by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 10, 2014 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
This article was originally published on DC Velocity.
A recent study conducted by the Corporate Executive Board’s (CEB) Marketing Leadership Council found that the average customer progresses nearly 60 percent of the way through the purchase decision-making process before engaging with a sales rep.
Where are customers looking for and finding information? Customers are turning to the internet and social media. If they are looking for your company – what are they finding? A key finding of the CEB study was: “companies that fail to ‘show up strong’ in this context are underserving potential customers and are at risk of losing mindshare and, ultimately, sales opportunities.” This is largely due to when customers tend to buy. Specifically, 80 to 90 percent of prospects who first engage with a company are not ready to buy. Forty percent of these prospects will be ready to buy within a year and 80 to 90 percent will be ready to buy within two years.
Improving your company’s visibility can be achieved by establishing a presence and by optimizing your presence. This is inclusive of launching a company blog, participating in social media, creating YouTube videos focused on your company’s products and services, and ensuring that your website is easily navigable and provides both current and potential customers with the information and services they need.
There are several tactics that can be used to increase visibility and help with measurement efforts include leveraging multiple digital platforms, regular analytics reporting, mobile optimization and content curation – a more recent trend which marketers and business owners have found as an effective method by which to establish online influence.
Both Kinaxis and SJF Material Handling Equipment have invested in becoming visible and both have seen positive results.
Kinaxis, a supply chain management company, launched an online social media campaign with the objective of doubling leads and web traffic numbers. The campaign included two online comedy series (Suitemates and The Late Late Supply Chain Show) and the launch of the company’s 21st Century Supply Chain Blog. The campaign was successful – traffic increased by 2.7 times and leads increased by 3.2 times.
SJF Material Handling Equipment the largest stocking distributor of new and used material handling equipment in the United States, has a strong presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. The company reports that nearly 20 percent of their website traffic is driven by social media. Stafford Sterner, President, notes “If you’re trying to reach out to totally new markets, then you might want to do Facebook and Twitter. If you’re comfortable building that relationship with people or companies you’re close to, then it’s LinkedIn.”
Being visible is an essential part of any business strategy. Take the time to make your company visible.
by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 4, 2014 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
This article also appeared on DC Velocity.
Research conducted by Adrian Gonzalez, founder and president of Adelante SCM, found that 30 percent of respondents (supply chain professionals) reported that their companies block access to social media sites. One of the reasons for the lack of participation in social media by these companies is likely due to a lack of understanding of what social media is and the role it can play in business. As noted by Gonzalez: “many supply chain executives and companies are stuck on the starting line because they can’t get past the word ‘social’ and the perception it creates.”
In a 2013 article in MIT Sloan Management Review, Gerald C. Kane, Associate Professor at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, wrote: “When asked to define social media, most people probably rely on something similar to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of obscenity: ‘I know it when I see it.’” Unfortunately this approach to defining social media tends to perpetuate stereotypes and does not accurately reflect what social media is and how it can be utilized by business. What, then, is social media? Social media is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.” These websites and applications are inclusive of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. Social media is part of a larger framework called social technologies. The McKinsey Global Institute defines social technologies as: “IT products and services that enable the formation and operation of online communities, where participants have distributed access to content and distributed rights to create, add, and/or modify content.” Social technologies are inclusive of Yammer, Jive, Moxie, and Supply Chain Operating Networks such as Descartes, GT Nexus, Elemica, E2open, LeanLogistics, and One Network. Also included in social technologies are network-based business intelligence and analytics.
Clara Shih, CEO and Founder of Hearsay Social, and Lisa Shalett, Managing Director and Head of Brand Marketing and Digital Strategy at Goldman Sachs, call attention to the fact that when you get right down to it, social media encompasses “a set of new and innovative ways for businesses and customers to do what they have always done: build relationships, exchange information, read and write reviews, and leverage trusted networks of friends and experts.” Furthermore, engaging in social media and utilizing social technologies provides business with the tools to manage status, social networks, and established relationships—all drivers of firm performance. Social media and social networking also enable companies to be able to better manage risk, create demand, define their reputation, innovate, enhance business intelligence, and improve productivity.
To learn more about social media and the role it can play in business, see our white paper: Social Media and the Logistics and Supply Chain Industries: Why Not Participating is a Risk You Can’t Afford to Take.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jan 29, 2014 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
There is much more than meets the eye when it comes to social media marketing. From expanding corporate communications to learning valuable information about consumers, social media has benefits that help businesses grow and expand their reach. Here are four powerful reasons why your business needs to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy:
1. Sharing Educational Content with Consumers
Leveraging social media as a tool for educating customers is a B2B marketing strategy that many businesses miss out on. Build your social media channels and develop thought leadership by providing objective, educational content that is relevant to your customers’ business problems. Become a resource of industry-related information through your original content and content curated from across the Internet. When potential customers are beginning their buying process, they gravitate towards companies with whom they are familiar and perceive as industry experts. According to Sirius Decisions, 70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before they ever contact a sales representative. Socially sharing educational content will increase your visibility to buyers during the sales process. Buyers are more informed than ever before, and businesses need to strive to be a resource for their customers on social media.
2. Improve Your SEO Ranking
Inbound links and social shares are two key performance indicators (KPIs) to be mindful of throughout the SEO process. Inbound links and social shares are two increasingly important factors that are taken into consideration during website indexes. These increase what Google refers to as Author Authority, and the more authority, the more SEO weight your website gains. Bottom line: the stronger your presence on social media, the higher your search engine page rank will be.
3. Generate New Leads
Social media can be used to help businesses build robust marketing campaigns to support lead generation, often with little to no cost. The plethora of social media networks and websites can seem overwhelming, but popular networks like LinkedIn and Twitter are a great place to start using social media to generate qualified leads.
LinkedIn is an ideal space for businesses; the community of professionals is a great resource for networking. LinkedIn supports businesses with community pages, company pages, groups and discussion boards for users to share ideas, content and talk to like-minded professionals. LinkedIn is also a useful tool for leads by gauging interest in products and services based on conversations. Additionally, Twitter is another free platform that users can use to drive lead generation efforts. According to Inside View, B2B marketers who use Twitter generate twice as many leads as those that do not.
4. Stretch Your Marketing Dollars
Even if you do chose to upgrade your social media toolkit and pay for premium benefits and services, the cost of implementing a social media marketing campaign is significantly lower than using many traditional mediums. The real-time data and analytics received through different social platforms provide users with valuable insights and the opportunity for businesses to pivot campaigns and tactics as needed in order to have the highest possible impact. Moreover, you be flexible with your marketing strategies, campaigns and tactics.
What have been some of the biggest benefits that your organization has seen as a result of their social media practices?
For more information on the benefits of social media, check out our white paper.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jan 28, 2014 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Social media and social media technologies have rapidly changed the way companies do business across every type of industry. Social media brings businesses closer to their customers, provides a platform for communication and building thought leadership, and when executed properly it can help drive business and provide a significant return on investment. Businesses that ignore social media forgo these opportunities and miss out on potential business development opportunities.
According to The McKinsey Global Institute, 90 percent of companies who were using social media or social technologies for their business reported benefiting from their efforts in 2012. And how could they not? Utilizing a social media technology can increase a company’s reach into their industry and provides optimal channels for communicating with their customers.
The supply chain and logistics industries are two industries that have not adopted social media and social technologies as quickly as others. Business owners in these have a difficult time seeing past the “social” aspect of these technologies and understanding what the implied benefits of using social technologies can mean for their business. Many find themselves asking “why?” instead of “how?” when considering implementing a social media strategy, and ultimately allocate resources elsewhere within their businesses.
The Fronetics white paper, Social Media and the Logistics and Supply Chain Industries: Why Not Participating is a Risk You Can’t Afford to Take, provides meaningful insights into why supply chain and logistics companies need to be using social media and the value of these technologies. Learn how to move past the barriers to adoption, how to leverage social technologies, and learn what a social presence can mean for your business.
To learn more about why your business needs social media, download Social Media and the Logistics and Supply Chain Industries: Why Not Participating is a Risk You Can’t Afford to Take today.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jan 28, 2014 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain
This article was previously published on EBN.
Looking for a way to make your supply chain more efficient? You might want to consider reusable packaging.
Reusable packaging includes pallets, racks, bulk containers, bins, dollies, handheld containers, and dunnage typically made from durable materials such as plastic, wood, and metal. Traditional packaging solutions are designed for one-time use, but reusable packaging can withstand the rigors of the supply chain for five years or more.
Using reusable packaging can make your supply chain more efficient from both an operational and environmental standpoint.
Operationally, reusable packaging can help you reduce overall packaging costs, product damage, labor cost, required warehouse/transport space, costs per trip, energy usage, and the number of trips you make. It can improve workplace efficiency and workplace safety. Studies have found that, on average, reusable packaging generates 29 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions and 95 percent less solid waste than single-use packaging, and it consumes 39 percent less energy.
Let’s look at a couple of examples that offer lessons for the electronics supply chain.
ANG Newspapers (ANG) in California has the largest daily circulation among newspapers in the East Bay and the third largest in the San Francisco Bay Area. Facing the high costs of wooden pallet breakage and waste removal (wood waste) and seeking to improve its distribution system, ANG made the switch to reusable pallets. The switch has reduced annual labor costs by $46,000 and prevented 37 tons of wood waste per year. Additionally, less space is needed to store pallets, and the company has improved operations and worker safety. It realized a return on investment (ROI) of 125 percent.
Another example: Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. was spending $520,000 a year for 580,000 cardboard boxes for internal distribution. The boxes tended to collapse when they were stacked. This damaged the product and generated $2,700 of disposal costs for soiled cardboard. To reduce packaging costs and cardboard waste and to improve its environmental performance, Ghirardelli invested in reusable totes. The investment will provide the company with a net savings of $1.95 million, eliminate 350 tons of cardboard waste per year, and decrease repetitive stress injuries. What’s more, the company has realized an ROI of 325 percent.
Though reusable packaging is generally better suited for closed-loop systems, it is possible to increase your supply chain efficiency by using reusable packaging and working with third-party poolers.
Want to learn more about reusable packaging? Jerry Welcome, president of the Reusable Packaging Association, wrote an article for Packaging Revolution on how to determine if reusable packaging can boost your profits. Also, the Reusable Packaging Association provides calculators to help companies estimate the environmental and economic differences between one-way and reusable packaging systems.
The US market for returnable transport packaging (RTP) is estimated to exceed $1.1 billion. The Priority Metrics Group projects that the RTP market will grow at a compound annual rate of 6.1 percent over the next few years. By 2017, it expects the global market to reach $6.75 billion.
Reusable packaging may not be right for everyone, but the industry is growing, and the benefits can be large.
