by Fronetics | Jun 5, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Robotics & Automation, Social Media, Supply Chain
When it comes to digital marketing, social media is here to stay. Here’s our four-step guide to leveraging social media for the robotics industry.
Highlights:
- Having a documented strategy is key to reap the benefits of social media marketing.
- Define your audience and establish concrete goals for social media campaigns.
- Set metrics and use data to adjust your strategy consistently over the long term.
The demand for high-performance robotic systems is growing steadily and showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, New Equipment Digest predicts that the robotics vertical within the materials-handling-equipment sector will grow by over 8%, reaching $20 billion by the year 2024. To capture the benefits of the sector’s growth, robotics companies need to invest in digital marketing. Social media for the robotics industry holds tremendous potential — if it’s leveraged properly.
In our work with clients across various verticals in the supply chain, including robotics, we frequently hear that they have been skeptical about the potential of B2B social media use. While social media management does require time and resources, robotics companies should absolutely be reaping the benefits of social media marketing.
Read on for tips on how to create a strategy and leverage social media for the robotics industry.
4 steps to developing a strategy for social media for the robotics industry
1) Define your audience.
For supply chain companies, one of the biggest predictors of success in a social media marketing campaign is a clearly documented strategy. A big part of that is defining your target audience. Chances are, you have some target buyer personas already. Keep these top of mind as you create your social media strategy.
What are the unique needs and challenges faced by your audience? Where do they go online for information? What are their goals? What do they value from you? The more you ask and answer questions about your audience, the better positioned you are to create a strong and effective social media strategy.
2) Determine your goals.
Next, consider what your goals are on social media. You’d be surprised how often this step gets skipped. Marketers are often pressed for time or resources and think of social media marketing itself as a goal, rather than defining specific, measurable objectives for their social media campaigns.
[bctt tweet=”When it comes to social media for the robotics industry, common goals often include increasing brand awareness and authority, generating leads, or establishing thought leadership.” username=”Fronetics”]
When it comes to social media for the robotics industry, common goals often include increasing brand awareness and authority, generating leads, or establishing thought leadership. But before you embark on a social media strategy, consider what your company specifically needs to achieve.
3) Define your metrics.
One of the best things about having documented goals for your social media strategy is that it helps you define what metrics you should be using to track your progress toward those goals. Measuring social media ROI is no easy task, but there are plenty of tools and strategies that can help. While your full list of metrics will be determined by the goals you set, robotics companies should be tracking at least these four metrics:
- Where traffic is coming from
- Revenue derived from posts
- Visitor behavior on your site
- Social media conversions
In addition to the analytics tools offered by social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, Google Analytics can give you a bird’s eye view of your social media efforts, as well as delving into detail on the metrics that matter most to you. For more, be sure to check out our guide to getting the most out of Google Analytics.
4) Choose your platforms.
Not all social media platforms are created equal. When it comes time to choose your social media platforms and create a strategy for each, it’s important for robotics companies to consider where their audience spends their time online (see step 1).
As you identify what social media channels are the best fit for your company, keep in mind that the characteristics of each platform should inform what content and how often you should be posting. Twitter, for example, lends itself to short-form, pithy content or links and frequent posting, while a more visual platform like Instagram only requires 1-2 posts per day.
Going forward: using your metrics to stay agile
Once your strategy is established, you can simply put it into place, start posting content, and forget about it, right? Wrong. Effective use of social media for the robotics industry requires ongoing evaluation and adjustment.
If you’ve defined the right metrics to track, the data you collect should help you determine where your efforts are successful and where your methods need to be adjusted. As you refine your strategy and learn the needs and preferences of your target audience, you’ll find that social media is an extremely effective tool for capturing leads, broadening your brand’s reach, and building your reputation.
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by Fronetics | Jan 8, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Before you make your marketing resolutions for this year, take a moment to look at last year’s digital content marketing successes and failures.
As the new year begins, take the opportunity to look at past marketing choices, see what worked and what didn’t, and shape goals for the future. The year ahead is a blank canvas, but evaluating past successes and missteps is key to making sure the big picture works.
Writing for Forbes Communication Council, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Caring People Inc. Karina Tama-Rutigliano offers these four tips for successfully moving forward with digital marketing.
1) Don’t go anywhere without clear, specific goals — and a plan for measuring results.
Assuming you’ve been tracking useful metrics along the way, the end of the year means you’re armed with a fresh crop of data. Take time to study and evaluate your data, and use it to develop incremental goals, as well as projections for next year. If you haven’t already, now is a good time to implement a documentation strategy, like our Monthly Marketing Report Template.
Furthermore, take a moment to consider how the metrics you’re currently tracking are serving you. Is your data giving you the insights you need? Are you left with questions about where your efforts are successful, or where another approach is needed? The beginning of the year is a good time to tweak your plan for tracking and measuring the results of your digital marketing efforts.
2) Don’t forget the “social” in social media.
[bctt tweet=”Social media platforms are viable places to engage with your customers,” writes Tama-Rutigliano. This means encouraging interaction with your posts, replying to comments, and engaging with posts from your community.” username=”Fronetics”]
You’re so busy creating and curating content to be fresh, relevant, and engaging for your social media audience, you forget that one crucial part of social media marketing: the social. “Social media platforms are viable places to engage with your customers,” writes Tama-Rutigliano. This means encouraging interaction with your posts, replying to comments, and engaging with posts from your community — be part of the conversation, and build relationships.
3) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
With so many options for digital marketing, all of them full of possibilities, it can be tempting to choose one or two and put all your dollars and efforts there. But a successful digital content marketing strategy is robust and well-rounded. Use your year-end data to evaluate where your efforts are thriving, and where you need to devote some cash and ideas.
4) Don’t post without a purpose.
We’ve all felt the push to create content, just for the sake of getting something new up on the blog or social media platforms. But content without a clear purpose in mind is never going to get you the best results.
It’s easy to get cynical, and think that content creation is just about feeding the search engine beast. But the heart and soul of content marketing is about sharing your knowledge and expertise with your customer-base, building trust, and creating lasting relationships.
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by Fronetics | Dec 10, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Data/Analytics, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Here are our most-viewed blog posts from 2018 about analytics and ROI, including articles about how to calculate your marketing ROI and competitive benchmarking.
Content marketing is increasingly popular in the B2B sector. In fact, 91% of B2B marketers used content marketing as a part of their strategy last year. But marketers still struggle with proving the return on investment.
Evaluating your analytics gives you valuable insight into what’s working (and what’s not) with your content marketing strategy. But 47% of B2B marketers reported not measuring content marketing ROI. And of those marketers, 86% sited lack of knowledge, time, and convenience for reasons why their company doesn’t calculate ROI.
[bctt tweet=”47% of B2B marketers reported not measuring content marketing ROI. And of those marketers, 86% sited lack of knowledge, time, and convenience for reasons why their company doesn’t calculate ROI.” username=”Fronetics”]
This year, Fronetics examined new analytics tools and numerous ways to calculate ROI — within the context of supply chain and logistics operations, as well as how these methods can be used to improve overall marketing performance. Here’s a look at our most viewed analytics and ROI posts in 2018.
Top 5 analytics and ROI posts
1. The Art of Measuring Podcast Success
Podcasts are an increasingly popular content medium, but measuring their performance is difficult. Here are some tips for measuring podcast success in spite of the challenges. Spoiler alert: it’s an art, not a science. Today’s busy professionals are increasingly driven to make their “down time” more productive and engaged. The popularity of podcasts rises every year, with more than 50% of American homes now classified as “podcast fans” by Nielsen. Read full post
2. Top 10 Social Media Analytics Tools
Analyzing your social media performance is critical to a successful marketing effort, especially in light of recent changes to Facebook’s News Feed. You need the tools to determine what’s working and what isn’t, as well as the best time to post your content for your target audience. At Fronetics, we use a variety of tools to measure social media success. Here are our 10 favorite social media analytics tools. Read full post
3. 4 Metrics to Measure the Impact of Content Marketing on Brand Awareness
A successful content marketing strategy strengthens the relationship between brands and their target audiences. And brand awareness is a key component to any successful content marketing strategy. Ultimately, the more aware audiences are of your brand, the more likely they are to buy your products or services. Read full post
4. Use These Metrics to Benchmark Marketing Performance against Your Competitors
Competitive benchmarking is the process of comparing your company’s performance against that of your competitors. You can use various metrics to benchmark what these businesses are doing better than you are and where you have the edge. Benchmarking marketing performance is an important step in the process of evaluating the success of your content marketing strategy. Read full post
5. Infographic: 4 Ways to Measure Blogging ROI
Why do you blog? It seems like a simple question, but the answer has a huge impact on the content you produce and the outcome of your efforts. As with all aspects of your business, you should give the return on investment of your content marketing efforts ample attention. That is especially true for blogging ROI, if generating new business is indeed one of the reasons you blog in the first place. Read full post
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by Fronetics | Nov 20, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Data/Analytics, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Finding, analyzing, and using the right metrics effectively is crucial to a successful content marketing strategy.
Accountability and showing a solid return on investment is everything when it comes to ensuring that your business is allocating adequate resources to marketing. And let’s face it, too many executives think that marketing is, at best, about supporting sales or, at worst, a department that exists to paste logos onto coffee mugs.
Writing for Marketo, Content Marketing Specialist Bryson Runser points out that as an “informed marketer, it’s your duty to infuse credibility into your organization by way of meaningful metrics that tie directly to your top and bottom line.” While the C-suite famously cares nothing about internal marketing metrics like Facebook likes or click-through rate, metrics are crucial to the success of marketing the supply chain. Not only that, effective use of metrics is the best way to establish the function and importance of the marketing department within your organization.
[bctt tweet=”Effective use of metrics is the best way to establish the function and importance of the marketing department within your organization.” username=”Fronetics”]
Numbers don’t lie
One of the main aspects of the “crisis of accountability” is a problematic view of what marketing is: “if marketing leaders insist that marketing is an art and not a science,” Runser writes,” then the department will remain isolated from other groups.” Establishing that content marketing is not only dependent upon data, but can also be measured, is key to changing that perception.
“Marketing must be able to justify their expenditures as investments in revenue and growth,” writes Runser. Of course, it’s partly a chicken-and-egg issue, since getting to the point of being able to talk about expenditures in this way does require investment from the top of your business.
We know that measuring the impact of content marketing can be tricky. But it’s not impossible. The first step is determining the right metrics to track. For more detailed ideas and analysis, check out this post, which details how to determine and use metrics to measure the impact of content marketing on brand awareness.
Why are you reporting?
Collecting and reporting on marketing ROI can feel like you’re spinning your wheels and collecting meaningless data. But it’s crucial to keep metrics focused on the main goal: to enable you and your business to make decisions that improve your marketing efforts. “This is the difference between backward-looking measurement and decision-focused management,” says Runser.
Data for the sake of data doesn’t do any good. Data should be used to shape insights, which in turn informs priorities and actions for your business. We’ve written before about the danger of vanity metrics, which have no bearing on your bottom line but can give you an inflated sense of success.
It’s very easy to fall into the trap of meaningless data collection, especially when marketers are often struggling to prove their worthiness to the C-suite. But using metrics to improve marketing’s performance will go a long way towards winning over executives. “[B]y aligning data measurements with your company’s strategic objectives,” Runser writes, “it will be easier to allocate resources by revenue impact.”
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by Fronetics | Dec 11, 2017 | Big Data, Blog, Data/Analytics
Here are our most-viewed blog posts from 2017 about big data/analytics, including articles about using big data in supply chain/logistics and competitive benchmarking.
“Big data” has been a hot-button word in supply chain and logistics circles for several years now. But the concept of using big data to measure performance and improve operations is only gaining steam. We predict big data/analytics will be more important in 2018 and beyond.
This year, the Fronetics blog examined big data/analytics in a number of ways — both within the context of supply chain and logistics operations and using data and analytics to improve marketing performance. Here is a look at our most-viewed big data/analytics posts in 2017.
Top 5 big data/analytics posts
1) Top 10 Logistics Metrics to Measure Your Supply Chain Efficiency
The supply chain plays an integral part in maintaining a well-functioning organization. A well-structured and organized warehouse will help you achieve your distribution goals and adequately analyze metrics. That is why it is important to ensure you are measuring certain data points in your logistics operation to ensure efficiency. This guest post from Demetra Mallios of Catch-Up Logistics suggests which logistics metrics can help you identify issues in your warehouse before they become a problem. Read full post
2) 3 Tools to Help You Benchmark Marketing Performance against Your Competitors
To define success within your market and industry, you need to look outside what’s going on internally in your organization and compare yourself to your peers. That is why competitive benchmarking is so important. But running another set of reports and keeping track of all those metrics could be a full-time job within itself — and ain’t nobody got time for that. The good news is there are some really effective tools available for marketers to quickly, even automatically, benchmark their performance against the competition. Read full post
3) You Need to Benchmark Your Marketing Performance against Competitors
When it comes to measuring marketing performance, most marketers look inward, focusing on key performance indictors (KPIs) such as website traffic, open rates, social engagement metrics, and conversion rates. While these inward facing KPIs are important, it is also important to look at what is happening outside your organization and to benchmark your marketing performance against peers and competitors. This will give you the knowledge and drive you need to improve your performance and chance of success. It can help you to identify threats and strategic opportunities. Read full post
4) 11 Metrics to Measure in Last-Mile Logistics
This guest post from Adam Robinson of Cerasis examines the data shippers should be tracking to drive down the high cost of last-mile logistics. And, interestingly, Robinson does not believe that reduced costs must mean cutting customer service. In fact, he recommends integrating customer service data into delivery operations and transportation systems as a key step to increasing your brand’s value. Read full post
5) 3 Lessons from Big Data to Make Your Content More Relevant
Searchmetrics founder Marcus Tober discusses how data is changing the relevancy of content in his conference talk, Mastering the World of Deep Learning: How Big Data Is Making Content More Relevant in Search. As a pioneer in search-analytics software, Tober has watched search engines become more advanced at figuring out which web pages people will find relevant. Through years of research, Tober offers three lessons to make your content more relevant. Read full post
Runner-up posts:
