by Fronetics | Jan 23, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
Measuring the success of your content is important in evaluating your writing for SEO strategy. Here’s how to do that.
This week, we’re wrapping up our series on writing for SEO. In this series, we’ve explored how search engines are changing, how people are changing the way they search, and how to make use of topic clusters and pillar content. Now, with a better understanding of the changing SEO landscape, it’s time to think about how to measure the success of your content.
As with any marketing effort, having a documented strategy for your content’s search engine performance — and a plan for measuring the success of your strategy — is key. You might be asking yourself, “How do I measure the success of a piece of content?”
Should I measure the success of one post at a time?
When it comes to SEO, the answer to this question can be complicated, largely because it’s not a great idea to evaluate the success of your campaign on a post-by-post basis. It’s too narrow a definition of success to account for the complex network of direct and indirect benefits of effective SEO writing.
Take brand-driven content, for example. Your focus isn’t about generating individual sales, but rather about elevating your brand, raising wider awareness, attracting new talent, or generating backlinks. If you based the success of brand-driven content on the number leads it generated alone, you’d think it was performing terribly. But your post may, in fact, have generated hundreds of backlinks and be getting lots of traffic.
Evaluating by cluster topic
So how do you evaluate success? Rather than looking at your content on a post-by-post basis, consider how all the content under each cluster topic performs as a whole.
According to HubSpot, “Measuring the entire topic cluster against all of your core business metrics will enable you to include residual benefits coming from content that doesn’t align with direct conversion goals.”
As you look at the performance of your topic clusters, consider the following four questions:
- Which topics perform best at driving traffic to your website or other web presence?
- Which topics earn you the most leads?
- Which topics drive the most revenue for your business?
- Which topics earn the most backlinks/coverage?
It’s important to remember that at the end of the day, what you’re working toward — and what will work best for your search visibility — is creating content that people want to see. Writing for SEO is ultimately about creating better content, increasing search engine visibility, and providing the best possible experience for your site visitors.
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by Fronetics | Jan 22, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
Automation is an excellent tool for marketers, but keep these things in mind when incorporating automation in email marketing.
I recently wrote about a new marketing trend all supply chain marketers should be paying attention to: marketing automation. One area where marketing automation can be particularly helpful is in email marketing.
Marketing automation software can improve your lead-nurturing process and make you more efficient. It can help you provide more personalized experiences for your prospects through email. It can also save you a significant amount of time, as you won’t have to create individual emails each time a particular prospect takes a particular action.
But be wary. Not everything can, or should, be automated or scheduled in advance. As you begin to incorporate automation in email marketing, here are 5 tips to get you started.
5 tips for using automation in email marketing
1) Segment your email list.
Email list segmentation allows you to customize your subscribers’ experiences by only sending emails to certain people based on different criteria. There are millions of ways to segment your list: when someone joined the list, what emails they’ve opened, their demographics, etc. This way, you can provide the most relevant communication to your prospects, keeping them invested — and keeping you out of their spam folder.
2) Timing is everything.
What you might notice is that segments of your list respond more positively at different times. Automation software allows you to take advantage of that, automating email blasts to correspond with the preferences of your subscribers.
3) Text is your friend.
It’s a sad fact that all that time you spend creating beautifully designed images to accompany your email content is wasted. Most of your subscribers will be using email programs that block out additional images. Focus on providing the most relevant, quality content instead.
4) Narrow down your list.
It might seem great to have a large subscriber list. But it’s the number active subscribers, rather than the total number of subscribers, that matters. Refining your email list should, therefore, be an ongoing process. Good news: It’s a task you can automate.
For example, send a “break up” email to members of your list that haven’t opened your emails in a while. If they don’t reply or open it, it’s safe to remove them from the list. It’s also important to make it easy for subscribers to opt out at any time.
5) Keep your finger on the pulse.
This is all about asking your subscribers what they want. It may seem obvious, but this all-important step is often overlooked. As soon as a new subscriber joins your list, they should be receiving an email asking them why they signed up for your email list. If you pay attention to the answer, you’ll now how to segment the new subscriber, which in turns ensures that they get the most individual experience, and cultivates a lasting relationship.
How do you use automation in email marketing?
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by Fronetics | Jan 18, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
With a high correlation between publishing frequency and web traffic and leads, you need to publish blog content more often to boost lead generation efforts. Here are Fronetics, most of our clients are sales-driven. If a client’s business goals include earning leads,...
by Fronetics | Jan 16, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
Using topic clusters and pillar content instead of trying to rank for a short list of keywords will boost your search engine rankings and improve user experience.
This week, in our ongoing Writing for SEO series, we’re looking at topic clusters and pillar content. Our previous two posts explored how search engines are changing, and how people are changing the ways they search.
I’ve been hinting — more like, emphasizing — in our recent Writing for SEO series that trying to rank for certain keywords in each blog post you publish is a practice on the way out. You may have been wondering what you’re supposed to do instead. Today’s post on topic clusters and pillar content is your answer.
Before we dive too far in, it’s important to understand the key terms at work here.
- Core topics are the several ideas/phrases/value propositions that most closely align with your brand. These are the categories that define your business and the knowledge you have to share with internet users. You want users searching the for these phrases to find your business. For Fronetics, content marketing and social media marketing for the supply chain are two obvious examples.
- Pillar content is your evergreen content that covers those topics at a high level. For Fronetics, an example would be: Why Supply Chain and Logistics Businesses Need Content Marketing. Pages with pillar content are typically longer, offering a broad overview of the subject and linking to other webpages (cluster pages) that offer more in-depth information about related subtopics.
- Topic clusters are the subtopics that cover a particular aspect of a core topic. For example, writing for SEO, blogging, and content strategy are a topic cluster that falls under the core topic of content marketing.
- Cluster pages are webpages that contain content covering topics from your cluster. Each topic cluster page focuses on providing more detail for a specific keyword relating to the core topic. For example, Instagram Stories: How the Supply Chain Can Use Them to Engage Prospects and Customers (core topic: social media marketing) was one of our most popular topic cluster pages last year.
How to structure your pages
Your pillar content page should contain links to each related topic cluster page, and each cluster page should link back to the pillar content, with the same hyperlinked keyword. This allows visitors to move seamlessly between the pages to find information that is most relevant to them. It also helps search engines better understand the content of your website so it can drive appropriate traffic to your content.
Topic cluster pages should focus on driving traffic from specific queries (e.g., “How do I use Instagram Stories?”). Pillar content pages should include broad information about the core topics, as well as opportunities for website visitors to convert to leads. This sets up your website so that traffic comes in through your cluster pages and converts on your pillar content pages.
As HubSpot puts it, “The beauty of this model is that you can spend a lot more time optimizing your pillar content for conversions and your cluster content for traffic. This saves a lot of time compared to the traditional model of optimizing each individual post.”
Why topic clusters and pillar content
Using topic clusters and pillar content lets you organize your internal linking more efficiently, boost your search ranking, and provide a better user experience.
Because search engines are getting better at understanding semantically related concepts, this structure allows them to recognize your authority on a certain topic — rather than assigning you a ranking based on an exact word or phrase. It shows you have real depth and breadth on a topic, which is important to users searching for information about it.
As I say all the time, search engines are constantly evolving to bring the most relevant content to people who are searching. So if you can show search engines that you have breadth and depth on a topic, they will assign more authority and higher search placement to your website pages.
What’s more, one high performing cluster page can elevate search rankings for all the other pages linked to the same pillar. That means more users will find your content. That means more effective content marketing for you.
So, rather than writing around a short list of keywords for which you’d like to rank, you should focus on developing topic clusters and pillar content that align with your brand to drive organic traffic.
Want to learn more about writing for SEO? Make sure to read the other parts of our series: part 1, Writing for SEO: Search Engines are Changing, part 2, Writing for SEO: People Are Changing How They Search, and part 4, Writing for SEO: Measuring the Success of Your Content.
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by Fronetics | Jan 15, 2018 | Blog, Marketing
Updated January 2025
Marketing automation can help supply chain marketers become more efficient and more successful in earning and converting leads.
Automation is changing today’s supply chain, and not just because robots and autonomous vehicles are scooting around warehouse floors. Supply chain marketers can use automation to drive efficiency and improve our success rates.
HubSpot recently reported that businesses using marketing automation to nurture leads received a whopping 451% increase in qualified leads. So how can you reap these benefits? Let’s take a quick look at automated marketing applications in supply chain marketing.
How can I use marketing automation for supply chain lead generation?
B2B buyers are increasingly demanding vendors provide personalized experiences throughout the buyer’s journey. That makes marketers’ jobs 1 million times more difficult in having to provide custom lead-nurturing content to all prospects in the database. Enter, marketing automation — a way to automate the process of personalizing leads’ interactions with your business. HubSpot describes marketing automation as “software and tactics that allow companies to buy and sell like Amazon — that is, to nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into delighted customers.”
Examples of ways supply chain marketers might use marketing automation include:
- Chatbots
- Social media scheduling tools
- Thank-you, welcome, and other triggered-by-an-event emails
- Event reminders
- Email workflows
The Evolution of Marketing Automation in Supply Chain
Marketing automation is transforming how supply chain marketers generate and nurture leads. According to Salesforce’s 2023 State of Marketing Report, 71% of marketers report significant productivity improvements through automation implementation.
Current State of Automation Adoption
Recent market research paints a clear picture of automation’s growing impact in B2B marketing. According to Gartner’s latest findings, more than three-quarters of B2B marketers have either implemented or are in the process of implementing marketing automation solutions. This widespread adoption is driven by tangible results: teams are seeing their manual task load reduced by nearly a third through automation. The benefits extend beyond efficiency – Salesforce’s 2023 research shows that 69% of marketing teams have enhanced their personalization capabilities through automation. These improvements in efficiency and customization translate to bottom-line impact, with McKinsey reporting that companies typically achieve a 15-20% reduction in their overall marketing costs after implementing automation solutions.
Understanding Modern Supply Chain Marketing Automation
Core Technology Components
B2B buyers expect personalized experiences throughout their journey. Successful marketing automation for supply chain lead generation combines strategies like these:
- Chatbots
- Social media scheduling tools
- Thank-you, welcome, and other triggered-by-an-event emails
- Event reminders
- Email workflows
- AI-powered lead scoring
- Behavioral analytics
- Multi-channel campaign management
- Predictive engagement tools
Key Automation Capabilities
Modern supply chain marketing automation platforms offer:
1. Intelligent Lead Management
- Automated lead scoring
- Behavior tracking
- Engagement analysis
- Qualification workflows
2. Multi-Channel Campaign Orchestration
- Integrated social media management
- Content distribution
- Cross-platform analytics
- Performance tracking
3. Email Marketing Automation
- Dynamic segmentation
- Behavioral triggers
- Performance optimization
- A/B testing capabilities
Implementation Strategy
Creating Effective Automation Workflows
We see companies achieve the best results when they focus on:
- Strategic Segmentation
- Industry-specific targeting
- Behavioral segmentation
- Company size consideration
- Content Personalization
- Dynamic content delivery
- Automated follow-up sequences
- Engagement-based adjustments
- Lead Qualification
- Predictive scoring
- Behavior analysis
- Sales readiness assessment
Example of Marketing Automation for Supply Chain Lead Generation: Automated Email Workflows
Automation is particularly useful in email. I’ve written before about how marketers spend way too much time creating marketing emails. How much of your day could you gain back if you didn’t have to create, send, and follow up with prospects via email?
One easy and effective way to utilize marketing automation in your emails is to set up an automated email workflow. That is a series of emails that a user will receive from you based on actions they take.
First, create an email list from your database based on certain criteria — like leads who have been inactive for 6 months or longer. Send them an email inviting them to download a new industry report you have published (using personalization tokens to show them its relevancy to their business). Then set a second email to send to only those who downloaded the report a day or two later thanking them for downloading. A third email could follow several days later offering a case study related to the topic. When someone downloads that case study, the workflow could trigger the designated sales rep to receive a notification to follow up with the prospect.
Instead of having to watch your database to see when a prospect takes each of these actions, then completing the necessary follow-up, automation software (we like HubSpot) can do this for you right when it happens. What’s more, those leads that have gone through the workflow will be more qualified (meaning more likely to buy), so your sales reps’ time will be better spent as well.
Measuring Success of Marketing Automation for Supply Chain Lead Generation
Key Performance Indicators
According to McKinsey’s Supply Chain Analytics Report, successful implementations show:
- 55% improvement in lead quality
- 15-20% reduction in marketing costs
- Increased sales team productivity
- Faster sales cycles
Marketing automation won’t make you irrelevant
Fear not, supply chain marketer. Marketing automation will not make you redundant. Instead, automation makes marketers more efficient, more successful, and more valuable. It’s really a win-win.
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