by Elizabeth Hines | May 1, 2017 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
Companies usually try to understand failure, but what could they learn from analyzing their successes, too?
“Success is going from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
Failure is said to be inevitable, and we all know it to be true. Any new venture is built on the hope of success. But accepting and managing failure is key to actually obtaining success.
Companies have a responsibility to ask the tough questions when things go awry. We have all been in these meetings: we diagnose failures, and we dissect the process, tools and staff involved to get to the root of the problem. Unfortunately, most companies only step back and really dive into what happened when something bad happens.
But what if companies took the same approach when something went right?
Focusing on the lessons in success
Companies are all a work in process. We learn as we go, and that learning should include understanding our successes. Shifting the focus from ‘what went wrong’ to ‘what went right’ creates a foundation for being able to recreate success in your organization.
Identifying and analyzing the components of a successful process can be the first step in moving into this new mindset. Paul Michelman, editor in chief of the MIT Sloan Management Review, experimented with dissecting his the publication’s successes and quickly discovered that their best processes start with transparency. Michelman wrote:
We plan a pipeline of content that is stored in a document accessible by the key participants. We track each content item’s progress on a shared project management platform. The few times we encounter bumps, a lack of information sharing is almost always at fault.
Though Michelman admits his research is unscientific, the key factors he has identified in their success stories has helped his business focus on what’s working, instead of waiting to dissect failure.
Technology can help
In today’s world, there is no end to the amount of data you can collect on your business. Your company’s digital presence is an easy place to start.
Tools like Google Analytics can give you advanced insight into how prospects are interacting with your company online. You can analyze how people are finding your business, and how they’re moving through your website all the way to making purchases. In other words, you can begin to analyze all of the little successes that make your business turn. How can you replicate that success on new projects and processes?
When things are going well, most companies don’t see the need to reflect on what happened, what went right. But don’t let this opportunity slip by. You should examine failures, but you should also look closely at successes. Take the time to brainstorm with your team on what you’re doing well and how you can keep up that success while you plan for future growth. —
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by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 15, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
A supply chain company published one more blog post per week and gained a new customer in one month.
Companies in the logistics and supply chain industries have been hesitant to adopt digital and content marketing because they are unsure about the benefits. We hear it all the time: Who is going to read a blog about my business? How is that going to get me more customers?
Something else we see all the time? How content marketing works for supply chain companies.
You see, the B2B buying process has changed. The vast majority of buyers now go online to research products and services they want to purchase. The proof is in the numbers:
- 94% of buyers reported using online research at some point in the purchasing process.
- 62% of B2B buyers say that a web search was one of the first three resources they use to learn about a solution.
- 95% of B2B buyers are willing to consider vendor-related content as trustworthy.
- 67% more leads were generated by companies with an active blog last year.
- 47% of B2B buyers consume 3-5 pieces of content prior to engaging with a salesperson.
- 51% of B2B buyers rely more on content to research and make B2B purchasing decisions than they did a year ago.
I could go on and on.
Blogging frequency matters
Here’s the rub: Blogging every once and awhile isn’t going to get you results. You need to publish quality content on a consistent basis to attract prospects to your site.
The reality is that the more often you blog, the more traffic and leads you’ll get. Search engines consider posting frequency in their rankings. What’s more, every time you post, you create a new opportunity to be found, to be shared, and to be linked to by other sites.
That being said, you don’t need to post five times a week to be successful. In fact, small steps can go a long way.
Try one more post per week
We often encourage our clients to increase their blogging cadence by just one more post per week. Though some are skeptical of the impact this will have on their traffic and lead-generation efforts, they inevitably find that such a small step can make a big difference.
Take one client of ours, for example.
We suggested moving from publishing one post to two posts per week. The client was unsure this would have any impact, especially for a company in the supply chain industry. But the immediate results spoke for themselves.
After just one month, the client saw the following successes:
- Web traffic increased by 23%.
- Social reach increased by 252%.
- Sales leads doubled. 90% of those leads were sourced from organic search.
- A lead converted to a customer.
All of these results were directly related to the increased blog frequency.
Test it out
The trouble in publishing more posts is balancing resources so that you’re publishing frequently but maintaining value and quality within your content. We’re big advocates of testing to find your personal sweet spot for the amount of posts your organization is able to publish to maximize traffic and leads.
Try publishing one more post per week for one month. Track your KPIs, calculate ROI, and assess whether increasing the blogging frequency is right for your business. You may be surprised at the results.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Jan 19, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Data/Analytics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
The chances are that your company is not tweeting as often as it should.
Each second around 6,000 tweets are tweeted. Each minute over 350,000 tweets are tweeted. The median lifespan of each of these tweets is just 18 minutes. After 18 minutes of being live, the chance of someone seeing your tweet is very low. The chance of someone interacting with that tweet — even lower.
Given the large volume of tweets and the short lifespan of each tweet, how often should you tweet?
To get the most value out of each tweet, tweet around five times each day. To get the most value out of your company’s Twitter presence as a whole, tweet up to 30 times per day.
At Fronetics, we recommend focusing on getting the most value out of your company’s twitter presence as opposed to getting the most value out of each tweet.
When developing your Twitter strategy, here are a few things to keep in mind:
Timing is everything.
Identify the time of day most of your followers are active and what time of day your tweets receive the highest level of engagement. Followerwonk and Tweriod are two tools you can use to conduct this analysis. Rival IQ takes the analysis one step further and shows you when your competitors are tweeting and when they are realizing their highest level of engagement.
It is important to conduct this analysis on a regular basis and to adjust your strategy accordingly.
Be relevant. Be strategic.
Every single tweet you send should be relevant and should fit within your strategic goals and objectives.
Don’t be annoying.
Tweeting when your followers are active and when you have the highest levels of engagement is important, but don’t go overboard. For example, if you learn that 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. are the best times of day for your company to tweet, do not schedule all 30 of your tweets to go live at those times.
Be creative.
Don’t tweet the same tweet over and over and over again. It’s ok to share the same article a few times, but change up the image and/or the tweet to make it fresh.
Be visual.
Tweets with images get more engagement than tweets without images. Analysis by Buffer found that tweets with images receive:
- 150% more retweets
- 89% more favorites
- 18% more clicks
Be realistic.
Determine what you can realistically do on a consistent basis. If you can only commit to tweeting 5 times per day, stick with that. It is better to have strategy that you can execute than to have a strategy that cannot realistically be executed.
Finally, remember you don’t need to go it alone. Tools such as Buffer, HootSuite, Sprout Social, and HubSpot allow you to schedule tweets. Scheduling tweets makes it easier to tweet more often so that you can realize the value of a Twitter strategy.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Dec 5, 2016 | Blog, Supply Chain, Talent
Compare your company culture to the attributes of the four Hogwarts houses to determine where you belong.
Company culture is an integral part of who a business is. It affects the product, the kind of talent it attracts, and, ultimately, its business performance.
Company culture can also tell you which Hogwarts house you belong in.
Or, so say the folks at Venngage, a free infographic, template, and design tool. Venngage’s editors sorted their 54 favorite tech companies into the four houses that make up the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, of Harry Potter fame.
Companies like Twitter and Google fell into Gryffindor, Harry Potter’s house, for their best-in-class ambitions and risk-taking ways. On the other hand, the editors assigned Apple and LinkedIn into Slytherin, the house of dark lord Voldemort, because they are tactic-driven and resourceful.
Which Hogwarts house would your company belong in?
Venngage came up with attributes of each of the four Hogwarts houses that could also reflect company culture. Here are the descriptions for each house:
Gryffindor
Companies with a Gryffindor culture want to be the best in their niche (and maybe even the industry as a whole) and aren’t afraid to take risks to get there. Generally, they are the most likely to use competitive incentives, like sales targets, to drive productivity. Companies with a Gryffindor culture pride risk taking, determination and competitiveness in their team members.
Hufflepuff
An environment of community, collaboration and working towards shared goals is at the base of companies with a Hufflepuff culture. That’s why nonprofits and companies targeting education often align with this house. Companies with a Hufflepuff culture pride trustworthiness, loyalty and a strong work ethic in their team members.
Ravenclaw
Companies with a Ravenclaw culture put a lot of thought into every aspect of their business. They pride themselves on creating the best product and on refining that product through rigorous testing. Companies with a Ravenclaw culture pride creativity, innovation and thought leadership in their team members.
Slytherin
Companies in Slytherin are resourceful and tactic-drive and are always looking for new and better ways to achieve their goals. They may see the value in more traditional hierarchical structures, with a more rigid chain of command. But that doesn’t mean people in a Slytherin company culture don’t take care of their own — they simply regard experience as an important factor of authority. Companies with a Slytherin culture pride ambition and cunning in their team members.
I compared our company mission and values here at Fronetics, and I believe that we’d fall into Ravenclaw house. We are driven by data; we constantly evaluate our clients’ strategies for effectiveness; and creativity and thought leadership are our bread and butter.
What house does your company fall in?
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by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 19, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Twitter is changing its rules on the 140-character limit for your tweets.
In May, Twitter announced that it planned to make changes to the types of content that count toward the platform’s 140-character limit. The social network provided no firm timeline as to when the changes would take place, but The Verge reports that September 19th is the big day.
What are the changes? And what do they mean to you?
Media attachments including photos, GIFs, videos, polls, and Quote Tweets will no longer count toward your 140-character limit. Also no longer counting toward the character limit: @names in replies.
Other changes:
- The ability to retweet and quote yourself so that you can share new insight on one of your Tweets, or share it again if you feel like it went unnoticed.
- Tweets that begin with a username will reach all your followers. This means that you will no longer need to use the awkward ”.@” convention.
Together these changes mean that you will have more flexibility in communicating via Twitter.
It isn’t clear if all the announced changes will occur simultaneously, or if they will be rolled out separately.
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