by Fronetics | Nov 5, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
LinkedIn has released a new guide to using video on its platform. Here’s what supply chain companies need to know to get the most out of video on LinkedIn.
Highlights:
- Effective B2B marketing videos start with an analysis of your prospects’ unique purchasing journey and needs.
- Videos for the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey should be concise and geared to forging an emotional connection.
- Bottom-of-the-funnel video types include product demonstrations, welcome videos, webinars, and FAQ sessions.
Visual content, particularly video, is the future of social media marketing. And video on LinkedIn is no exception. A recent report from Kleiner Perkins indicates that 62% of B2B marketers rate video as an effective content-marketing tactic. Not only that, but, according to internal data from LinkedIn, users are 20 times more likely to share a video on the platform than any other type of content.
Thanks to a recent guide published by the platform, leveraging video on LinkedIn for the supply chain has never been more attainable. The Tech Marketer’s Guide to B2B Video is an invaluable resource. Whether you’re relatively new to B2B video marketing, or a seasoned video creator, the guide contains useful nuggets of information, as well as examples of effective video on LinkedIn, for marketers at any stage.
We’ve pulled out key points for you.
6 steps to approaching video on LinkedIn
It’s worth pointing out that the six steps that LinkedIn identifies to building an effective video strategy are applicable elsewhere as well. Your strategy for video on LinkedIn should likely also apply to your strategy for video content across your digital assets.
1) Analyze your buyer’s journey
Consider the unique buyer’s journey for your company. What content do prospects want to see at each stage, and what actions do you want them to take?
2) Set your marketing strategy
What medium is optimal for delivering content at each stage? Which stages are particularly conducive to video content?
3) Establish metrics and KPIs
Choosing the right key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics will allow you to determine how your content is performing.
4) Create video content
At the stages where video content is the best way to deliver, what type of video is most effective?
5) Target your content
Use your understanding of your target audiences, in combination with the targeting capabilities of LinkedIn, to ensure that your video is reaching the right people at the right times.
6) Optimize your campaign
Keep track of your data. Note what’s working. Adjust what isn’t performing.
Using video on LinkedIn throughout the buyer’s journey
Awareness
The first stage of the buyer’s journey, the awareness stage, is particularly opportune for video on LinkedIn. At this point, your goal is to tell a story, evoke a response, and introduce your brand and products.
Videos at this stage should be concise and geared to connecting with your audience, demonstrating an understanding of their challenges, and how your company is positioned to address those challenges.
LinkedIn’s guide points out a major advantage of video: its measurability. As opposed to text-based marketing, where your knowledge of audience behavior is limited to downloads and time on page, video on LinkedIn comes with richer data. You can tell, for example, when someone has watched your video and when they stopped. This means you can adjust your video length suit the preferences of your audience.
At the awareness stage, important video metrics include how many times your video was viewed, how much of the video was watched, and how many viewers responded to your call to action.
Consideration
Using video on LinkedIn for the second stage of the buyer’s journey, the consideration stage, is about introducing your products and their features, as well as giving a sense of what it’s like to work with your business. Ideal video formats at this stage include explainers, case studies, webinars, how-to videos, and virtual tours. Your foremost goal is to be authentic and to represent your business and the solutions it offers.
Key metrics at this stage are about engagement. Keep track of the number of interactions your videos get (comments, likes, clicks, shares, etc.), compared to the number of views. Also keep an eye on your estimated cost per view (eCPV) to track the efficacy of your video budget.
Decision
Because the decision phase of the buyer’s journey is all about personalization, video has traditionally been used less here. But that’s starting to change. Authentic, trust-building videos can be a powerful asset for the decision stage, reassuring your prospects that they’re making the right decision, using testimonials from existing customers. Welcome videos, FAQ sessions, and webinars are also effective in the decision phase, as well as full-length product demonstrations.
If you’re using lead-generation forms with your video on LinkedIn, keep track of which generate the most leads, as well as the quality of those leads. Otherwise, track click-through rates to gain insights into your estimated cost per click (eCPC).
Metrics for video on LinkedIn
LinkedIn offers a robust set of metrics for videos on its platforms:
- Views: At least one second of playback while the video is at least 50% on screen on desktop, or 300 milliseconds on mobile
- Views at 25%: The number of times your video was watched at 25% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point
- Views at 50%: The number of times your video was watched at 50% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point
- Views at 75%: The number of times your video was watched at 75% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point
- Completions: The number of times your video was watched at 97-100% of its length, including watches that skipped to this point
- Completion Rate: Completions divided by views as a percentage
- View Rate: Number of views divided by impressions, multiplied by 100
- eCPV: Estimated cost per view
- Full Screen Plays: Total number of clicks to view video in full screen
Do you use video on LinkedIn for your business? Let us know your experience in the comments.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Oct 29, 2019 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
As other social networks face unprecedented controversy, LinkedIn is still the best professional social media tool. But too many Supply Chain professionals aren’t getting the most from it.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
Awhile back, following Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, we wrote an article asking “Is LinkedIn in Trouble?” In that post, we identified a few shortcomings that we thought threatened to detract from its user promise as being premier social network for professionals. It was full of spam content that had no relevance to anyone, let alone people looking to network, and it had a somewhat faulty search functionality.
A few years on, and the network is still thriving. A recent article in the New York Times caught our attention, and has us revisiting where LinkedIn stands in today’s social media landscape – for job candidates, hiring managers, and people looking to network in general. Titled, “Why Aren’ Talking About LinkedIn?”, it examines some of the controversies around other social networks, and how LinkedIn has managed to steer clear.
Twitter has gained a reputation for trolling and harassment. Facebook, for its part, has gained a reputation for allowing its data to be compromised, threatening users’ privacy, and for allowing foreign actors to influence the U.S. election. Meanwhile, LinkedIn soldiers on. It’s not the savviest, smoothest social network experience – not that it ever has been – but it’s still one of the most useful.
We’re recruiters who are highly active on LinkedIn (check out our page there, if you haven’t.) From our perspective, the social network is still highly relevant to the career world, whether it’s researching prospects, finding candidates, looking for a job, or networking.
LinkedIn has taken efforts to modernize, and those efforts have reinforced the network’s core promise – helping people connect in a professional capacity, and share thought leadership – while avoiding the disinformation and harassment scandals that plague other social media platforms of similar size. As the Times puts it, “the site hasn’t proved especially useful for mainstreaming disinformation, for example, nor is it an obvious staging ground for organized harassment campaigns.”
Why has Linkedin avoided these issues? A few things set it apart from other social networks:
- Users communicate in a business-appropriate way. They realize that a future colleague, boss or hire could be reading what they post, so they’re less likely to post polarizing material.
- Similarly, LinkedIn isn’t political. Because it’s restricted to professional or professional-like communication, it’s managed to avoid some of the political filter bubbles common to other social networks. Political ads are banned on the platform.
- The majority (82%) of LinkedIn’s revenue comes from premium subscriptions, rather than advertising, which allows LinkedIn to rely less on mining user data for revenue. LinkedIn certainly holds a tremendous amount of its users’ data, but this might help explain why it’s had fewer data and privacy-related scandals than other social networks.
LinkedIn has been crisis free, and that’s allowed it to continue to chug along, owning the considerable niche that it’s owned since 2003. Other job sites and career apps have flourished – and floundered – in the meantime, but LinkedIn remains.
In 2019, the network has done a lot to address the biggest shortcomings we wrote about before. Spam posts are much reduced. The interface is lean and responsive, having worked out most of the kinks involved in its latest redesign. As the Times article describes, if you go on LinkedIn today, you see promotional content, but you also see a lot of people using the network for thoughtful professional communication. You see a lot of people who use its powerful content creation channels like LinkedIn Publisher and native video to boost their personal brand and generate career opportunities. It’s powerful not just when looking for a job: people use it to connect with possible suppliers, identify talent, learn best practices, network, and more.
Yet so many professionals still aren’t getting the most out of Linkedin.
In Supply Chain and Procurement, which is our area of recruitment specialty, some of the best candidates have highly inactive profiles. They don’t go into detail about accomplishments (e.g. major projects, cost savings, business transformation). Some of these candidates still don’t treat LinkedIn as a vital tool to build their personal brand, and see it more as an “online resume” to be updated whenever they’re looking for a job. Their profiles are almost empty.
We still find those candidates for our clients. Boolean searches are a powerful tool, as is the tried and true method of talking to as many people as possible. But we often wonder: how many other great Supply Chain professionals are out there who don’t put in the small amount of time required to get on our radar by being more active about their personal branding?
Consider your daily time allotted to social media. How much of it goes to networks like Facebook and Twitter? Isn’t it worth it to take a small chunk of that time and post about career-related topics in a more mentally healthy environment, and boost your brand in the process?
Say you’re a specialist. A Strategic Sourcing professional with expertise in facilities and real estate Procurement, or a Supply Chain analyst who’s highly skilled with SAP and other Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications. Those are requirements our clients – some of the top companies in the world – have all the time. By getting more active on LinkedIn, you’re owning your niche, and rising to the top when people search for people with your speciality. Recruiters, but also suppliers, and colleagues. And trust us, people are searching. Every day.
So what small steps can you take to treat LinkedIn more like a marketing tool, and less like a “set it and forget it” online resume?
- If you aren’t connected to many other Supply Chain professionals, expand your network. Most people are open to unsolicited connection requests if they’re not transactional. Reach out to connect with people at interesting organizations, and start conversations that aren’t about looking for a job.
- Share relevant content with your network, with your comments, and attempt to start discussions. LinkedIn has a new “Top News” feature – on the sidebar of the homepage – which can give you some current topics. Pick things that make you think, and share your thoughts. Publications like Supply Chain Dive, SCMDojo, and Procurious have lots of great thought-provoking professional content to look at as well.
- Think about publishing an article or two through LinkedIn Publisher. What big issues or changes are you facing in your Supply Chain practice? What are you most excited about? A longer-form article can help you organize your thoughts and show off expertise.
- Make sure that your profile has relevant accomplishments, and detailed keywords related to your niche (e.g. the categories you work on in Procurement).
- Be persistent, but not relentless. The LinkedIn algorithm – in our experience – tends to reward people who are more active. But don’t post all over the place indiscriminately – pick and choose topics about which you have something to say.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re a Supply Chain or HR professional, how is LinkedIn is working for you in 2019, either in looking for jobs, or hiring? Let us know in the comments!
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Oct 22, 2019 | Blog, Current Events, Logistics, Manufacturing & Distribution, Strategy, Supply Chain
Amazon has changed the way we do business. Supply chain companies need to get on board with Amazon’s e-commerce strategy or risk losing business.
It is no secret that Amazon has dominated the online retail industry. Amazon Prime has shifted consumer expectations so that waiting 5-7 business days for your online order is no longer acceptable. With people now ordering anything from couches to groceries online, companies need to get on board with this shift to e-commerce or risk missing out on many sales.
Consumers now more than ever want access to more inventory no matter if they are shopping online or in stores. Many companies report the struggle of trying to keep up with this retail giant, and current-day supply chains have certainly felt the impact.
Historically, supply chains have been set up to support a network of stores using the multichannel business model. This includes retailers managing their different channels almost as separate businesses. These channels are what businesses use to get their goods and services to their consumers. For example, many retailers use brick-and-mortar stores as well as e-commerce when it comes to selling.
So, what’s the problem with this? Well, the customer’s experience can vary depending on the shopping channel they choose. Retailers often keep their online and brick-and-mortar inventory separate, which can lead to a frustrating shopping experience for the customer.
I am sure at some point in your life you have had the experience of walking into a store looking to return an online order only to find out it must be returned to the company through the mail. Customers do not view a brand in silos, and the same selection of inventory is expected whether they are shopping online or in a physical store. Companies also run the risk of losing a sale if the exact item the consumer wants is unavailable or sold out. This is one area that allows Amazon to shine because they maintain one pool of inventory that is not separated by different channels of business.
A 2016 UPS survey found that, for the first time, shoppers revealed they bought more of their purchases online than in stores. It’s hard to tell what is the main driver behind this shift, but you can’t help but think of Amazon. It’s hard to comprehend how other companies not only compete but just even keep up with the trillion-dollar company with a revenue of $10.07 billion in 2018.
This is where the omnichannel business model comes into play. Omnichannel combines physical and online commerce to create a more seamless shopping experience for the consumer. While this business model is not a result of Amazon, it certainly puts companies in a better position to compete. The goal here is to provide the same customer experience throughout each channel while ensuring the product reaches the customer as fast as possible.
Characteristics of an omnichannel business model include:
- Buy online pick up in stores
- Stores shipping to other stores
- Dropshipping
- Order fulfillment from store
Nordstrom finding ways to differentiate from the competition
Online shopping provides many benefits to consumers, but it does not come without its own challenges. It is fairly common to buy a shirt online only to find out it is the wrong size. It can be a hassle to mail the item back, and consumers often opt out of this and chalk the purchase up to a loss. Nordstrom understands this pain point and took it upon themselves to offer a solution by creating service hubs called Nordstrom Local. The sole purpose of Nordstrom Local is to make the online shopping experience effortless. While these hubs do not contain designated inventory, they provide a handful of services to the customers.
They offer:
- Pickups
- Returns
- Stylist
- Dressing rooms
- Tailoring services
- Same-day delivery (if ordered before 2 p.m.)
- Espresso drinks, juices, wine & beer
As a consumer, what more could you ask for? The idea is that you order a variety of clothes online and have them delivered to Nordstrom Local. Here you can try on your purchases in their dressing rooms. If it doesn’t fit, no problem — they’ll mail it back for you. Need it hemmed? There’s a tailor on-site.
Nordstrom has held its own in the retail space. With 2018 revenue reaching $15.5 billion, it is hard to argue with their success. They must continue to innovate and find new ways to connect consumers to their product. Trying out this concept in Los Angeles has proven to be successful, and they are looking at opening up hubs in New York next.
Kohl’s joins forces with Amazon
Kohl’s, like many retail stores, welcomes any opportunity to increase foot traffic. Over 1,000 of their stores are now accepting returns from Amazon. Again, we see a pain point of online shopping removed for the consumer. You can bring your unwanted Amazon item to Kohl’s, and they will pack, label, and ship the item at no cost. The hope is that Amazon customers will flock to Kohl’s and hopefully buy some of their inventory on the way.
Their revenue has continued to rise over the past four years and reached 20 billion in 2018. This is a bold idea that can set Kohl’s apart from the competition by delivering a service that is unique to them. Amazon needs a way to keep its customers happy and Kohl’s needs to increase foot traffic, so it appears to be a win-win for all parties involved — including the consumer.
While Kohl’s new idea offers fewer services than Nordstrom’s, they are opening themselves up to a wider consumer market, and with this will likely come more sales. They have addressed the expected increase in expenses that will come with having to hire more employees and spending more on logistics, but the expected payoff is potentially massive.
Comparing strategies
It’s hard to tell which strategy will prove to be more profitable. The only thing that is for certain is that the shift toward e-commerce is not slowing down anytime soon, so companies need to look at how they connect consumers to their product. If the goal is to get your product to the consumer, then your supply chain needs to be tailored to this objective.
Amazon may have the upper hand now, but you never know what new idea could pop up in a few years. In the meantime, companies are faced with the harsh reality of ever-growing competition. Consumers are now hopping on their computers or mobile devices to choose from a plethora of inventory.
Amazon is not completely to blame when it comes to the evolution of consumer expectations, but they have certainly impacted them. Companies wanting to compete are left to make tough but critical decisions on what their next move will be.
This article was written by Emily Standish, an MBA student at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire, specializing in Finance and Information Systems & Business Analytics. She graduated from Merrimack College in 2017 with a B.S. in Business Administration and Management with a concentration in Finance and currently works as a Corporate Financial Analyst.
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by Fronetics | Oct 15, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Manufacturing & Distribution, Marketing, Supply Chain
The analog supply chain model is outmoded and inefficient. Here’s how digital transformation is reinventing manufacturing.
Highlights:
- Manufacturers are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.
- The traditional analog supply chain model is unable to compete with digital disruptors in a volatile market.
- Digital transformation empowers manufacturers to create sought-after personalized experiences for buyers.
Digital transformation isn’t just the latest buzzword in supply chain circles. It’s an ongoing trend that’s revolutionizing manufacturing and supply chain efficiency. According to a recent report from Accenture, 78% of CFOs are spearheading initiatives to improve efficiency through adoption of digital technology.
Digital transformation empowers manufacturers to meet the evolving demands of a customer base with rising expectations for customer service. The digital technologies that are emerging today offer analytics that are vital for forecasting and understanding how to shift the balance of supply and demand.
3 ways that the analog supply chain model is outdated
Supply chain management expert Frank Meerkamp writes, “The traditional supply chain is a tapestry built on an outdated analog network – yet it exists in a digital world.” The difficult truth is that in today’s climate of rapidly shifting market demands and an increasingly interconnected world, manufacturers must embrace digital transformation or be left behind.
Before we look at how digital transformation can benefit manufacturers, let’s take a moment to examine the challenges presented by an outdated analog supply chain.
1) Market volatility
Today’s markets move at a breakneck pace. Thanks to a constantly shifting geopolitical landscape, changing regulations and sanctions, and the unpredictability of cost and supply, manufacturers face market volatility, uncertainty, and a high level of risk. The analog supply chain model leaves companies without the agility to respond and pivot quickly and to operate efficiently on a global or regional scale.
2) Competition from digital disruptors
Perhaps the most powerful example of the way in which digital disruptors are challenging legacy leaders is the Amazon effect. Amazon has effectively situated itself as an innovator and easily has outpaced rivals in multiple sectors. Companies that continue to embrace an analog supply chain model simply cannot compete with those that have fully embraced digital transformation.
3) Rising customer expectations
While it can be tempting for B2B companies to bury their heads in the sand, believing that digital marketing is purely a B2C necessity, the reality is that supply chain companies must embrace digital marketing as part of their digital transformation. Buyers expect hyper-personalized experiences, as well as customized products, and the kind of execution that’s impossible for manufactures to deliver within the analog supply chain framework.
4 ways digital transformation addresses today’s challenges for manufacturers
As the complexity of the supply chain increases, embracing digital transformation is the clearest path to success for manufacturers. While companies that cling to an outdated analogue model struggle with eroding margins and an inability to compete, those that establish “a data-driven supply chain,” writes Meerkamp, “can gain advantages in increased forecasting accuracy, identifying and resolving issues in real time, creating new segmentations, and delivering on consumer requirements with speed, specificity, and scale.”
In short, digital transformation uses data to drive visibility and agility for manufacturers, allowing them to operate efficiently and profitably.
1) Establishing visibility and centralized control
The AI and machine-learning technologies available today enable manufacturers to meet the challenges presented by an increasingly complex supply chain. Massive sets of data can be captured and processed, providing invaluable real-time visibility. Not only that, but manufacturers can leverage this visibility to centralize data and decision-making.
2) Creating new performance engines
Thanks to the ability of AI technologies to process enormous quantities of data, digital transformation enables “powerful resolution engines, based on real-time root-cause analyses, to automate the execution of supply chain functions, and optimize transactions to meet strategic objectives,” says Meerkamp. These technologies facilitate the forecasting and immediate decision-making necessary for manufacturers to operate efficiently.
3) Facilitating agility
Today’s marketplace moves faster than ever, and market forces are constantly shifting. Agility has never been more important for companies to compete. Intelligent technologies allow supply chain companies to establish a management model that is collaborative, data-driven, and platform-based. Digital transformation enables the sharing of qualitative information as well as real-time data and implications. This in turns enables agile management, ready to meet the shifting demands of the marketplace.
4) Developing personalization and flexibility
One of the biggest challenges manufacturers face today is the increasing buyer expectations of personalized experiences. AI technology enables the creation of segmentation strategies, addressing buyers’ personalized needs based on various factors, including channel, location, and service level. Real-time visibility into market data also leads to greater insight into buyers’ needs and how to meet them.
Organizations that embrace digital transformation are empowered to create personalized experiences for their customers and operate with the agility, visibility, and centralization necessary to compete in today’s marketplace.
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by Fronetics | Oct 10, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Robotics & Automation, Supply Chain
Supply chain companies are beginning to use robotics to boost warehouse efficiency and drive profits thanks to new automated technologies.
Highlights:
- High-res cameras, pressure sensors, navigation lasers, and acoustic warning indicators allow automated devices to navigate warehouses efficiently and autonomously.
- Robotics offers enhanced efficiency for both warehouse capability and predictive supply chain management.
- After major investments in automated fulfillment centers, Amazon has seen a 50% increase in capacity when compared to facilities that don’t use robotics.
A recent Information Services Group (ISG) study suggests that something big is happening: 72% of information services (IS) enterprises plan to increase their investment in robotics by the end of the 2019. Why? Because automation and IS are a natural fit.
Leading companies worldwide are beginning to use robotics to boost their warehouse efficiency and forecasting capabilities. And an improving price-to-performance ratio associated with robotics technology means that usage is sure to continue expanding.
The advantages of automation
New automated technologies are a game-changer. Until recently, available robotic devices were stationary and couldn’t interact visually with their surroundings or respond to unexpected inputs. Today, robots are mobile and collaborative. High-res cameras, pressure sensors, navigation lasers, and acoustic warning indicators allow automated devices to navigate warehouses efficiently and autonomously.
Recent technology upgrades include software that causes a robot to cease activity temporarily if it encounters an unexpected object or input, meaning that these devices can safely work alongside humans. Whereas earlier robots were used mainly to transfer objects from one place to another, more recent technology can enhance tasks ranging from managing inventory to retrieving, assembling, and packing orders.
Industry leaders have invested in automated warehouse management systems (WMS) with undeniable results. After major investments in automated fulfillment centers, Amazon has seen a 50% increase in capacity when compared to facilities that don’t use robotics. Amazon has even acquired the company that creates its robots, indicating Amazon’s confidence that the continued production and development of automated technology will play a big part in their future.
JD.com, China’s largest online retailer, has gone even further. Boasting the world’s first fully automated e-commerce warehouse, JD has equipped the 43,000-square-foot facility with 20 industrial robots that allow the company to provide same- and next-day delivery to more than 1 billion customers. Whereas a standard warehouse of that size would require nearly 500 workers, JD employs just 5.
Streamlining operational staff offers a big pay-off. On average, a warehouse employee wastes almost 7 weeks per year in unnecessary motion, which adds up overall to $4.3 billion in labor expenses. For employees, simply walking around in the warehouse accounts for 50% of the time involved in retrieving orders and checking inventories. Coupled with the potential for human error, the superior efficiency of robots makes it a question of “when?” rather than “if?” automation will become the new norm in parcel-sorting hubs and distribution centers.
Automated guided vehicles
The robotics revolution is already underway. One of the most widespread and effective uses of robots in warehouses is the automated guided vehicle (AGV). These self-driving vehicles are rendering expensive and single-use equipment like conveyor belts and large loading vehicles obsolete. Battery-monitoring systems send AGVs back to their charging ports when necessary, maximizing the efficiency of their operation. AGVs can be directed by voice or programmed to retrieve orders, guided by physical markers, magnets, and vision systems. In addition to navigating a warehouse floor more quickly and efficiently than human employees, AGVs are also capable of lifting and transporting much heavier weights, allowing for a larger number of orders to be retrieved in the same amount of time.
The advantages of AGVs run deeper than warehouse efficiency, however, and extend to logistics operations as well. AGVs track and update inventory records in real time as they retrieve orders. Ordinarily, the immense amount of data involved in running supply chains creates inefficiency and requires additional personnel to monitor inventory levels and place orders. The AGV integrates these tasks into a streamlined operation, as it can retrieve items as soon as order data is received and updates inventory levels instantaneously, even placing automatic purchases. This allows for improved forecasting and faster inventory refill.
Effi-BOT & Sawyer
That’s all very well in theory. But how does it work in practice?
DHL has led the pack in using robots to assist employees with repetitive and physically demanding tasks. Effi-BOT, an AGV that follows employees through DHL warehouses, takes over the physical work involved in picking orders. The use of Effi-BOT has allowed DHL to move from single-order picking to a multi-order model, and helps track complex inventory dynamics.
Another robot, Sawyer, has illustrated how automation can be used in flexible ways to accommodate ever-changing purchasing and order patterns involved in e-commerce. Sawyer’s collaborative capabilities allow it to handle repetitive aspects of the co-packing process. By adding Sawyer to its existing workforce, DHL has been able to use the robot to flexibly adjust to unpredictable order data.
Managing robotics
Typically, the inventory and performance data generated by devices such as Sawyer and Effi-BOT is aggregated in a dashboard that supply chain managers can use to check inventory levels and review automated requests sent from robotic devices to purchasing departments. By integrating data recorded in real time by automated devices, dashboards make larger and larger segments of the supply chain visible, allowing managers to pinpoint the source of problems, such as a delayed order from a supplier’s factory.
Robotics thus offers enhanced efficiency for both warehouse capability and predictive supply chain management. While the regulatory policies surrounding the use of robotics in the workplace are as yet uncertain, there can be no doubt that automation is already re-shaping the supply chain. Successful companies of the future will be the ones that find ways of taking advantage of new robotics technology today.
This post originally appeared on EBN Online.
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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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