by Fronetics | May 22, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
B2B enterprises with 1000+ employees face unique content marketing challenges that can hinder a program’s overall success.
Bigger isn’t always better. Or, maybe I should say, bigger companies don’t always have it easy.
Big marketing budgets and a big marketing staff have their perks — but they also have their share of challenges. The Content Marketing Institute’s 2017 B2B Enterprise Content Marketing Report, which surveys B2B companies with over 1,000 employees (enterprise marketers), brings many of these issues to light.
The challenges these enterprises face, of course, are quite different from those of their small- and mid-sized counterparts. Here are some of the top differences:
- 72% of B2B marketers agree that their organization is focused more on building long-term relationships than getting quick results. Only 58% of B2B enterprise marketers agree with that statement.
- 52% of B2B marketers agree that their leadership team gives ample time to produce content marketing results (which typically take longer than other marketing approaches). Only 38% of B2B enterprise employees agree that leadership supports their longer efforts.
- 69% of B2B marketers agree that their organization is almost always or frequently focused on creating content for an audience, instead of their brand. 47% of B2B enterprise marketers feel their focus on the brand.
Pressure to produce results quickly is a death sentence for content marketing. And being forced to create content for a brand, rather than a specific audience, can be detrimental to content marketing results. Yes, challenges facing these enterprise marketers are often as large as the companies for which they work.
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why that is, and a few solutions for solving them.
3 enterprise-level content marketing challenges
1) Organization
While the CMI Report found that 88% of B2B enterprise companies are using content marketing, a mere 2% felt their content marketing strategy was “sophisticated.” Organization might have something to do with that.
Most enterprise organizations have staff that are responsible for multiple brands and product lines throughout the company. Their time is split developing strategies for different marketing programs. Smaller operations, on the other hand, can focus on a single brand, devoting time to developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy that the team can live and breathe — instead of toggling back and forth between programs all day long.
Solution: Outsourcing can be an enterprise’s best friend. A third-party vendor can dedicate itself fully to creating a content marketing strategy that best fits individual products or brands. And the vendor can even drive the strategy, if the enterprise’s resources are so taxed. Check out these 13 stats about outsourcing content marketing to learn more.
2) Clarity
It’s difficult to deem a program effective if there is no clear vision of success looks like. Yet, almost half (45%) of B2B enterprise companies feel their organizations lack clarity for benchmarking success. You can see the problem there.
Oftentimes, especially in larger organizations, the C-suite has a very different idea about what makes a content marketing program successful (i.e., leads and sales), whereas the marketers developing the strategy know that other benefits (e.g., increased brand awareness, social reach) have long-term value.
Solution: Education is key here. For one, set realistic expectations about the length of time it will take to generate tangible results from your content marketing program. Further, marketers need to learn to speak their bosses’ language when it comes to winning support for content marketing. They should regularly report on all progress to show how, over time, “smaller” victories (like growing social media engagement) translates to leads and sales. Check out our Monthly Marketing Reporting Template for some ideas.
3) Content Distribution
As more organizations recognize the benefits of content marketing, they’re ramping up production of content. In fact, 63% of survey enterprise-level respondents reported increasing the amount of content they produce from 2016. That’s great, but — the question is — does more content definitely equal better results?
The answer is not necessarily. Content distribution plays a huge role in getting the most out of what you’re producing. And here’s where the enterprise-level marketing problem lies: 94% of B2B enterprises are using email as their main distribution channel.
I’ve written before about how organizations spend too much time creating marketing emails. I believe organizations tend to stick with this content distribution channel because they see immediate results in the form of open rates and click-throughs. But the reality is that these companies are trying to squeeze water from the same well over and over again. At some point, they’re going to run out.
Solution: Don’t get me wrong: Email marketing is an important component of a well-rounded content distribution strategy. But so are publishing on social media and blogging (on your website and others!). These distribution channels help you reach new prospects who are searching for products and services like yours. Make sure your content distribution strategy includes a variety of platforms instead of just relying on one (like email) or just a few.
It is important to note that there are many B2B enterprise organizations that have highly successful content marketing strategies. Companies like Cisco and Boeing, who are committed to content marketing, have created ways to define what a successful content marketing program looks like and to effectively measure content marketing ROI.
The differences between B2B enterprise content marketing and B2B content marketing overall are tangible but not defining. These larger organizations have the ability to make changes that can redefine their content marketing programs and open the door to endless opportunities.
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by Fronetics | May 8, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
Research shows that marketers are wasting valuable time and resources reinventing the wheel when it comes to email marketing.
Email marketing can be a challenge — to say the least. The constantly changing email landscape, marketing trends, and privacy regulations can make staying on top of your email game very tough.
The Litmus 2017 State of Email Report looks at trends in email marketing over the last year. One interesting takeaway: The definition of ‘spam’ email is changing at lightning speed. Consumers are quick to label unwanted or uninteresting emails as spam. That means it’s more likely the content you’re creating won’t make it to your audience’s inbox.
So marketers should spend more time and resources creating better emails, right? Not necessarily. The study shows that many aren’t using their resources wisely when it comes to marketing emails.
One thing is clear: Companies have to drive relevant and timely email communications that align with subscribers’ interests to stand out. But spending more time on different designs and reinventing the wheel when it comes to copy aren’t necessarily the way to go about that.
Take a look at these 4 statistics from the report and why streamlining and automating certain aspects of your email marketing program might free you up to focus on factors that can make a difference.
4 takeaways from the Litmus 2017 State of Email Report
1) 41.5% of companies have 1-5 emails in production at any given time (from conception to send).
That is a lot of emails. If you’re working on 5 emails at a time, it’s important that you have a process for turning them over quickly. But Litmus found that companies are spending way too much unnecessary time thinking about, creating and producing emails.
Why start from scratch with every one? Email templates are an excellent way to streamline your production process. It’s also easier to concept an email when you have certain standard elements that you have to come up with each time. You can still swap out messaging and images while keeping brand-specific pieces in place. It’s a time-saver for all involved.
2) Only 31.6% of companies spend less than a week to produce a single email.
So over 68% of companies are spending a week or more on ONE email. If most marketers send out 1-3 emails a month, imagine how those weeks add up! How does anyone have any time to do anything else?
This means too many marketers are spending too much time on each email. Automating certain parts of your process can be a beautiful thing — saving you time, money, and, ultimately, your sanity.
3) Only 6.7% of marketers use task runners as a part of their email production flow.
Task runners automate repetitive tasks, such as inlining CSS and sending out test emails. The biggest benefit to using a task runner is the ability to save time. Using Grunt, a popular task runner, not only adds to efficiency, but also builds consistency, increases effectiveness, and offers task flexibility.
4) Only 5% of marketers are using static site generators as a part of their email production workflow.
Static site generators are build systems for flat files that allow you to create templates and break down email elements. For all of us non-coders, this means that when someone visits your webpage, the user sees exactly what is stored, in contrast to a dynamic webpage that is generated through an application. Using static site generators can save marketers time, improve reliability, and increase security.
So what does all this mean for you and your company? Time is money, and that’s especially true when it comes to your email marketing program. The concept of streamlining workflows and utilizing technology to cut down on time is imperative to your company’s success.
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by Fronetics | May 3, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
There’s never been a better time for supply chain and logistics businesses to implement a content marketing strategy — except for maybe yesterday.
Content marketing is a form of inbound marketing in which vendors publish digital content to attract customers who are searching for products and services like theirs. If done right, it is highly effective in growing brand awareness, generating and converting leads, and driving sales and repeat business.
Think content marketing isn’t for supply chain and logistics businesses? Guess again. Here are five reasons why companies in these industries should use content marketing.
5 reasons to use content marketing
1. Buyers use content to make purchasing decisions.
The B2B buying landscape has shifted dramatically in the last 10 years. Buyers no longer rely on sales reps to make purchasing decisions; they turn to the internet. Companies must shift to accommodate buyers at various levels of self-sufficiency in the purchasing process.
The reality is that 94% of B2B buyers use online research. That means they’re judging whether or not to buy from your business based on the kind of digital content you publish (or do not publish, as the case may be). Consider these stats:
- 95% of B2B buyers are willing to consider vendor-related content as trustworthy.
- 51% more B2B buyers rely on content to make purchasing decisions than they did last year.
- 47% of B2B buyers consume 3 to 5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales person.
2. Control the conversation in your favor.
Customers go online to discuss their buying experiences — both positive and negative. If a potential buyer googles your business’ name, what will they find?
Content marketing puts you in the driver’s seat of reputation control. If you publish thought-provoking blog posts about industry trends, you can earn a reputation as a thought leader in the space. If you curate the latest articles about relevant happenings, people will begin to view your social media accounts as a resource for industry news. Be professional, quirky, clever, ahead of your time, youthful, wise, funny, off-color — whatever your brand is, you can set that reputation by what you publish online.
3. Present yourself as a solution.
When prospects go online they are looking for information and for answers. Position yourself as an expert who fully understands their problems and how to solve them by publishing content that anticipates their pain points. Quickly and fully respond to customer queries on social media. Use content marketing as an opportunity to be the solution prospects are looking for, right when they need it most.
4. Content marketing is more effective than traditional marketing.
Companies in the supply chain and logistics space have a lot to gain by modernizing their marketing tactics. We see this every day with our clients. With the evolving B2B buying landscape, ads in industry publications no longer cut it as a “marketing strategy.”
Take two examples under consideration. How about TotalTrax, a warehousing technology company that grew new business by 30% with content marketing? Or 3PL Cerasis, who gained 98 customers from its content marketing efforts? Content marketing works, and that’s been proven time and again with logistics and supply chain businesses.
5. Your competitors are doing it.
Content marketing is already a widespread practice within the supply chain and logistics industries. If you’re not producing content to attract prospects and retain customers, you’re missing out.
This year, 75% of marketers are increasing their investments in content marketing. Why? Because it works. Successful content marketers experience drastically more site growth than their competitors. In fact, content marketing leaders experience 7.8 times more site traffic than their competitors.
In sum, content = customers. If you’re not using content marketing as part of your marketing program, you’re going to get left behind, if you’re not already.
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by Fronetics | Mar 14, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
Keep these best practices in mind when determining how often to post to social media.
Creating valuable, relevant content in a strategic and consistent manner creates demand for your products and services and drives profitable customer action. But as BuzzFeed’s Jonathan Perelman said, “Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.”
It’s not enough to just create interesting and pertinent content; you have to put it out there to reach your target audience. Moreover, the content needs to be delivered consistently over time, at the right time, and in the right place.
With social media networks changing daily, it’s hard to keep up with where to distribute content, much less how often. Countless studies have attempted to solve the social-media-frequency equation. And while audiences vary across industries, best practices give us some general guidelines.
Here’s our assessment of social media posting frequency.
Twitter: 40 per day*
*Big caveat here: 40 tweets per day is what we’ve found works for us and most of our clients. Let me explain.
Socialbakers suggests that posting to Twitter three times per day is the ideal frequency for brands. Buffer posts to Twitter 14 times per day. Fronetics happens to tweet 40 times per day. So last spring, after seeing the Socialbakers and Buffer stats, we conducted a month-long experiment to see how dropping our posting frequency closer to their benchmarks would affect our engagement.
As we’ve written about before, it wasn’t pretty. We confirmed that our engagement, web traffic, lead generation, and other key performance indicators are at optimal levels when we tweet 40 times per day.
Your company, or your marketing partner, should conduct due diligence and determine what the right frequency is for your business. Yes, you may realize a significant decline in engagement in ROI during your experiment. On the other hand, you may realize an increase in engagement and ROI — captured with lower output in terms of time and resources.
Facebook: 1 per day
Most companies find that posting 1 time per day is their sweet spot for most social media networks. Facebook is no exception: The network’s algorithm values quality over quantity, so the more engaged your followers are with your content, the more likely they are to see your posts. This also means that posting content that does not facilitate engagement can actually decrease the likelihood that followers will see your posts.
One sure way to encourage disengagement is by overwhelming your audience. We all have that friend or company we follow that posts too much — don’t be like that person.
Remember that the lifespan of a Facebook post (about 5 hours) is significantly longer than that of a tweet. So you don’t need to provide a constant stream of content to get your audience’s attention. Your focus should be distributing the most relevant, interesting content you can, at a time when most of your audience will be on Facebook.
Instagram: 1-2 per day
There’s an unwritten rule among Instagramers that a user shouldn’t post more than once per day. We generally agree for the same reason we don’t think brands should post more than once a day to Facebook: Don’t overwhelm your audience because the lifespan of your posts is pretty long. In fact, a Union Metrics study found that many Instagram posts continue to receive engagement for days — even weeks — after posting.
Most brands end up posting 11-20 posts per month. If you focus on compelling images with strategic messages, that’s probably a good benchmark to stick with. It’s important to note, however, that another Union Metrics study suggests posting consistency is more important than frequency. Again, taking the time to test the Instagram posting frequency that works best for your business is a worthwhile endeavor.
LinkedIn: 1 per day
A more formal and technical social media network, consider LinkedIn a platform for business-related content. Don’t post here more than once per day — and consider posting only during the workweek. Many professionals don’t check LinkedIn on the weekends, and your content could easily be missed.
Buffer reports that posting 20 times per month (once a workday) allows companies to reach 60% of their audience. To provide the most value for your LinkedIn followers, content should be less promotional and more heavily focused on industry-wide trends and insights.
At the end of the day, optimal posting frequency for your company rests heavily on the audience you want to reach. Experimenting with different social media networks and posting frequencies will give you greater insight into your ideal distribution approach. With these best practices as a guide, let your own analysis be your guide. Maintaining a dynamic and fluid posting strategy will ensure that your social efforts drive followers to action, rather than drive them away.
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by Fronetics | Feb 22, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
Follow these 4 steps to learn how to build a successful DIY content marketing strategy that will help grow your business.
Are you trying to create a content marketing strategy, but don’t know where to begin? Even the language around content marketing can seem foreign to newcomers. That’s why Fronetics created its guide, How to Grow Your Business with Content (download below) — to make creating a content marketing strategy possible for the DIYer in your company.
Setting your content marketing strategy is a crucial first step in trying to reach your target audience. Before you begin writing blogs and posting tweets, you need to set goals. A content marketing strategy outlines the methods by which you will target, reach, and engage your audience. Here are four steps, outlined in the guide, to creating a successful foundation to your content marketing strategy.
Steps to building a content marketing strategy
1. Identify your target audience and buyer persona(s)
Knowing who your ideal customer is allows you to create content that is informative, educational, and entertaining to that specific person. Trying to write compelling content for an unidentified audience is like taking a shot in the dark. The more detailed you can be with your buyer persona(s), the more specific and effective your content can become.
2. Define goals and objectives
Your content goals should be a direct reflection of your business goals. What do you want your content marketing efforts to accomplish for your company? The top marketing goals for content marketers in 2016 included converting contacts/leads to customers, growing website traffic, and increasing revenue derived from existing customers. Make sure you include short-term and long-term goals and that you frequently refer back to these goals to make sure your strategy is on track.
3. Developing and distributing content
Once you have identified your audience and defined your content goals, you can begin to educate yourself about the distribution platforms that will work best for your business. Let’s face it: Social media is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s imperative you know not only what to post but where to post it.
There are lots of great resources to help you optimize your content marketing presence. You can individualize your outreach so your blog posts are reaching one target audience, while your tweets are capturing another.
4. Put your knowledge to work
Once you have worked through the initial steps of planning a successful content marketing strategy, the real fun begins. It’s time to start pushing valuable, effective content out to consumers. If you’ve spent the time and effort up front to really thing through your strategy, you’ll reap the rewards in good time. Just remember that your strategy should be fluid, and you should be able to adjust your plans as you move forward and find what is working and what isn’t.
Pulling together a content marketing strategy for your B2B business can seem overwhelming. But having the right tools to support you can make all the difference. Download Fronetics’ easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide How to Grow Your Business with Content below to take the leap to a successful DIY content marketing strategy today.
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