by Fronetics | Apr 9, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Video Marketing
If you’re trying to build a YouTube audience, you’ll need equal parts strategy, creativity, concision, and valuable subject matter.
Highlights:
- Strategy and creativity are top priorities.
- Keep content short and sweet for maximum impact.
- Offer value to your audience rather than a sales pitch.
An increasing percentage of search traffic is perusing YouTube for information, advice, and education. That makes the platform ideal for getting in front of prospects looking for products and services like yours.
But I’ve seen a lot of B2B marketers getting YouTube wrong. The good news is that the problem is usually that they’re trying too hard — and not in the right ways.
To effectively build a YouTube audience that will eventually become leads and, hopefully, customers, you need to be distributing video content that showcases your organization’s expertise in an approachable way. Here are some simple rules for how to go about that (without barking up the wrong tree).
(Made with Canva)
4 ways to build a YouTube audience
1) Be disciplined about your content schedule.
When it comes to publishing content on social media, when you post is nearly as important as whatyou post. YouTube is no different. Creating and sticking to a consistent schedule for posting new content essentially trains your audience and lets them know when they can expect to hear more from you.
Creating video content consistently doesn’t need to feel like reinventing the wheel. First off, videos should be part of your content calendar in the same way as blog posts, case studies, and other forms of content. You don’t need to create brand new material for each video. Take a high-performing blog post and re-package the ideas into video content.
2) Get creative.
Creativity for B2B companies is all about striking the right balance between entertaining presentation and informative, high-quality content. Think about approaching the information you want to convey in a different way. Can you use a different medium (like animation) or interview two subject-matter experts together if your one-on-one interviews are feeling stale?
There are plenty of technologies available today that will help you create exciting, engaging video content relatively cheaply. Or you could always consider outsourcing your videography.
3) Keep it short.
While we’ve seen recent growth in long-form YouTube content, for most B2B marketing purposes, shorter videos are far more effective. Of course, this is good news in that producing shorter videos can be less time-consuming and costly. But I cannot emphasize enough the importance of quality over quantity here.
[bctt tweet=”A 1- to 2-minute video of high-quality, well-edited content will get far more engagement (and be more successful in helping you build a YouTube audience) than 15 minutes of lecturing or poorly executed, complex animation.” username=”Fronetics”]
A 1- to 2-minute video of high-quality, well-edited content will get far more engagement (and be more successful in helping you build a YouTube audience) than 15 minutes of lecturing or poorly executed, complex animation. If you have a lot of footage about a certain subject, consider releasing a series of shorter videos.
4) Don’t make video a sales pitch.
Content marketing is inbound marketing, and video is no different. Countless studies have shown that increasingly buyers prefer informative, valuable content to blatant sales pitches.
This doesn’t mean that your content shouldn’t be branded, but it does mean that your focus in creation and execution needs to be what you can offer your audience, rather than you’re asking from them.
Use your video content to address specific concerns or answer questions that are relevant to your target audience. It’s simple: if you give something of value, you will build a YouTube audience that could eventually become your leads and customers.
What have you been doing to build a YouTube audience?
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by Fronetics | Apr 3, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Manufacturing & Distribution, Marketing, Supply Chain
Here’s why manufacturing marketers should skip the sales pitch and create content that prioritizes the needs of their target audience.
Highlights:
- Research indicates that only about half of manufacturing marketers are prioritizing their audience’s needs when creating content.
- Inbound marketing (like content marketing) is more effective than outbound marketing for B2B businesses.
- A documented strategy will help you get started creating focused, quality content.
One statistic is sticking out to me in the Content Marketing Institute’s Manufacturing Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report. According to the research, half (51%) of manufacturing marketers reported that they always or frequently prioritize their sales/promotional message over their audience’s informational needs when creating content for content marketing purposes.
Let’s think about that for a second.
A preponderance of manufacturing content marketers are, unfortunately, missing the point.
We’ve written before about why inbound marketing, like content marketing, is more effective for the supply chain than more traditional outbound marketing techniques. And while it’s true that “the supply chain is increasingly seeing the value of moving to an inbound marketing strategy,” the CMI’s research suggests that it’s taking some marketers a long time.
Why you should be putting your audience’s informational needs first
Why should you be emphasizing your audience’s informational needs over your promotional goals when creating content?
[bctt tweet=”One of the basic premises of content marketing is the recognition that, increasingly, your customers want much more from you than your product.” username=”Fronetics”]
The short answer is: because your audience prefers it. One of the basic premises of content marketing is the recognition that, increasingly, your customers want much more from you than your product. For manufacturing marketers, this means that customers want value separate from and outside of the sales funnel.
Enter content marketing. Creating effective marketing content relies on accepting that your business has much more to offer than its primary products and services. In fact, your most valuable commodity, as we’ve often said before, isn’t any material or service — it’s the knowledge, expertise, and informed, unique perspectives you have to offer.
Strategize to put customers first
To successfully adjust your content marketing efforts to put your customers’ informational needs first, the first step is having a well-defined, measurable strategy — and documenting it. This means defining precisely who you’re trying to reach and developing a complete target buyer persona(s).
Once you’ve defined exactly who you’re trying to reach, it’s time to identify the unique questions, needs, and challenges this target buyer faces. Chances are, your business has not only the products to meet those needs, but also the information to answer question and offer valuable insights.
One of the benefits of a documented strategy, with clearly stated objectives, is that it allows you to set up metrics and evaluate your successes and shortfalls. This is where you can start listening to your target buyers. You can even solicit responses from them via email and social media that will allow you to target and hone your efforts in the future.
Meeting manufacturing marketers’ challenges
The CMI’s research reinforces the fact that manufacturing marketers face unique challenges. The top reported challenge was “creating content that appeals to multi-level roles within the target audience.”
According to Achinta Mitra, founder of Tiecas, an industrial marketing consultancy, “Buying decisions are made by a committee and very rarely, if ever, by an individual. Some of these stakeholders may never interact with your content or visit your site.”
Essentially, there are various types of buyers with various needs — meaning their content needs are different. Mitra advises bringing “subject matter experts to the forefront, and letting marketing do the heavy lifting in the background.” He bases his advice on the belief that “one engineer to another is a powerful concept for earning trust, gaining credibility, and winning the mindshare of engineers and industrial professionals.”
If you’re thinking beyond downloads when creating content, and truly prioritizing quality information, your content will function broadly throughout the complex manufacturing buyer’s journey.
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by Fronetics | Mar 20, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Many B2B organizations are using Instagram to grow business. Here are a dozen Instagram tips to help you use the platform effectively.
Highlights:
- Instagram has become the second most used social media platform, up from fourth in 2017.
- Audiences love real-time content, like Instagram Stories. It lets them feel a genuine, human connection — the creation of which sometimes poses a challenge for B2B marketers.
- An effective Instagram presence has the potential to grow brand awareness, improve your reputation, and generate qualified leads.
Recent research on social media use shows that 66% of brands now use Instagram. As of 2018, it was second-most used platform by businesses, up from fourth in 2017. If you’re considering using this social media network for your business, which you should be, our 12 Instagram tips can help you get started.
12 Instagram Tips for Supply Chain Companies
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1. Be authentic
Many supply chain companies often fall into the trap of using stock photography or overly staged promotional pictures of products. The ethos of Instagram is all about authenticity and personality. Let your audience get an up-close-and-personal glimpse into your company’s culture with real photos of the people, places, and things that make your business run every day.
2. Optimize your account
Before we get to anything fancy, take a step back and make sure your Instagram account is fully optimized. This means you need:
- a bio with a link to marketing or product pages related to a specific keyword or hashtag;
- image captions, which can reference the link in your bio;
- a search-friendly username; and
- a compelling profile image that reflects your company.
3. Go live
Live video is the “it” trend in social media marketing, with 63% of marketers reporting that they plan on adding it to their overall strategy. Audiences love real-time content, and it lets them feel a genuine, human connection — the creation of which sometimes poses a challenge for B2B marketers.
4. Put your Stories in Highlights
In addition to its Stories feature, Instagram now lets users create a featured group of “Highlights” in various categories on their profiles. Stories have only a 24-hour lifespan, so featuring your most effective Stories clips in Highlights gives them a second life and a chance to engage future followers. One of the best features of Stories and Highlights is that it allows companies to view and analyze how users have viewed and interacted with their content.
5. Keep up the pace
Instagram is one of the easiest social media platforms to post on. That means you can quickly snap photos wherever you are — say, at a conference or event, or even on your way into the office — and publish it instantly. This is great for reaching the coveted millennial audience, which seems to have an unquenchable thirst for consuming content, particularly images and graphics.
6. Keep your content consistent
Posting on a consistent timetable is crucial to maintaining an active following. Posting irregularly means you risk your followers forgetting about you, and posting all at once can annoy and drive followers away. Ideally, companies should post 2-3 times a day, but you’ll need to test how many times a day is most effective for your particular business in engaging your specific audience. For more, check out our guide to when to post on social media.
7. Try a takeover
Taking over the Instagram account of a partner company or customer is a great way to draw attention from an existing and relevant audience, providing mutual benefits to both parties.
8. Invest in sponsored posts and product reviews
Optimizing your account and following Instagram best practices will go a long way toward earning authentic followers that could become future leads and/or customers. But to really boost your impact, it pays to take advantage of influencer marketing on Instagram. Create a list of large accounts in your vertical (think industry media sites and partners), follow them, and reach out to their marketing team to ask about sponsored-post pricing. Be on the lookout for influencers with a high engagement rate relative to number of followers.
[bctt tweet=”Optimizing your account and following Instagram best practices will go a long way toward earning authentic followers that could become future leads and/or customers.” username=”Fronetics”]
9. Use the right hashtags
One of the most effective ways to grow your Instagram following is to use hashtags effectively. Since Instagram gives users the ability to follow hashtags that interest them, and they function as links to other relevant content, choosing the right hashtags is the ideal way to reach and engage your target audience.
Keep an eye on accounts of peer brands to stay up to date with the best hashtags to use. The most effective hashtags are short, memorable, and easy to read. You can also use an online tool like InconoSquare or Websta to find relevant hashtags for your business.
10. Use the right filters
Sure, filters are great for turning boring or poorly lit photos into more engaging images. But, it turns out that which filter you choose really does have an impact on engagement. These lighting and color presets offered by Instagram have the potential to create mood and style in your image content. According to Iconosquare, these 10 filters are currently the most popular on Instagram:
- Normal (No Filter)
- Clarendon
- Juno
- Lark
- Ludwig
- Gingham
- Valencia
- X-Pro II
- Lo-fi
- Amaro
11. Be a storyteller
Instagram is all about visual storytelling. Your posts should do more than promote your products — they should be drawing in your audience with narrative told through a visual format. Instagram Stories are an ideal way to engage your audience!
12. Get personal
Go in deep and personal with your customers by answering their questions via 10-second videos. You let your viewers feel like they’re being heard. Plus, short videos are ideal for reposting.
The Bottom Line
Instagram is an extremely effective tool for B2B businesses. These Instagram tips for using the platform will help you create and nurture a loyal, engaged audience base. In turn, an effective Instagram presence has the potential to grow brand awareness, improve your reputation, and generate qualified leads.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 20, 2019 | Blog, Logistics, Robotics & Automation, Supply Chain
With the power to drastically increase efficiency in all areas of the supply chain, it’s important brands are exploring the benefits of AI. Here are four examples of how AI can benefit your supply chain.
Highlights:
- It’s estimated that supply chain firms could gain $1.3 to $2 trillion a year from using AI.
- Machine learning has the ability to quickly discover patterns in supply chain data by relying on algorithms and constraint-based modeling to find the most influential factors.
- The increasing popularity of chatbots is making it harder to ignore how AI is helping shape not just the daily logistics but also the B2B marketing landscape and operational procurement for supply chain industries.
Artificial intelligence is not simply affecting supply chain management, it is revolutionizing it.
With the power to drastically increase efficiency in all areas of the supply chain, McKinsey estimates that firms could gain $1.3 trillion to $2 trillion a year from using AI in supply chain and manufacturing.
Here are 4 examples of AI and how it’s changing supply chain management for the better.
1. Autonomous transport
There’s nothing more exciting than the field of autonomous transport for SCM. We’ve all known for many years that driverless trucks have major potential to affect supply chain management and logisitics.
We aren’t there yet – and “anyone employed as a driver today will be able to retire as a driver” — but if autonomous trucking can be developed to its potential, the technology would effectively double the output of the U.S. transportation network at 25 percent of the cost.
The conversation is no longer simply talking about vehicles on the road either. Google and Rolls-Royce recently partnered to build autonomous ships too.
2. Final-mile delivery route efficiency
One doesn’t have to have a driverless vehicle, however, to use AI to optimize delivery logistics.
For example, in the “devilishly complex” task of delivering 25 packages by van, the number of possible routes adds up to around 15 septillion (that’s a trillion trillion).
That’s where route optimization software and AI-powered GPS tools like ORION — which UPS uses to create the most efficient routes for its fleet — are making their mark. With ORION, customers, drivers and vehicles submit data to the machine, which then uses algorithms to creates the most up-to-date optimal routes depending on road conditions and other factors.
And there are also other autonomous entities out there besides cars, trucks, and ships. Robots using LIDAR technology are now being used to deliver items in crowded city environments. For example, Marble’s robots deliver medicine, groceries, and packages, and they also track their routes and the condition in order to continuously improve delivery for the next time. Additionally, last-mile solutions with drones continue to be explored due to their ability to move quickly and bypass almost all ground-level obstacles.
3. Demand forecasting, particularly for warehouse management and SCM strategy
Machine learning has the ability to quickly discover patterns in supply chain data by relying on algorithms and constraint-based modeling to find the most influential factors. This ability to find data patterns without human intervention has applications in EVERY aspect of SCM, but demand forecasting is a particularly influential component beneficiary.
Warehouse management and SCM strategy rely heavily on correct supply, demand, and inventory-based management. Forecasting engines with machine learning offer an entirely new level of intelligence and predictive analysis of big data sets that provides an endless (and constantly self-improving) loop of forecasting, overhauling the way we manage inventory and the way we create new strategies for our industries.
4. Chatbots for marketing and operational procurement
The increasing popularity of chatbots is making it harder to ignore how AI is helping shape not just the daily logistics but also the B2B marketing landscape and operational procurement for supply chain industries.
A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversation using auditory or textual methods. It communicates with your customer inside a messaging app, like Facebook Messenger, and is similar to email marketing without landing in an inbox. Mimicking a human conversation, chatbots currently allow for increased customer engagement through messaging app technology that isn’t yet saturated with marketing. They are just one of the many ways to integrate AI and marketing.
There’s so much more than these 4 examples to consider when discussing AI and the supply chain: prediction of delivery arrival times to the warehouse and to the customer, cargo sensors, automated purchasing, financial applications…the list literally may be endless.
Choosing what to focus on for this article, and more importantly, for all supply chain and logistics businesses, is a tough decision, but one thing is clear: in the “arms race” to leverage AI in SCM, some will come out on top and some will be left behind.
This post originally appeared on EBN Online.
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by Fronetics | Mar 14, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Instagram for business is a rising trend. Here are some top tips to get your business using Instagram as a part of your digital marketing strategy.
Highlights:
- Instagram is all about authenticity and personality. Let your audience get an up close and personal glimpse into your company’s culture.
- Audiences love real-time content and it lets them feel a genuine, human connection.
- Posts should do more than promote your brand and Instagram Stories are an ideal way to engage your audience!
Video transcript:
I’m Katie Russell, and I’m a marketing strategist here at Fronetics. Today I’m going to talk to you about Instagram for business. Instagram has been growing in popularity, and if you’ve been thinking about using Instagram for your business, here are some tips to get you started.
Be authentic
Instagram is all about authenticity and personality. Give your viewers an inside glimpse into your company’s culture. An easy example would be to create little videos answering your audiences questions. It shows that your viewers are being heard and as well as an opportunity to engage with new audiences.
Keep up the pace
Instagram is one of the easiest platforms to post to, so don’t be afraid to take pictures at meetings, conferences, or events, anywhere that you are. The pictures don’t have to be perfect, just remember that the more you post the greater opportunity you have to reach new audiences.
Go live
Live video is the “it” trend in social media marketing right now. Audiences love real-time content, and it gives them feel a genuine, human connection that can sometimes be a struggle for B2B marketers.
Be a storyteller
Instagram is all about visual storytelling, so your newsfeed should be more than just promoting your brand. It should give viewers and audiences a look at what makes your brand different. Don’t be afraid to be quirky or think outside the box to show audiences what makes your brand unique.
Out of ideas? Just ask!
Creating content and coming up with new ideas can be a huge challenge for marketers. Don’t be afraid to survey your audiences and ask them what they’d be interested in seeing. You might just get some great ideas you never would have considered.
For more tips on how to get started for Instagram for your business, visit us at Fronetics.com.
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