by Fronetics | Oct 1, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Consumers are more likely to trust content generated by their peers, which means higher conversion rates at a lower cost for your brand. Is your brand benefitting from user generated content?
Highlights:
- User generated content is content created by users of a specific brand or on a specific platform.
- Images and video of real people using your products or talking about your services will create trust and loyalty for your brand.
- Don’t be afraid to engage with your audiences over social media, respond to comments, and answer questions.
Video transcript:
I’m Katie Russell, a marketing strategist here at Fronetics, and today I wanted to talk to you about user generated content. Also known as UGC, user generated content is one of the hottest topics in digital marketing right now, but there are many businesses that don’t know how to use this tool to their advantage.
Let’s start with the basics.
What is UGC?
User generated content is content created by users of a specific brand or on a specific platform. It’s highly effective and comes at little or no cost to your business.
With that said, a lot can qualify as UGC including: comments on your blog, testimonials on your website, social media posts, blog articles, videos, Instagram stories, The list goes on and on. What it comes down to is that UGC is really any form of content that comes from a customer or a user.
So, what are the benefits of UGC?
Authenticity
We know that consumers are more likely to trust content generated by their peers, which means higher conversion rates at a lower cost for your brand. This also means the content is authentic and genuine reviews from buyers. Does it get any better than that?
Inexpensive
Since your brand is not generating the content, you don’t have to invest in the time and resources to create it.
What’s hot in UGC right now?
Visual content
Visual content is by far the most popular among audiences, so visual UGC is a no brainer. Images and video of real people using your products or talking about your services will create trust and loyalty for your brand.
Snackable content
We all know that the attention span for content is extremely short these days. When reposting UGC, focus on short, funny and positive content. Content that leaves users feeling informed and entertained will perform best for your brand.
Enlisting influencers
Whether it’s a famous celebrity or a micro-influencer that’s respected within your industry, brands involving influential people in their marketing campaigns can expect higher ROI from UGC.
Don’t forget to follow-up
Once you’ve grabbed the attention of your community with a successful UGC campaign, it’s up to you to capitalize on the momentum. Don’t be afraid to engage with your audiences over social media, respond to comments, answer questions. Have questions about starting a UGC campaign as a part of your digital marketing strategy? Visit us at fronetics.com.
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by Fronetics | Jun 19, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
As the internet is increasingly dominated by visual content, social media analytics are failing to keep up.
Highlights:
- Most social media analytics tools are purely text-based.
- Even tools that analyze images are costly and offer limited insights.
- We predict that machine learning capabilities will improve and the gap between analytics capability and brands’ needs will close.
Here’s an interesting conundrum: social media, and the web at large, is becoming increasingly visual, and social media marketing relies on increasingly sophisticated analytics. However, most of the analytics tools out there are woefully unable to make sense of the visual content that is dominating social media. The alarming truth is that social media analytics are failing to capture invaluable data on visual content.
How social media analytics are failing to keep up
Big data and artificial intelligence expert Kalev Leetaru describes the shortfalls of social media analytics by detailing what they can — and can’t — do. While the capabilities of visual analytics have grown in the past several years, as Leetaru points out, most analytics tools that claim to analyze visual images are in fact based on textual or structural aspects of the image, not the visual content itself.
“The overwhelming majority of production social media analytics research relies primarily on hashtags and associated caption text, rather than the actual contents of the images themselves,” writes Leetaru. Instead, “from simplistic bag of words counting algorithms through advanced deep learning approaches, it is text that forms the lens through which we see social media.”
It’s important to note that this text-based approach is true not only for social media analytics, but for search engine algorithms. At Fronetics, we are constantly advising our clients to make use of visual content, from images to infographics to video, in their digital marketing efforts. But we always advise that marketers optimize their images for search engines, both by tagging all visual assets and publishing transcripts to go along with video or infographics.
[bctt tweet=”We always advise that marketers optimize their images for search engines, both by tagging all visual assets and publishing transcripts to go along with video or infographics.” username=”Fronetics”]
In essence, we’re advising our clients to take advantage of the increasingly visual nature of the internet, while also hedging against the ways in which algorithms and social media analytics are failing to assess visual content. As Leetaru points out, even in the rare cases when an analytics tool offers image analysis, it “typically offers only a few basic lenses through which to analyze that content, such as logos and a small number of topics.”
Of course, analyzing visual content is no easy task, and it’s also not cheap. “Images don’t capture reality, they construct it,” observes Leetaru. Not only are there all kinds of variables, like framing or lighting, that come into play, but there is a tremendous amount of non-visual context that determines how an image will be received. And the fact is that “current deep learning approaches are largely unable to incorporate such external world knowledge into their assessments.”
The problem with analytical failure
It’s important for marketers to recognize that, at the current moment, there is a gap between the capabilities of analytics tools and the analytics needs for modern digital marketing. As we as a society “increasingly express ourselves exclusively through visual forms,” brands desperately need insights about this visual expression.
Leetaru sums up the problem with sobering simplicity: “As social media becomes more visual, it becomes less accessible to our data-mining algorithms. In turn, as social media is less and less data minable, we are less and less able to understand it.”
Perhaps even more alarmingly, he cautions that “given that visual expression skews towards the younger and influencer demographics of greatest interest to many brands, this transition is especially damaging to their ability to extract useful insights from social media.”
Essentially, what Leetaru is recognizing is that we’re at a perilous moment for digital marketing. Just when the possibilities for content creation and dissemination seem endless, social media analytics are failing to offer up the insights needed to shape these processes in an increasingly visual climate.
“In the end, as social platforms rush towards a visual-first world, the vast landscape of social analytics is getting less and less representative of what we’re really talking about,” concludes Leetaru.
What does the future hold for analyzing visual data?
While you may be thinking that the future looks pretty bleak in light of how social media analytics are failing us, there’s a silver lining. If there’s one constant when it comes to social media marketing, it’s that when there’s a demand, sooner or later, supply will catch up.
It’s true that the current visual analytics capabilities of most platforms are far behind what’s needed. But at Fronetics, we predict that deep machine-learning capacities will start to catch up, and increasingly sophisticated analytical capabilities will become available to a wider segment of the market.
Currently, social media analytics can recognize text, faces, and brand logos within images. While these capabilities are, at present, too costly for most companies to take advantage of, we’re keeping our eye on some emerging technologies. For example, analytics provider Scraawl has recently released a tool called Scraawl PixL, which will allow users to run object and face detection, as well as Optimal Character Recognition, which extracts text from images.
Expect to see more tools like PixL on the market, offering increasing sophistication. While social media analytics are failing to keep up with the onslaught of visual data at the moment, we predict that they won’t be behind for long.
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by Fronetics | Apr 23, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
As the purchasing landscape increasingly skews younger, you need to think about how to improve your visual content to satisfy buyers’ preferences.
Highlights:
- Audiences increasingly prefer visual content.
- Optimize visual content for search engines by including text.
- Use graphics to make data pop.
Digital natives, who make up the majority of today’s B2B purchasing landscape, are highly steeped in online content. And, it may come as no surprise, they overwhelmingly prefer visual presentation, whether in video, infographic, animation, or gif format. What does this mean? Supply chain marketers need to adapt or be left behind.
[bctt tweet=”Good content marketing is all about presenting information in a story format. Great content marketing also packs emotional resonance. ” username=”Fronetics”]
While this doesn’t mean that text-based marketing is a thing of the past, it does mean that all your branded content — from blog posts to infographics to case studies to video — needs to be design-minded and visually appealing. These five suggestions will help improve your visual content game.
5 ways to improve your visual content
1) Optimize for search engines.
The biggest downside to visual content such as videos and infographics is that they aren’t searchable in the way that text-based content is. But this doesn’t mean that you need to lose out on the SEO benefits when publishing this type of content.
First off, it pays to post a text transcript with video or accompanying explanatory text with infographics and images. It’s also important for you to categorize and organize your visual content, which means labeling visual assets like logos and images with relevant keywords. When publishing them, be sure to tag images with keywords.
2) Make data interesting.
Common sense tells us that reading a bunch of numbers is far less compelling than seeing numerical data presented graphically. B2B marketers are in a prime position to make use of attractive data presentation, such as charts, graphs, animated images, or other formats to display your numerical data.
3) Create reusable graphics.
If you’re investing in visual content creation, it pays to consider how it can be reused. For example, when creating an infographic, consider how you can break it up into multiple graphics, each containing a set of statistics or other information. This way, you can add these smaller graphics to other pieces of text content, boosting engagement and adding visual appeal.
Additionally, keep in mind that visual snippets are ideal for posting on social media, as teasers, or even self-contained Instagram or Facebook Stories.
4) Keep your branding consistent.
A key point with visual content creation is consistent branding. Your brand’s visual presentation includes fonts, colors, font sizes, image styles, and anything else that is a visual indicator of your identity.
The first step to consistent branding is to document visual guidelines clearly and to distribute them to all content creators, along with samples for their use. Each time you publish visual content, make checking against the guidelines part of your editorial process.
5) Use visual content to tell a story.
Good content marketing is all about presenting information in a story format. Great content marketing also packs emotional resonance. When creating visual content, start with the idea of telling a story. Ideally, you’re presenting data in a way that communicates a feeling and elicits an emotional response from the viewer. If your data is impactful, your viewers will forge an emotional connection with your brand.
How are you trying to improve your visual content?
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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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