How To Use Digital Marketing in Logistics

The internet is burgeoning with information on the power of B2B digital marketing, but most logistics companies are neglecting to invest in their digital presence. The irony is that logistics is the perfect industry in which digital marketing (done right) can grow your business, for 2 reasons:

1. Customer relationships rely heavily on trust. Digital marketing helps build trust!

2. Digital marketing gives you an opportunity to set yourself above the competition by establishing your expertise.

A recent analysis of the websites of 20 randomly selected logistics firms revealed:

Only 35% had mobile optimized websites, and less than half even had basic web analytics installed on their site. In addition, our research indicates fewer than 5% of Florida logistics companies are using marketing automation or retargeting advertisements.

Digital Marketing Strategies Used by Logistics Companies

Logistics, supply chain, and transportation industries have historically relied on relationship-based selling to grow their business. But when you don’t have established relationships, how do you grow your business?

This is where logistics marketing strategies come in. Utilizing software such as CRMs, Marketing Automation, or Audience Targeting to build and grow relationships with potential (and current) customers can help grow your business more sustainably than current practices.

The lag in investment in online marketing by logistics businesses creates an opportunity for your organization to use these tactics to get ahead of the competition.

We will go through 3 types of software you can implement to get your brand in front of the right audience before they make a decision as well as how they can be used to align marketing with sales.

CRM Software

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software helps businesses manage future and current customer data and interactions. In other words, it helps you understand who your customers are and how they interact with your organization.

For a potential customer to choose you to carry their cargo, they need to know they can trust you. This means your team is going to need to build a relationship with that prospect.

Members of your sales team can use information in a CRM to have personalized conversations with contacts based on their previous interactions with the company, increasing the likelihood of closing deals with prospects in the future.

CRM software also supports company growth by automating manual data entry and outlining clear processes for following up with contacts.

Some warehouse management systems (WMS) include a basic CRM. This can be a viable solution. Its recommended that you check if the provided CRM software automates your processes, connects to your marketing activities and, ideally, is cloud-based.

Marketing Automation Software

The Survey of 20 randomly selected logistics firms indicate fewer than 5% use marketing automation software.

Marketing automation can automate repetitive marketing activities such as email, social media, and website activities. If used correctly, it can help build and reinforce relationships with leads and customers.

In a study, 84% of respondents cited increased lead generation as a key benefit of marketing automation, while 73% cited better prospect and lead insight, as well as increased efficiency.

Marketing Automation and CRM are sometimes conflated as the same thing because most marketing automation software includes a CRM component.

While its recommended integrating your marketing automation and CRM software, they are two completely separate entities. But, it is important to keep data in sync so marketing and sales teams are on the same page in regard to a prospect’s activities.

By integrating marketing automation and CRM, you’re a creating a single, unified funnel for interactions with prospects. Here is an example from HubSpot, a leader in the digital marketing industry:

Marketing & Sales Funnel

Source: HubSpot

Marketing automation is at the top of the funnel, bringing in new leads while simultaneously working with sales to qualify and nurture those relationships into customers.

Online Ad & Audience Targeting Software

The final piece to the puzzle is online audience targeting and advertising software known as programmatic advertising. While CRM and marketing automation nurture contacts and prospects, programmatic advertising uses software to promote your brand and obtain those prospects.

Programmatic ad buying opens the doors for logistics organizations to target their audience online. One way to ensure your ads are reaching your target audience is through behavioral targeting.

Behavioral targeting allows you to show your ads to people online based on their job title, industry, purchasing behavior, geographic location, age range, etc. Instead of buying advertising on one website at a time, behavioral targeting lets you buy advertising on thousands of websites but only show that advertising to individuals who match your target audience.

Another method of programmatic ad buying is retargeting. Retargeting allows you to put your online advertising in front of only the people who have already visited your website but did not inquire on your services.

A recent article in Entrepreneur titled “The Web’s Most Effective Ads” describes retargeting as technologies “online entrepreneurs cannot afford to overlook.” And according to our research, fewer than 5% of logistics companies are using them.

To Sum it up

One fact is abundantly clear: logistics businesses obtain (and retain) customers through relationships built on trust. If they can’t trust you, they won’t use you. And while these 3 tactics may only comprise a small portion of the ways digital marketing can help you build that trust, they are invaluable first steps in logistics marketing. With the right synchronized technology, your integrated sales and marketing efforts will be prepared to scale as your logistics company grows from your marketing efforts.

All About the Indispensable PALLET

 

The foundation of bulk global shipping is quite simple — it’s all about the pallet. This stable, flat transport structure is topped with packaged goods that are secured by shrink wrap or straps. Pallets are lifted by forklift, front loader or crane, stacked neatly and then loaded onto trucks, trains, cargo ships, or airplanes for their global journey to market.

In fact, nearly two billion pallets are used every year in the U.S. to efficiently transport goods. Certainly, they facilitate the ease of transport — getting goods from Point A to Point B on schedule. But they also help preserve the integrity and high quality of goods being shipped. That’s important for all goods, but most critically for pharmaceuticals, given that any missteps could jeopardize the integrity of the entire shipment.
Pallets are a booming business. EMR’s research shows that the burgeoning global pallet market was valued at $82.59 billion in 2020 and will soar to nearly $115.17 billion by 2026. The use of pallets cuts loading time, enhances safety for workers, improves transport efficiency, and protects products.
High-quality pallets are the linchpins for safely, efficiently moving everything from pharmaceuticals to fresh produce, machinery, chemicals, construction materials, and consumer goods to market.
 
2022 Pallet Challenges
That said, significant pallet challenges emerged throughout 2020 and 2021 and have carried into 2022. Most onerous? It’s the continuing shortage of pallets, which, in turn, is driving up pallet pricing. Shortages of new pallets – mostly made of wood — are attributable to everything from business labor woes and high lumber costs, to increases in new housing construction, an increase in consumer do-it-yourself projects, forest fires that cut down on logging efforts, and renewed lumber demand from overseas markets, among several other reasons.
Sometimes, big distribution centers and major retailers also get first dibs on new pallets, which can impact supply availability for other customers.  In addition, the rate of new pallet production simply isn’t keeping up with demand, and at the same time, fewer pallet “cores” or used pallets are available for sale.
Despite the litany of challenges, we remain committed to helping our clients navigate through the current minefield of pallet shortages. We know that logistics managers within our clients’ companies have enough stressors to deal with in 2022 – everything from escalating prices for materials to product scarcity, delivery delays and increased client demand.” With all that in mind, Onofre offers a few “best practices tips” as regards to the pallet world in 2022.
 
Best Business Practices
Tip 1: Logistics managers must carefully assess their pallet quantity needs and communicate about those to their pallet supplier well in advance. “Last minute” is often no longer an option as it was several years ago. Plenty of advance notice during this era means that our customers will have the best chance of receiving the number of pallets they requested.
In addition, significant advance notice can help assure the size of pallets received remains consistent. That’s important for protecting cargo from external damage. For example, if pallets are inconsistent size-wise, the entire shipment could suffer with gradual damage along the edges and corners of the stack of boxes.

For some products, even minor damage to the overall packing material is often considered as full-fledged damage to the entire shipment, even if the material within is untouched,

Tip 2: Be aware that new technology has created some new options for pallets. While an estimated 95 percent of all pallets are wood, plastic pallets and other choices exist too. Some wooden pallets may have protruding nails that can create the potential for punctures. Clients know that some products being shipped including pharmaceuticals or chemicals have ingredients that could prove harmful if exposed to air, so consider the use of new-technology plastic pallets as a possible option, depending on your specific shipment.

Tip 3: Be loyal when it comes to your pallet supplier. Focus on fostering a long-term relationship. Remember that any supplier’s challenges are exacerbated when customers make major, last-minute changes or when a client threatens to buy from a competing supplier to save a few pennies. Those tactics often fail to achieve the desired result. Treat pallet suppliers as you’d wish to be treated. Build a superb business relationship to protect the quality of your shipping materials’ supply chain.
 
Navigating through 2022
Pallet makers continue to be plagued by a lack of materials such as the wood for planks or steel for nails, as well as lack of workers at times. That’s caused supply chain shortages resulting in pricing spikes of several hundred percent. Sometimes the pallets (much as with storage cargo containers over the past two years) are simply located in the wrong part of the world to satisfy customer demand.
Rising prices for pallets is the reality. Solutions to hold the line on price increase include buying in bulk from pallet manufacturers. But the reality is that costs are soaring. Unfortunately, demand is currently exceeding supply. That may continue for several years.

Still, the global pallet market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of about 5.4 percent between 2022 through 2027, according to EMR research. Pricing and availability will hopefully stabilize over time. 

Once, pallets were simply a corporate after-thought. They were also plentiful in supply. Today, they are sometimes in short supply yet remain a vital resource needed for supply chain integrity. 

Since pallets ‘rule’ the bulk shipping world, working with a logistics firm such as Transmarine Group that knows how to navigate the current marketplace challenges is vital. Our goal is to get your goods into the hands of consumers in a timely manner – which we know is so important for your business. 

Meet The Black Swan : An advanced cargo UAV pushing the limits in Airfreight

Like black swans, the ability to fly cargo at the cost of road freight has long been considered impossible to exist. But with the unveiling of an advanced drone - The Black Swan from Dronamics pushes the limit of what’s possible in airfreight. 

Dronamics, a developer and operator of large cargo has to launched its Black Swan unmanned plane that can fly cargo at the cost of road freight.

Said a spokesperson: “Deceptively simple, the Black Swan isn’t just another UAV, it’s a whole new class of aircraft. “Able to carry up to 350 kg of cargo at a distance of up to 2,500 km at up to 80% lower cost than any aircraft in existence, the Black Swan can operate from runways as short as 400 meters, unpaved, and will enable Dronamics to serve customers in even the smallest and most remote communities, ushering in a whole new era in fast, affordable airfreight for the whole world.”

The company said that operators will no longer be forced to choose between low-cost road freight that can take days to deliver or fast air freight that is ever so expensive, adding that same day, affordable airfreight is finally here.

Svilen Rangelov, Dronamics co-founder and chief executive, said: “The unveiling of the Black Swan represents a critical milestone in the company’s mission to enable same-day shipping for everyone everywhere.

“The years of hard work are paying off and as soon as we’re done with our extensive test program and obtain certification in 2022, we are going to begin commercial operations, serving customers in Europe and beyond years ahead of everyone else.”

Konstantin Rangelov, Dronamics co-founder and CTO, said: “For more than 100 years people have designed airplanes for humans first, meaning they were never really optimized for cargo, and in fact, they’re quite inefficient.

“By being extremely focused solely on carrying cargo, we were able to develop an aircraft that is able to do the job at up to 80% lower cost than any other airplane, meaning we can bring the benefits of aviation to billions of people around the world who do not get regular air service.”

Dronamics plans to roll out a global network of droneports, allowing the Black Swan to provide the missing “middle mile” in airfreight.  Added the spokesperson: “Whether ferrying vital supplies between islands or delivering critical spare parts deep into a country, Dronamics will link towns and cities around the world with each other in a way simply never possible before.

“Able to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel, it will do so in a more environmentally friendly manner than any previous aircraft in existence, enabling global partners like DHL and Hellmann Logistics to not only serve their customers in the fastest way possible, but also in the greenest one as well.”