by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 8, 2019 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Take note: Brands in the supply chain are not immune to these social media mistakes.
Highlights:
- There will be over 3 billion social media users by 2021.
- Not knowing your audience can cripple your efforts.
- Social media is about connecting – not promoting.
Approximately 81% of small and medium businesses use a social platform. And we all understand why. By 2021, it is estimated that there will be around 3.02 billion social media users around the globe. That’s a lot of potential customers.
It’s easy to see why companies are jumping on the social media bandwagon. And there’s no disputing that social mediais an effective way to increase brand awareness and generate leads. But it can be virtually useless if your company isn’t doing it right.
Are you making any social media mistakes? Check out our list of the biggest blunders we see companies making to find out.
4 social media mistakes supply chain brands are still making
(Made with Canva)
Mistake #1: Not knowing the audience
You’d be surprised how often we find that brands don’t have a clear idea of their audience on social media. This covers everything from knowing when followers are active to what content hits home with them to other interests followers might have. You need to know who you’re talking to before you start creating and sharing content on social media.
So how do you figure out your audience? First, it’s important to create a detailed description of your target buyer persona – including location, education level, role in the industry, needs and concerns, and anything else that’s relevant. Next — and we can’t say it enough — engage with your audience! Participate in discussions, encourage comments, and pay attention to what your followers are telling you.
Mistake #2: Using objectives instead of strategy
Social media platforms are continually making changes and updates to improve the user experience. In order to weather these changes and keep your audience engaged, it’s imperative to have a clear strategy that includes types of content, frequency, and pillar topics. Posts should reflect your brand, so make sure posts follow style guidelines and reflect your specific tone.
A strategy will also help achieve ROI. Social Media Examiner’s 2018 Social Media Marketing Industry Report found that only 44% of marketers agree that they know how to measure social media ROI. That means two-thirds of marketers don’t know whether or how much their marketing efforts are paying off when it comes to the use of social media. A strategy that incorporates defined goals, tracking, and measuring will help prove ROI and improve your social media presence.
Mistake #3: Using the most popular social media platforms
Not all social media platforms are created equal. In fact, all social media channels have a differentiating quality that makes them appealing to specific audiences.
Start by identifying where your target audience is spending their time. For example, 81% of millennials view their Twitter account on a daily basis. If your company is looking to capture millennials as leads, your social media efforts should certainly include Twitter.
Once you’ve determined where you should be posting, concentrate on creating content that caters to those specific platforms. Lots of companies post the same content across all of the apps they use. We understand how easy that is for marketers, especially with automation tools. But the foundation of social engagement is authenticity, something that is hard to achieve when posts are the same across all channels. Work to create content — including video and images — that caters to specific platforms to build brand awareness and loyalty.
Mistake #4: Promoting instead of connecting
This one may be the cardinal sin of social media. These platforms are all about engagement. Users don’t want to engage with brands that are pushing their products and services. Users want informative, interesting, and, yes, even fun content. Companies need to focus on creating content that leaves their users wanting more.
Companies that are succeeding on social media are finding innovative and creative ways to relate to users. When you engage and get users involved in your story, you create long-lasting customer relationships. Storytelling creates an emotional bond with your company and drives brand loyalty.
Greg Hadden, executive creative director of Motive Made Studios, sums up the power of connecting with users: “What often gets lost is the fact that good storytelling is potent stuff. It has the power to make people want to believe and to belong, which is the goal of all storytellers. We’re all selling something, be it an idea, an exploration of the human condition, or say, a vacuum cleaner. It’s no mistake perhaps that good stories often create products.”
What social media mistakes do you try and avoid?
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by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 6, 2019 | Blog, Marketing, Supply Chain
Here are our picks for the best podcasts for the supply chain for industry insights, analysis, and conversation.
Highlights
- Professional content is now available via podcasts
- Listen to conversation on transportation, SCM, manufacturing, automation, and more
- Get timely information from knowledgable people in the industry
Back in the day, fighting traffic on the morning commute was generally accompanied by the radio. But these days, podcasts are taking over, as more and more people are catching on to the benefits of being able to choose exactly what content they want to hear and listening to it at their convenience.
[bctt tweet=”You’re probably already aware of smash hit podcasts like Serial or This American Life, but we’re giving you the scoop on the podcasts you should be listening to that pertain to the supply chain and logistics industry.” username=”Fronetics”]
You’re probably already aware of smash hit podcasts like Serial or This American Life, but we’re giving you the scoop on the podcasts you should be listening to that pertain to the supply chain and logistics industry. Why not feed your mind and get the inside track on industry happenings on your commute?
Here are 5 of our favorite podcasts for the supply chain and logistics industries this year.
5 podcasts for the supply chain
1) Supply Chain and Logistics Management
The official podcast from the Cranfield Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management brings knowledge and experience from 50 years of educating business leaders at Cranfield University. The podcast is free on iTunes, and covers topics such as logistics and transportation management, with great episodes on topics like “Supply Chain Resilience,” “Operating Supply Chains in China,” and a fantastic guide to the basics, “What is Logistics and Supply Chain Management?”
2) Talking Logistics with Adrian Gonzalez
Supply chain and logistics analyst Adrian Gonzalez’s conversational podcast is a perennial favorite. Talking Logistics is formatted as an online video talk show and blog, featuring interviews with industry thought leaders and newsmakers. The show has a friendly feel and is easy to follow. It features guests including supply chain and logistics executives from leading manufacturing and retail companies, professors from respected academic institutions, executives from third-party logistics and technology companies, and authors.
3) SupplyChainBrain
The SupplyChainBrain podcast features in-depth conversations with industry practitioners, academics, consultants, and other experts from every imaginable aspect of supply chain management and international trade. The podcast has updated weekly since its launch in 2013, an impressive feat, and features great episodes on robotics, including “The Future of Robotics in Logistics” and “Dancing with Robots on the Factory Floor.”
4) Marketing Over Coffee
While it doesn’t carry a specific supply chain focus, Marketing Over Coffee is a place to stay up to date with all things digital marketing — which is important for supply chain professionals sector-wide. Hosted by John J. Wall and Christopher S. Penn and recorded in a local coffee shop, each episode is an easily approachable 20 minutes long. It’s casual, conversational, and full of tips on social marketing, SEO, search marketing, copywriting, and affiliate marketing.
5) Robohub Podcast
Robohub is a non-profit online communication platform that brings together experts in robotics, research, start-ups, business, and education from across the globe. Robohub’s podcast is a comprehensive and engaging source for various perspectives in the robotics industry. It’s great listening for timely information presented thoughtfully by knowledgeable people in the industry.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 27, 2019 | Blog, Marketing, SEO, Website Development
SEO helps your website rank higher in search engine results pages. Here are the SEO basics to get your website performing better and in front of your target audience.
Highlights:
- SEO stands for search engine optimization — that much has stayed the same. It refers to techniques that help your website rank higher in search engine results pages.
- SEO works by optimizing a website’s pages, conducting keyword research, and earning inbound links.
- To rank well in the long term, build your SEO marketing strategy around topics, not keywords.
Video transcript:
I’m Jennifer Yim and I’m the Director of Strategy here at Fronetics. Today’s topic is SEO. SEO seems pretty straightforward. You pick a few keywords and your page is magically optimized for SEO, right? Not quite.
People understand the basic principles of SEO, but a lot has changed in the last decade. Let’s take a look at the basics to get your site ranking higher.
SEO stands for search engine optimization — that much has stayed the same. It refers to techniques that help your website rank higher in search engine results pages. This makes your website more visible to people who are looking for solutions that your brand, product, or service can provide by search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.
What hasn’t stayed the same are the techniques we use to improve our rankings. This has everything to do with the search algorithms that these companies constantly change.
SEO works by optimizing a website’s pages, conducting keyword research, and earning inbound links. You can generally see results of SEO efforts once the webpage has been crawled and indexed by a search engine.
There are a ton of ways to improve the SEO of your site pages. Search engines look for elements including title tags, keywords, image tags, internal link structure, and inbound links.
Search engines also look at site structure and design, visitor behavior, and other external, off-site factors to determine how highly ranked your site should be in their results pages.
To rank well in the long term, build your SEO marketing strategy around topics, not keywords. If you do that, you’ll find you can naturally optimize for important keywords, anyway. Understanding your target audience and what interests them is key to attracting relevant visitors to your website through search engines.
For more tips on improving SEO and building your digital marketing strategy, visit us at Fronetics.com.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 21, 2019 | Marketing, Packaging, Social Media, Supply Chain
Social media is changing just about everything about the way brands market themselves — including packaging design.
Highlights:
- Packaging is a valuable content channel.
- Brands need to make packaging design decisions with an eye to how they read in thumbnail images.
- Use scalable imagery and optimize form function, color pallet, and font for user-generated social media content.
Social media has had an impact on just about everything in our lives, and the packaging industry is no exception. Have you ever considered that packaging is a form of content? In fact, the packaging design of goods is yet another opportunity for the delivery of branded content that engages buyers with brands.
Furthermore, in this environment where the lines between the digital and material worlds are increasingly blurred, savvy marketers are making sure that packaging aligns with online branded content, creating a cohesive consumer experience. As Mark Hewitt of SGK puts it, “By using the pack as media, brands can create a long-term content journey that builds over time.”
These days, social media is one of the biggest influencers in brands’ packaging design, as marketers continue to harness the power of instantly identifiable packaging.
Three ways social media is shaping the packaging industry
The beauty industry is just one example of where social media is revolutionizing the way marketers are conceiving of packaging design. This is an industry where aesthetic appeal has long been a big part of how beauty products were packaged, but brands have shifted their perspective in light of social media’s impact.
Says beauty branding and product design consultant Rinat Aruh, “We used to use the lens of: How do we design to create an impact on shelves? But now, we design for the thumbnail, which really changes some of the choices we make.”
So how are brands adapting their packaging? Paul Nowak, senior director of sales strategy and business development at QuadPackaging, has identified these three key factors.
1) Scalable imagery
We live in a mobile world. Images on social media are overwhelmingly viewed on mobile devices, and it’s crucial for designers to take this into account when making packaging decisions. Designs need to grab attention from the thumbnail, as Aruh alluded to. “This means that before designers finalize the packaging form and the brand design of the creative components, they need to add a step that tests the image on social media platforms and views them on a smartphone, not a desktop,” says Nowak.
2) Form function
Packaging designers have traditionally taken into account form in making design decision. At every phase of the supply chain, it needs to safeguard the product and express the brand and function. But when you put social media into the equation, form decisions take on a new dimension, as many consumer products are exclusively recognizable in social media posts by their packaging.
Nowak uses the example of consumer products like hand lotion. The decision to package the product in “a small tube, a large pump, or an elegant jar all convey different aspects of the brand experience and function of the packaging.”
3) Color pallet and font
As with form function, color and font decisions have always been key factors for packaging design. But these days, decisions about these design elements aren’t about what catches the eye on a shelf or even on a brand website.
Brands need to make decisions about color and font with an eye toward how they play on social media. This often means a simpler approach, making packaging clean and easily identifiable, even from a thumbnail. “Forward-thinking designers will add a social media test in their design phase to assure brand recognition in all media channels,” says Nowak.
What does the future hold?
If we know one thing about social media and how it impacts the marketing landscape, it’s that change is going to be pretty much constant. Brands need to continue approaching packaging as a valuable media channel and an opportunity to engage with consumers.
In addition to optimizing packaging for the user-generated content on social media, we’re seeing a rise of “connected” packaging. From Snap and Facebook codes, savvy marketers are recognizing the power of packaging design as nexus of the digital and material worlds.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 13, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, SEO
Search engines are constantly changing, but these 5 tips will ensure that supply chain marketers can boost SEO in 2019.
Highlights
- People are changing how they search, and search engines are adapting accordingly.
- Simple changes to the structure of your site can have a big impact on your search engine rankings.
- Sites rich in quality content, like blogs and video, are poised to rank high for relevant search queries.
If there’s one constant when it comes to writing to boost Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it’s change. As users change the way they search online, search engines are continually adapting their algorithms to meet their needs. While it’s easy to get overwhelmed, it’s important for supply chain marketers to stay up-to-date and adapt their content strategy to boost SEO.
The year is just getting into full swing, and it’s a great time for savvy marketers to look ahead and make strategic decisions for SEO in 2019. These five tips will help you get ahead of the curve.
5 ways to boost SEO in 2019
1) Cluster content
Gone are the days of keyword rankings. Rather than prioritizing keyword focus, search engines have shifted to rewarding sites that produce strong content and arrange it in focused, niche topics.
Cluster content, a method of on-site SEO, might sound daunting. But it doesn’t require reinventing the wheel, just changing the structure of your site. For a detailed look at topic clusters and pillar content, check out part three of our four part series on writing for SEO.
We’ll give you the short version here: Select several core topics that most closely align with your brand, and reflect the knowledge you have to share. Evaluate your existing content, and categorize it based on which core topic or topics it falls under. Going forward, keep these core topics top of mind when planning and creating content. Next, arrange your site to reflect core topics with content clustered and linked from pillar pages.
2) Use header tags
As they become more and more sophisticated, search engines increasingly mirror human preferences. It doesn’t take an expert to tell you that text is more accessible to the eye when broken up by relevant subheadings — and search engines are no different. Headings make your text easier to skim and allow search engines to pick out content relevant to search queries.
Subheadings make your site more visually appealing, orienting readers and providing structure within your content. Remember that you’re creating headings for the dual purpose of guiding readers and optimizing for search engines. For this reason, stick to headings that are short and informative, reflecting the content below them, rather than teasing your readers with click-baity phrases.
3) Blog
This one is evergreen. We’ve been writing for years about how blogging is crucial for supply chain companies, for all kinds of reasons — not the least of which is SEO. If increased lead generation and site engagement isn’t reason enough, you should know that blogging is one of the best ways to boost SEO.
A blog is your space for high-quality content that’s fresh, well-researched, and relevant. If you’re choosing your topics based on the needs and preferences of your target audience, chances are, you’re creating content that is perfectly aligned to search engine queries.
4) Make sure your page speed is high
Page speed is crucial for boosting SEO. If your page is loading slowly, Google logs it, and your ranking suffers. Not only that, visitors who do click on your site will be frustrated and turn away.
In fact, research shows that 40% of visitors will abandon sites where the page takes longer than three seconds to load.
One of the best ways to improve page speed is to switch to HTTP/2. If you haven’t already, switching your site from HTTP/1.1 (which has been the norm since 1999) is crucial. HTTP/2 was first published in 2015, with the goal establishing a faster, more secure internet. Search Engine Journal has published this great guide to HTTP/2, where you can learn more about the benefits, and how to switch.
5) Video
We’ve been talking about the benefits of video for a while now. Having video on your landing page will robustly improve your SEO. Video increases conversion rates, improves bounce rates, and boosts overall time on sites.
Search engines use bounce rate to rank pages — a low bounce rate and high user retention rate are indicators of strong content and high relevance to your target audience. Consequently, Google is strongly emphasizing these metrics in its ranking algorithm. Video keeps users on your site better than just about anything else and is therefore one of the most effective ways to boost SEO.
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