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 | May 21, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Data/Analytics, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Supply chain companies are increasingly recognizing the need to align sales and marketing teams through the use of analytics.
Highlights:
- Sales and marketing alignment can be aided by analytics tools.
- A content audit can ensure sales has relevant material for every stage of the buyer’s journey.
- Digital Asset Management Software acts as a unified repository for content and analytics data.
Often, when we first talk to prospects about digital marketing, their sales teams start to get the jitters. There’s a big misperception out there that inbound marketing is bound to make sales teams obsolete – but this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, when companies take steps to align sales and marketing teams, their efforts start to pay off in big ways.
We’ve written a lot about how to align sales and marketing, as well as the dangers that crop up when companies haven’t synchronized these departments. That’s not to say that it’s an easy task. In fact, HubSpot’s 2018 State of Inbound report found that a mere 22% of companies report that their sales and marketing relationship is tightly aligned. Increasingly, supply chain companies are finding success using analytics tools to meet the challenges of aligning sales and marketing teams.
Understand your target audience
If you’re on the marketing side, you probably have a picture of your target audience, including multiple specific buyer personae. But how familiar is your sales team with this information? Chances are, sales has knowledge about your target audience that is based as much on experience as it is on the goals your marketing department created.
If the lines of communication aren’t clear when it comes to understanding your target audience, you’re shortchanging both marketing and sales. The sales department needs clear and complete communication from marketing about the type of buyers being targeted. Meanwhile, the knowledge that sales personnel will have accrued from their on-the-ground experience can help shape future marketing efforts.
To align sales and marketing in their understanding of your target audience, web analytics tools like Google Analytics are extremely beneficial. Use analytics to track user interaction with all your digital assets and build accurate personae that are data-driven. Ideally, analytics can validate and enhance the knowledge that sales teams have built.
Align sales and marketing with content that enables sales in a digital space
One of the most frequent complaints sales teams voice is that they lack relevant materials from marketing. And on the other side of the coin, marketing departments often report that sales teams aren’t clear about their needs, nor do they use the materials they’ve provided.
To get everyone on the same page, perform a content audit to determine which of your existing content matches with each target buyer persona, as well as what content will be most useful to your sales team at each stage of the buyer’s journey. Next, put some analytics in place. You need to know how your content is performing not just from a lead-generation perspective, but from the standpoint of closing deals.
To help you develop a process for evaluating the success of your content and soliciting and incorporating feedback from sales, Digital Asset Management Software is a great resource. Tools like Canto or Bynder can be a synchronized, discoverable repository of marketing assets and their function for sales, as well as help you keep track of your analytics.
Final thoughts
As supply chain companies are increasingly recognizing the need for sales and marketing teams that work in tight alignment, analytics are an invaluable resource for synchronizing efforts across departments. And the possibilities are continuing to expand for what analytics, including artificial intelligence, can do.
Keeping the lines of communication open, and sharing analytics data will help lead to accurate, data-driven buyer personas and an optimally functioning sales team.
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by Fronetics | Apr 11, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Content marketing is no longer optional. It’s essential in creating brand awareness, educating audiences, and building credibility. Here’s a look at the biggest digital marketing trends for 2019.
Highlights:
- The content marketing industry is expected to be worth more than $400 billion by 2021.
- Video is currently the most popular form of content being consumed online today.
- Peers and colleagues are the third most influential source of information for B2B purchasing, right behind online searches and your website.
A recent article by Forbes on content marketing notes: “As recently as a few years ago, marketers handled content mostly as a side project. It was more of a bonus than an essential role — something you did when you had time because it took a backseat to more traditional marketing projects and responsibilities. That’s changed.”
Boy, has that changed. The content marketing industry is expected to be worth more than $400 billion by 2021.
[bctt tweet=”The content marketing industry is expected to be worth more than $400 billion by 2021.” username=”Fronetics”]
The 2018 report from the Content Marketing Institute shows just how prevalent digital and content marketing is, and how essential it has become to creating brand awareness, educating your audience, and building credibility and trust with your customers.
Supply chain & logistics marketers: Trends to watch
So, where is content marketing headed in 2019? Marketing budgets are still on the rise, and supply chain and logistics companies are increasingly seeing the value in moving to an inbound marketing strategy driven by original content.
These are the six notable trends to consider when planning your 2019 content marketing strategy.
1. Video
Video is currently the most popular form of content being consumed online today, and video marketing will continue to have substantial value in 2019.
Smart supply chain marketers should start the new year by developing a visual storytelling strategy that offers consistent delivery of valuable content.
What’s your best bet? Be helpful and teach your audience something worthwhile to them.
2. Chatbots
The rise of chatbots – automated computer programs that simulate human conversation in messaging apps – is expected to continue in 2019. Business Insider recently reported that the number of people on messaging apps surpassed the number of users on social networks!
Chatbots are just one of the ways artificial intelligence will shape the content marketing landscape in 2019, but their ability to drastically increase customer engagement puts them on the short list for a major trend to watch in the coming year.
3. Voice search
Voice search is becoming an increasingly prevalent means of attaining information. Statistics vary, but it’s expected that anywhere between 30-50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020. A recent report by NPR and Edison Research found that the rise of smart speakers is substantially changing consumer routines and purchasing behavior.
A good content marketing strategy for 2019 should consider how your customers might use voice search in your industry, and what you can do to maximize your content’s ability to respond.
4. Long-form content
I love this one, because it harkens back to humble beginnings of content marketing and the desire to put informative, quality content in front of a targeted interested audience.
Long form content – white papers, case studies, and lengthier blog posts e.g. – will have a resurgence of renewed appreciation in 2019. Why? Because many industries, including supply chain and logistics industries, are saturated with tons of mediocre short form content. People are increasingly looking to weed through it all for substantial quality posts from trusted sources. In addition, search engines will favor longer posts in results rankings.
Cheers to 2019 being the year of quality over quantity!
5. Brand ambassadors
We wrote about brand ambassadors as we headed into 2018, but they are worth mentioning again as we look forward to 2019. Brand ambassadors are employees that influence the B2B buying decisions of others, and they are an often-overlooked resource with more traditional marketing tactics.
Peers and colleagues are the third most influential source of information for business to business (B2B) purchasing, right behind online searches and your website! And there’s nothing more credible than a friend who speaks highly of their company’s product or service.
Definitely consider how you can help make brand ambassadors out of your employees in 2019.
6. Market Influencers
The final trend to watch in 2019 is influencer marketing, a form of marketing which focuses on influential people rather than the market as a whole.
Basically, marketers identify individuals who might have influence over potential buyers and create marketing campaigns and activities around these influencers. In many ways, this works similarly to a brand ambassador, where a single person influences their network of friends; in this case, however, the market influencer has a large network and a lot of “friends” who listen.
Influencer marketing will be a huge trend in marketing for 2019, and it would be worth considering who might be an influencer in your industry in the coming year and what your company might do reach them.
So, there you have it. As we head into 2019, these are the trends to watch and plan for in content marketing space.
The B2B buying climate is growing longer and more complex, and content marketing is so effective throughout the entire sales cycle if it’s done well. The end of the year is a great time to revisit your marketing strategy and make any necessary changes for the coming year.
This post originally appeared on EBN Online.
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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 Elizabeth Hines | Jan 16, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Digital marketing for the supply chain has become necessary to position your company to not only be found online, but also to be researched, to be compared, and to be concluded upon.
Highlights:
- Digital marketing uses your website, related social media, and other online industry channels to showcase your industry knowledge and experience.
- Thought leaders are the informed trusted sources in their field of expertise.
- Supply chain and logistics industries need content marketing to achieve confidence and relationship-building with buyers.
Today’s B2B buyers are researching, evaluating, and coming to conclusions about companies without a single contact with a team member or salesperson.
This kind of B2B buying landscape requires cutting edge marketing strategies to showcase nut-and-bolt industries that have survived without them for many years.
Digital marketing for the supply chain
Digital marketing for the supply chain uses your website, related social media, and other online industry channels to showcase your industry knowledge and experience (rather than trying to convince people of it with a marketing message).
With inbound digital marketing, you publish relevant, informative information to adds value to every stage of a potential customer’s buying journey.
It is the content that you publish that walks them through the initial stages of the sales process.
What should you publish? 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.
[bctt tweet=”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.” username=”Fronetics”]
Showcasing thought leadership through digital marketing
Discovering and meeting the needs of your customers that go beyond your products and services will catapult you in their minds as a knowledgeable, helpful “thought leader” in your industry.
Thought leaders are the informed trusted sources in their field of expertise. They have innovative ideas, can showcase their thinking, and can replicate their successes again and again.
Consider it: Your business has so much more to offer than its primary product or service. You have a team of people with a tremendous aggregate of experience, expertise, and perspectives.
Allowing your customers this sort of access to your team’s experience and knowledge provides them with tremendous value outside the sales funnel, which builds trust and cultivates lasting, fruitful relationships.
Why digital marketing?
In this B2B buying landscape, supply chain and logistics industries need content marketing to achieve a level of confidence and relationship-building with buyers that used to come from face-to-face meetings. Potential and current customers will view your company as a valuable resource for everything related to not only your products and services but to the industry as a whole.
No time to execute?
The downside? Content marketing requires significant time, labor, and resources, and it can take quite some time to start reaping benefits. Feeling overwhelmed and like you and your team can’t possibly add on more marketing? Outsourcing certain key marketing tasks allows insourcing your core competencies while delegating specialized tasks to external experts.
This post originally appeared on EBN Online.
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