by Fronetics | Dec 11, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Our most-viewed content marketing posts indicate that marketers are seeking solutions to improve their content marketing programs.
Supply chain and logistics marketers have seen the benefits (and successes) of content marketing. It is the most cost-effective method to earn leads and sales. Why? Because content marketing focuses on the way B2B byers are making purchases, finding and evaluating content through online searches.
[bctt tweet=”Content marketing focuses on the way B2B byers are making purchases, finding and evaluating content through online searches.” username=”Fronetics”]
There is a trend with our most-viewed content marketing posts this year: innovative ways to improve content marketing strategies. From increasing brand awareness to improving SEO, marketers are looking to get their content in front of the right audiences.
Here’s a look at our top content marketing posts from this past year, all focused on industry trends and ways to improve your content marketing strategy.
Top 10 content marketing posts in 2018
1. B2B Marketing Trend 2018: Influencer Marketing
You’ve probably heard the buzzword by now: Influencer marketing seems to be on the tip of every marketer’s tongue these days. But the reality is that B2B marketers have been slow to adopt this new marketing trend. Influence 2.0 – The Future of Influencer Marketing Research Report 2017 showed that only 11% of B2B marketers have an ongoing influencer program. Read full post
2. Writing for SEO: Topic Clusters and Pillar Content (NOT Keywords)
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. This post on topic clusters and pillar content is your answer. Read full post
3. 10 Ways to Grow Brand Awareness Quickly
If you took Psychology 101 in school (or even if you didn’t), you know that people are more likely to buy from brand names they’re familiar with than those they don’t know. This goes for purchasing things like medicine, and for procuring components or parts as part of the supply chain. That’s why so many of our clients come to us looking to build brand awareness as one of their main goals. They want to customers to know about them — and sooner rather than later. Read full post
4. Should Your Business Be Using Linkless Backlinks to Increase SEO?
Linkless backlinks are mentions of your business or brand without a hyperlink to your webpage. In a keynote speech in September 2017, Gary Illyes, a webmaster trend analyst for Google, said:
“Basically, if you publish high-quality content that is highly cited on the internet — and I’m not talking about just links, but also mentions on social networks and people talking about your branding — then you are doing great.” Here’s how to make linkless backlinks work for you. Read full post
5. Writing for SEO: People Are Changing How They Search
Last week, we kicked off our Writing for SEO series by taking a look at how search engines are changing. As we delve further into updated strategies for effective SEO writing for supply chain marketers, this post explores the ways in which people are changing their search behaviors, and what that means for your content. Read full post
6. 3 Questions to Ensure your Content Marketing Strategy Is Sales-Focused
I recently read an article on the Harvard Business Review that discussed pairing your sales goals with your marketing goals. This strikes at the heart of what we do at Fronetics: build a client’s content marketing strategy that will help advance their short- and long-term business goals. It sounds simple, but you have no idea how many organizations’ marketing goals are misaligned with what the larger organization is trying to accomplish. Read full post
7. Infographic: 8 Ways to Grow Brand Awareness Fast
Have you ever noticed how some brands seem to have crept into popularity overnight? You’ve never heard of them, and then, all of sudden, they’re everywhere. Their brand awareness has sky rocketed, and they’re achieving every company’s ultimate goal: Customers know about them. So what’s their secret? Read full post
8. The More Often You Publish Blog Content, the More Leads You’ll Get
Here are Fronetics, most of our clients are sales-driven. If a client’s business goals include earning leads, we are sure to align the client’s content strategy with that objective. One of the most effective ways to increase the number of leads your website attracts is to increase the frequency with which you publish content. Read full post
9. How to Identify Topic Clusters for Your Business
One of the best ways to strategically structure your content is with the topic cluster model, in which broad cornerstone content is contained on pillar pages, and related subtopics are contained in cluster content. Each grouping of subtopics and corresponding pillar page is called a topic cluster. This structure is intended to build authority and influence for your business in the eyes of search engines and visitors. Effectively using a topic cluster structure is the best way to drive relevant traffic to your website. Read full post
10. Video: Why Does Content Marketing Take So Dang Long to Show Results?
You are committed to your content marketing program. You’ve created blog posts, uploaded videos, and collaborated with industry leaders. You may have started noticing an increase in web traffic, social reach, and other engagement metrics like time on page. You’re on the right track! The problem is your lack of leads or sales. Your boss is pressuring you for results, and you’re starting to question your efforts. Are you doing something wrong? Read full post
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Jan 30, 2018 | Blog, Current Events, Logistics, Supply Chain
Looking at Tesla’s suppy chain issues, here are the biggest takeaways so you don’t have to repeat their mistakes.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
Back in 2016, we posted about Tesla’s ambitious plan to ramp up production of its consumer-grade Model 3 electric car to 500,000 vehicles a year by 2020. At the time, pretty much every analyst agreed that was an ambitious target for a manufacturer without solid experience mass-producing vehicles at that scale. In the two years since, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has issued a number of other bold predictions. He’s championed a whole host of emerging technologies. He’s made the world feel like the future could resemble a sci-fi novel – were he to deliver on the herculean tasks of sending humans to mars, shifting the world to solar power production, and figuring out how to directly connect computers to human brains.
But in the meantime, there’s also been the pesky matter of the more mundane – but seemingly no less difficult – task of delivering on the very high demand in the marketplace for Tesla Model 3s. In 2016, the company faced scrutiny for allegedly hiring 140 workers from Eastern Europe for $5 an hour. Then, in 2017, various press outlets reported on a number of issueswith the Model 3’s Supply Chain, specifically issues related to the vehicle’s battery design, as well as issues with manufacturing automation. The result?
Only 220 Model 3s were delivered as of October 2017. We’re sure the company has delivered more cars since then, but that’s a brutal statistic almost two years after over 400,000 consumers paid $1000 each to preorder the car. Investors are growing restive, with the company’s share price down 6.8%, and the company reporting a $671.1 million loss for the 3rd quarter of 2017. Musk has compared the Model 3’s current production state to the “8th circle of hell,” and acknowledged that Tesla won’t hit the goal of 5,000 units produced a month until “sometime in March 2017.”
A great article last month from CIPS’ industry magazine Supply Management dove into some of Tesla’s Supply Chain woes, discussing how the company, still considered a visionary in the industry, has got to this place, as well as some optimistic scenarios for how it can get out of it. Written by Paul Simpson, it’s an interesting account of how Supply Chain issues can stymie a company, even if that company and product have huge positive brand association. Similarly to what we did with analysis of Target’s Canadian misadventure, we wanted to see what lessons we can draw from Tesla’s Supply Chain issues that might be useful in industries other than automotive manufacturing.
Here are our biggest takeaways for what can be learned from Tesla’s Supply Chain woes:
- If you’re not confident that your production and Supply Chain are up to snuff, don’t overpromise to the consumer. Elon Musk has made a cottage industry out of bold pronouncements about the future, and he’s delivered on some of them before. It’s why he’s gained a reputation as a visionary. Musk had to know that promising to quickly scale up production to 500,000 cars a year was an unrealistic goal. He’s also someone who believes in setting big goals as a way of achieving the impossible. But even with that in mind, it’s possible he also underestimated the inevitable difficulties in mass-producing a product with 10,000 individual parts, and that’s led to way too many 2 a.m. nights tinkering with robotics on factory floors.For his part, Musk acknowledged that he’s now trying not to make pronouncements about production timelines.
- Take ownership for Supply Chain failures rather than blaming suppliers. Even if suppliers are failing to deliver, consumers (and, relevant to Tesla, shareholders) will almost always blame the company itself rather than those suppliers – and rightly so. They’re the ones who selected those suppliers, after all. In Tesla’s case, Musk took personal ownership over the decision to select the system integration subcontractor that’s behind the latest delays – instead of blaming his Supply Chain staff. Depending on your perspective, you can either look at this as a visionary CEO being transparent about Supply Chain difficulties, or a manufacturer throwing a supplier under the bus.
- Great companies need a Supply Chain guru. Simpson quotes an argument by American journalist Travis Hoium, who said that “Elon Musk Needs his Own Tim Cook to Take Over Operations.” Drawing a parallel to Steve Jobs, Hoium argues that Musk needs an operations genius who can match his vision for the future and product development excellence with Supply Chain execution. Sometimes business leaders – especially those with the vision of someone like Elon Musk – overrate their own ability to understand the intricacies of managing complex Supply Chains, to their detriment. Tesla’s issues underscore the importance of having the right talent in place to avoid the murky waters of Supply Chain failure – and figure out how to right the ship if things go awry.
Despite these numerous issues, it looks like – for now – Tesla is facing more heat from shareholders than consumers. Anticipation for the Model 3 is still high, showing that a strong product and brand can trump some Supply Chain issues. But these issues are starting to have a real impact on Tesla’s share price and bottom line, and the pressure is on. Let’s see how this story develops as 2018 proceeds.
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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, we are sure to align the client’s content strategy with that objective. One of the most effective ways to increase the number of leads your website attracts is to increase the frequency with which you publish content.
It seems simple, right? The more often you publish blog content, 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, shared, and linked by other sites.
The more you publish blog content, the more they’ll read.
Recent studies have shed light on the relationship between publishing frequently and increased web traffic and leads:
- HubSpot’s benchmarking data shows that blogs that publish 16+ times per month receive 3.5x more traffic than those that publish weekly or less often.
- From the same report, companies that publish 16+ blog posts per month get about 4.5X more leads than companies that publish between 0-4 monthly posts.
- Curata’s survey of 400+ marketers found that 90.5% of the most successful business blogs (over 10,000 views per month) publish at least once a week.
But we know there are challenges to posting frequently.
Publishing blog content frequently comes with its own set of challenges. Time is the biggest obstacle we hear from our clients. Good blogging should be more of a conversation than a press release, but dialogue takes time to create. It can also require additional time to respond to readers’ questions and comments.
The other big challenge is quality. When you’re producing more and more content, it’s easy to let the quality of your pieces slip. You want to make sure the content on your blog is relevant, informative and engaging. It can be difficult to balance publishing frequently and maintaining value and quality.
So how do you find the balance?
Start small. We often encourage our clients to publish blog content just one more time 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.
And no, you don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to start seeing the impact of your blog posts on your leads. The HubSpot benchmarking report found that increasing posting frequency had the biggest impact on smaller businesses: Companies with 10 or fewer employees that published 11+ posts per month had almost 3X more traffic than companies publishing 0-1 monthly posts, and about 2X as much traffic as those publishing 2-5 monthly posts.
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, traffic increased by 23%, sales leads doubled, and the client landed a new customer.
Try our suggestion and publish blog content one more time per week, then let us know how it works out for you. We’d love to hear about your success.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Jan 4, 2018 | Blog, Current Events, Supply Chain, Transportation & Trucking
The FMCSA is not certifying ELD vendors’ products, which means carriers must ensure devices meet the organization’s technical specifications.
On December 18, new electronic logging device (ELD) regulations went into effect for commercial vehicle fleets across the U.S. The ELD mandate has caused major waves in the transportation industry. But it has the potential to rock supply chains and manufacturers around the globe — and not just because of anticipated transportation disruptions and increases in costs.
ELD manufacturers must comply with technical specifications outlined by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). They must also register their devices with the FMCSA. Motor carriers might assume that selecting a device that vendors are promoting as “FMCSA certified” would be a simple solution. Amazingly, however, that certification may not be worth the paper it’s printed on.
When does “certified” not mean “verified?”
Last year the FMCSA directed carriers to a site where they could find a list of registered ELDs. The problem with this is that the devices on this list are self-certified by the manufacturer. There’s no guarantee that they actually meet FMCSA guidelines.
To appear on the FMCSA’s list, ELD manufacturers must submit certain documents, including malfunction and diagnostics and product serial numbers. However, to gauge if their product is compliant, manufacturers must conduct their own tests. And the FMSCA is not vetting documentation of the testing.
The problem with this is fairly obvious. Without mandatory testing from a neutral, third-party source, devices are subject to only the rigor of their own manufacturer’s testing. They may not follow the FMCSA’s test specifications. And, of course, less-than-honorable manufacturers could use the lack of oversight to their advantage.
Consequences, however, will fall entirely on the shoulders of the operators and their carriers using non-compliant ELDs.
Compliant today, not tomorrow
Motor carriers purchase these systems under good faith that they will meet the FMCSA’s performance requirements once in use. But the possibility is looming that some ELDs may be noncompliant. Then what?
Carriers have eight days from the time an ELD is determined to be noncompliant to replace it with a compliant one. While drivers can temporarily use paper logs, this obviously isn’t a real solution, and will leave carriers scrambling to get their ducks in a row.
Due diligence
Before selecting an ELD vendor, carriers need to understand the details of compliance and hold vendors to those standards.
Carriers should push vendors for specific information about compliance with FMCSA test specifications. Or they should seek vendors who have opted to use third-party testing companies, such as PIT Group, to independently verify ELDs meet FMCSA standards. Either way, carriers should test and verify the ELDs they have chosen for their fleets on their own to ensure compliance as soon as possible.
The coming months are bound to see many headaches from the confusion caused by FMCSA-certified (but not regulated) ELD devices. Carriers need to be aware of this now, so they can properly prepare for any issues that may arise.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Dec 21, 2017 | Blog, Strategy
Resumes are hard. Always have been, always will be. It’s hard to write and talk about yourself. It’s even harder to boil years – or even decades – of experience and accomplishments into a few short pages of text and visuals.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
You’re probably more focused on your job than keeping a resume updated, and if a few years pass in between the times when you need a resume, you often find that resume trends have changed, and it’s hard to know how to format it, what to include, and what to leave out. It’s easy to feel lost because, of course, resume writing is one of the toughest tasks of any professional.
Let’s revise that slightly: it’s easy enough to write any old resume, but it’s difficult to craft a document that actually boosts your credibility.
A recruitment firm like Argentus is something of a resume clearing house. We see them all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We see resumes that have up-to-the-minute style, as well as resumes where we have to brush off the cobwebs as we double click on the attachment in our inbox. We’re frankly bored of the latter. That’s why we’re doing a new miniseries on the Argentus blog, called The Quest for a Better Resume. We’re going to dive into some key aspects of resume writing and give examples to help you craft a resume that wows hiring managers and, hopefully, us!
In the first installment of this series, we gave some tips for boosting your resume’s style, which is something that sadly doesn’t get enough attention in fields like Supply Chain and Procurement.
Today, we’re going to dive into the Content side of things and help answer: if you’re a professional in Procurement, Supply Chain, or any of their related fields, what exactly should go on a resume and what doesn’t belong there?
Read on to hear our advice!
Resume Content:
Supply Chain and Procurement professionals make their careers by extracting relevant insights from complex sets of data. So it makes sense that they’re often skilled at loading their resumes up with valuable content – even if their resumes lack visual panache. The resumes we see tend to be stronger from a content perspective than an optics perspective – but there are still common shortcomings in terms of what people choose to write on a resume.
So when it comes to content, what does a bad resume look like?
Obviously, the worst resume is one that doesn’t show that the candidate has any relevant experience, or one that misrepresents that experience. But let’s take it for a given that you’re a professional with a solid background, trying to communicate the breadth of skills and work experience that you’ve accumulated:
- A bad resume tends to be overly stuffed with buzzwords. It tends to talk a lot without actually saying anything, full of words like “self-motivated,” “detail-oriented,” “team-player” – qualities that you shouldn’t have to put on a resume. These kinds of qualities are “table stakes” for getting an interview. They should be self-evident when the hiring manager speaks to you in person – on a resume, they come across as empty.
- It might tend to contain irrelevant experience, or show a lack of focus. This flavor of resume tries to be all things to all people – the resume equivalent of the job seeker who applies to every job we have, without tailoring their resume to one particular niche. We get that often people do have a wide variety of experience – some professionals at the director or VP-level have touched on every aspect of the Supply Chain, from inventory management to procurement to distribution. But you should tailor your experience to the role for which you’re applying.
- It talks about “duties fulfilled” instead of accomplishments. We’ve blogged a lot about how important it is to create an accomplishment-based resume. Bad resumes tend to read like job descriptions instead of describing what the person has delivered to their employers.
- It has extra info that isn’t relevant. Trends are always changing in terms of what info your resume should (and shouldn’t) include, and it can be hard to keep up. But as of late 2017, headshots, marital status, personal info, and links to multiple social media profiles are distractions from what’s important.
With these common shortcomings in mind, what approach should Supply Chain and Procurement professionals take when trying to write a resume that impresses?
- Show, don’t tell. This old writer’s adage is also the best rule of thumb both for avoiding buzzwords and packing your resume full of impressive accomplishments instead of squandering the precious few seconds that a hiring manager will dedicate to your resume. Don’t just say that you’ve “increased cost savings,” show the amount of money that you’ve saved, and how you did it. Speak in terms of numbers: how many people did you oversee? What size of budget were you responsible for? Don’t just say you have “exceptional communications skills,” show it by presenting a resume that’s concise.
- Include the meat, not the fat. As recruiters in Procurement and Supply Chain, there are a few pieces of vital information we’re looking for when assessing a resume – beyond the accomplishments we mentioned above: if you’re in Supply Chain, what aspects have you touched on? (e.g. inventory management, logistics, warehousing, distribution, sourcing). What software do you have experience and skills with? (e.g. SAP, ARIBA). If you’re in Procurement, what categories have you purchased in? (e.g. raw materials, information technology, marketing, etc.) This is key information that sometimes gets lost within long bullet-pointed lists of “duties.”
- Less can be more. Similar to how white space is important from a visual perspective, concision is key when it comes to content. Try to write your resume with more action verbs and fewer adjectives.
If you’re like us, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of the resume advice floating around the internet is distressingly general – shouldn’t it be obvious that resumes need to avoid typos, grammatical mistakes, and incorrect contact information? So hopefully these tips give a bit more detail about how to approach a resume’s content in a blue-sky way.
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