixels wide
- Shared link preview: 180 x 110
- Company logo image: 300 x 300; maximum 4 MB
- Company cover image: 1536 x 768 (minimum 1192 x 220); maximum 4 MB
- Company page banner image: 646 x 220; maximum 2 MB
- Square logo (appears in company searches): 60 x 60; maximum 2 MB
An insider trick for quick and easy resizing
As you can see, there is quite a bit of variability in social media image sizes. You could spend hours resizing graphics or images for the same post across multiple platforms… Or, you could do what we do, and try a design platform like Canva. Not only does it already have all the proper dimensions available as templates, Canva Pro lets you change the size of graphics you created in a single click. It definitely makes life a lot easier.
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by Fronetics | Sep 19, 2019 | Blog, Data/Analytics, Marketing, Marketing Automation, Supply Chain
In a highly competitive B2B landscape, AI can be the strategic advantage your brand needs. Here’s everything you need to know about AI for marketing.
Highlights:
- AI enables predictive analysis – the ability to look at a large set of data and predict what steps to take to reach a desired outcome.
- Social listening powered by AI gives marketers key insights into brand perception and audience reaction.
- When considering purchasing an AI technology for marketing, consider if it includes its own Big Data source.
When we think about artificial intelligence (AI), it’s often with a twinge of unease. Whether it’s pop culture telling us that robots will take over at their earliest opportunity, or fears of human labor being replaced with machines, AI is a complex, controversial, and even mysterious topic. But when it comes to the applications of AI for marketing, there’s actually a lot to celebrate.
It’s important for marketers not only to have a thorough understanding of the uses of AI for marketing, but to be aware of industry trends, and how to determine investment to maximize ROI.
What is AI for marketing?
While it’s not necessary for marketers to be artificial intelligence and robotics experts, it’s beneficial to have a functional understanding of the technology that enables AI for marketing. In a general sense, the term “AI” refers to the area of computer science that enables the creation of software and machines that possess what we think of as intelligence. That is, they are able to work, react, and learn without being specifically programmed for each task.
AI is enabled by data science, “the practice of organizing and analyzing massive amounts of data.” When it comes to marketing, AI can be thought of as an extension and development of marketing automation. Essentially, AI for marketing is software that collects, analyzes, and reacts to large amounts of data, with increasing levels of sophistication.
According to content intelligence expert Bart Frischknecht, of Vennli, AI for marketing can be categorized in one of two ways.
- Recommending: This type of marketing software “predicts which action will have the most positive outcome in order to recommend a next step in a series of events.” Frischknecht describes these recommendations as “stepping stones on the way to fully automating a given task.”
- Automating: Software that automates is a furtherance of software that recommends. For a task to be automated, it needs to be “routine and repeatable, the goal needs to be specific, and the steps to achieve that goal must follow an exact set of rules.”
Think of data as the fuel that powers AI for marketing. As we gather more and more data, and devise increasingly sophisticated analytical methods, the possibilities for intelligent automation in marketing will continue to expand.
5 examples of AI for marketing
1) Data filtering and analysis
At Fronetics, we’ve advocated for a data-driven approach to marketing since our founding. For marketers, data is the most powerful strategic weapon in your arsenal, and AI is sharpening it even further. AI software can consolidate large amounts of data, and analyze it to determine patterns and trends.
2) Social listening
Social listening, also known as social monitoring, is the process of observing and examining social media, to identify and access what is being said about your brand. Social listening gives marketers valuable market intelligence, prospect insight, tone awareness, and competitive advantage.
Current AI software lets marketers not only engage in sophisticated social monitoring, but it also enables “sentiment analysis,” automatically generating a report of the overall attitude of your audience and perception of your brand.
3) Predictive analysis
Beyond simply filtering and analyzing data, AI for marketing goes a crucial step further: predictive analysis, the practice of applying the information extracted from data sets to predict a future outcome or trend.
This revolutionary capability of AI can be used to analyze buyer purchase behavior, for example, and determine when and how to distribute certain types of content. Social media scheduling tools, for instance, use predictive analysis to suggest the optimal times to share content.
4) Audience targeting and segmentation
As B2B buyers increasingly come to expect personalization at all stages of the buyer’s journey, it can be a challenge for marketers to deliver. However, AI makes personalization possible at a large scale, drawing on data to segment and categorize audiences.
The limits of the specificity of this segmentation are determined only by the amount of data available. In other words, the more data, the more the AI software can instantly segment a contact list and deliver personalized correspondence.
5) Chatbots
One of the most ubiquitous examples of AI for marketing, chatbots are computer programs that simulate human conversation using auditory or textual methods. Chatbots communicate with buyers within a messaging app, like Facebook messenger.
3 questions to ask when considering an investment in AI for marketing
While the possibilities of AI for marketing are virtually endless, the reality for most companies is that marketing budgets are not. When considering an investment in any technology, including AI, maximizing ROI should be top of mind. Frischknecht suggests that marketers ask the following three questions when considering an investment in AI for marketing:
- Which marketing task will this technology automate, and will doing so alleviate a significant burden for marketing staff?
- Does purchase of the tech include its own Big Data source, or do I need to provide all the data? If the latter, do I have adequate data, and can I connect my data source to the tech?
- What evidence exists of the tech making good recommendations or automating one of my tasks.
AI is revolutionizing marketing. Investing intelligently in these technologies can provide critical market insights, data processing capabilities, and predictive analysis.
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