by Fronetics | Oct 24, 2019 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Facebook Messenger is the latest trend in chatbots for the supply chain. Here are powerful numbers to prove why your brand needs to be active on the messaging platform.
Patience is a virtue of the past. Today’s buyers want (and expect) marketers to actively engage with them throughout the purchasing journey. And offering them generic information won’t work — they want personalized communications based on who they are, what they have purchased in the past, and what they are interested in buying. Businesses can no longer afford a one-size-fits-all communication strategy.
The focus has shifted from passive marketing to engagement, which has marketers scrambling to be everywhere, at all times, to ensure a positive customer experience. In response, we’ve seen an increase in chatbot usage in the supply chain and logistics industries. Chatbots help improve the customer experience through automated systems that emulate human conversation.
Chatbots rely on the popularity of messaging apps. And, luckily for marketers, messaging app usage is on the rise:
- There were 2.18 billion messaging app users globally in 2019. (Statista)
- At the end of 2018, 78% of the world’s smartphone users were messaging every month. (Facebook)
- By 2021, it’s predicted that the global user base for mobile messaging apps will have risen by a further 23%. (Facebook)
- People share more than 17 billion photos on messaging apps every month. (Mobile Monkey)
And though WhatsApp has the highest percentage of users worldwide, Facebook Messenger has taken over as the most popular messaging app in the U.S. With over 1.3 billion monthly users, this powerful messaging platform holds a lot of potential for marketers.
[bctt tweet=”20 billion messages are sent between people and businesses every month.” username=”Fronetics”]
Even though marketers know that Facebook Messenger is a platform they can no longer ignore, supply chain and logistics brands have been slower to jump on board. But if you’re questioning if you should be using Facebook Messenger to engage with audiences, the answer is yes.
Supply chain businesses can use this platform to deliver content, engage with customers one on one, and offer superior personalized customer service, all of which result in high-quality relationships and leads.
Here are some staggering numbers to back up our point.
(Made with Canva)
Final thoughts
What was once thought of a teen social app, Facebook Messenger is now dominating the business world with increasing popularity and no sign of slowing down. In fact, we as a brand have found huge success using Messenger to engage with new leads. In the first 24 hours of using the platform, we were able to set up a meeting with a new prospect. That was just in the first 24 hours. This prospect turned out to be our next client, and the initial connection was all made through Facebook Messenger.
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by Fronetics | Jul 23, 2019 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media, Video Marketing
Videos drive greater conversion rates and increased leads. Here are four takeaways from Vidyard’s 2019 State of Video in Business Report.
Highlights:
- Over 82% of businesses reported greater investments in video last year
- Vidyard’s report stated that high-value video content has become a key factor in SEO and ranking.
- Aside from just tracking views, businesses will also track engagement time, drop-off rates, and reach across all channels, as well as the impact of video on lead generation and revenue.
Video Transcript:
Hi I’m Christy LeMire, the Director of Video Strategy at Fronetics, and today I’ll be sharing 4 takeaways from Vidyard’s 2019 State of Video in Business Report.
This report confirmed what us digital marketers already know, video is everywhere. Over 82% of businesses reported greater investments in video last year and it’s no surprise why. Videos drive more sharing, produce greater conversion rates and increase leads.
Here are the 4 key takeaways from the 2019 State of Video in Business Report
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Video isn’t just for social media
Though Facebook and Snapchat saw over 8 billion video views every day on their platforms, video didn’t stop with social media. Video took center stage in digital marketing and brand awareness. Vidyard’s report stated that high-value video content has become a key factor in SEO and ranking. This trend will continue to grow as marketers begin using video for frequently asked questions and explanations of complex and intricate business details.
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Short and sweet videos
Marketers used to create highly produced promotional videos for their websites and blogs. But now marketers are focusing on conversational and educational videos created specifically for social media. These casual videos give followers timely updates on industry trends, a behind the scenes look at projects, and interviews with clients and colleagues. The transparency created in these videos brings personality to your business. Marketers will continue to create video for social media, their blog and YouTube channels, resulting in a spike in short-form content like snackable video series.
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Video experiences focus on engagement
New approaches to video—including series-based content, video podcasts, interactive video, and personalized video—are helping marketers boost engagement and expand audiences. Experts predict we’ll see these new approaches gain more traction as the tools to create them become more user-friendly and best practices become more widely understood.
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Expanation of video analytics
As video has expanded, so have the needs of video analytics. Businesses will start making use of analytics tools to track video metrics that align with their digital marketing strategy. Aside from just tracking views, businesses will also track engagement time, drop-off rates, and reach across all channels, as well as the impact of video on lead generation and revenue. With more detailed reporting, businesses will see more efficiency and a higher ROI from their video content.
Check out the full report on our blog and find more digital marketing tips on our website at Fronetics.com.
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by Fronetics | Mar 28, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Also, this month in social media news: Twitter launches new camera tools to increase visual focus; and Pinterest introduces Catalogs and expands shopping ads.
This month on social media news, we’re seeing a few trends continuing. Platforms are increasingly offering robust analytics tools to content creators in an effort to boost engagement. This time, it’s Twitter rolling out a new tool that gives video publishers insights on optimal post timings. Twitter is also jumping on the “Stories” bandwagon, with its own answer to the trend: a camera feature that allows users to create images similar to Instagram and Facebook Stories.
Also this month, we’re seeing good news for brands when it comes to advertising on social media. Facebook is introducing a feature for premium video advertising, while Pinterest is rolling out multiple tools to help brands sell directly from the platform. Read on for a round-up of social media news.
Social media news for March 2019
Twitter Debuts a New Analytics Tool for Video Publishers
In an effort to provide video publishers with increased data to aid in performance improvement on Twitter, the platform has released the first in a new series of publisher insights tools: Timing is Everything. According to Twitter, the tool “displays historical data showing when audiences are on Twitter watching and engaging with video. This data highlights the best time(s) to Tweet video content with an aim to maximize engagement, conversation, and viewership.”
This is big news for video publishers, including content marketers. Twitter is offering key insights on one of the most important factors in determining social media marketing success: timing. Of course, increased engagement is in the platform’s best interest — and it’s in yours as well. Stay tuned for the release of more insight tools from Twitter in the coming weeks and months.
Facebook Announces Facebook Showcase for Premium Video Advertising
Facebook has debuted Facebook Showcase, a new premium video ad program that gives online video and TV ad buyers participating in the upfront selling cycle new opportunities to reach their target audiences on the platform. Showcase is currently available for campaigns targeting U.S. audiences and includes In-Stream Reserve, In-Stream Reserve Categories, and Sponsorships.
Facebook’s announcement is another big one for advertisers. Showcase will help advertisers connect with people through premium content and unique video experiences and can help reach younger-skewing audiences that are increasingly difficult to reach on TV.
Twitter Launches New Camera Tools to Increase Visual Focus
While platforms like Facebook and Instagram are increasingly ushering users towards their respective Stories features, Twitter is introducing a camera tool which will let users capture Stories-like images, including overlays and a searchable element. In addition to bringing the platform on board with the Stories trend, it ushers in more visual content options.
[bctt tweet=”Twitter is introducing a camera tool which will let users capture Stories-like images, including overlays and a searchable element.” username=”Fronetics”]
Swiping left on your Twitter timeline from your mobile device will take you to the new camera. There you can capture an image or video, or even go Live straight from Twitter, rather than having to be routed through Periscope. Next, users have the option to add details to the image, including hashtags suggested based on location. Stickers and filters aren’t here yet, but no doubt they’ll be coming soon.
Pinterest Introduces Catalogs and Expands Shopping Ads
Pinterest has rolled out a series of new tools and products to help brands sell their products directly on the platform. The company has debuted Catalogs, which allows brands to upload their full product portfolios to Pinterest and easily turn each item into dynamic, shoppable product pins. In addition, Pinterest has introduced personalized shopping recommendations for style, home, beauty, and DIY boards.
The platform’s rollouts are good news for brands and speaks to the company’s pro-business corporate mindset: “People come to Pinterest in a shopping mindset open to discovering products, which creates a great connection between Pinners and businesses. Pinners are looking for inspiration, and brands help make that inspiration a reality.”
What other social media news has your attention this month?
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by Fronetics | Mar 15, 2019 | Blog, Marketing, Marketing Automation, Packaging, Supply Chain
Packaging industry marketers: check out these marketing automation tools for email workflows, social media scheduling, and customer relationship management.
Highlights:
- Customers increasingly expect packaging to be personalized to suit their needs.
- Personalize leads’ interactions with your business through automated processes.
- Get help with email workflows, social advertising, and customer relationship management.
Lately it seems like everyone is talking about marketing automation. As B2B buyers increasingly demand personalized experiences through the buyer’s journey, marketers’ jobs are getting tougher, as they need to provide custom lead-nurturing content to all prospects in their databases. This is particularly true for the packaging industry, as B2B customers expect that packaging will be highly personalized to suit their needs.
And that’s where automating marketing tasks can help.
The term “marketing automation” refers to a variety of tools used to automate the process of personalizing leads’ interactions with your business. The sheer variety of these tools can sometimes be overwhelming — so we’ve pulled a few of our favorites in the categories of email workflows, paid advertising, and customer relationship management.
6 marketing automation tools packaging marketers
Email workflows
1. Customer.io
This tool lets you send targeted messages to your customers, crafting them based on how they interact with your business and making personalized messages simple. You can also keep track of conversions and create customer profiles. Our favorite part? It integrates with your mobile app or website, letting you see data in real time and trigger actions by adding in predefined rules.
2. Constant Contact
This powerful tool has some features that are unique — and can take your marketing capabilities beyond the basics. Beyond setting up and managing an automated database, Constant Contact offers Facebook fan promotion, coupons and deals, and event management.
Paid advertising tools
3. AdRoll
This is an extremely effective tool for retargeting customers through re-engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere on the web. It offers cross-device and cross-platform retargeting capabilities, as well as flexible segmentation, letting you provide customized experiences that dramatically improve your marketing efficiency. It also offers customized budgeting and full control over ad spend.
Customer relationship management (CRM)
4. Pardot
Pardot is an all-inclusive marketing automation suite, but it’s particularly strong for amping up your engagement with CRM integration. It’s a great tool for helping your sales team shorten the sales cycle. And, in addition to CRM integration, it offers email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and ROI reporting.
5. Marketo
This cloud-based marketing software lets you drive revenue with lead management and mobile marketing. It not only helps build customer relationships, but it helps you sustain them as well. Best of all, you can try it out for free until you’re sure it’s right for your business.
Bonus all-in-one tool
6. HubSpot
HubSpot is an inbound marketing tool that lets you generate leads, close deals, and manage your sales pipeline from start to finish. It integrates beautifully with a content marketing strategy, with the goal of turning outbound leads into inbound ones. It includes revenue reporting, custom-event reporting, custom-event automation triggers, predictive-lead scoring, contacts and company reporting, and event-based segmentation.
What marketing automation tools are you using to create efficiencies in your packaging business?
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by Fronetics | Jan 9, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Email subject lines can make or break an email marketing campaign. Read on for our dos and don’ts for creating an effective subject line.
Email marketing is an unquestionably effective content marketing tactic for B2B businesses. But too often, marketers lose out on potential benefits by focusing too much on internal details while overlooking the importance of the subject line.
It may seem silly, but think about it: When you see an email pop up in your inbox, how do you decide whether or not to open it? If you’re like 47% of all email recipients, you decide to open it based on the subject line alone. And furthermore, if you’re like a whopping 69% of email recipients, you report it as spam purely based on the subject line.
[bctt tweet=”47% of all email recipients decide to open email based on the subject line alone. And if you’re like a whopping 69% of email recipients, you report it as spam purely based on the subject line.” username=”Fronetics”]
Here are some email subject line dos and don’ts.
7 email subject line dos and don’ts
1. Do: be specific; Don’t: be vague
It’s tempting to think that the mystery of a vague subject line will pique the interest of the recipient. But think again. An overly vague teaser is simply annoying and uninteresting. Make sure that the subject line gives an accurate preview of what recipients will find when they open the email.
2. Don’t: send incessant reminders
While it’s great to stay in the forefront of your prospects’ minds, sending too many reminders about the same subject or offer is just plain annoying. Not only that, if your audience doesn’t mark you as spam, their email system might automatically do so anyway.
3. Do: send regular messages at strategic times
It’s true that constant reminders are not your friend — but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be sending out regular messages to the various segments of your email list. Just make sure your subject lines show variation based on the content, or else your recipients will think they’re receiving the same message over and over again.
4. Don’t: Use all capital letters
If you’re sending someone a message in all capitals, it’s the equivalent of yelling at them. Too many marketers think that the caps-lock is a sure way to capture a reader’s attention. In fact, it’s much more likely that they will send you straight to the trash.
5. Do: Personalize
Personalizing marketing emails increases open rates, click-throughs, and revenue. But it’s not as simple as just addressing recipients by name. We’ve written in detail about how to personalize marketing emails, but suffice it to say that personalized subject lines mean that users are 22% more likely to open your emails. The more information you track in your email database, the easier it will be to target your emails to your readers, making them feel that they are being personally addressed.
6. Don’t: Be sloppy
You’d be surprised how often people make these 5 email subject line mistakes. For example, misspellings, poor grammar, and excessive use of punctuation can make your open rates plummet. Check out our list — and don’t fall into the trap!
7. Do: Use Psychology
If you’re not up on the latest internet jargon, we’ve got one for you: FOMO, the “fear of missing out,” can be a powerful motivator of user behavior. While vague subject lines won’t work, using phrases like “last day to enter…” or “don’t miss out…” make your readers more likely to open your emails, simply because of FOMO.
A bad email subject line is a sure way to cripple otherwise well-thought-out email marketing tactics. But a good subject line can boost engagement, increase open and click-through rates, and spell more conversions.
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