by Fronetics | Sep 2, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Data/Analytics, Marketing, Supply Chain
To grow your B2B business you need to take a comprehensive data driven approach to marketing. Metrics enable you to measure success, drive strategy, and demonstrate the ROI of your marketing efforts.
What metrics should you track?
Given that your objective is to attract, acquire, and retain customers, the most effective metrics to track are those where the unit of focus is the prospect, lead, or customer. These include the following:
Visits
Visits capture the number of visitors to your company’s website in a given period of time. In addition to tracking the total number of visits, it is also important to track visits by source. That is, how visitors come to your website. Sources typically include direct traffic, organic search, referrals, social media, and email marketing.
Reach
Reach is the number of people who can be reached through your marketing channels (e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook). This metric is a good indicator of how well the content you are publishing attracts new people to your network, and how well the content engages people within your network. In addition to tracking your company’s total reach (the total number of people you can reach across all channels), you should also track reach by channel.
Leads
Leads are one of the strongest indicators of ROI. By tracking leads by source, you can identify where your marketing efforts are most effective, areas where you can improve, and areas you could eliminate from your strategy.
Customers
Customers are also a strong indicator of ROI. Like leads, customers should be tracked by source.
Conversion rates
Conversion rates measure the percentage of people who are moving from one marketing stage to the next. An increase in your conversion rates implies an improvement in the quality of your content and/or traffic. You should track the visit-to-lead conversion rate (How many of your website visitors are becoming new leads?) as well as the lead-to-customer conversion rate (Are you generating sales-ready leads?).
Ranking
Ranking matters. The top listing in Google’s organic search results receives 33 percent of the traffic compared to 18 percent in the second position. Two metrics you can track are your domain authority and your marketing grade.
Domain authority is a score ranging from 1 to 100 that represents how well a website will perform in a search engine ranking. The lower the score – the less likely it will be found. Marketing grade is a holistic measure of a site’s online presence as measured by HubSpot’s Marketing Grader on a scale of 0-100. A higher score is better.
How to track metrics for success
Having an established database to capture your marketing metrics is critical to success. We created a template that you can download and use to track your metrics, measure success, and drive strategy. One of the great features about this template is that it generates graphs that can be used in your reports and presentations.
by Fronetics | Aug 19, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy, Talent
By consistently creating, curating, and distributing valued and trusted content you can position your company as an industry leader.
What is valued and trusted content?
“Peer-power”
A survey by the CMO Council found that all content is not viewed equally by B2B buyers. “Peer-powered content” is more valued and trusted than non-peer content.
The survey found that professional association research and papers are the most valued and trusted content. Papers from industry organizations, case studies, and analyst reports and white papers were also reported to be valued. In contrast, vendor white papers were not found to be valued highly.
What type of content do you most value and trust?
Source: CMO Council
Depth not promotional
The characteristics that were found to be valued the most by B2B buyers were depth of the content (47 percent) and ease of access and readability (44 percent). Respondents reported that they do not like content that has too many requirements to download (50 percent) or is promotional or self-serving (43 percent).
Good content is shared
B2B buyers report that they share good content. Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents share content with 25 or more peers and associates, and 28 percent of survey respondents forward content on to 100 or more people.
Position yourself
To position your company as an industry leader you need to provide valued and trusted content. This means creating, curating, and distributing content that educates, informs, and addresses specific needs.
It also means avoiding the trap of self-promotion. Valued and trusted content is not content that is self-serving or promotional, rather valued and trusted content provides customers with answers, solutions, and education.
Blogging is essential, but additional content is necessary as well. Case studies and white papers are two go-to content solutions that can help you position your company as a trusted leader within your industry.
Remember that you don’t need to go it alone. More than 44 percent of B2B marketers report that they outsource content creation.
by Fronetics | Aug 19, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy, Talent
By consistently creating, curating, and distributing valued and trusted content you can position your company as an industry leader.
What is valued and trusted content?
“Peer-power”
A survey by the CMO Council found that all content is not viewed equally by B2B buyers. “Peer-powered content” is more valued and trusted than non-peer content.
The survey found that professional association research and papers are the most valued and trusted content. Papers from industry organizations, case studies, and analyst reports and white papers were also reported to be valued. In contrast, vendor white papers were not found to be valued highly.
What type of content do you most value and trust?
Source: CMO Council
Depth not promotional
The characteristics that were found to be valued the most by B2B buyers were depth of the content (47 percent) and ease of access and readability (44 percent). Respondents reported that they do not like content that has too many requirements to download (50 percent) or is promotional or self-serving (43 percent).
Good content is shared
B2B buyers report that they share good content. Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents share content with 25 or more peers and associates, and 28 percent of survey respondents forward content on to 100 or more people.
Position yourself
To position your company as an industry leader you need to provide valued and trusted content. This means creating, curating, and distributing content that educates, informs, and addresses specific needs.
It also means avoiding the trap of self-promotion. Valued and trusted content is not content that is self-serving or promotional, rather valued and trusted content provides customers with answers, solutions, and education.
Blogging is essential, but additional content is necessary as well. Case studies and white papers are two go-to content solutions that can help you position your company as a trusted leader within your industry.
Remember that you don’t need to go it alone. More than 44 percent of B2B marketers report that they outsource content creation.
by Fronetics | Jul 1, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Manufacturing & Distribution, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Think like a manufacturer
Gartner’s Jake Sorofman wrote a great piece about building a content supply chain. His advice for understanding what it takes to use content as a tool to grow your business: think like a manufacturer.
Why? Sorofman connects the dots:
Manufacturing is actually an instructive example for what it takes to scale and sustain a content marketing program. Why? Because content marketing requires a replenishing pipeline of engaging content—a content supply chain—that helps feed the beast every day.
The following table (adapted Sorofman’s article) further illustrates the parallel between manufacturing and content marketing.
How can you successfully replenish your content supply chain and grow your business?
Strategy. As in manufacturing, strategy is essential when it comes to content. Without a strategy in place your content efforts will fall flat and will not help you grow your business. Want to learn more about creating a content strategy that will drive profitable customer action? Download our eBook: Grow your business with content: 12 steps to a content strategy.
by Fronetics | Jul 1, 2014 | Blog, Content Marketing, Manufacturing & Distribution, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Think like a manufacturer
Gartner’s Jake Sorofman wrote a great piece about building a content supply chain. His advice for understanding what it takes to use content as a tool to grow your business: think like a manufacturer.
Why? Sorofman connects the dots:
Manufacturing is actually an instructive example for what it takes to scale and sustain a content marketing program. Why? Because content marketing requires a replenishing pipeline of engaging content—a content supply chain—that helps feed the beast every day.
The following table (adapted Sorofman’s article) further illustrates the parallel between manufacturing and content marketing.
How can you successfully replenish your content supply chain and grow your business?
Strategy. As in manufacturing, strategy is essential when it comes to content. Without a strategy in place your content efforts will fall flat and will not help you grow your business. Want to learn more about creating a content strategy that will drive profitable customer action? Download our eBook: Grow your business with content: 12 steps to a content strategy.
