by Jennifer Hart Yim | Aug 24, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Manufacturing & Distribution, Marketing, Supply Chain
Here are seven tips for manufacturers to improve your email marketing strategy in the manufacturing and industrial sector.
This post comes to us from Adam Robinson of Cerasis, a top freight logistics company and truckload freight broker.
Email marketing is a powerful tool for growing and developing different types of businesses. However, many industries are still unaware of the power of using an appropriate email marketing strategy. Many manufacturers and industrial companies are still stuck in the one-off batch and blast mode of email marketing. That strategy is not likely to work very well in industrial marketing, where most of the purchases are expensive; complex products with long sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, and stakeholders are involved; and there is a much higher risk if a wrong decision is made.
7 email marketing tips for manufacturers
1. Avoid SPAM at all costs
The last thing that you want is for your emails to end up in someone’s spam folder or have your emails banned from someone’s inbox. Before you even start an email marketing campaign, you should print out the latest copy of the CAN-SPAM act to remind yourself of some email marketing principles, such as any recipient must have given their consent before receiving commercial email, have an option to unsubscribe from receiving further emails, do not mislead the recipient about the content or the origin of the email, and use approved methods to get a recipient’s email address.
2. Personalize your emails
You should avoid sending generic emails. Your recipients are not all the same, and you should make distinctions between them by segmenting your database. This means sending the same type of email diversified in some key aspects depending on the type of recipient. The content and filters of platforms such as Litmus and Reach Mail, which is based on personal data, geography, activity, and devices used, let you automate the entire process to narrow your focus and identify the ideal sub-section of your list.
3. Increase your traffic and clicks
By creating the perfect email marketing campaign, you will have the power to turn emails into clicks and traffic to your website. Sending relevant links to your subscribers will drive them to your website, and this increases the potential for new sales. If you want to give a real boost to your click-thru rates, you should keep in mind that you have to get rid of the clutter. Having an email that has too many graphics and banners will confuse your readers and leave them wondering what they are supposed to click on.
4. Offer quality content
You should always provide useful, quality content in an email and links to further information. Your emails should be more informative than sales-related, especially in the manufacturing industry. Talk about your company’s safety standards, advertise interviews with experts, and discuss pressing matters in your industry. Not presenting your information in a clear and accurate way will put off your recipients. You can take advantage of online tools to help you with your content writing. Use Australian Help and Oxessays as copywriting tools for writing your emails and Bigassignments to help you to edit your content. [Editor’s note: You can also partner with a third-party marketing firm to develop and execute an email marketing strategy for your business.]
5. Optimize your subscriber list
Do not rush out and buy an email list to get started with email marketing. You should grow your in-house subscriber list and get to know your customers and what they need from you.
6. Link your email platform with other channels
Email platforms, external databases, e-commerce, social media, and business intelligence systems can all be linked to optimize your business and reach more potential clients. Platforms such as Mail Chimp and Mad Mimi allow you to connect and integrate every system, synchronize the information on each, and have them communicate with each other.
7. Automation and tracking
You should try to make your email marketing strategy as efficient as possible with email marketing automation. Platforms such as the mentioned Litmus and Reach Mail will let you automate the entire process. Analyzing and tracking your campaigns’ performance is also essential. Using the analysis tools and reports available from the platforms we suggested will allow you to check and optimize your clicks, traffic, and sales.
Wrapping up the 7 email tips for manufacturers
There are many things to consider when creating an email marketing campaign. The main goal is to effectively connect with potential customers to persuade them to purchase your product by reminding them that you exist and that you are helping. Use these email tips for manufacturers to continually improve your sales and grow your industrial business.
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by Fronetics | Aug 22, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Supply chain and logistics businesses need to be about more than themselves, and content marketing can help them get there.
While conventional wisdom tells us that content marketing is useful and important for any business, there are still some in the supply chain and logistics industries that remain unconvinced. It’s an understandable conundrum: Content marketing requires significant time, labor, and resources, and it can take quite some time to start reaping benefits.
The bottom line is that studies have shown that of companies with a documented content marketing strategy, 86% find their efforts to be successful in generating new leads, creating lasting relationships with customers, and increased ROI.
How can content marketing make my business better?
Consider this: Content marketing helps a company become more than just another business to customers — it can become a valuable resource for everything related to their products and services.
A good content marketing strategy is about understanding the questions and concerns that are particular to your customer base, and offering quality information and analysis that answers those needs. In the words of River Pools & Spas co-owner Marcus Sheridan, “The moment we stopped saying, ‘We’re pool builders,’ and started saying, ‘We are the best teachers in the world about Fiberglass pools and we just happen to install them as well,’…that was one of the most prosperous days of our lives.”
It’s worth noting that Sheridan was discussing his company’s turnaround from near bankruptcy to becoming a global leader in its field. He attributes this success to switching his company’s mission from selling its product to educating potential buyers — namely, content marketing.
Your business is more than its product.
Recognizing that your business has more to offer than its primary product or service is at the core of what content marketing is all about. Kirk Cheyfitz, CEO of Story Worldwide, puts it this way: “Like a decent human being, brands need to be about more than themselves.”
Start thinking about your business this way. You have a team of people with a tremendous aggregate of experience, expertise, and perspectives. That means that you can offer your audience far more than simply your primary product or service: You can offer them knowledge. Your audience is, in turn, far more likely to become buyers as you provide value — which builds trust and cultivates lasting, fruitful relationships.
What can I do to implement an effective content marketing strategy?
If you’re just jumping on the content marketing bandwagon, it’s an exciting time for your business. You might want to check out our Twelve-Step Guide to a Content Marketing Strategy and other resources to help you through the process.
A visual content audit is a solid first step. The main thing to keep in mind is that you have valuable resources at your disposal that you can offer your audience of potential buyers — start sharing!
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by Elizabeth Hines | Aug 21, 2017 | Blog, Manufacturing & Distribution, Strategy, Supply Chain
The DoD is gravitating toward advanced authenticating technologies as a means to root out counterfeit electronics in the U.S. military.
Counterfeit electronic parts are a well-documented problem in the military supply chain. At the time of a 2012 Senate Armed Services Committee report that brought the issue to the forefront, over a million counterfeit electronic parts had entered the U.S. military supply chain. The year-long investigation behind the report found 1,800 cases of counterfeits within military systems, ranging from thermal weapon sights to computers to airplanes.
The dangers of fake parts go without saying: Counterfeits not only threaten U.S. national security, but also endanger the lives of servicemen. So what steps is the Department of Defense (DoD) taking to forestall this problem?
A number of firms have developed advanced technologies that aim to authenticate genuine parts and root out counterfeits. Let’s look at a few of the projects for which the government has chosen to see where we might be heading in terms of amelioration.
DNA marking
When you think of computer chips, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t plant DNA. But that’s where the Pentagon’s procurement arm, the Defense Logistics Agency, is turning. DLA has contracted biotechnology firm Applied DNA Sciences to rearrange DNA from plants into unique sequences that are encrypted and attached to chips and other electronic components to distinguish authenticity.
Users simply shine a light on the part in question, on which a mark will light up to confirm the existence of the DNA. A quick swab of mark is then submitted for DNA analysis, which determines whether the part is genuine.
If an individual attempts to tamper with the chip in any way, it will distort or remove the DNA mark. The smudged or missing mark should immediately trigger a red flag for whoever is inspecting the part.
Optical scanning
Sometimes the best innovations are the byproducts of other innovations. That’s what happened with optical scanning.
The army originally brought on ChromoLogic LLC for a separate project looking at DNA’s tagging and tracking capabilities. The goal of the research was to find out if a barcoding system could be used with the DNA to improve security.
However, ChromoLogic researchers discovered that optical scanning technology developed to tag and track the DNA code also was capable of distinguishing an authentic part from a counterfeit by reading the component’s surface layer. Because counterfeit parts are forged primarily by altering the surface layer, optical scanning takes as little as one second.
SHIELD
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Supply Chain Hardware Integrity for Electronics Defense (SHIELD) program is in the process of developing a small “dielet” that can verify the authenticity of electronic components.
Manufacturers insert the dielet into a component during production without compromising the part’s performance or design. A user can later employ a hand-held probe to provide power to the dielet. The dielet’s serial number uploads to a server, which sends back an encrypted message and data that could indicate tampering.
The goal, according to DARPA Program Manager Kerry Bernstein, is to “build the world’s smallest, highly integrated computer chip.” Success for this program, he says, means that any untrained operator along any point in the supply chain would be able to check and authenticate any component used by the Department of Defense or the commercial sector.
These three advanced authenticating technologies offer promising solutions to this widespread problem compromising the U.S. military supply chain. Which will prevail — if any? With counterfeits infiltrating the system at an alarming pace, the firms developing these technologies have a weighty task in front of them.
This post originally appeared on EBN Online.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Jul 26, 2017 | Blog, Current Events, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain
Amazon’s foray into the grocery space has larger implications for its overall strategy, and the possible benefits for the eCommerce goliath are diverse.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
Big news out of the grocery retail world as Amazon has announced its acquisition of major organic foods retailer Whole Foods Market – for an eye-popping $13.7 billion sale price that doesn’t look so massive given Amazon’s $136 billion sales volume in 2016.
Analysts across the retail industry are talking about the huge implications of this sale for a retail industry that many say is in the middle of a major meltdown, in part owing to Amazon’s massive growth in the eCommerce space. This foray into the grocery business is a big challenge to companies like Target, Wal-Mart, and others, and also a sign that reports of brick and mortar retail’s demise might be greatly exaggerated.
Anyone following the industry probably isn’t completely surprised by the acquisition, which serves as another example of Amazon’s constantly widening footprint across all aspects of Supply Chain. It follows on the company’s gradual conquest of the logistics space over the last few years, including the licensing of 20 Boeing 767 air cargo jets, the acquisition of wholesale shipping licenses, and forays into trucking. It shouldn’t be so surprising that the company is seeking to put one of the final puzzle pieces in place towards a completely vertically-integrated retail Supply Chain by buying brick and mortar stores – while also buying a major staging ground to improve its last-mile logistics, which is often said to be the “holy grail of eCommerce.”
It all fits into analysts’ understanding of Amazon’s quest for world domination.
That being said, the specific acquisition of a healthy lifestyle brand like Whole Foods is intriguing for sure. This is a brand with major goodwill and solid growth as consumers have looked to healthier choices over the past several years, so it makes sense from that perspective. But as many outlets have reported, Amazon’s foray into the grocery space has larger implications for its overall strategy, and the possible benefits for the eCommerce goliath are diverse. As Supply Chain 24/7 put it, this move is more than a disruption to retail – it could be a disruption to all of society.
Woah.
So let’s dive in: what is Amazon’s medium and long game with this acquisition? What are the possible benefits to the company and the potential disruption?
- Amazon gets to reap the sales of a popular and upscale grocery brand.
- It brings Amazon a step closer to perfecting its last-mile delivery strategy, which has been difficult to execute for high-turnover perishable items like groceries.
- It expands the company’s distribution network, adding 440 refrigerated warehouses within 10 miles of 80 percent of the population.
- It allows Amazon to place pressure on food suppliers’ profit margins by being even larger.
- It obviously gives the company more physical, brick and mortar presence, which allows it to eliminate some of its disadvantages compared to brick and mortar chains – for example the fact that people shopping online on Amazon can’t try on clothes or select fruit. The company has already dipped its toe into the brick and mortar waters with its Amazon Bookstores, now up to eight locations, but this represents a full-blown cannonball into that space, selling way more than just books.
- It allows the company to digitize the strongest parts of Whole Foods’ brick and mortar experience, adopting a hybridized approach at the same time as Wal-Mart looks to become more like Amazon.
- It allows the company a larger testing ground for its Amazon Go app, which allows customers to pay for grocery goods using a smart phone without ever interacting with a checkout counter. This has negative employment implications, obviously, for retail workers long-term.
- It gives the company more “touch points” with shoppers and avenues to sell higher-margin goods such as Kindle devices in grocery stores.
- It also delivers a massive new client to Amazon Web Services, a client who is currently using Microsoft’s Azure Cloud platform.
- It puts a number of Amazon’s biggest retail rivals on notice, including Target, Wal-Mart, and others, that they can expect more price competition.
When this move was reported, it sent stocks for Canadian grocery companies into a conniption, with some companies losing 3.5% of their value in a day’s trading. American grocery companies didn’t do much better, with Target, Walmart and Kroger all losing value as well. Whatever the outcome, it looks like this year’s retail industry upheavals might just be a taste of what’s to come.
This post originally appeared on the Argentus blog.
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by Fronetics | Jul 24, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Sharing content from third-party sources establishes your company as a go-to resource for all things related to your industry, sector, products, or services.
When I hear the word “curate,” I think of an art gallery. I think of someone systematically picking pieces of art to display together. I think of the time and effort it takes to put these pieces together in a cohesive manor.
Curating content is no different. It is the process of finding, strategically piecing together, and sharing content that is relevant to your audience through your various distribution channels. Using third-party social media posts, blogs, videos, and more, supply chain companies can enhance their content marketing efforts by distributing information that is readily available.
Research shows content curation is a widely practice content marketing method.
- 82% of marketers curate content. (IMN Inc.)
- 83.3% of marketers curate/share content with their customers and/or prospects. (Curata)
Obviously if so many marketers are curating content, there’s a reason. Here are five benefits of content curation for your company.
5 benefits of curating content
1. Establish your expertise
By digging around industry websites or social channels to find interesting and relevant information, you are proving to your readers that you are an expert in your field. You know what’s important and where to find it. You’ll become the go-to company for the most cutting-edge content — all in one easy-to-find place (meaning your audience doesn’t have to scour the web themselves). This will increase your visibility and encourage visitors to trust you as an authority in your industry.
2. Offer a variety of content
Marketers work hard to create different types of content. From blogs to videos to white papers, everyone is trying to stand out and keep things fresh. But you may not be successful at every medium. By curating content from other sources, you can get around that. If you struggle with creating videos, for example, find a reliable source that is already successful in that arena and share with your audience. Your followers will appreciate the change in scenery and will want to come back to see what else is in store.
3. Engage with influencers
TopRank’s Caitlin Burgess writes, “By curating your influencers’ content, it can take less time to achieve your goals, such as developing a working relationship with them and borrowing their audience.” By sharing content from someone who is important and/or influential to your target audience, you can begin a relationship that can have benefits to both parties: Your audience enjoys the content, and the influencer gets free publicity (from you!).
4. Stay in the know
One of the major complaints about content curation is the time it takes to research and find reliable pieces to share. And though there are tools out there to help automate this process, there are major benefits to going through the motions yourself. You’ll not only discover content you can share with your audience, you’ll also keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on. Consider curation part for your audience and part for you to stay educated on the news and trends in your industry.
5. Keep up the demand for constant content
The foundation of content marketing is to generate leads through the consistent creation and sharing of relevant material. Unfortunately, marketers often struggle to keep up with the demand for new content around the clock. With content curation, you don’t have to be the only one producing content. By sharing quality content from various sources, you are able to supplement your own content and publish more consistently.
Being able to identify, make sense of, and distribute relevant and helpful information makes you valuable to your customers. Over time, readers will come to know you as a trusted, reliable source of knowledge — someone who is not always trying to sell them something. You are an expert in your area of business, and you save your customers and prospects lots of time and effort distributing relevant information so they don’t have to go searching for it from independent sources.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Jul 13, 2017 | Blog, Customer Service, Manufacturing & Distribution, Strategy, Supply Chain
Manufacturers who listen and focus on customer experience and service will win in the battle to increase revenue and company size.
This post comes to us from Kevin Jessop of Cerasis, a top freight logistics company and truckload freight broker.
Manufacturers have always struggled to know their customers. But, modern businesses have grown to encompass an omnichannel sales opportunity. Customers can place orders online, by phone, in person and in nearly any other means desirable. Unfortunately, this means manufacturers face an even greater challenge, as more customers translate into greater use of customer service.
In addition, customers are continuing to demand lower prices and free shipping. But, our predictions’ post noted how manufacturers are having trouble with transforming customer input into responsiveness and enhancements to the customer experience. Those who do achieve this feat can realize significant increases in revenue and high returns. But, how do manufacturers turn their focus to the customer experience?
1. Determine What Customers Want Today.
Modern technologies can give manufacturers real-time insight into the ways products are moving in retail and online environments. But, patterns today do not necessarily reflect the needs for tomorrow. As a result, manufacturers must be wary of overproduction and focus on providing the products customers want now, not tomorrow. In other words, manufacturers need analytics from point-of-sale systems, transportation metrics and more. Furthermore, companies must extend the buying cycle to get as much information as possible from consumers.
2. Lengthen the Buying Cycle Through Interaction.
Remember the catch-phrase, “Do you want fries with that?” Well, that concept holds true in the supply chain and for manufacturers alike. Consumers may not always go for what you are offering, but they want you to offer more than you have. Essentially, this creates a stronger level of customer service, and it can turn into additional purchases. More importantly, it gives manufacturers a chance to find out more about what the customer wants.
For example, a customer is a shoe store may purchase shoes, but if offered a new brand of socks, he or she refuses. During the ensuing conversation, the representative finds out that the socks have gathered a bad reputation on social media.
While this example is a bit extreme, it highlights how a longer buying cycle can translate into insights for manufacturers. In addition, a longer buying cycle naturally improves the company’s reputation.
3. Partner With Appropriate Businesses.
Businesses are often grouped into a broad category of competitors, but businesses can work to help manufacturers become more responsive to their consumers. This can include offering like products in package deals, compiling changes in like demographics or sharing information to reduce costs across the scope of both companies’ transportation networks. In fact, manufacturers can collaborate with third-party logistics providers (3PLs), like Cerasis, to realize the benefits of collaboration and taking advantage of business-to-business (B2B) sales through integration of systems, explains Louis Columbus of Supply Chain 24/7.
Essentially, every interaction with another business increases the possible customer base by both the number of employees in the new business and the number of customers working with that specific business. As you go through the chain of business, the opportunity for enhancing customer experiences grows.
4. Take Extra Care of B2B Partners.
B2B sales are more fickle than business-to-customer sales. According to a Gallup study, reports Chief Executive, more than 70 percent of B2B companies are facing setbacks and decreases among their B2B partners because of lacking customer engagement. Since B2B sales often take place behind the public’s perception of the economy, it is important that manufacturers work to create engaging relationships through content-driven, digital experiences. This can include videos demonstrating how products work, informative blog posts that provide something free and helpful to customers and beyond. Of course, the same concept of using digital technology to engage customers can be applied to B2C sales channels as well.
5. Be There for Customers After the Sale.
We have all experienced that disheartening feeling when calling customer service and getting lost or frustrated with the lack of service offered. Manufacturers need to be present to their customers after the sale because the level of customer service provided will be shared widely on social media. More importantly, poor customer service or inability to help customers with product issues or questions will gain a huge following much faster than a positive comment.
For example, manufacturers could send out emails for high-tech products that will require updates, or they may create online video banks to teach customers how to use the products easily. The opportunity for creativity in engaging current and future customers is only limited by your imagination!
Listening to What Customers Say is the Key to a Positive Customer Experience.
These steps go back to one thing, listening. Your company should listen to what internet-connected devices are saying about customers. You should listen to what your B2B partners are saying about your products and customers. Listen to what stakeholders, employees and B2C customers are saying. If you take the time to listen, you can meet the growing expectations of a modern customer base that wants a higher level of service than past generations. Ultimately, manufacturers who do listen and focus on customer experience and service will win in the battle to increase revenue and company size.
This post originally appeared on Cerasis’ blog.
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