by Fronetics | Apr 1, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
In the 1970s people were exposed to an average of 2,000 ads per day. Today we are exposed to more than 5,000 ads per day. The barrage of ads has resulted in buyers tuning them out. With buyers no longer paying attention to ads, businesses need to adjust how they find and engage new prospects, and how they establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers.
The solution: content. Why content is king and your business should take an oath of alliance to the kingdom.
Content is inclusive of blogs, white papers, e-books, newsletters, infographics, podcasts, webinars, and video. Creating and distributing valuable and relevant content in a strategic and consistent manner is what will drive profitable customer action.
Valuable and relevant content is not a sales pitch. It is not content that pushes your products and services. Rather, it is content that communicates valuable information to customers and prospects so that they have the knowledge to make better informed decisions. Moreover, it is content that establishes your business as a reliable source of knowledge – as the thought-leader within the industry.
How does this translate into consumer acquisition and retention? When the customer is ready to make a purchase they will reward your company with their business and with loyalty.
Skeptical? B2B companies with an active blog generate 67 percent more leads per month than those who don’t. A study by the Custom Content Council found that 72 percent of marketers think branded content is more effective than advertising in a magazine, 62 percent say it is more effective than advertising, and 69 percent say it is ‘superior’ to direct mail and PR.
Content that will move the needle for your business is valuable content. It is content that is informative, educational, interesting, and speaks to your customer’s emotions and speaks to their pain points. Furthermore, it is content that is delivered consistently over time and at the right time.
Before you start to create content for your business consider this sage advice offered by Arjun Basu: “Without strategy, content is just stuff, and the world has enough stuff.”
Research supports Basu. Companies that have a documented content strategy are more likely to consider themselves effective than companies that don’t have a strategy in place (60 percent v. 11 percent). Similarly, companies who put a person in charge of content marketing were more likely to be successful than those who did not (86 percent v. 46 percent).
How do companies put together and execute a content strategy? Eight percent of B2B marketers outsource content planning and strategy. Sixty-four percent of B2B marketers report that they outsource writing and thirty percent outsource distribution and syndication. Diving down further, 72 percent of large B2B companies (1,000 employees or more) outsource content creation and 34 percent of small B2B companies (10 to 99 employees) outsource content creation.
Content is king. By taking an oath of alliance to the kingdom, your company will attract and retain customers. Your company will realize an increase in leads, short sales cycles, and more loyal customers.
If you’d like to learn more about creating a content strategy for your business and/or about content creation , get in touch.
A version of this article also appeared on DC Velocity
by Fronetics | Jul 23, 2020 | Blog, Content Marketing, Covid-19, Marketing, Strategy
The benefits of a B2B blog are too important to overlook. Plus: Three companies that excel at content creation. If your company blog has gone the way of the bears in winter, there is good reason to bring it back to life. That stale page on your website is more...
by Fronetics | Nov 14, 2019 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Whether you’re using social marketing or not, chances are your employees are active on social media platforms. Here’s why you need to create a social media policy.
Highlights:
- A social media policy is your business code of conduct, letting people in your organization know how to act on social media.
- Responses to negative comments should be met with patience, respect, and reflect the tone of the brand.
- Employees’ activity on social platforms promotes your business, driving brand awareness and increasing customer loyalty.
Social media can be a powerful tool that helps B2B companies connect with audiences and turn leads into customers. And most platforms give you the ability to track and analyze your performance, increasing your chance of success.
But social media can also have a reverse effect. When used carelessly, it can ruin your brand image, change the public perception of your business, and even lose you customers. Even if your business is not active on social networks, there’s a good chance your employees, and even vendors associated with your brand, are. One misstep by any of these people can have a negative impact on your bottom line.
This is why it’s more important than ever to have a documented social policy that your employees understand and adhere to.
What is a social media policy?
A social media policy is your business code of conduct, letting people in your organization know how to act on social media. It should be a dynamic document that provides guidelines that are easy to use and cover all aspects of social media — including your business and employees’ social pages (personal and professional).
Benefits of a social media policy
Has your company suffered from a social media crisis? Or have one of your employees posted images that don’t match your brand’s image? There are lots of reasons to have a documented social media policy, including:
- Maintaining your brand identity across social platforms
- Quickly responding to a social media crisis
- Straight-forward approach to employees’ personal social profiles
- Encouraging brand ambassadors among employees
4 tips to include in your social media policy
Having a document that outlines your expectations when it comes to social platforms takes the guesswork out of what’s appropriate (and what’s not) for your employees. Your policy should include:
1. Defined roles
Here are Fronetics, we have profiles on several social sites. It’s important to define who takes ownership of each of those accounts and how often they are expected to monitor them. Some companies check social networks daily, others on an as-needed basis.
Comments? Questions? Each engagement with your brand should be responded to in a timely manner. A documented social media policy helps define all these details, including posting frequency, advertising, social listening, and even analytics around how your social channels are performing.
2. Responses to PR issues
When small issues arise on social media — for example, a negative comment or poor customer experience — they can quickly escalate if not handled promptly and effectively. The most important part of responding to these types of situations is to remember that employees are representing their brand first and foremost. Responses to negative comments or unhappy customers should always be met with patience, respect, and reflect the tone of the brand.
An effective way to deal with PR issues and to ensure responses align with your corporate brand is to create a ‘cheat sheet’ of responses to frequent issues or concerns. Employees can check the approved response list to have answers ready to post or know who to contact internally to help de-escalate a situation.
3. Staying within the law
Though this seems fairly obvious, policies should follow state and federal laws. If you’re unsure of these laws, it’s best to seek legal advice to make sure your company is in compliance.
Sprout Social suggests also considering:
- Copyright isn’t a no-brainer, so it’s best to explain how to comply with copyright law on social media, especially when using third-party content.
- Privacy is key. Do all of your employees know how to handle customer information, for instance?
- Confidentiality refers to respecting your organization’s internal information. Whether you have your people sign non-disclosure agreements or not, they should be aware of the ramifications of disclosing information on social media that the organization considers private.
4. Personal account guidelines
Let’s face it: you can’t control everything your employees say on Facebook or any other social channel, but what they post does have an impact on your business. Outline basic guidelines for employees’ personal accounts that – at a minimum – create a level of respect for the company and other employees. These might include:
- No speaking negatively about the business or its staff
- No posting of harassing, hateful, or illegal content
Adidas, for example, has a document that specifically outlines the accepted behavior for employees’ online presence:
“You should also show proper consideration for others’ privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory (like religion or politics) … we all appreciate respect.”
Final thoughts
A social media policy helps eliminate the “gray area” of your employees’ social profiles. Yes, your employees are active on social media sites. And yes, they are a direct reflection of your brand. By creating a social media policy that provides guidelines and expected behavior, you can feel confident in your employees’ online presence. You may even find that their activity on social platforms promotes your business, driving brand awareness and increasing customer loyalty.
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by Fronetics | Jul 18, 2019 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Reading social media blogs is an excellent way to ensure that your business is on top of the latest industry trends, insights, and analysis.
Highlights:
- Subscribe to blogs using an RSS reader to make sure you’re keeping up with the latest.
- Social Media Examiner is a great all-around source, while Social Media Today is the best place to go for up-to-the-minute news.
- Duct Tape Marketing is specifically geared to social media for small businesses.
It’s an old adage, but it holds true: When it comes to social media marketing, the only constant is change. Platforms are constantly refining their algorithms, seeking to stay in line with ever-evolving user behavior, and trends and memes come and go in the blink of an eye. In order to be successful, businesses need to stay abreast of all these constant shifts. Becoming a voracious reader of social media blogs is one of the best ways you can stay on top of what’s going on in the social media marketing world.
These five social media blogs are our favorite go-to resources for the latest news, as well as keen insights and expert analysis. Use your RSS reader to subscribe, and you’ll be privy to free knowledge from some of the leading industry voices.
Fronetics’ 5 favorite social media blogs in 2019
1) Social Media Examiner
Social Media Examiner has been one of our favorite social media blogs for years. Widely known for providing consistently valuable content, the blog features articles from in-house social media experts, as well as regular guest contributors.
We recommend Social Media Examiner whether you’re a beginner at social media marketing or a seasoned expert. The blog frequently features beginner-friendly, step-by-step guides to leveraging social media for marketing purposes, as well as up-to-date coverage of all the most important happenings in the industry, along with terrific analysis.
Recent must-read posts:
2) Duct Tape Marketing
If you’re a small business, Duct Tape Marketing is a fantastic resource for social media marketing specifically geared to small and midsized corporations. Social media is one of the blog’s main focus points, but it also offers suggestions and insights for digital marketing in a broader sense, SEO, marketing automation, and more — all of which help inform a robust social media strategy.
We love the strategies Duct Tape Marketing offers, with small businesses top of mind. You’ll find tactics for leveraging social media to generate leads, expand reach, and grow your business.
Recent must-read posts:
3) Social Media Today
When it comes to social media news, no one does it better than Social Media Today. The team of regular contributors posts several times a day and is remarkably adept at staying on the cutting edge of all the latest happenings, algorithms, and releases in the social media industry.
You won’t just find news on this social media blog. It’s also a rich resource for analysis, opinions, and insights, as well as tips and how-to articles from experienced marketers.
Recent must-read posts:
4) Socially Sorted
Run by social media guru Donna Mortiz, Socially Sorted has been named one of Social Media Examiner’s Top 10 Social Media Blogs for three years in a row. Mortiz personally authors most of the articles that appear on her blog and carefully curates contributors who bring expert perspectives to complement her own.
Socially Sorted focuses heavily on visual content social media platforms, like Instagram and Pinterest, but offers value for readers looking to round out their strategy on any platform. These days, visual content has a tremendous amount of power, and Mortiz is a fantastic resource for boosting your visual game.
Recent must-read posts:
5) Convince and Convert
No list of social media blogs is complete without Convince and Convert. While it’s a general digital and content marketing blog, it boasts a heavy focus on social media marketing topics. Founder Jay Baer and other industry experts offer a steady stream of new content, primarily in the form of how-to guides, case studies, tips, tools, and opinion pieces.
Convince and Convert is a good place for beginners and advanced social media marketers alike. However, more advanced readers will be better to take advantage of the specific and often highly technical guides. The topics never fail to be engaging and often slant toward using strategies informed by human psychology to optimize social influence.
Recent must-read posts:
Which social media blogs are you reading these days?
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by Fronetics | Jul 11, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Here are our most-viewed supply chain and logistics blog posts from this year as of July 1, 2019.
Throughout the year, we regularly write blog posts to help our readers stay on top of the latest news and trends happening in the supply chain and logistics industries, particularly in regards to digital marketing. We hope these posts provide insight, tips, and insider information on how to stay ahead of your competitors with the consistent publication of quality content.
We’ve covered some great stuff this year, from new trends in automation to the best places to distribute your videos. Here’s a look at our most popular posts so far this year.
Top supply chain and logistics blog posts from 2019 (so far)
1. Top 3 Logistics and Supply Chain Blogs of 2019
You voted, and the results are in! Cerasis is your number one blog of the year, with Women in Trucking and Hollingsworth coming in second and third. Read more
2. Digital Marketing for the Supply Chain and Logistics Industries
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. Read more
3. Send in the Drones: How PINC & Amazon Have Optimized Inventory Management
It’s been five years since Charlie Rose interviewed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on 60 Minutes about new innovations that Amazon was working on. Bezos revealed that Amazon was on the brink of a supply chain revolution involving octocoptor drones transporting parcels: Amazon Prime Air. Read more
4. 4 Examples of AI for the Supply Chain
Artificial intelligence is not simply affecting supply chain management; it is revolutionizing it. With the power to drastically increase efficiency in all areas of the supply chain, McKinsey estimates that firms could gain $1.3 trillion to $2 trillion a year from using AI in supply chain and manufacturing. Read more
5. Infographic: 10 Companies that Are Getting Instagram for B2B Marketing Right
Instagram now boasts over 1 billion monthly active users, making it one of the most popular social media platforms out there. It’s a tremendous opportunity for businesses. In fact, recent research has shown that 66% of brands now use Instagram. But many B2B marketers are still struggling to find their footing on this highly visual platform. Read more
6. B2B Digital Marketing Trends, Budgets, and Benchmarks: Highlights for 2019
The Content Marketing Institute has published its ninth annual survey, giving insight into the most significant digital marketing trends and priorities for 2019. We’ll get into some key takeaways in detail, but perhaps the most striking finding was one that we’ve been talking about for years. Read more
7. Video: 4 Best Channels for Video Distribution
Knowing the right video distribution channels can go a long way toward driving traffic and getting your content to your target audience. Bottom line is using the right distribution channels helps you get the most out of your video marketing efforts. Here are the 4 best channels for distributing your videos. Read more
8. Video: 6 Digital Marketing Trends for the Supply Chain 2019
Digital marketing has become essential for creating brand awareness, educating audiences and building trust and credibility with your customers. Supply chain and logistics companies increasingly see the value in digital marketing. They’re increasing their budgets, and it’s important to understand what the trends are for the upcoming year. Read more
9. How Rogue Ales is Leveraging IoT to Revolutionize the Beer Brewing Industry
Rogue Ales believes that its “Ground to Glass, Grow your Own Revolution” is a key tenet to its success. The company leverages the Internet of Things (IoT) to ensure that the supply chain is able to deliver the highest-quality ingredients to its breweries just in time. Read more
10. 6 Content Marketing Trends for the Supply Chain in 2019
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. Read more
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