Supply chain, here’s how to prove social media ROI

Supply chain, here’s how to prove social media ROI

social media ROI

Individuals within the logistics and supply chain industries want to learn more about social media ROI.  A recent survey conducted by Fronetics found that 81 percent of respondents reported that information on proving social media ROI would be helpful to their company.

Proving social media ROI can seem impossible, but it is not if you put the right framework in place.  Here’s how to put that framework in place, and prove social media ROI:

Set goals

Support your goals with SMART objectives.  This allows you to track and measure your progress towards meeting your goals.

  • Specific: Describe your objectives specific to the results you want.   Go deeper than “gain leads” to “achieve a visitor to lead conversion rate of one percent.”
  • Measurable: Metrics are essential.  You can’t assess your progress towards your goal without metrics.
  • Achievable: Make your goal achievable.  A visit to lead conversion rate of 10 percent may not be realistic.  Your goal of a visitor to lead conversion rate may be more plausible.  When setting your objectives, keep reality in check.
  • Realistic: As with any job, you need to have the right tools.  Make sure that you have the resources, tools, and talent to meet your objectives.
  • Timed: Be specific with your objective and incorporate a time frame.

Track and measure

Once you have set your goals and objectives and have identified your key metrics, put a system in place that will track and measure your metrics.  At the very least, your metrics should be tracked on a monthly basis.

React

Tracking metrics is not enough.  You need to react.  Look at your metrics in the context of your goals and objectives.  Which efforts are moving you towards your objectives and goals?  Which efforts are not supporting your goals and objectives?  Can these efforts be tweaked?  Should you scrap them and try something new?

Taking a data driven approach is critical to proving ROI.

Wash.  Rinse.  Repeat.

This process is not static.  When you achieve your goals and objectives, set new ones.  If you are really struggling to meet your goals and objectives, you may need to revisit them to determine if they need to re-worked.

Proving social media ROI is possible.  But it needs to be supported by a framework.  Take the time to put a solid framework in place for your business.

Why conversion rates matter and why they don’t

Why conversion rates matter and why they don’t

Metrics matter.  Metrics allow you to measure success, drive strategy, and demonstrate the ROI of your marketing efforts.  Conversions are one of the most important metrics to monitor.

Why conversion rates matter

What is a conversion?  A conversion means action.  It means that someone took some action that entered them into your funnel or moved them further down your funnel.  Examples of conversions are: downloading a white paper, filling out a form, requesting information, opening an email, and becoming a customer.

By monitoring and tracking conversions you can determine what marketing efforts are paying off. Additionally, by monitoring and tracking conversions you can identify which efforts need to be re-evaluated or even discontinued.  In short, conversion rates can help you measure your ROI.

Why conversion rates don’t matter

Conversion rates are not the Holy Grail of metrics.  Your website should be a magnet.  It should attract and engage prospective customers and current customers.  Your website should serve to educate and to establish your business as an industry leader.  Eighty to 90 percent of prospects are not ready to make a purchase when they first engage with your company.   Conversion rates don’t capture the amount of time people spend on your website, learning, exploring, and getting to know your business.   Conversion rates also do not capture the amount of time current customers spend on your website – valuing your company as a resource.

While conversion rates are an important metric to measure, remember that they are not the end all be all.

Tracking conversion rates

We created a template that you can download and use to track conversion rates and other critical metrics.  While the template captures visitor-to-lead and lead-to-customer conversion rates, you can easily modify the template to include additional conversion rates that are useful to your business.

Fronetics Marketing Metrics Template









How your business can use social media to find new leads

How your business can use social media to find new leads

Leads are essential to the growth of your business.  Social media is an effective way to find new leads.

Social media allows you to find new leads by doing something called social prospecting.  Social prospecting is the art of searching the social web, identifying potential prospects for your business, and engaging them in a manner that draws them to your company’s website and through your funnel.

Social prospecting

At the core, social prospecting is about listening.  It is about listening to social media conversations in order to generate leads for your business. It’s beyond monitoring keywords. It’s about engaging people that may or may not know what your business can do for them.

Workbook

We’ve identified the quickest way to find potential prospects on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ and compiled them in a workbook. Every worksheet includes: a short preparatory work to make the actual prospecting easy; visual instructions on how and where to find prospects; pro tips that will help you get the best results; prescriptions (Marketing Rx) for success; and take-home exercises for follow-up prospecting

Get started

Want to get started?  Simply download the workbook.
social prospecting workbook

How your business can use social media to find new leads

How your business can use social media to find new leads

Leads are essential to the growth of your business.  Social media is an effective way to find new leads.

Social media allows you to find new leads by doing something called social prospecting.  Social prospecting is the art of searching the social web, identifying potential prospects for your business, and engaging them in a manner that draws them to your company’s website and through your funnel.

Social prospecting

At the core, social prospecting is about listening.  It is about listening to social media conversations in order to generate leads for your business. It’s beyond monitoring keywords. It’s about engaging people that may or may not know what your business can do for them.

Workbook

We’ve identified the quickest way to find potential prospects on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ and compiled them in a workbook. Every worksheet includes: a short preparatory work to make the actual prospecting easy; visual instructions on how and where to find prospects; pro tips that will help you get the best results; prescriptions (Marketing Rx) for success; and take-home exercises for follow-up prospecting

Get started

Want to get started?  Simply download the workbook.
social prospecting workbook

5 critical metrics for effective business

Want to have a better-run business?  Define clear metrics and use them as a launch pad to move your organization forward.

Metrics enable you to operate more effectively and efficiently because they provide you with valuable information on how you can drive improvement and how you can apply resources (people, time, money) to the activities and programs that will get you to where you need to go.

Critical metrics for effective business are ones that focus on the strategic goals of your organization.  Here are five metrics every business can benefit from using:

Financial metrics

Make sure you have, at the very least, a quarterly plan in place. A yearly plan is ideal, but a quarterly plan is a good starting point. Track against your plan. Looking at financials in aggregate is not a helpful exercise. Rather, look at your financials on a granular level.

Business metrics

Determine what makes your customers happy and what enables your organization. Track these. Soon, you will know what you should do more of and what should be cut back.

Customer metrics

Determine the who, what, when, and why of your customers. Knowing what matters to them will help you understand how to serve them better.

Vendor metrics

Determine the who, what, when, and why of your vendors. Relationship management and partnering can only be built on a strong foundation.

Quality metrics

When it comes to quality it is important to look at anything and everything. That is, the quality of your products, the quality of your relationships with your clients, the quality of work your employees produce… Start tracking all of this.

Track the data

Develop tracking methods for each of these five metrics. Archive the data. Learn by studying the results on a regular basis. You’ll start understanding how to drive the direction of your organization. You’ll develop a focus for your organization and your performance. You’ll be able to make better decisions and drive performance.

Although most (if not all) of the material will be used internally, you should make sure that it is “external facing ready.” What you are creating is a database that you can query when you need it. In the end, you’ll have, at your fingertips, a decision database to run a better business.