by Fronetics | Mar 2, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
These online benchmarking tools can give you insight into how your industry peers are performing on social media, in keyword searches, and more.
Senior Director of Strategy Kate Lee recently wrote about the importance of benchmarking your marketing performance against your competitors. To define success within your market and industry, you need to look outside what’s going on internally and compare yourself to your peers. This will also help your company identify threats and strategic opportunities.
Benchmarking gives you a context to understand how your marketing efforts are paying off. But running another set of reports and keeping track of all those metrics could be a full-time job within itself — and ain’t nobody got time for that.
The good news is there are some really effective tools available for marketers to quickly, even automatically benchmark their performance against the competition. Let’s take a look at three of these platforms below.
3 tools to benchmark your performance
1) BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo’s slogan, “Add value, be uncommon,” exemplifies its mission: to assist companies in creating the most relevant content for their individual audiences. The comprehensive content tool offers insight on what topics are trending, which influencers have the most reach, and more.
The competitor research feature will be of particular interest to those hoping to do some competitive benchmarking. It offers competitive intelligence, such as:
- What content is getting traction for my competitors?
- On what networks are they having success?
- Who is sharing their content?
- How does our content compare?
Overall this site will save you time that you would have spent compiling and analyzing data about you and your competitors.
Pricing: BuzzSumo’s pricing varies from $79-$599 per month, but there’s a free trial option to help you decide if Buzz Sumo is right for your company.
Ease of use: There’s a lot of information to digest, but the compelling data displays make it as easy as possible.
Clients: Rolling Stone, Expedia, National Geographic, IBM, Capital One
2) Serpstat
Serpstat identifies itself as the “growth-hacking tool of marketing” and the “all-in-one SEO platform for professionals.” It offers an abundance of insightful features to view your data in comparison with your competition. You can find answers to the following questions:
- What keywords are placing your competitors in the top search results?
- What does your competitors’ AdWords and paid search look like?
- What does your competitors’ strategy look like in regard to their budget, ad positions in search results, and cost-per-click for AdWords?
Pricing: Serpstat ranges anywhere from $0-$299.
Ease of use: While Serpstat provides an overwhelming amount of information, their 24/7 user-friendly chat feature makes things a little easier. They also offer a completely free demo via Skype or Google Hangouts in as little as 20 minutes.
Clients: Yves Rocher, Gift Baskets Overseas, GL Marketing
3) Rival IQ
Rival IQ offers “digital marketing analytics with a competitive edge.” Essentially, it allows you to compare your performance in social media, keyword ranking, and content against other companies. You also learn when growth in those categories happens for your company, as well as what is driving it. It answers:
- What do your social media metrics (followers, likes, etc.) look like versus your competitors?
- What do your competitors’ social biographies look like, and what are they changing?
- What do the “best” social media posts look like across your competitive landscape?
Pricing: anywhere from $299-$799. They’ll even work with you to create a customized package. A free trial is also available.
Ease of use: While the information presented is extensive, it is displayed in a way that makes it easy to digest. According to New York Times best-selling author Jay Baer, “Rival IQ is a game-changer. Incredibly useful intelligence about the digital activities and successes of your competitors, delivered quick, easy and smart.”
Clients: Studio Science, the Media Flow, Convince & Convert
These three benchmarking tools can help your business gauge how you’re fairing against the competition. The right one for your company could give you a competitive edge, helping you surpass your goals — and your competition.
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![The Role of Content in the Logistics & Supply Chain Industries [Infographic]](https://www.fronetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/role-of-content.jpg)
by Fronetics | Feb 28, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Nearly 80% of logistics and supply chain companies consider content an effective tool for their businesses.
We often use this space to talk to the logistics and supply chain industries about content marketing. Some companies are surprised to learn that this modern marketing method can be so effective for their business. The truth is, content is one of the most useful tools for not only building brand awareness, but also generating leads and earning new customers.
I can tell you this until I’m blue in the face. But, really, what’s most convincing is seeing how other businesses in the industry approach content and how it’s paying off for them.
So we at Fronetics polled supply chain and logistics marketers to determine how their companies are using content. We wanted to find out whether it’s working, as well as their challenges; how they approach outsourcing, distribution, and curation; and more. The below infographic illustrates a few of the key findings from our survey.
(Made with Canva)
To get a complete picture of the role of content in the logistics and supply chain industries, download our report:
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by Fronetics | Feb 15, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
Ask yourself these six questions to see if you could be attracting more leads by writing better content.
All too often, marketers fall into the trap of sacrificing quality for quantity in their content writing efforts. It’s an easy mistake to make — the pressure to produce a constant stream of content can naturally lead to a drop in quality. But if you’re not writing high-quality, substantive content, you’re wasting time and energy.
If you’re wondering whether your content might not measure up, ask yourself these six questions.
Do you need better content?
1) Is my content search-engine optimized?
Since over three-quarters of today’s buyers use Google to research products, a key to making sure your content is showing up in search results is search engine optimization (SEO). This means writing copy that will be prioritized by Google in web queries related to your business or products. For ideas on SEO optimization, check out these 3 Quick SEO Tips to Improve Your Blog Right Now.
2) Am I using the right channels to reach my target audience?
In order to answer this question, you first need to have a clearly defined idea of your target audience. Once you know who you’re trying to reach, evaluate where they’re active. Analytic programs like Google Analytics and sites like Tweriod can provide valuable insights on your followers’ social media habits.
3) Am I publishing content, or a sales pitch?
Remember that content marketing is about offering valuable, expert information to your audience — it’s not an overt sales pitch. Present your readers with this kind of expertise, rather than a repeated sales pitch, and you attract loyal customers, and associate your brand with quality and value. Anything you post should be geared to meet specific needs of your customer, rather than to bludgeon them with information about your products or services.
4) Am I providing a good quality user experience?
Pay attention to format, length, accessibility, and voice. Is your business’ website visually appealing and easy to navigate? People will read your content only if it’s visually accessible and engaging.
5) Have I paid attention to performance analytics?
Be aware that what worked last year may not work this year — pay attention to performance analytics to monitor what kind of content is successful and what is no longer generating and converting leads.
6) Is my content good?
This might seem like the most obvious question of all, but it’s important to ask it every time you post. Of course, determining what constitutes good and bad content is the key here. Are you producing writing that is original, substantial, and well written? A good tool to get you started is Fronetics’ On Writing Good Content: A Guide for the Logistics and Supply Chain Industries.
Remember, your content is a reflection of your company. When potential buyers come across your blog posts or other content online, that’s how they get to know you. If it’s poorly written with mistakes and blurry images, well — you look pretty sloppy.
Quality, substantive content shows that you are an authority in your field. It will let potential buyers know that you know what you’re talking about, that you run a polished business, and that they can trust you. So while quantity is important when it comes to content, quality should never be compromised.
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by Fronetics | Jan 24, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
Long-form content generates more traffic, leads, and social shares than shorter content.
We’ve all heard the aphorism, “quantity over quality.” But when it comes to content marketing, part of quality may well be quantity.
While it can seem intimidating, the value of high-quality long-form content cannot be overstated. According to a 2012 study, long-form content converted 30% higher than shorter-form, and the same holds true today. Additionally, long-form posts generate more social media shares and have a higher average Google rank.
Here are some ideas for generating longer-form content that engages and informs your readers, and promotes your business in a meaningful way.
3 tips for creating longer-form content
1. Know your audience.
You first and foremost consideration should be your target audience. Take the temperature of your readers by frequently checking your comments sections, social metrics, and Google Analytics. It can also be useful to conduct a survey, which serves the dual purpose of directly engaging and communicating with your readers and giving you valuable information.
2. Chose relevant ideas.
Read all the articles that are on the first Google search page for your topic, and make sure your post contains relevant information you find. You should be answering as many of the questions that appear in Google Suggest at the top and bottom of the search page.
3. Write good content.
It seems painfully obvious, but it’s worth keeping quality at the top of your priority list. The idea of longer-form posts is to keep readers engaged and encourage them to peruse as much of your site as possible.
Neil Patel suggests that if you “strive to provide enormous value with every word you write,” your writing becomes more targeted. Keep posts visually accessible and easily digestible with short paragraphs, subheadings, and relevant images. Another key element of good content is research. Posts that include actual examples and case studies perform better than data-free posts.
Creating longer-form content may mean that your business needs to devote more resources to its content marketing efforts. But the benefits are well-documented and far outweigh the cost.
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by Fronetics | Jan 16, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Keep these four trends in mind when planning out your marketing efforts in 2017.
Marketo recently revealed its predictions for upcoming marketing trends for 2017. It’s a list of technologies, strategies, and tactics that the marketing software automation company believes will be important to focus on over the next year.
We culled through these predictions to highlight what the supply chain industry needs to know. Below are four trends marketers should have on their radars.
4 marketing predictions to watch out for
1. Customer-Centric Marketing
For B2B companies, customer-centric marketing means buyer-centric marketing. Because the cost of switching vendors is increasingly low, and the buyer is faced with endless choices, it’s likely that 2017 will see “an aggressive shift in attention toward increasing customer spend.”
This means increasing your focus on building and cultivating relationships. Marketo suggests that companies balance their marketing spend to “invest in building engagement, brand loyalty, and advocacy with current customers rather than just finding new ones.”
It’s likely that technology will play a big role in this 2017 trend. Your company needs marketing team members who are tech-savvy and who know how to analyze and respond to customers’ digital signals.
Focusing on the customer also means building authentic connections and a move toward “giving as much as you get, if not more.” We’ll see more and more customer advocacy, which means that marketers need to focus on taking relationships beyond the transactional. Marketo recommends “providing them with opportunities to showcase their expertise and be recognized by their peers as leaders and innovators.”
The key takeaway: 2017 is the year of building quality relationships.
2. A New Generation of Marketers
We used to live in a marketing climate where specialization was the key to success — no longer is that the case. Your business needs leaders who are “full-brain marketers,” multi-talented generalists who are comfortable handling challenges from the creative design to demand generation — and beyond.
It’s time to abandon thinking in silos. Marketo recommends that your marketing team be in constant connection with other teams within the company. “B2B marketers can now use technology to ensure their sales team have visibility and participation in programs — versus being isolated from critical activities.”
This kind of structural shift requires openness and humility. Marketers need to be willing to take questions and ask them, and to be open to making changes based on increased intra-business collaboration.
Marketo predicts that 2017 will see the perfect storm hit the marketing world, bringing an intersection between fulfilling customer needs, storytelling, and digital interactions. Your company needs to look at its organization and build deep expertise across these three functions. “Any marketing organization that’s missing one of these three functions is destined for failure,” warns Marketo.
This new generation of marketers means that top-performing B2B companies will be making optimal use of technology and data. You need to be investing in resources and technology to drive data enrichment and data governance activities to set a good foundation for your account-based marketing strategy. This also means working closely with sales to understand their thought process for lead prioritization and acceptance.
Here, the key to success is open communication within your organization.
3. Techniques
Marketo has laid out a new equation for how marketers will incorporate techniques to engage buyers at every stage of the cycle:
Inbound + Broad-based lead generation + Account-based marketing + Paid media personalization + Direct marketing = Successful customer engagement
What does this mean for the supply chain? Your company can use a combination of these strategies to engage prospects. For example, combining account-based marketing (ABM) strategies with broad-based strategies will allow marketers to build long-term customer relationships, while bridging their advertising and marketing technologies to demonstrate ROI.
All this focus on ABM solutions will allow marketers to become more efficient, taking advantage of cutting-edge technologies. Marketo suggests creating a detailed ABM plan for all departments, which includes creative marketing ideas to test, as well as new technologies.
It’s time to harness the technology at your fingertips.
4. Content & Channels
2017 is likely to usher in a return to value over volume, both in content assets and in content distribution channels. It’s time to stop creating content for the sake of creating content and to shift toward “deeply listening to and understanding the customer.” This will allow you to cull some of the content and channels that aren’t benefitting your business.
It’s easier than you might think to put this trend into practice. Marketo suggests starting by “deeply understanding the content you already have, and taking the time to evaluate what resonates and what doesn’t.” Next, you can create a plan to keep your content strategy going forward in a meaningful way.
As far as channels go, user experience, particularly for mobile, is going to be increasingly important. You can prepare for this by adding structured data to your site, and by providing valuable content. It’s important to keep a watch on the changing user behavior and expectations, as it will be the biggest driver of change in SEO.
As algorithms continually change, and chronological timeline updates increasingly being phased out, social media channels will put more focus on individuals over brands — this means an absence in brands showing up in feeds organically. You can rise to this challenge by making real-time engagement a priority.
We’ll also see ad inventory becoming tighter and more expensive across social platforms. This means you’ll need to become more specific about the audiences you target, and make your offers increasingly personalized and relevant. Marketo adds the hopeful prediction that “advertisers will benefit from more ways to track offline conversions and non-immediate revenue.”
As email technology advances, email campaigns will begin to predict the content you want and really need. The end result here is “targeted, personalized communications optimized for each person, based on their online and email behaviors.”
The takeaway for content in 2017 is: quality over quantity.
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