Over the last decade, digital marketing has become a potent tool in every marketer’s arsenal. The best thing about it is that it works for all kinds of businesses, including logistics. Or should we say, especially logistics.
It’s no secret that logistics businesses face unique challenges that can complicate their marketing initiatives. Most work with limited budgets, which results in hesitancy in spending. Or, they’ll go with run-of-the-mill marketing efforts that may be ineffective.
Also, many logistics businesses lack a solid online presence. This can mean missed opportunities to tap into potential clients, most of whom are online.
Given the highly competitive nature of the logistics industry and the growing influence of digital mediums, embracing digital marketing is non-negotiable.
We’ll help you get started. Mentioned ahead are 10 digital marketing strategies that will help your logistics business stay ahead of your competitors without blowing up your marketing budget.
10 Digital Marketing Strategies for Logistics Businesses
1. Build a Website
To do business with you, your clients need to know about your logistics services. Even if they’ve heard about your company, they’ll probably do an online search to view your website and learn more about it. Herein lies the importance of having a business website: the digital face of your company.
Your website’s design should be visually appealing, and be easy-to-use, informational, and updated. Basic company details, like its name, location, contact details, offerings, pricing, and so on should be clearly mentioned and updated regularly.
Build your website with the aim of keeping visitors on it for long and encourage them to take an action, like buy from you or contact you. Only a well-designed website can provide the best user interface and experiences, which in turn, can impress customers and gain their trust.
2. Optimize Your Website for Search Engines
Building a website is only the beginning. It will have to be optimized for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so it can clinch the top spots in search engine results when potential clients look for logistics services providers. Of course, you’ll need to be clear about what SEO strategies to employ.
For a logistics company, this can mean including relevant keywords, meta titles and descriptions, backlinks, and content optimization, among others. Once you get these right, your company website will organically gain traffic, improve its reach and influence, and get more leads.
3. Improve Visibility with Google Business Profile (GBP)
GBP is a powerful tool that can help improve your website’s online visibility by a mile. All you need to do is claim and optimize your GBP listing. This will ensure that your logistics company starts appearing in local search results as well as on Maps (especially because most of your clients will likely look for local service providers).
Make sure to claim your GBP listing and add your business information like name, address, phone numbers, and operating hours. Choose the right categories for your logistics business to increase your odds of showing up in relevant searches.
Once your business starts gaining traction, encourage happy clients to leave their online reviews on your GBP listing. This will help boost your ranking in local search results and enhance your credibility.
4. Create Stellar Content
A great way to educate potential clients about your business and services is through content marketing. This strategy will help you convince your clients about what makes your logistics company the most reliable one in the market.
Consider creating content pieces that revolve around the services you provide, the benefits of hiring your services, recent technological innovations in your industry, the latest updates in your company, and such.
Remember, when it comes to content, quality always trumps quantity. When creating your blog posts, make sure they’re well-researched, fact-checked, grammatically-correct, and optimized with keywords and other SEO techniques.
5. Use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
If you thought organic results were the only means to reach more people in Google search, wait until we tell you about PPC! You’ve probably seen it too‑at the top of Google’s search engine result pages. PPC services work great when you want to target specific demographics and drive immediate traffic to your website.
Simply go to Google Ads, set up your ads, and bid on the keywords you want to target. When someone searches for those keywords on Google, it will display ads based on the bid amount and quality score (Google’s evaluation of your ad’s overall quality).
If you have an optimal bidding strategy and a good quality score, your ad will likely show up for all the relevant searches. Of course, you’ll need to pay Google every time your ad gets a click.
6. Leverage Social Media
Today, 5.17 billion people use social media worldwide. And, the average time a person spends on social media (globally) a day is 2 hours 20 minutes. Moreover, Facebook is the leading social network with 3.07 billion monthly active users, followed by YouTube (2.5 billion), WhatsApp (2 billion), Instagram (2 billion), and TikTok (1.58 billion).
Basically, if you aren’t using social media to reach your target audience, you’re missing out on an ocean of opportunities. Start by creating an account on various social media platforms for your business, and post attention-grabbing content like videos and infographics to attract more views and followers. Eventually, you can redirect them to your website.
You can also use paid advertising to land your ads right in your followers’ social media feeds. Further, consider targeting specific demographics to achieve more relevant results.
7. Don’t Forget about Emails
Typically used as a remarketing strategy, email marketing is perfect when you want to target people who have already visited your website.
Here’s what you do: when people visit your website, get them to join your email list by entering their email address. What do they get from this? Newsletters and/or special discounts on hiring your logistics services. It’s like marketing directly into their inbox, with their approval. This is what makes it so effective!
However, make sure you send people exactly what they sign up for, or they’ll simply unsubscribe without a warning.
8. Consider Retargeting Ads
If you want to target clients who have previously expressed an interest in hiring your logistics services, you want to give retargeting ads a serious thought.
It’s all about displaying targeted ads to people when they’re browsing other websites to remind them about your services. At the same time, you can encourage them to return to your website.
You can use Google Ads or Facebook Ads to do this. For retargeting ads to work, however, your ads need to be attractive, purposeful, and include clear calls-to-action.
9. Collaborate with Industry Experts and Influencers
Working with renowned industry experts and influencers can help promote your logistics company, improve brand awareness, and increase its credibility. You can leverage their network of followers to expand your reach and establish your logistics company’s authority in the industry.
Start by identifying the right voices in the logistics sector and reach out to them with a proposal for collaboration. Mention the mutual benefits of the partnership. The collaboration can include anything, from guest posts and social media partnerships to hosting joint live seminars or webinars.
10. Flaunt Your Online Reviews
Did you know that 98% of customers read reviews before they shop? This means you need to take proactive steps towards managing your logistics business’s online reputation. Positive online reviews can do this while inspiring trust among potential clients and polishing your brand image.
Encourage your satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on platforms like Google, Facebook, Yelp, GoodFirms, Clutch, Trustpilot, and so on. Make it a point to respond to their reviews, even the negative ones. This will show that you value your customers’ opinions and are keen on improving your services.
Conclusion
The above digital marketing strategies may require consistent effort, but it will pay off and provide long-term benefits for your logistics company. Achieving results organically does take time, so be patient and you can expect wonderful results in the times to come. Do give the above-mentioned digital marketing strategies a go and put your logistics business on the fast track to success.
