Outsourcing content marketing can cost a fraction of what dedicating in-house resources would — and you’ll get better results.
Nobody can do it all, despite what the latest motivational meme tells you. When running your business, it is vital that you focus on where you excel; sticking with your core competency is critical. Essentially, the more hats you wear in your company, the more watered down your efforts become.
Content marketing can be highly effective in generating leads and driving sales, but doing it right requires significant time and effort. If you are trying to manage content on top of overseeing key aspects of your business’ day-to-day operations, you are stretching yourself thin. What’s more, it’s negatively impacting your bottom line.
Why DIY content marketing can be costly
Many companies mistakenly think that managing their content marketing in house is simple, cost effective, and not time consuming. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Here is why:
Lost hours on your job
Taking time away from your primary focus prevents you from doing your job. If what you do best is new product development, for example, then dedicating hours each week to writing blog posts means that much less time for market research, design, and implementation. Those few hours away each week add up over time, and the cost to your company is significant.
Lost leads and sales opportunities
You may be a good writer and have personal social media accounts, but do you understand the ins and outs of creating and distributing content in a business setting? Professional content writers have expertise in search engine optimization (SEO), branding, user experience, and storytelling — all of which drive traffic and generate leads. Social media strategists similarly have expert knowledge of networking sites and how to best reach a target audience. If you don’t have that expertise, you are costing your company those opportunities — or, again, taking time away from your primary function trying to learn.
Lost readership and audience retention
If your content does not engage your audience, you shouldn’t have bothered in the first place. And engaging content doesn’t occur by happenstance. Research shows a strong correlation between content marketing success and strategy, documentation, and frequent check-ins. You need to know exactly who your audience is and what they want to read, and then you need a long-term plan for continually reaching them in new and interesting ways. Then you need to regularly assess your strategy and adjust as needed. As you can imagine, that all takes time and focus.
According to Forbes, outsourcing your content marketing is a cost-effective way to increase the success of your program. Essentially, you get expertise and experience — at a fraction of the cost of dedicating in-house resources — with no long-term commitment. By allowing experts to create strategies and leverage well-crafted, engaging content across multiple channels, you can improve lead generation and exponentially increase sales.
The Takeaway
By outsourcing your content marketing to the right firm, you can:
Get professionally written, optimized content that engages your target customer and builds relationships.
Benefit from the firm’s experience with content marketing for your industry and beyond.
See results and ROI. The firm should put metrics on all of your marketing activities and deliver a regular report to you so you can monitor progress.
Save time and money: You can focus on the core aspects of growing your business, while outsourcing your content marketing costs a fraction of dedicating in-house resources.
Simply put, it ultimately costs less to let experts create and execute your content. Given the reins, they can leverage their experience to produce greater results, capture more leads, analyze results, revise strategies, and, most importantly, free up your schedule to focus on your key responsibilities.
Keep producing consistent, quality content during your slow season to win business when things pick back up.
For everything there is a season, and that expression holds true for most businesses. When is your slow season? That depends largely on your industry and customer demographic, but you are probably well aware which quarter your sales historically drop off and your customer engagement wanes.
In fact, the calendar is heading into a slow season for many companies, especially those in IT systems or the capital equipment marketplace. In these industries, the highest sales volumes typically occur in the first two business quarters. That is when potential customers are busy creating and implementing their new business initiatives and doing the bulk of their purchases for the year.
By third quarter, many businesses are past purchasing and have moved into problem-resolution mode. They are trying to meet the goals they set and stay within budget. Purchasing capital equipment is not on their agenda, at least not for now.
Should you head to the beach during that quarter? Should you ditch your current content marketing strategy because it suddenly is producing fewer leads? According to an insightful post from Daniel Pastuszak, marketing expert and head of customer acquisition and lifestyle marketing for LinkedIn, absolutely not. There is no indication that you should not market to your customers in your “off” season.
In fact, you need to maintain your “voice” as a thought leader, answer questions, and maintain a reliable, engaging presence through your content marketing. What will engage your audience during the slow cycles? Information, guidance, and memorable industry-related stories top the list.
Tips for effective content marketing during a slow season:
Provide content that demonstrates your expertise and positions you as a thought leader.
Don’t write a sales pitch! In your blog posts, offer helpful advice in an easy-to-digest format. For example, explain a recent case study or trend within your industry in a way your customers will understand it. This type of content keeps your customers engaged with your business, so when it comes time to purchase, they remember you as a trusted source of knowledge.
Share customer testimonials and their backstory.
Nothing is more memorable than telling a great success story. Now is the time to share reviews that demonstrate how your company expertly fulfilled customers’ needs, exceeded their expectations, or provided solutions to a tough challenge.
Cover events attended by your company’s management or leaders.
This can make for a great post on industry-related news, and can support branding the company as an industry leader. Again, there’s no need to include a sales pitch. You’re simply demonstrating how your company is among the movers and shakers in the industry.
Cultivate content that is fun, like customer contests.
Get customers involved with some friendly competition, and show them you are listening by sharing their responses. For example, one of Fronetics’ clients, a wholesale food distributor, recently challenged food service customers to create a meal using ingredients purchased from the wholesaler. They were then asked to post photos of their entries on social media with the contest hashtag. Fun and engaging, this contest captivated the customers’ attention and had them sharing content (and the client’s name).
Write for your (very specific) audience.
That means knowing who they are and what peaks their interest. If creating engaging content has proven to be challenging for your business, consider outsourcing your content creation, or your marketing program all together. Your slow season is the perfect time to boost the quality and consistency of your efforts to engage your audience and expand your outreach.
All businesses experience seasonal cycles, but that does not indicate your sales or content marketing strategies are in need of major revisions. Slow periods are the perfect time to take a deep breath, revitalize, and strategize. Use this time to research information you need to accelerate your efforts for the next hectic season of sales.
Take a moment to let that sink in. After Google, people are searching YouTube for content. Strike that: Over one billion people are searching YouTube for content.
This has raised the eyebrows of content marketers across many industries, including B2B businesses, who recognize the enormous potential for reaching customers through this medium.
If you haven’t considered distributing content through YouTube, you may soon find yourself scrambling to catch up with your competitors who are. For those who don’t know much about YouTube or are clueless about how it can work for business, here are a few basics to get you started.
What is YouTube?
YouTube is a free video-sharing website and social media platform that allows users to view, upload, share, rate, and comment on content. It was launched in 2005 by three former Paypal employees and purchased by Google in 2006. It now operates as a subsidiary of Google.
You do not have to be a registered user to view content, but you must be registered to upload content. Registered users can also subscribe to content providers’ channels to receive updates when something new is available, and can create playlists of favorite videos to view at any time.
In addition to being available on the YouTube website, YouTube videos can be embedded, shared, or uploaded to other sites (such as Facebook).
Why is it good for business?
YouTube has massive potential for businesses. Here are just five reasons to participate.
Users watch around 3.25 billion hours of video every month.
Videos with over 1 billion views: 10,113
80% of views are from outside the U.S.
More than half of views are from mobile devices.
You can navigate YouTube in 76 different languages.
2) Improved search rankings
YouTube videos are included in Google’s search results, ranking above web pages in certain searches. Potential customers searching for products and services like yours will be more likely to find you in such instances.
3) User experience
Video has become so popular for a reason: People like consuming it. By producing content in this medium, you are offering a user experience that is in high demand.
4) Build your brand
Video is the ideal storytelling platform, and it’s also perfect for how-tos, product demonstrations, and other content that demonstrates your company’s expertise. Show your brand personality and engage your audience while building your reputation as a thought leader in your industry.
5) Track performance metrics
YouTube Analytics makes it easy to see who is watching your videos and how they are engaging with them. Run reports on audience demographics, revenue, engagement, traffic sources, and more.
How do I get started?
There are two avenues for businesses who are looking to reach YouTube’s more-than-3-billion users.
For one, businesses can buy ads that run before other videos, beside playing videos, and in search results. Video ads are not covered in this post, but you can learn more about them here.
Secondly, businesses can create their own YouTube channel and upload original content as part of their inbound marketing programs. To get started, you will need to sign into your business’ Google account or create one. Find the sign in button at the top-right corner of the YouTube homepage.
With your account, you will own your very own “channel,” on which you will post your content. Branding your channel is an important step, as this will be the face of your company on this platform. Below are some tips.
Anatomy of a branded YouTube channel
Coyote Logistics, a 3PL provider, has done an excellent job of branding its YouTube channel.
Company Logo
Upload your company’s logo by hovering over the channel icon and clicking the pencil icon when it appears.
Branded Banner
Upload an image that represents your brand and what users will find on your channel. Hover over the channel art, click the “Add channel art” button or the pencil icon in the upper-right corner and select “Edit channel art.” Coyote Logistics makes a bold statement (very representative of its brand personality) here. For the best results on all devices, YouTube recommends uploading a single 2560 x 1440 px image.
Social Icons
Provide links to your other social channels by hovering over the channel art, clicking the pencil icon in the upper-right corner, and selecting “Edit links.” Add the URLs for each of your channels under “Custom links.”
Customize Layout
Click the customize button to create a layout for your channel. You can add up to 10 “sections,” which allow you to group videos in a particular way. For example, you could add sections of recent uploads, popular uploads, playlists, etc.This helps visitors to decide what to watch — and lets you promote content you wish for visitors to see.
About
Navigate to the About section to add a channel description, business email address, country, and social links (if you haven’t already).
Uploading videos
Once you have your channel set, you’re ready to start adding your original content. YouTube Help has a wealth of resources to help you get started, problem-solve, and learn more. The below video offers an introduction to uploading videos in just a few quick steps.
Other terms to know
Playlist: Playlists let you organize your videos into different categories, like interviews, tips, product demonstrations, etc. Learn more.
Channel trailer: A short video, like a movie trailer, that gives visitors an idea of the kinds of videos they’ll find on your channel. Learn more.
YouTube Red: This is the premium subscription option that allows you to view videos without ads, watch videos offline, and more.
Many companies, however, find producing consistent, quality content — essential to a successful content marketing program — very challenging. Most don’t have the resources to make content a first priority, and many are unclear on what kinds of content will work for their business.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors partners with clients to create a content marketing program that drives growth. Handling all aspects from strategy to execution, our team leverages our vast and varied experience to deliver content that will elevate our clients’ brand position within their industry.
Our six-step approach to deliver content for our clients in the supply chain and logistics industries:
Understand
Our first priority is to work with you to create the most effective content marketing strategy for your company. That means fully understanding the specifics of your business — your target customers, your sales cycle, your KPIs, and your competition — in order to create a content strategy individualized for your specific situation and needs.
Analyze
Next, we audit your digital assets: what is in place and how well it is working to produce your desired results. What kinds of content are you producing, how often are you producing it, and what is resonating with your target audience?
Research
We examine who your competitors are and what they are doing well (and not so well), identifying any gaps in the marketplace. We also research keywords that will resonate with your target audience and identify linking opportunities that will direct potential customers to your website.
Plan
We work closely with you to establish strategic priorities. We develop content, social media, and lead-nurturing strategies built on our careful research, understanding of your business goals, and analysis of the marketplace.
Execute
We begin creating, curating, and distributing content for your business. Unlike other firms, we don’t outsource content creation. By keeping it all in-house, we are able to ensure a quality product. Our team can create:
Blog posts
Articles
eBooks
Case studies
White papers
Newsletters
Press releases
Infographics
Social media
Custom content
Measure
Finally, we put metrics on all of these activities, monitor them regularly, and provide you with a monthly marketing report. We identify challenges, trends, and opportunities and take action so that your content marketing program constantly evolves and delivers results.
If you are looking to improve your content marketing to drive meaningful engagement with prospects and customers, speak with us today.
Fronetics’ new report explores the adoption of social media within the logistics and supply chain industries. Learn why your company is at a disadvantage if you are not participating.
It is estimated that over $1 trillion annually could be realized across the value chain through the use of social technologies. Yet companies in the logistics and supply chain industries have lagged behind when it comes to social media participation. The question is: why?
In short, many companies within these industries did not realize that their customers, employees, and competitors were leveraging social media to conduct business. In today’s world, the exponential growth of social media platforms is largely fueled by commercial activity. Consumers and corporations alike are increasingly turning online to do research and make purchases. This holds true for both the B2C and B2B sectors. In fact, a dominant 88% of B2B marketers are using social media in their marketing programs.
Companies within the supply chain and logistics industries, however, have begun to recognize the value of social media — and are starting to reap the benefits. Both large and small businesses alike can profit from the use of social technologies as part of their marketing strategy, and they can reduce their marketing costs by doing so.
About the report
This report offers an overview of social media and social technologies. It identifies users and usage patterns, and describes some of the benefits which companies within the logistics and supply chain industries can realize through participation. Further It offers insight into how businesses are using social media and some strategies for measuring ROI.
Learn more about how your company can benefit by participating in social media by downloading the report below.
Understand
