Supply Chain Marketing Examples
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What’s the competition up to? 4 real-life examples of effective marketing strategies
We conducted a quick audit of supply chain company pages — and found these examples of effective marketing strategies.
The country is step by step trying to return to a new normal, but uncertainty continues to throw a wrench into full supply chain recovery. What are some examples of effective marketing strategies during such a disruptive time? When a Zappos order takes two weeks to arrive rather than the usual overnight, even end customers cannot help but notice the impact of the global pandemic is far from over.
Group News Editor Jeff Berman reflects on the challenges in Logistics Management:
“We have emerged from the abyss, in the past, but things felt different, in the sense that perhaps there was more of a tangible or definitive endgame or objective that would bring some type of closure to these issues. But, unfortunately, as things relate to COVID-19 and the ongoing civil unrest, things remain far more loosely defined, or simply undefined or uncertain.”
Despite the disruption, organizations that can emerge as beacons of knowledge and stability can have a distinct advantage over the competition. While some supply chain companies have chosen — deliberately or not — to leave out references to the disruption in their external communication and on their websites, others have created elaborate resources directed at current customers and prospects.
So, what marketing strategies are others pursuing? We conducted a quick audit of leading industry publications and company pages to see who have decided to actively engage their audience and how they have gone about doing it. As you will see, returning features of these examples of effective marketing strategies during Covid-19 is the:
- Reframing of the sales language to suit the current environment
- Focus on being a source of help
- Effort to initiate meaningful conversations with prospects
4 examples of effective marketing strategies to take your company through Covid-19 uncertainty
Descartes — comprehensive resource page instills confidence
Descartes has created a text-book resource page. The multinational technology company leaves no question unanswered, skillfully weaving thought leadership resources and customer testimonials with gratitude to “logistics and supply chain heroes” and a running log of press mentions.
The product pitch has been reframed to answer the needs of the target audience. Descartes’ cloud-based logistics and supply chain solutions are not just good for any challenge but specifically brings the “flexibility needed to efficiently respond to challenges related to the global pandemic.”
The rest of the page is built to reinforce that point. Three calls-to-action urge readers to:
- Join an upcoming webinar on finding alternative supply sources in a disruptive time
- Speak to a Descartes expert on how to mitigate operational challenges
- Connect with a Domain expert
In addition, readers find as many as 11 whitepapers or Covid-19 Action Guides. Topics cover a range of challenges, from pivoting to no-contact deliveries and assessing the impact on supply sources with global trade data to dealing with import and export compliance issues. Descartes has also, in a short amount of time, compiled a list of case studies that serve as real-life examples of how the company has helped customers mitigate the impact of Covid-19.
Takeaway: The page instills confidence and enforces the impression this company is ready to lead customers through volatile times.
Quinyx — timely study starts relevant conversations
Quinyx, a global cloud-based, workforce management SaaS provider, astutely made the company part of relevant conversations by producing a study, The State of the Deskless Workforce, at just the right time. The study surveyed 12,000 deskless workers in a range of industries, including logistics and transportation, in March and, again, in April to understand the impact of the global pandemic.
Among the findings that generated a stir: 30% of logistics workers think it is a fireable offense to take more than one consecutive sick day; and nearly 20% of logistics professionals came into work sick during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The timely release of the study managed to both subtly promote the Quinyx solutions and highlight the newsworthy issue of workplace flexibility. A related blog post on the study concludes: “If 2020 has a silver lining, it comes in how it’s forcing businesses to react, respond and embrace technology to safeguard their futures.”
Takeaway: The study helps position Quinyx as a hands-on partner tuned into the needs of customers in a rapidly evolving work environment.
Kinaxis — virtual events fill trade show void
On May 29, Kinaxis issued a press release: The company was launching Kinaxis Live, a series of virtual conferences on the theme, “Planning for the New Normal.” In the release, Kinaxis, steered clear of the Wikipedia description of the company (“a supply chain management and sales and operation planning software company”), opting instead for action-driven language that captures the aim of its target audience (“the authority in driving agility for fast, confident decision-making in an unpredictable world”).
The events bring together Kinaxis experts as well as supply chain practitioners from other companies, including Merck, Flex, ON Semiconductor, Lippert Components, and Konica Minolta, and promise to discuss:
- Lessons learned on managing through COVID-19 and the future of supply chain planning
- Insights on how to prepare for the rebound and long-term impacts across industries
- Tips on how to build resiliency and agility into your integrated business and supply chain planning by leveraging AI, human intelligence, and concurrent planning
Takeaway: By bringing the conversation online, Kinaxis can reach prospects who missed out on the opportunity to connect during one of the now canceled or postponed trade shows. The events also help establish Kinaxis as a trusted and knowledgeable resource with a large ecosystem of high-profile partners.
Kibo — approachable resource center builds competitive edge
The rise of online shopping since the arrival of Covid-19 has — naturally — triggered interest in cloud-based technology. And Kibo has aptly seized the opportunity to raise the profile of its ecommerce platform with a clean-cut Covid-19 resource page.
Aiming to provide “tactical and empowering content to lean on,” Kibo has created a range of resources tightly focused on showcasing industry expertise and answering customer questions. Visitors can access webinars, a whitepaper, and blog posts on everything from personalizing your order management strategy in the Covid-19 era to setting up touchless pickup.
Takeaway: The conversational tone of the page strikes a balance between promoting the company product and sounding genuinely interested in helping clients navigate the Covid-19 crisis. In the intensely competitive market for ecommerce platforms, the page can set Kibo apart.
Many companies are still learning how to best conduct marketing in the midst of a global crisis. Examining examples of effective marketing strategies can generate ideas and inspire adjustments that help your organization rise above the pack.
Read more:
The case for outsourcing content marketing at a time of disruption
Supply chain marketing during Covid-19, the risk of cutting back
Covid-19 messaging strategy for supply chain companies: Getting the basics right
Supply chain marketing during Covid-19: The risk of cutting back
So much to say, so little time. Supply chain marketing during Covid-19 — leaning in is better than backing out.
Turmoil does not quite begin to describe the situation that supply chain companies have experienced lately. The Covid-19 pandemic threw in just a few weeks the finely calibrated, just-in-time supply chains into a state of disarray. In the midst of the struggle to get product from Point A to Point B — while also ensuring the health and safety of employees — many companies had little choice but to adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach.
We saw it ourselves as our clients were suddenly buried in challenges that only weeks earlier had posed no issues at all — securing electronic parts overseas, locating warehouse space, finding freight forwarders, moving product out of port, and more.
If supply chain marketing during Covid-19 had to take a backseat during the initial phase of the crisis, beware of staying quiet for too long. Letting your marketing channels sit idle for an extended period, or drastically scaling back at a time when communication matters more than ever, is not a risk-free strategy.
Let us explain why:
Covid-19 supply chain marketing: Lean in or risk losing ground
Go silent — or stay strong
In the wake of the first shockwaves of the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain companies understandably had to devote extensive resources to regain their footing. Few industries felt the impact as deeply as the supply chain. For some, the disruption opened up a flood of new business, sending the entire organization scrambling to keep up. For others, it meant every budget line item had to be scrutinized.
At the same time, we noted another challenge brewing for busy organizations: Maintaining a strong online presence during a tumultuous time. How do instill confidence in current customers and gain new leads if you say little or nothing at all?
After the first flurry of crisis-related marketing emails that many of us received (“We are here to help”), some companies — overwhelmed by the scope of work — let their social media accounts go silent and blog pages seized being updated.
The risk? Taking a break or withdrawing altogether could put your organization in a worse position later.
A McKinsey study underscores this point — conventional downturn strategies can actually hamper recovery. The performance analysis of 700 high–tech companies during two decades of market contractions showed “making obvious moves (for instance, cutting costs) as well as counterintuitive ones (such as increasing sales and marketing expenditures) quickly can improve a company’s position when the recovery begins.”
Interestingly, the best-performing companies increased their marketing and advertising spend relative to their competitors, but also compared to their own spending when times were better. However, from our perspective, the issue is far from just spend but identifying the most effective marketing channels and tactics at a time when resources may be scarce.
Weaken SEO — or make it soar
The risk of cutting back on supply chain marketing during Covid-19 also extends to search engine optimization (SEO). Rather than a one-time project, SEO needs constant attention to hum. It is the foundation of your effort to improve the quality and quantity of unpaid website traffic by increasing the visibility of your site or page to search engine users.
SEO and content go together
The completion of a well-designed website is only the beginning. If there is anything SEO demands more than anything else, it is content. You simply cannot ace one without the other. New, key-word optimized content is what makes SEO tick. Google Search has for years used a freshness algorithm to index pages. This means fresh content gets rapidly indexed and lands higher in search rankings than older content.
Backlinks — other reputable sites linking to your content — are also crucial to building SEO. When you provide up-to-date, insightful content, chances increase others will notice and link back to your site, especially during a time when so many are online searching for information. The same goes for backlinks and traffic to your site generated by social media.
So, what is the risk of going quiet?
The short of it: SEO can suffer. If content was the backbone of your marketing strategy before the pandemic hit, your organization has likely established a history of domain authority and is, as a result, in a better position to weather the storm. But not even the best of sites can escape the reality of what matters to search engines. Although you can still squeeze juice out of old keywords, lack of new content puts your organization at a disadvantage when search engines evaluate your pages in competition with countless others.
So much to say — can you find the time?
In many respects, supply chain marketing during Covid-19 comes down to this: Who would you want to do business with during a time of great uncertainty? What signals do you want to send to your audience? What do you want to tell them? As challenging as it may be, leaning in is better than backing out.
4 Digital Marketing Failures (and How to Fix Them)
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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- 10 B2B Marketing Stats from Chief Marketer’s 2019 Outlook
- Why Your Business Should Be Integrating Marketing and Innovation Upstream
- Video: 4 Takeaways from the 2019 State of Video in Business Report
