by Elizabeth Hines | Oct 18, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
The supply chain is increasingly seeing the value of moving to an inbound marketing strategy. Here’s what’s at the core of the change to inbound marketing.
Traditional marketing in the supply chain uses an outbound strategy. We’ve all done it. Taking out ads in trade publications. Sending direct mailings. Cold calling.
These types of approaches fight to get your brand name in front of prospective customers, hoping to get a marketing message that resonates in front of the right person at the right time.
Inbound marketing is different
Inbound marketing is different. It’s, well, confident. It showcases your industry merit rather than trying to convince people of it.
With inbound marketing, you publish relevant, informative content where your audience already is – your website, related social media, and other online industry channels – to add value at every stage of their buyer’s journey.
Prospective customers come to associate your brand with industry expertise. When they are ready to buy, they think of you. That’s an inbound content marketing strategy.
Why the supply chain is shifting to inbound content marketing
The supply chain is increasing seeing the value of moving to an inbound marketing strategy. What’s at the core of the change to inbound marketing?
On a theoretical level, it’s recognizing that your business has more to offer than its primary product or service. This is so very important. You also have a team of extremely knowledgeable industry experts with unique and informed perspectives.
But switching to an inbound content marketing strategy is also about recognizing that your customers want much more from you than just your product. The business to busienss (BtB) buying climate is growing longer and more complex, and customers today are demanding value outside the sales funnel. Traditional outbound marketing accomplishes neither of these.
[bctt tweet=”Switching to an inbound content marketing strategy is about recognizing that your customers want more from you than just your product. Customers today are demanding value outside the sales funnel. ” username=”Fronetics”]
Why inbound marketing is better for the supply chain
If that didn’t convince you, put simply, inbound content marketing is just more effective for four main reasons:
- Cost. Inbound marketing is typically less expensive than outbound. Hubspot reports that each sales lead costs approximately 61% less for organizations that employ an inbound strategy versus those that focus on outbound marketing.
- Measurability. Measuring your success with inbound marketing is considerably easier. For example, you’ll never know how many people saw your billboard, but you can measure exactly how many people read your blog post.
- Longevity. Digital content is often evergreen – meaning it’s forever relevant – and older posts that need an update can be easily optimized. Essentially, content lives forever and continues drive traffic long after you publish it. In fact, at Fronetics, about 80% of our traffic comes from posts that are 6 months old or older.
- Targetability. With inbound marketing, you only expend resources on prospects that are already looking for information about your industry, products, and services, making inbound marketing a much more targeted approach for your lead-nurturing efforts. Less expensive, easier to measure, lasts longer, and represents a more targeted approach? Seems like a no-brainer. But what’s the catch? Well, executing a good inbound content marketing isn’t easy, and it generally takes at least six months to yield results.
Executing a good inbound content marketing strategy
Done well, inbound content marketing is extremely effective. A good content marketing strategy is about understanding the questions and concerns that are particular to your customer base and about offering quality information and analysis that answers those needs.
The role of content in the supply chain and logistics industries is to grow brand awareness and customer engagement, increase lead generation and nurturing, and establish your company as an industry thought leader in the minds of your prospective customers.
An inbound marketing strategy helps you become more than just another business to customers. You can become a valuable resource for everything related to your products, services, and industry as a whole. Which is precisely what your potential customers are currently expecting from your supply chain and logistics business.
This post originally appeared on EBN Online.
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by Fronetics | Oct 16, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Optimally, content and sales have a symbiotic relationship. But the key is understanding what kind of content your sales team needs to help them close deals.
A theme I’ll be examining in this space over the next few months is how content marketing can help businesses make sales. Content marketing and sales are not mutually exclusive functions. Content can help sales teams get meetings, build relationships, and close deals. So what kinds of content can the marketing staff develop to support sales?
First impressions
Sales reps know that first impressions are a one-time opportunity, and all-important for ushering prospects into the sales funnel. For the initial contact with a prospect, content can be a major asset, particularly personalized content. For example, take the time to familiarize yourself with the latest blog posts from target companies’ websites, and follow up with additional ideas they can leverage.
Additionally, to create a positive first impression, host a live workshop that caters to the needs of your prospects. Hubspot’s Bethany Cartwright suggests an event “that walks through industry best practices and helps troubleshoot common issues.” She also recommends that content marketing teams “build custom landing pages that populate the prospect’s name, company logo, and value props catered to their business needs.”
Turning around an initial rejection
One of the biggest, often insurmountable challenges for a sales team is receiving an initial “no” from a prospect. But with the help of content marketing, sales teams can often get past an initial rejection and turn it around. “Leveraging content doesn’t mean just leveraging your own content,” says Cartwright. “In ‘no’ situations, you can turn the tables and talk to prospects about their content instead.”
[bctt tweet=”The basic idea behind content marketing is that your business’ greatest asset is your knowledge and expertise, not your products and services. ” username=”Fronetics”]
We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep saying it: the basic idea behind content marketing is that your business’ greatest asset is your knowledge and expertise, not your products and services. When it comes to the intersection of content and sales, this idea holds true more than ever. Your best shot at turning around an initial “no” from a prospect is to offer them something of value aside from products. Content helps you build relationships with your prospects, which is your best shot at turning them into customers.
Middle and bottom of the funnel content
Once your sales team has successfully ushered prospects into the sales funnel, the role of content doesn’t go away. At these later stages of the buyer’s journey, content like case studies, implementation guides, and data sheets are of great value. On average, B2B businesses lose around 20% of their customers each year by neglecting customer relationships. These types of content can help cultivate a budding relationship with your prospects, keeping them loyal and engaged.
At these later stages, keep content as visual as possible. This is an ideal time to create and share infographics with your prospects, for example. Video also performs exceptionally well in the late-stage sales cycle. Include short video clips in follow-up emails, particularly video case studies or animated product demonstrations. And don’t forget to keep it personalized. Vidyard is an excellent tool for personalizing video messages to your prospects.
Content, when used effectively, is your sales team’s best friend. Keeping your marketing and sales teams aligned and working closely together is your best bet for generating and nurturing leads, and turning them into customers with a lasting and fruitful relationship.
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by Fronetics | Sep 24, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
A new generation of buyers, digital natives, is shaking up the B2B purchasing landscape. Is your business ready to meet them online?
Digital natives, who now make up the majority of the B2B purchasing landscape, have completely changed how vendors need to market and sell to buyers.
[bctt tweet=”Digital natives, who now make up the majority of the B2B purchasing landscape, have completely changed how vendors need to market and sell to buyers.” username=”Fronetics”]
In fact, according to a study of millennial buyers by Merit, some 73% of 20 to 35 year olds are involved in product or service purchase decision-making at their companies. Not only that, about half of all B2B product researchers are digital natives — and the number is rising by the year, according to a Google/Millward Brown digital survey of buyers.
It goes without saying that the B2B purchasing landscape is going through a radical shift. Here are 6 ways that digital natives have changed B2B purchasing — and how companies have to respond.
6 ways digital natives are changing B2B purchasing
1. Product searches begin with a generic web search.
This means that companies now have to focus on SEO and producing informative content. First impressions are everything in B2B markets, and when it comes to digital natives, your first impression is conveyed through every piece of content you produce and distribute online.
2. They bypass sales people.
So companies should aim to switch from primarily outbound marketing to inbound marketing. This doesn’t mean that salespeople are going to be out of jobs. But it does mean that sales and marketing need to work together in new ways.
3. Online search, vendors’ websites, and peer/colleague reviews are their most important sources of information.
It’s time to place focus on SEO, website development, social media, influencer marketing, and B2B review sites. Again, your reputation depends on your online content. Are you establishing your brand as a trusted source of information?
4. They prefer short bursts of information, often in visual formats.
Not only that, they find phone calls tedious and disruptive. Companies need to be strategic about the type and format of any content they distribute. Emails and websites should be mobile-friendly, and visual formats like infographics are a highly effective way to present dense information.
5. Social media is a preferred source.
These digital natives are relying on social media for information on brands, products, and services. How does your social media presence stack up?
6. They know what they want by the time a salesperson enters the process.
This new generation of buyers already has a clear idea of the value they expect from a vendor by the time they’re ready to move down the sales funnel. So vendors need to deliver on the promises made by their content.
How is your company accommodating the research and purchasing habits of digital natives?
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by Fronetics | Jul 25, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Here are 4 components of an effective lead-nurturing campaign that will entice your potential customers and have them moving down the sales funnel.
Your content marketing objectives really come down to one basic goal: to generate a high number of quality leads. These leads will help drive tomorrow’s revenue and increase sales. In fact, 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their most important content marketing goal.
[bctt tweet=” 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their most important content marketing goal.” username=”Fronetics”]
As more and more buyers discover brands before they are ready to purchase, an essential function of any marketing department is lead nurturing. That is, moving leads through the sales funnel by leveraging what’s known about their needs and online behavior.
Marketo, a marketing software company, describes lead nurturing as being “personalized, adaptive, and able to listen and react to buyer behavior in real time.”
We know that marketers need to focus their lead nurturing strategy on multi-channel engagement. This includes utilizing email, social media, blogs, and video to interact with potential customers. A multi-channel lead nurturing strategy is essential for companies looking to optimize their user experience and bring in high-quality leads.
With so many variables contributing to a productive lead-generation campaign, it can be challenging to pinpoint what differentiates a successful campaign from a mediocre one. Here are four tools that will help you deliver a series of targeted messages across multiple touch points and platforms to help solidify your lead-nurturing strategy and increase your quality leads.
4 building blocks of an effective lead-nurturing campaign
(Made with Canva)
Takeaway
Successful lead nurturing is really about utilizing all the tools at your disposal to meaningfully connect with your leads in order to build trust and establish credibility. Using these four key points, marketers can start building on their lead-generation efforts as they guide potential customers on their journey to becoming a client.
And don’t forget: Asking for the right information is key! If you want to nurture high-quality leads, you need to make sure you’re capturing relevant, helpful information along the sales journey.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Jun 25, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Aiming to deliver value outside the sales funnel allows your business to build long-term relationships with customers, rather than focusing on a single sale.
Congratulations! You closed the deal. You hammered out the terms and set up the billing. But, according to marketing experts Mark Bonchek and Vivek Bapat, now the real work of growing revenue begins.
Successful 21st century businesses focus on what happens after they close a sale, not the transaction itself. That’s because consumers — and B2B customers — have higher expectations than ever before. They read reviews, listen to webinars, and download white papers before they buy, and they expect a better experience after.
Purchase brands vs. usage brands
Bonchek and Bapat describe two types of brands: “purchase brands” and “usage brands.” The usage brands “focus on the moments of truth that happen after the transaction, whether in delivery, service, education or sharing.” As a result, they command greater loyalty and higher prices than competitive brands that are content to end their relationship with an invoice.
[bctt tweet=”Suppliers need to shift focus from persuading people to buy, to persuading them to become a committed advocate for their brand.” username=”Fronetics”]
What does that mean for you as a supplier? You need to shift your focus from persuading people to buy, to persuading them to become a committed advocate for your brand.
“Be” the B2B customer
B2B accounts are complicated. They have many decision makers and many points of contact. You may have a sales team with multiple reps and sales support people on one account.
With so much going on, it’s important to “be” the customer. Try to identify and understand the people who depend on your product or service to get their work done every day. Those are the people you need to impress.
“What is the likelihood that you would recommend Company X to a friend or colleague?” According to Bain & Company, this is the one question that most closely correlates to customer satisfaction. “High scores on this question correlated strongly with repurchases, referrals and other actions that contribute to a company’s growth.”
And what makes people recommend a product or service? Success while they’re using it.
Social media: An important part of the B2B relationship
Bonchek and Bapat say, “The purchase and usage mindsets are equally, or even more, relevant for B2B brands. Business solutions tend to have longer life cycles than consumer products and there is an even greater opportunity to deliver value outside the sales funnel.“
So yes, you may have to tweet. And stay present on LinkedIn. Because your customers look there to follow trends and find good information to help run their businesses. Industry forums, YouTube, and Instagram are also great places to provide value beyond the sale.
Don’t worry if you’re not a creative genius. Most of us aren’t. Do try to talk about issues that are relevant and maybe even unsettling to your industry. If your customers are having a problem, chances are other businesses have the same concerns and vice versa.
You probably have an opinion, maybe even a solution. Use social media to share it with a larger audience, your users will thank you for it.
How do you deliver value outside the sales funnel?
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