by Fronetics | Nov 13, 2014 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Founded in 1997, Cerasis is a top North American third party logistics company offering logistics solutions with a strong focus on LTL freight management. For 15 years the company utilized traditional marketing strategies – placing ads in glossy industry publications (print) and relying heavily on referrals. This strategy was effective. The company acquired new customers, retained current customer, and realized positive growth. However, Cerasis was not attracting larger and more sophisticated shippers, and brand awareness was low. Moreover, Cerasis was not perceived as a leader within the industry. The company recognized that in order to catch the attention of their preferred customers, increase brand awareness, and be perceived as a leader within the industry they needed to make substantial changes to their marketing strategy. To overcome these challenges Cerasis decided to shift from their traditional approach to an inbound marketing strategy.
Strategy matters
Understanding that strategy is critical to success, Cerasis took the time to put a strategy in place. Taking a research-based approach to strategy development, Cerasis studied internal company data, trends, and metrics and conducted market research. Using this information Cerasis determined the type of messaging it wanted to share, identified their target audience (buyer persona), and identified the platforms it felt would be the most effective.
Adam Robinson, Director of Marketing at Cerasis, notes that the company took a measured approach:
“Once we had a strategy in place we needed to execute it. We started simply – we posted one piece of content each day.”
Revenue matters
Cerasis’ strategy paid off. Within 25 months Cerasis realized a 14% increase in revenue. This increase was directly attributable to inbound marketing. In addition this stream of revenue, the company’s sales team was able to generate revenue totaling $20 million during this period – more than double the previous two years combined. This can also be linked to the company’s inbound marketing efforts as they increased the company’s brand awareness and positioned Cerasis as a leader within the industry.
To learn more about Cerasis’s approach to inbound marketing and the results realized, download the case study: 3PL Cerasis acquires 98 new customers through inbound marketing.
by Fronetics | Aug 12, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Connectivity, mobility and accessibility are game changers for business. Companies that recognize this and adapt accordingly will succeed, companies that don’t will not.
Unnovation
Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE, calls this refusal to innovate “unnovation” and defines it as the following:
If unnovation ever made it into the Oxford English Dictionary, I believe the description would be something along the lines of “unnovation (noun) … the refusal to identify, create, embrace or adopt new ideas, leading to the unnecessary and un-timely end to a business, which is ultimately overtaken by external progress.
What are companies who have fallen prey to unnovation? Yell (Google), Borders (Amazon), and Blockbuster Video (Netflix) are just three examples.
Companies within the supply chain, and the supply chain industry in general, are at risk of falling prey to unnovation despite being in a prime position to innovate.
Unnovation and the supply chain
KPMG’s 2013 Global Manufacturing Outlook reported that the US manufacturing sector “seems primed for an era of ‘hyper-innovation,’ in which companies develop not only new products, but also entirely new ways to build them.” Unfortunately, companies within the manufacturing sector are not primed for innovation. KPMG found that 44 percent of survey respondents reported that they still use “old” technologies such as email, fax, and “snail” mail to manage their supply chains.
Similarly, the supply chain industry has been slow to participate in social media and to invest in creating a strong online presence. The primary reason: a lack of understanding of the business case or value.
Participating in social media and investing in creating a strong online presence are fundamentally different from the traditional strategies which companies within the supply chain industry have employed to attract new customers, foster relationships with current customers, communicate with partners, and grow their bottom line. Because of the stark contrast between “old” and “new,” companies do not recognize how these strategies can positively impact their bottom line and therefore decide to steer clear – they feel engaging is too risky. The reality is that not participating is risky; not participating is unnovation.
These companies embrace change
Keychain Logistics
Companies that choose to unnovate will be eclipsed by companies who embrace the world of mobility, connectivity and accessibility. Keychain Logistics is one company that has decided to embrace change.
Bryan Beshore, Keychain’s founder, recognized the changes taking place and decided not just to embrace them, but to also capitalize on them. Keychain leveraged the ideas of mobility, connectivity and accessibility and created a new way for the freight transportation industry to conduct business. Keychain is a marketplace that connects drivers directly with shippers – and is available via mobile app.
Keychain has also become an active participant on social media. This participation has enabled the company to shape their offering with a solid understanding of what people want from a transportation provider. Furthermore, Beshore notes that social media has helped grow their business: “From phone calls to interviews, crowdfunded campaign partnerships, and beyond, social media has certainly helped us grow our business.”
Cerasis
Another company that has been successful – Cerasis. For 15 years the freight logistics company used traditional sales and marketing strategies. This strategy worked; however, the company recognized that if it were going to remain competitive and grow it needed to adapt. The company launched a digital, social media, and content marketing strategy. The strategy lead to an increase in website traffic of close to 670 percent, an increase in search visits by close to 2,190 percent and, most importantly, the company acquired 35 new customers – a significant number for the industry.
Swantee believes that if companies choose unnovation, “Ultimately, it could lead to disastrous consequences for their businesses, their staff and their future.” I agree. If a company wants to remain relevant and competitive, and if a company wants to grow – it needs to recognize that connectivity, mobility and accessibility are game changers for business.
by Fronetics | Jun 23, 2014 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Many companies within the logistics and supply chain industries are stuck on the social media starting line. The reason – “they can’t get past the word ‘social’ and the perception it creates.” The reality is that social media is a tool that can be utilized to create value and grow your business.
This is the fourth in a series of articles that provides examples of companies within the logistics and supply chain industries who have moved beyond the social media starting line and have realized the business value of participating in social media.
Cerasis is a top freight logistics company and truckload freight broker. During the company’s first 15 years it focused on traditional sales and marketing strategies and relied heavily on referrals. This strategy worked. Cerasis acquired new customers, retained current customers, and realized positive growth. However, Cerasis was not viewed as an industry leader, and brand awareness was low.
In 2012 Cerasis decided to participate in social media and launch a content marketing strategy.
Cerasis began actively blogging, and began using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+. The company quickly became seen as a leader within the industry, and brand awareness increased dramatically.
Within 15 months the company received 71 leads from search engines, 65 leads from social media, and 52 leads from webinars. Even more impressive, within 15 months the company gained 35 customers (one customer within the freight logistics industry can mean a lot of revenue).
The results show that Cerasis is no longer on the social media starting line – rather, Cerasis is now a leader, not only in the freight logistics industry, but also in using social media as a business tool.
by Fronetics | May 12, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
Adam Robinson of freight logistics company Cerasis wrote a series of posts which outlined the company’s social media and content marketing strategy and the successes the company has achieved through the execution of their strategy. The series also included how-to guides: how to create a social media and content marketing strategy and how to execute a social media and content marketing strategy. Robinson’s series is a must read for companies interested in learning the potential business value of a social media and content marketing strategy and for companies wondering the steps they need to take to create and execute a successful strategy.
Two sentences in Robinson’s series stand out:
“It all comes down to strategy!”
“Now, if you have the resources to be on every social media platform, you should, but only if you do it well!”
Sage advice.
Without a strategy it is unlikely that your company will be successful. Social media and content marketing can be effective tools for attracting new customers and retaining current customers; however, it is unlikely that your company will reap these benefits if you do not have a strategy in place. A 2014 study shows just how important strategy is. The study found that 60 percent of companies with a documented strategy in place consider their efforts to be effective as compared to 11 percent of companies with no documented strategy in place.
A successful strategy takes into consideration your company’s strengths, resources, limitations, and goals. Another component of success – doing things well. For some companies it is possible (and makes sense) to be on every social media platform. For many companies a well-executed strategy means focusing on one or two platforms. Don’t spread yourself thin, make your company show up strong!
It is also important to remember that if you need help, there is help available. It is possible to obtain training in social media and content marketing and it is possible to outsource these functions.
This article also appeared on DC Velocity.
by Jennifer Hart Yim | May 8, 2014 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
This is the third in a series of blog posts written by Adam Robinson, Director of Marketing at Cerasis. Founded in 1997, Cerasis is a top freight logistics company and truckload freight broker.
Now that you know about how to create a strategy, you have to execute it. This means content creation, content curation, and using the best tools possible to be effective.
#1: Content Planning
Categorize Target Audience By
- Industry: For example, we knew that within our target audiences, we had the following industry categories: Manufacturing, Distribution, Supply Chain, Logistics, Transportation
- Job Function: Next you then need to understand who are the buyers and what are their personas? Once you do this, you can weave in messaging into your content that speaks to all of them. At Cerasis, we knew our job titles were: C-suite, Managers, Employees
Create Content to speak to categories
Now that you have the categories, it’s time to create and plan for content. When you are coming up with topics, make sure you write the categories down and start creating headlines and doing research in those categories. You will notice on the Cerasis blog that there are broad categories like you see from the ones stated above, but over time we started shifting towards creating sub categories of those broad categories (e.g. Reshoring under manufacturing, or inbound logistics under logistics).
Ways to Generating Content Ideas
- Internal Interviews and Brainstorms
- Use an RSS aggregator such as feed.ly so you can curate articles and start to better understand the marketplace
- Be active in Social and Notice Most Shared
Using a Calendar
Whether you are doing one post (or more) per day or just one per week, a calendar is vital to long term success. If you don’t know what you are writing about each day, it is really easy for you to NOT write it and NOT achieve your goals. Content marketing is an ongoing project plan, and you can use tools such as Asana to have multiple people share the same workspace and work through the content.
Look out for Guest Bloggers
Another great idea for scaling content marketing and not burning out is to reach out to influential bloggers to guest blog for you. Or these can be other companies who are noncompetitive but share a similar target audience. We have had several guest bloggers that line up nicely and are relevant to our content categories. However, don’t take anyone that doesn’t add value to your readers. Think like a publisher and protect yourself from those spammy guest bloggers. You also must be proactive in networking and reaching out in social platforms as you establish relationships online such as on LinkedIn and Twitter.
#2: Content Creation
This is really where most companies get stuck. At Cerasis we leverage our employees and interviews to help get content written. You can also use great ghost writing services if you would like, but I would urge you that you write in house, as you know your authentic voice. The key is to stick to a regular schedule. Sporadic posts are going to find it difficult to build an audience. Think about your TV guide and the schedule of shows. You don’t always have to watch it the day it airs, but at least you know that it will be there.
#3: Content Distribution
If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it really make a sound? This old adage is very true when it comes to content and social media marketing. If you are not posting your content in any of the social media channels or online communities, then you are not going to be effective either. Even with search engines out there crawling your new content, search engines are now favoring social signals from sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+.
We recommend the following tools to use to distribute your content:
- Oktopost: This is a fantastic platform for distributing content as well as analyzing your performance. Their strong suite is the ability to post into multiple LinkedIn groups and mimic the categorization of your content through tagging of your groups. You can also post to many platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn pages, profiles, and groups, Google+ and more. Our favorite feature is the Autoposter. This feature allows you to load up a cache of content and set a schedule in the future so you don’t have to use resources to post every day. In one sessions you could set up a 30 day posting schedule right in the platform and view on a calendar!
- Buffer: This platform is great for content curation. You can load in your social profiles and then set pre-determined times on any day. We really love buffer for mostly Twitter, since Twitter is much like a newspaper where you go to find all the latest news and articles on topics of interest to you. Each morning we load up our RSS aggregator, feed.ly, and buffer all the best articles for our audience.
- Feed.ly: We love feed.ly as it allows to mimic (again) our content categorization but for other sources! It’s also a great way to find other blogs and influencers in your space you can network with and potentially guest blog for. All you have to do is search for content by keyword, add them in the respective category and bam, in one platform you have your own customized newspaper from which you can curate content. It’s got the buffer app loaded in so you can easily add articles to your buffer. This is also a great way to find new ideas for content and keep you up to date on your industry!
- Tweetdeck: This platform is owned and maintained by Twitter, but allows you to not only post to and monitor your account, but also allows you to monitor industry hashtags, such as #manufacturing or #logistics so you can start to follow and interact with those in your target audience. It’s a great tool and we recommend using it!
