by Elizabeth Hines | Dec 17, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Data/Analytics, Marketing
Implementing automation can help supply chain marketers become more efficient and more successful in earning and converting leads. Here are our most-viewed automation posts of the year.
Automation is changing the way supply chain marketers do their job. When properly executed, automation can drive efficiency and reduce time spent on repetitive tasks, freeing up marketers to focus on other priorities.
Marketing automation is the process of using software to complete repetitive marketing tasks designed to nurture sales leads, personalize marketing messages and content, and — in the process — save marketers time and effort. Supply chain marketers are using marketing automation to streamline processes and increase qualified leads.
Jumping into marketing automation can be overwhelming. Utilizing the right software and knowing where to implement automation into your marketing processes will help nurture leads and get you back to more pressing tasks.
Here are our top automation posts from 2018 that define how automating your marketing processes can help your efforts.
Top 5 automation posts 2018
1. Our 6 Favorite Marketing Automation Tools for Supply Chain and Logistics Marketers
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, social media scheduling tools, and customer relationship management. Read full post
2. Increase Leads by 451% through Marketing Automation
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. Read full post
3. Marketing Automation: Social Media Scheduling Tools
Managing your business’ social media accounts might sound like a simple task — a fun one, even. But once it falls on your plate, it won’t take you long to realize: it’s a lot of work. Social media scheduling tools can make your job much easier — and improve your bottom line. Here are some of our favorite tools and some helpful tips for using them. Read full post
4. 5 Tips for Using Automation in Email Marketing
Marketing automation 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 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. Read full post
5. Marketing Automation: CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Integrating marketing automation into your CRM strategy can improve efficiency, streamline workflows, and make communications more consistent. Here are a few examples of how CRM and marketing automation can work in tandem. Read full post
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by Elizabeth Hines | Dec 13, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
These are the top 10 most-viewed supply chain and logistics posts of 2018.
Our goal throughout the year is to provide our readers with the latest news and happenings in the supply chain and logistics industry, with a focus on content marketing. We hope to educate and enlighten our readers with industry insight, tips, and trends to stay ahead of the competition.
This year we’ve taken a deeper look at supply chain and logistics companies that have experienced the highs (Google, Amazon) and lows (Tesla, KFC) of running supply chain and logistics businesses. These posts have highlighted how we can all learn a thing (or two) from their accomplishments and, of course, their mistakes.
Here’s a look at our most popular supply chain and logistics posts this year.
Top 10 supply chain and logistics posts in 2018
1. 10 Must-Follow Supply Chain and Logistics Blogs in 2018
What are your favorite supply chain and logistics blogs? Fronetics wants to tell you about some of our favorite blogs that we follow. Read full post
2. Drawing Lessons from Tesla’s Supply Chain Issues
This guest post from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting examines Tesla’s recent supply chain woes. Argentus also shares the biggest takeaways to help you prevent similar blunders. Read full post
3. Top 3 Logistics and Supply Chain Blogs of 2018
We love hearing what blogs you enjoy reading and find valuable. There are lots of great industry options, so we know it’s not easy to narrow down your favorites. We had lots of great responses, but only Women in Trucking held its spot on our list of the top logistics and supply chain blogs from last year. Read full post
4. KFC Ran Out of Chicken in the UK: What Supply Chain Lessons Can We Learn?
There’s another unfortunate entry in the annals of Supply Chain failures that burst into the wider world of business and pop culture: More than half of the UK’s Kentucky Fried Chicken stores closed because they ran out of chicken this year. Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting examines the lessons we can learn from the restaurant chain’s blunder. Read full post
5. How Google Does Supplier Diversity
In 2014, Google launched a supplier diversity program to ensure that its staff had the ability to search large and small vendors when purchasing products or services. The tool it developed has helped Google employees create relationships with small businesses, defined as U.S.-based companies with $15 million or less in annual revenue and 50 or fewer employees. Google felt these companies often have a specialized and innovative product or service but might never be discovered simply because of their size. Read full post
6. Infographic: Influencer Marketing and the Supply Chain
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which marketers identify individuals that have influence over potential buyers and create marketing campaigns and activities around these influencers. Why is this so effective? Because buyers trust influencers talking about your products and services more than they trust you talking about yourself. Read full post
7. Valentine’s 2018 Supply Chain Infographic
Consumers spent a near-record $19.2 billion on Valentine’s Day 2018, up from $18.2 billion in 2017. According to NRF’s annual survey, over half of the country participated (55%) in the romantic holiday, spending just over $140 on average. Read full post
8. Five Go-To Supply Chain Websites
Following leading websites is a great way to keep up with the latest news and information about happenings in the supply chain and logistics industry. Here are our five favorite supply chain websites. Read full post
9. Video: Why Inbound Marketing is Better than Outbound Marketing for Supply Chain Marketers
Marketers are constantly coming up with new and trendy ways to attract leads. With endless platforms available to us, it can be overwhelming for even the most seasoned marketers to know where they need to focus their efforts. Outbound marketing used to be the ‘go to’ for generating leads, but this is simply no longer the case. Marketers across industries have found that inbound marketing has many advantages over traditional marketing practices. Read full post
10. 5 Email Marketing Trends Supply Chain and Logistics Marketers Need to Know
More people are using email than ever before (close to 3.8 billion worldwide). Fronetics works with supply chain and logistics businesses every day, so we have a first-hand understanding of how email marketing can be successful in these industries. Read full post
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by Elizabeth Hines | Oct 16, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Optimally, content and sales have a symbiotic relationship. But the key is understanding what kind of content your sales team needs to help them close deals.
A theme I’ll be examining in this space over the next few months is how content marketing can help businesses make sales. Content marketing and sales are not mutually exclusive functions. Content can help sales teams get meetings, build relationships, and close deals. So what kinds of content can the marketing staff develop to support sales?
First impressions
Sales reps know that first impressions are a one-time opportunity, and all-important for ushering prospects into the sales funnel. For the initial contact with a prospect, content can be a major asset, particularly personalized content. For example, take the time to familiarize yourself with the latest blog posts from target companies’ websites, and follow up with additional ideas they can leverage.
Additionally, to create a positive first impression, host a live workshop that caters to the needs of your prospects. Hubspot’s Bethany Cartwright suggests an event “that walks through industry best practices and helps troubleshoot common issues.” She also recommends that content marketing teams “build custom landing pages that populate the prospect’s name, company logo, and value props catered to their business needs.”
Turning around an initial rejection
One of the biggest, often insurmountable challenges for a sales team is receiving an initial “no” from a prospect. But with the help of content marketing, sales teams can often get past an initial rejection and turn it around. “Leveraging content doesn’t mean just leveraging your own content,” says Cartwright. “In ‘no’ situations, you can turn the tables and talk to prospects about their content instead.”
[bctt tweet=”The basic idea behind content marketing is that your business’ greatest asset is your knowledge and expertise, not your products and services. ” username=”Fronetics”]
We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep saying it: the basic idea behind content marketing is that your business’ greatest asset is your knowledge and expertise, not your products and services. When it comes to the intersection of content and sales, this idea holds true more than ever. Your best shot at turning around an initial “no” from a prospect is to offer them something of value aside from products. Content helps you build relationships with your prospects, which is your best shot at turning them into customers.
Middle and bottom of the funnel content
Once your sales team has successfully ushered prospects into the sales funnel, the role of content doesn’t go away. At these later stages of the buyer’s journey, content like case studies, implementation guides, and data sheets are of great value. On average, B2B businesses lose around 20% of their customers each year by neglecting customer relationships. These types of content can help cultivate a budding relationship with your prospects, keeping them loyal and engaged.
At these later stages, keep content as visual as possible. This is an ideal time to create and share infographics with your prospects, for example. Video also performs exceptionally well in the late-stage sales cycle. Include short video clips in follow-up emails, particularly video case studies or animated product demonstrations. And don’t forget to keep it personalized. Vidyard is an excellent tool for personalizing video messages to your prospects.
Content, when used effectively, is your sales team’s best friend. Keeping your marketing and sales teams aligned and working closely together is your best bet for generating and nurturing leads, and turning them into customers with a lasting and fruitful relationship.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Oct 15, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Content creation requires time, money, and creativity. Here are 6 creative ways to repurposing existing content that will ensure you get the maximum value out of your work.
You could say I’m “scrappy.” My mom always says that I can stretch a dollar farther than anyone she knows. That also applies to my professional life, particularly when it comes to content creation.
We spend a lot of resources to create content, so I want to use it in as many ways as possible. It’s not cheating. Different people consume content in different ways, so really you’re just trying to meet everyone in your audience where they are. Here are my favorite 6 ways to repurpose content:
1) Turn a webinar into a video tutorial
Webinars are a great way to enhance your reputation as a thought leader since they offer attendees valuable, exclusive knowledge. The downside of webinars is that by nature, they only happen once at a scheduled time. But the content you create doesn’t have to go to waste. By turning your webinar content into a YouTube video you help ensure that your content gets to as many site visitors as possible — and it makes ideal fodder for sharing on your social media channels.
2) Turn blog posts into guides
If you’re posting regular blog content that’s tailored to the needs of your audience, chances are you’ve blogged a lot about a specific topic. Consider consolidating posts within a particular topic into a how-to guide. You may have to update older posts, particularly when it comes to data and specifics, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. How-to guides lend themselves particularly well to email marketing.
3) Reframe a key issue
Particularly for think pieces or opinion posts, reframing a topic from a different perspective is an effective way to reuse existing material. For example, a post on how millennials are reshaping the supply chain can be reframed as a set of suggestions for how to attract millennial talent to your company.
4) Turn internal data into a case study
There’s no reason that the data you collect for internal research can’t go to work for you in your content marketing efforts. Use your data to create a case study demonstrating how your products or services made a difference for a client.
5) Turn an interview into an eBook
Have you interviewed an industry expert or one of your executives for a blog post? Interviews are one of the easiest types of content to edit, especially if you conduct them via email. Repackaging an expert interview into an eBook is a snap. Supplement quotes with data and you’ve got a valuable tool for site visitors to download.
6) Use statistics to create an infographic
Infographics are one of the most effective was to disseminate content — and prime candidates for re-sharing on social media. In addition to case studies, infographics are a great way to make use of internal data. Present your research in this compelling format and share it on your social media outlets.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Oct 11, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Consider these chatbot platforms for supply chain operations that can help you create artificial intelligence bots to interact with your prospects.
Chatbots are on the lips of every marketer these days hoping to automate some of their processes. These artificial intelligence computer programs are designed to conduct conversations, simulating how a human would interact. If you haven’t already, check out this introduction to chatbots for the supply chain.
There are countless options for platforms that let you create and customize chatbots. Here are the 5 most important chatbot platforms for supply chain operations to know and consider integrating into their websites.
5 chatbot platforms for supply chain operations
1. Chatfuel
Chatfuel is a great option for marketers who lack programming experience, as it does most of the hard work for you. Reportedly used by companies including MTV, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, British Airways, and Adidas to create their chatbots, Chatfuel provides easy-to-use resources with a simple user interface that lets you create a chatbot in less than 15 minutes.
2. ChatScript
ChatScript is a four-time winner of the Loebner Prize for the most human-like artificial intelligence. While it doesn’t require advanced programming knowledge, it provides an open-source framework for developers to build and deploy chatbots.
3. Facebook Bots for Messenger
Facebook’s Bots for Messenger is a tool that allows businesses to build chatbots for Facebook’s Messenger platform (which is currently used by nearly a billion people). Its three main capabilities are its send/receive API, generic message templates, and the ability to customize the welcome screen users first see when interacting with your bot.
4. Botsify
A popular chatbot platform, Botsify lets anyone create bots easily without needing to write any code. It provides templates with a range of drag-and-drop functionalities. Additionally, it boasts human takeover ability to ensure a smooth transition from a bot to a human at the appropriate point in the sales funnel.
5. Flow XO
This platform offers the templates and tools necessary to create a talking bot, and lets you run and test functionalities with a built-in test console. Flow XO also offers a provision for you to connect with your customers over voice and chat when required in the conversation.
While email marketing continues to be a key tactic, marketing via messaging apps is becoming more and more expected. These chatbot platforms for supply chain operations offer ease, convenience, and a positive customer experience. They’re worth considering!
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