by Fronetics | Apr 5, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
Try these out-of-the-box ideas for content and other tactics that can help you generate leads.
Generating new leads and growing your business is imperative to a business’s viability. Referrals from current customers are a strong option for growth, but often they aren’t enough to keep a business thriving.
Generating leads is tough work. Creating cold emails can be daunting, and following up with cold calls can be even worse. Most of the time, these calls fall on deaf ears. People don’t want to be pulled away from their day to hear your sales pitch.
Content marketing is the process of creating content that prospects and customers want to consume to educate them about your business, your expertise in the field, and your products and services. Content is an excellent lead-generation tool. But it’s often difficult to create content that does all these things without being an overt sales pitch — which people definitely don’t want to read. And no read, no lead.
So we’ve created a list of 10 ideas for reaching your prospective audience and generating leads with content and more. They’ll appreciate the information, and you’ll help spread the word about your business. Enjoy!
10 ideas for generating leads
1) Interview an expert about success in the field.
Reach out to leaders in your industry to share their thoughts and tips for success. You’ll prove to potential customers that you are committed to discovering the latest and greatest in your field. Don’t be afraid to ask detailed questions and share real answers. The specific answers will enlighten potential customers and provide actionable items for them to walk away with.
2) Create a video.
Videos are a great way to take advantage of social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Create fun, entertaining videos that educate potential customers about issues or pain points your business helps solve. Remember to keep your videos short and to the point.
3) Make a quiz.
When visitors come to your website or social media pages, offer them a creative quiz to capture their contact information. Once they have completed the quiz, you get a lead, and they get the correct answers. You’ll learn about more about them as a potential customer, and they can learn more about your products and services.
Eastern International College created a unique quiz to help students choose a major. The quiz helped students learn about their interests and gave Eastern International College useful insight into counseling them on their class selection.
4) Offer content upgrades.
Content upgrades can be a very valuable lead-generation tool. For example, say you’ve written a blog post about the best time to post on social media. Add an offer for a downloadable guide to create a social media strategy at the end of your post. To get the download, customers must submit their contact information via a form. You get the contact info; the customer gets the content upgrade — it’s a win-win!
5) Show your tried-and-true tactics.
What is really working for your business? Write an honest post that allows potential customers the opportunity to see what has really worked for you, and what hasn’t. Your honesty will help cultivate trust with potential customers and benefit other companies looking to grow their lead base.
6) Host a giveaway.
According to Kissmetric Blog, giveaways can be one of the most successful ways to generate leads. The key is to find out what your customers actually want. You can leverage a giveaway to direct online traffic to a landing page, where you can capture new leads. It is important to find a giveaway that is directed at a specific audience. If your giveaway is too broad, you will be left with large list of dead-end leads.
7) Guest blog on a relevant website.
You’ve reached out to experts to put their tips and success stories on your blog — now you need to do the same. Research the sites that your key audience is visiting and offer to guest blog on their site. Create relevant and valuable content that can generate exposure for your company. You will not only come across as a leader in your industry, but you’ll reach a vast new audience.
8) Offer insight into prospects’ top questions.
Consider questions that you hear from prospects and create in-depth tutorials to answer them. Potential customers will find the step-by-step articles useful, giving you the opportunity for a lead. Oftentimes the companies that step up to answer tough questions or provide instructions in easy-to-follow formats are the ones that get the business.
9) Get involved in the community.
There has never been a greater call to get involved in community outreach. Companies that are committed to creating change and engagement in their communities create trust in their customers. Volunteer at local events, guest speak at schools, or help local student organizations. You can demonstrate your expertise while creating real ties to the community. This will help you stand out not only as a leader in your industry, but as a caring and involved brand.
10) Offer a free trial.
According to HubSpot, “free trials of a brand’s services help get a prospect’s foot halfway through the door.” Offering free trials of your services is a great way to demonstrate how your company can add value to your customers. Once they experience the benefits of your services or products, they’ll be more likely to purchase them in the future. The free trial can lead to sales in a low-pressure situation for the customer.
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by Fronetics | Jul 11, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
This is part two of a three-part series on Twitter for B2B. See part one, Twitter for B2B, and part three, How to Use Twitter Analytics.
If you’re not sure what else to tweet, try these 20 ideas.
Twitter is an excellent platform for sharing news and reaching your customers, but it sure can be a lot of work. Our recent social experiment showed us that engagement is highest for Fronetics when we tweet around 40 times a day. That takes a lot of time and energy — not to mention, a lot of content.
You, too, may find yourself frequently strapped for quality tweeting material. We’ve got some ideas to not only fill your feed but to keep your followers interested and engaged.
A few things to remember
Keep in mind the 4-1-1 rule, an idea popularized by Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi and Tippingpoint Labs: “For every one self-serving tweet, you should re-tweet one relevant tweet and, most importantly, share four pieces of relevant content written by others.” This prevents your Twitter account from seeming too self-promoting, which quickly will turn off followers, and it reinforces your business’ position as a helpful source of information and knowledge.
Remember, also, that you don’t have to tweet just text. You can also share photos, videos, Slideshares, and links. Mix it up to keep things interesting.
With that said, here are 20 ideas to get you tweeting.
Tweet this
1) Release news.
Twitter has become the new newswire, where stories break and people turn for to-the-minute information. It’s a great place to offer updates about product releases, changes in service, or other company announcements. But also you can share news that might affect your followers or your supply chain: severe weather, acts of terror, or economic or political events.
2) Share company or industry data.
We’ve written before about the potential for data-as-content. Tweeting stats, data, and other numbers relevant to your audience is a great way to get started. You can type out the information in less than 140 characters or create a quick infographic or image.
3) Mine Reddit.
Reddit is an endless source for content of any kind. Create a multireddit with industry-specific subreddits so you can quickly browse what’s trending to share with your audience.
4) Recycle an old blog post.
Be it a week or a few years later, there’s no shame in reposting content after some time has gone by. Maybe it’s relevant to current events. Maybe it got overshadowed by another breaking story or event when it was originally posted. Maybe it did really well the first time, and it’s still relevant. Regardless, tweeting about an old post can drive new traffic to some of your best content. You can always frame it as “ICYMI” (in case you missed it) or a “Best of” post.
5) Praise your suppliers.
Sharing a positive experience with a business partner is great exposure for the partner and good karma for you. It also shows your audience that your behind-the-scenes operations are running smoothly, which reinforces confidence in your products or services.
6) Share a meme.
An internet meme is a humorous piece of media (most often a photo) shared online from user to user. Show your brand’s personality by posting one that will make your followers smile.
7) Thank inspiring speakers from an industry conference.
Did someone give a particularly interesting presentation? Tag them and thank them. Maybe they’ll follow you or retweet you, giving you lots of exposure.
8) Throw it back.
Post an old photo or an old tweet on a Thursday to participate in Throwback Thursday (#TBT). “Old” doesn’t have to mean decades ago, by the way. People frequently use content from earlier in the year — even earlier in the week.
9) Reveal your favorite follow.
Do you really enjoy news or content from another user? Share that person’s Twitter handle with a quick explanation of the kind of tweets followers can expect. You’re offering valuable information to your audience — and you’ll get excellent exposure for your business if the user has a large following and engages with your tweet by liking or retweeting it.
10) Celebrate holidays.
Wish your followers happy and safe holidays, and show photos of your employees celebrating special events. Remember holidays aren’t limited to major religious or patriotic days of observance. International Women’s Day, Bring Your Child to Work Day, and National Ice Cream Month can inspire content. Days of the Year is a great resource for little-known holidays. Did you know that July 11 is International Town Criers Day?
11) Comment on trending topics.
See what people in your network are talking about. The Trends column on the left of the homepage shows popular topics of conversation tailored to you based on your followers and accounts you follow. If a trending topic involves something you have experience with, offer insight and information to help position your company as a thought leader in the industry.
12) Retweet your executives.
Get exposure for your management team or other content spokespeople in your company by retweeting them.
13) Quote someone famous.
Everyone can relate to inspirational quotes. Tweet your favorites or create graphics to share. Or, follow leaders and thinkers you admire and retweet particularly poignant thoughts.
14) Praise an industry leader.
Tag someone to tell them that you liked their book, article, or post. Congratulate newly appointed executives of competitors and business partners. Recognize someone for a courageous business decision, successful quarter, or outstanding support of a charitable organization.
15) Hold a contest.
Build excitement about a product by asking followers to post photos of creative alternative uses with the hashtag #HowNotToUse. Have them share their best recipes using your wholesale food products. Or ask for submissions to name your newest cargo ship. (Boaty McBoatface?) Whether you give a prize or not, people are competitive by nature and will enjoy participating.
16) Answer an FAQ.
Ask your customer service team for a list of customers’ most frequently asked questions and regularly tweet out answers.
17) Ask a question.
Whether “What do you think of our new product?” or “Do you have plans for the long weekend?” there’s no better way to get a response than to ask a question.
18) Conduct a poll.
If you’re looking for a specific answer, use the poll button to see what your followers are thinking. It can be related to your business or just for fun. Try both and see where you get the most engagement!
19) Share photos of company events.
Days of service, employee milestone celebrations, executive retreats: photos help followers attach faces to your business name. It also gives them a behind-the-scenes look at company culture and builds a positive image of your employer brand.
20) Retweet what your network is sharing.
Share helpful, informative, or entertaining content from the users you follow. You not only offer value to your followers, you also let the user know you like their content and prompt them to do the same for you.
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by Fronetics | Jun 14, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Try writing about these topics on your supply chain blog to engage customers.
Content is an important part of many logistics and supply chain companies’ marketing plans. Yet nearly half (45%) say creating quality content on a consistent basis is their biggest challenge.
If your business is part of the 90% that produces some or all content in-house, you have likely struggled with this from time to time. You know that you shouldn’t pitch your products. But, then, what are you supposed to say on your blog?
Here are some thoughts on what to write about:
1) Offer something of value.
Do you have expert advice on a particular topic? Is there something about your products or your people that would be entertaining to your audience? Do you have access to top-of-their-field specialists that could discuss a particular issue?
2) Share your mission.
What is your company’s mission statement? Pick one aspect and describe why this is important to you/society, or illustrate how your company is living up to it. For example, a green transportation company might create an infographic about the industry’s impact on the environment.
3) Tell a story.
What anecdotes can you share about your business? Are their employees with exceptional stories to share? Customers whose narrative bears repeating? What stories illustrate something about your business? For example, Southwest Airlines’ Nuts About Southwest blog regularly shares customer stories — tugging at the heartstrings with nearly missed births, marriage proposals, and, of course, adorable animals — that illustrate the airline’s commitment to customer service and on-time arrivals.
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by Fronetics | May 31, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
Overcome writer’s block with these ideas for blog posts.
It’s time to write that new blog post, and your computer screen is a vast, white page of emptiness. Maybe it feels as if you have covered all of obvious topics of interest and you have nothing left to write about. You need direction. You need motivation (or coffee). You need fresh ideas, a new angle or approach, or a modern-day muse!
You are not alone. Topic development is a skill, and some days it is a challenge — especially because you want your content to be unlike any other post out there. And there is a lot of content to compete with: Reportedly, 88% of B2B marketers use content marketing as part of their programs.
So, your post needs to stand out above the crowd, engage readers quickly, and offer them something valuable (e.g., information or entertainment) to keep them coming back to you for more. With that in mind, here are 10 prompts to get you going on your next blog post.
10 writing prompts for blog posts
1) Identify customer pain points.
Think about your target audience. Who is that potential customer? What are some of their everyday pains or challenges? Provide them with insight or information, offer advice, or provide solutions for overcoming those problems.
2) Use your industry experience.
Create a comprehensive list of industry-related statistics or facts. Then, focus on one that you can speak to. Such posts position you as a thought leader on industry challenges and trends. They also are great for getting inbound links (meaning other sites will link to your post, which improves your SEO).
3) Capitalize on popular trends.
What is hot in your business right now? What is important and trending in your potential customer’s corner of the world? Speak to others in your company for their ideas. Is this trend going to last? If it is on its way out, what is your prediction about what the next big trend may be?
4) Provide information.
Write a how-to guide. Help your readers make a decision or accomplish a task. Show your knowledge about the subject to establish yourself as a trusted source of information.
5) Offer a different opinion or new perspective.
Read other blogs in your industry for fresh ideas. This is simply a leaping-off point — plan to cover the topics in a different way.
6) Join in on top-level industry conversations.
Follow industry leaders on Twitter and LinkedIn. Join social media groups related to your business, and read what others in your specific industry are sharing. What are they posting about today? How can you expand on it or argue a different opinion or solution?
7) Localize a new story.
Read trade publications, magazines, and even the news for ideas. How can a hot topic relate to your business or customers? Look for hidden connections. In the newspaper business they call it “localizing” a story — essentially taking a story that, on the surface, is not related and finding a way to discuss it in terms of localized relevance.
8) Share your “musts.”
Write a top 10 list of industry must-knows, or perhaps must-dos, or even must-reads. Be a key source for even more information and knowledge.
9) Introduce your latest release.
Write about your latest project, product, or service and how it will solve specific challenges or address certain needs.
10) Answer customer questions.
Read and digest all of your readers’ responses, posts, or questions. Sometimes the customer generates great blog ideas through a conversation or a question. Write your post as a generalized response to others who may have the same concern, idea, or question.
Content marketing helps connect potential customers to your company by offering information they can use. But creating consistent, relevant content can be time-consuming and costly. If you frequently find yourself staring at a blank screen, consider outsourcing this important task to professionals. Many companies find it provides the optimum results, saving time and resources.
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by Fronetics | May 30, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Supply Chain
Fronetics’ new guide offers a road map for content production that will help grow your business.
Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to generate leads and grow your business. Yet only 30% of B2B marketers define their content marketing programs as successful. Time and again, they cite producing effective content as their main challenge.
Consider this: 27 million pieces of content are shared every day, and most of it is crap. For your content to be effective — meaning your content attracts your target audience and drives profitable customer action — it must stand out, really stand out, among the masses.
Fronetics has developed a guide to help companies in the logistics and supply chain industries create effective content. On Writing Good Content : A Guide for the Logistics and Supply Chain Industries provides a road map to producing content that generates leads and drives new business. With this guide, you will:
- Learn the basic principles of good content
- Identify potential content creators within your organization
- Brainstorm ideas for original content
- Receive writing prompts that will get you started producing the kind of content that will resonate best with your target audience
Start creating effective content today by downloading the free guide below.
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