by Fronetics | Nov 28, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Supply chain companies can use influencers in their prospects’ network as a strategic tool to gain new business.
The term “influencer marketing” often brings to mind celebrities endorsing their favorite brand of bottled water or jeans — not an image that is particularly useful for B2B businesses. However, B2B marketers should be taking this powerful trend in content marketing seriously.
While your supply chain may not benefit from an endorsement by Jennifer Aniston, you likely have brand influencers at your fingertips, which you may not even realize. Effectively leveraging these endorsements is a strategic tool for gaining new business.
Developing an influencer marketing strategy
Once you’ve identified your natural influencers, here are three important steps for building an influencer marketing strategy for your company.
1) Know your target buyer.
Rather than a scatter-shot approach, making the effort on the front end to identify your target buyer personas allows you to strategically target your customers. Understanding their needs, challenges, and purchasing structures is the key foundation to any content marketing effort, and influencer marketing is no exception.
2) Identify your industry influencers.
Industry influencers aren’t just the big names, though those people are certainly influential. It comes down to how your buyers make their purchasing decisions. The 2016 B2B Buyer’s Survey Report found that nearly half of B2B buyers use peers and colleagues as a major information resource when choosing a vendor.
Who are those peers and colleagues whom your target buyers turn to? Use every resource at your disposal to determine how they get their information. Connecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks is a great way to do this.
3) Use the right tools for your business.
Any effective content marketing strategy depends on using the most effective tools. In a post for CMS Connected, Leah Kinthaert makes a strong pitch for Twitter. She cites the ease of plugging in a hashtag or keyword in giving you “volumes of information — from who the influencers are in that industry to what today’s breaking news is on the topic.” Furthermore, clicking on a hashtag shows you what your competition is doing as well.
The bottom line is that influencer marketing can be an extremely effective aspect of a B2B business’ content marketing strategy. Knowing your buyers, finding your influencers, and effectively leveraging this information will help boost your social credibility, as well as generating new business.
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by Fronetics | Nov 21, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Fronetics invites you to participate in a survey on how companies in the logistics and supply chain industries use content marketing.
If there’s one thing we can say about the ever-changing B2B marketing climate, it’s just that: it’s ever-changing. Keeping pace with shifting industry trends, innovations, and challenges can be daunting. But knowledge is power when it comes to creating a vital and robust marketing strategy.
In 2014, Fronetics decided it was time to gather hard data on how logistics and supply chain companies were using modern marketing tools like content. We conducted an industry-wide survey, gathering a valuable snapshot of the marketing landscape.
Now it’s time for another look at the data. So Fronetics invites you to participate in our 2016 surveys on content use in the logistics and supply chain industries. The survey takes about 3 minutes to complete, and no personal or company data will be reported. Additionally, you can indicate your preference to receive the completed report.
Key findings from the 2014 content use report point to companies using content primarily to build brand awareness and generate leads, with blog posts being the most popular content format. While all respondents reported using content marketing for a relatively short time, the majority had already seen a positive impact on their business.
Fronetics is curious to know, two years later, about the ongoing impact of content marketing. In addition, we’d like to find out if the industry is using content in new ways. Has content use expanded? Are blogs still the most popular format? What challenges are B2B companies facing when it comes to content creation and distribution?
The answers to these and more questions can provide vital insights as you shape your company’s marketing strategy for the future. Especially when it comes to modern marketing techniques, knowledge is power.
Take the content survey by clicking on the button below. Be sure to indicate your preference to receive the results. We look forward to your responses!
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by Fronetics | Nov 9, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Try these content formats and related tools for B2B social media content that keeps your audience engaged.
Conventional wisdom, careful market research, and common sense are all telling us that social media is transforming the way we do business. We know we should be leveraging these platforms to drive awareness, engagement, and revenue for our businesses. But creating content to share with your audience is actually more difficult than it sounds.
Character limits and the increasingly visual nature of these platforms means marketers are having to get creative with how they engage their audience. Here are four ideas and related tools that can help B2B organizations produce interesting, informative content that is suited to social media.
1) Video
The 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report rates the growing prevalence of video among its top findings for the year. It found that 60% of marketers are now using video in their marketing, and 73% are making it a goal to increase their use of video. This trend is for good reason — 64% of business that use video reported that it has led directly to increased sales.
Video is an efficient, visually appealing way to present your content in an imminently shareable format. Here are some online tools to help you create effective video content for your business.
- PowToon: A tool that guides users through the creation of animated videos and presentations, PowToon boasts an approachable interface and minimalist design that makes it simple for marketers with limited video experience.
- Magisto: Ideal for creating videos with emotional impact, Magisto features tutorials on creating video for your business, and allows users to create highly customizable video content through a simple interface.
- WeVideo: Featuring advanced video-editing tools with a simple interface, WeVideo is a cloud-based collaborative video editor that allows users the convenience of cloud video storage.
- Wideo: Allowing you to create videos in minutes, Wideo offers a variety of plans aimed toward working with your existing marketing strategy.
Creating your video is just the first step. Here are some places to upload and share your content:
- YouTube: The titan of video sharing services, YouTube allows for public and private upload, and gives users free access to analytics tools for their videos. Along the way, take a look at these valuable tips for getting more views on your YouTube videos.
- Vimeo: With a similar platform to YouTube, Vimeo is ideal for video sharing, discovery, and generating creativity.
2) Infographics
Social media platforms are becoming increasingly visual. A well-designed infographic makes your content visually appealing and delivers your message in a clear, easily digestible format. A recent report from eMarketer and the communications firm Lewis found the demands of social media and the format’s high engagement rates are key reasons for its use.
Here are some online resources that let you create and share infographics:
- ly: This site features a vast array of templates, which you can easily edit and customize and share immediately on social media platforms.
- Piktochart: With an easy-to-navigate interface, Piktochart allows you to create intricate, design-rich graphics, complete with icons, images, charts, and interactive maps, and publish them directly to social media platforms.
- Canva: This site allows for quick creation of infographics, as well as presentation covers, social media images, online advertisements, and flyers.
- Visme: A simple interface, Visme allows you to translate your ideas into engaging infographics, presentations, reports, and more. You can share your content online as a URL or on social media, embed it on your website, or download it.
3) Podcasts
The 2016 SME Report identifies podcasting as a relatively untapped way for marketers to engage with social media audiences. The audience for podcasts in the United States alone is close to 60 million people, making this medium a significant opportunity for businesses to engage with potential clients.
Here are some tools that can help you create quality audio content:
- Audacity: This open-source audio software lets you record audio, convert tapes and records into digital recordings, and add your own audio effects.
- Podbean: This tool lets you quickly create and share professional podcasts, no programming knowledge necessary. You can publish them directly to social media platforms.
4) Slides
If you have a lot of dense, industry-specific content that you want to get out to your audience, presentations are ideal. Breaking up your content into slides lets you get the information to your network in an engaging and visually appealing way.
Here are some tools that help you create and share professional presentations:
- SlideShare: LinkedIn’s platform lets you build, upload, and edit presentations, and share them on social media.
- SlideBoom: Ideal for converting PowerPoint presentations to Flash, SlideBoom lets you share your presentations with your target audience.
- Prezi: This tool is available for download or as an online editor, and it allows you to add animations to your presentations and share your content on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Social media has changed the way businesses engage with their target customer base. Embracing these tools is key to creating and maintaining an active and loyal audience.
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by Fronetics | Oct 10, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
If you’re not distributing content created by others, these six facts will convince you that content curation is an essential part of any content marketing strategy.
Content will help you grow your business. By creating and distributing valuable and relevant content in a strategic and consistent manner, you can drive profitable customer action.
But, it’s not all about you. And it’s not all about the content you and/or your business creates. In fact, content curation is an essential component of a successful content marketing strategy.
What is content curation?
Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast sea of content that is the internet and sharing only that content which is most relevant to your customers.
Being able to identify, make sense of, and distribute such information makes you valuable to your customers. Over time, readers will come to know you as a trusted, reliable source of knowledge — someone who is not always trying to sell them something. You are an expert in your area of business, and you save your customers and prospects lots of time and effort distributing relevant information so they don’t have to go searching for it from independent sources.
How are other businesses handling curation?
Companies that curate content report positive effects on their business. Here are six convincing statistics about content creation for B2B marketers.
The vast majority of businesses curate content.
- 82% of marketers curate content. (IMN Inc.)
- 83.3% of marketers curate/share content from third party sources (e.g., blogs, social media, industry publications or news sites) with their customers and/or prospects. (Curata)
How often do companies curate content?
- 16% of marketers are curating for their audience every day.
- 48% are curating from third-party sources at least once a week. (Curata)
How has curating content impacted business?
- Over 50% of marketers that curate content indicate that it has increased their brand visibility, thought leadership, SEO, web traffic and buyer engagement. (Curata)
- 41% of marketers that curate content indicate it has increased the number and/or quality of their sales-ready leads. (Curata)
Does your business curate content? How do you find content to curate?
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by Fronetics | Sep 28, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Companies in the logistics and supply chain industries should take a look at this content marketing infographic.
Content marketing is a form of inbound marketing in which vendors publish digital content to attract customers who are searching for products and services like theirs. If done right, it is highly effective in growing brand awareness, generating and converting leads, and driving sales and repeat business.
If your organization is exclusively using traditional outbound marketing techniques, like advertisements in print publications, you’re missing out on growth opportunities. We rounded up some of the most telling facts about the role of content marketing in today’s B2B purchasing environment for you to consider.
Here are 12 facts about content marketing that your business should keep in mind.
