by Fronetics | Jul 1, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Manufacturing & Distribution, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Think like a manufacturer
Gartner’s Jake Sorofman wrote a great piece about building a content supply chain. His advice for understanding what it takes to use content as a tool to grow your business: think like a manufacturer.
Why? Sorofman connects the dots:
Manufacturing is actually an instructive example for what it takes to scale and sustain a content marketing program. Why? Because content marketing requires a replenishing pipeline of engaging content—a content supply chain—that helps feed the beast every day.
The following table (adapted Sorofman’s article) further illustrates the parallel between manufacturing and content marketing.
How can you successfully replenish your content supply chain and grow your business?
Strategy. As in manufacturing, strategy is essential when it comes to content. Without a strategy in place your content efforts will fall flat and will not help you grow your business. Want to learn more about creating a content strategy that will drive profitable customer action? Download our eBook: Grow your business with content: 12 steps to a content strategy.
by Fronetics | Jul 1, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
Content can grow your business.
How can content such as blog posts, white papers, eBooks, newsletters, infographics, podcasts, webinars, and video grow a business? Content can grow your business by increasing your search engine ranking, positioning your company as an industry leader, attracting new customers, and helping you retain current customers.
Not convinced? B2B companies with an active blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who don’t. What’s more, a study by the Custom Content Council found that 72% of marketers believe branded content is more effective than advertising in a magazine, 62% believe it is more effective than advertising, and 69% believe it is ‘superior’ to direct mail and PR.
Not all content is equal. Not all content will help you grow your business.
Content that will move the needle for your business is valuable content. It is content that is informative, educational, interesting, and speaks to your customer’s emotions and speaks to their pain points. Valuable content is not a sales pitch. Furthermore, valuable content is content that is delivered consistently over time and at the right time.
Strategy is vital
A 2014 study of B2B marketers found that companies who have a documented content strategy in place are more likely to consider their efforts to be effective than companies who do not have a documented strategy in place (60 percent vs. 11 percent).
The 12 steps to creating a content strategy that will help your company drive profitable customer action are:
- Put someone in charge
- Define your goals
- Define your audience
- Define your metrics
- Identify the right distribution channels
- Create a publishing calendar
- Create content
- Curate content
- Distribute content
- Engage with customers and prospects
- Track and analyze metrics
- Make adjustments as necessary
Want to learn more about these 12 steps and creating an effective content strategy? Download our eBook.
by Fronetics | Jul 1, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
Content can grow your business.
How can content such as blog posts, white papers, eBooks, newsletters, infographics, podcasts, webinars, and video grow a business? Content can grow your business by increasing your search engine ranking, positioning your company as an industry leader, attracting new customers, and helping you retain current customers.
Not convinced? B2B companies with an active blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who don’t. What’s more, a study by the Custom Content Council found that 72% of marketers believe branded content is more effective than advertising in a magazine, 62% believe it is more effective than advertising, and 69% believe it is ‘superior’ to direct mail and PR.
Not all content is equal. Not all content will help you grow your business.
Content that will move the needle for your business is valuable content. It is content that is informative, educational, interesting, and speaks to your customer’s emotions and speaks to their pain points. Valuable content is not a sales pitch. Furthermore, valuable content is content that is delivered consistently over time and at the right time.
Strategy is vital
A 2014 study of B2B marketers found that companies who have a documented content strategy in place are more likely to consider their efforts to be effective than companies who do not have a documented strategy in place (60 percent vs. 11 percent).
The 12 steps to creating a content strategy that will help your company drive profitable customer action are:
- Put someone in charge
- Define your goals
- Define your audience
- Define your metrics
- Identify the right distribution channels
- Create a publishing calendar
- Create content
- Curate content
- Distribute content
- Engage with customers and prospects
- Track and analyze metrics
- Make adjustments as necessary
Want to learn more about these 12 steps and creating an effective content strategy? Download our eBook.
by Fronetics | May 21, 2014 | Blog, Talent
According to R.J. Bowman, author of The Secret Society of Supply Chain Management, demand for supply chain professionals exceeds supply by a ratio of six to one. Looking forward, it appears that demand for supply chain professionals will only increase. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that demand for supply chain talent will increase by 26 percent between 2010 and 2020 – a growth rate that is twice as fast as 14 percent of all occupations.
In response to the demand for supply chain professionals, universities have introduced undergraduate majors, M.B.A. concentrations and even entire degree programs dedicated to procurement, inventory management and global supply-chain strategy. The Wall Street Journal has even gone so far as to declare supply chain management the “hot new MBA.”
The University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics is one university which offers MBA courses focused on supply chain management. This semester Fronetics has had the opportunity to work with students in one of the school’s supply chain management courses. Students in the school’s Supply Chain Management MBA course learn how to design, plan, and operate supply chains for competitive advantage; develop an understanding of how the key drivers of supply chain operations can be used to improve performance; and develop knowledge of logistics and supply chain methodologies and the managerial context in which they are used.
Over the next several weeks Fronetics will share topical supply chain management articles written by several of the MBA students. The students are inclusive of full-time graduate students and professionals who attend the MBA program part-time. The articles point to the diversity of this group of students as well as the student’s breadth of knowledge on supply chain issues.
A full list of the students’ articles follows below:
by Fronetics | May 19, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
The internet is a fire hose stream of content. Being able to navigate the deluge of content and identify the content that is valuable to your customers and to your business is essential; it can also be incredibly time consuming. Content curation tools can save time and increase productivity.
Here are 11 content curation tools that will help you establish your business as a thought-leader and trusted resource.
Bundle Post
With Bundle Post you connect and control Alerts and RSS feeds based on keywords. Bundle Post saves the content from your feed channels as a social media post, allowing you to view, edit or delete the content within the channel, all in one place, then merge selected curated content with scheduled posting times you create for each of your social media accounts and networks. Bundle Post offers a free 30 day trial. After that subscriptions start at $19.99 per month.
ContentGems
ContentGems monitors more than 200,000 news sites, blogs, and social media accounts. With ContentGem you can filter content a number of different ways including: custom keywords, sources, and media types. With ContentGems it is easy to share content via social media (one-click publishing and the ability to schedule posts). Freemium and premium options available.
feedly
feedly enables you to organize, read and share the content of your favorite feeds, blogs and news sites. If you liked Google Reader, feedly fills that gap. Free and premium versions available.
iFlow
iFlow allows users to discover, create, and curate ‘flows’ on any topic. Flows are topic-based streams that let users stay connected and updated with selected topics. These ‘flows’ may be followed, which results in users being continually updated with content relevant to selected topics. Flows can be set up to include detailed filters to provide for high quality of content curation. iFlow also allows users to create their own private flows. Users may invite others to contribute on their flows or can even keep their flows private. iFlow is free.
Individurls
Individurls is quite similar to feedly. One of the strengths of this content curation is how easy it is to use on your mobile phone. Individurls is free.
Netvibes
Although Netvibes is one of the original content curation tools, it remains a solid (and not outdated) solution. Netvibes offers a number of ready-made feeds and widgets. Both freemium and premium versions are available.
Newsle
Newsle is a great tool to keep you on top of what is happening with people within the industry and within your social network. It is also a great tool if there are specific writers or journalists whose content you want to keep track of. With Newsle you identify the people and Newsle sends you an email when those individuals are mentioned in the news.
paper.li
paper.li enables you to create your own online newspaper based on content you select. You add various sources and specify filters on these sources and a paper is produced. You can then add or remove “articles” from the paper. While paper.li can be used for free, the paid version allows you to brand your newspaper.
Post Planner
Post Planner is a solution for those who are avid Facebook users; PostPlanner is a Facebook app. With PostPlanner you enter in keywords and search for trending content within your niche. You can then sort this content to view the content with the most likes or shares so you can see the most popular content. While PostPlanner does offer a free version, to get the most from this tool you will need to upgrade to one of the premium packages.
Scoop.it
Scoop.it offers users a great experience and a constant stream of content. Scoop.it automatically finds and features comment from places like Twitter and Google blogs based on your target keywords and interests. It is also customizable, allowing for additional sources to be added to your stream(s). In Scoop.it you create boards of content around specific topics and then add content to these boards. Scoop.it allows for one-click publishing to your blog and social networks. Scoop.it offers a free trial, after that plans start at $12.99 per month.
Trapit
Trapit positions itself as a “smart” curation tool, increasing in intelligence and relevance the more you use it. It features more than 100,000 vetted content sources and includes “hidden gems” that have the potential to make your presence stand out. How does it do this? Trapit uses the same Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Technology from which Siri is derived.
