As a growing 3PL, you have a lot on your plate: from managing inventory to dropping shipments and everything in between. Finding new clients for your logistics business shouldn’t be included in your long list of responsibilities.
While it would be ideal to retain all the clients that come your way, we know that’s not realistic, meaning you need to have an approach in place to get new clients when your current customers take their business elsewhere. However, it’s important that you follow the best business growth methods for your industry so you can get the most significant ROI.
If you want to get more clients for your logistics business, it’s important that you:
Segment Different Buyer Personas Within Your Target Market
Your first order of business is to identify the various buyer personas in your target demographic. But you can’t do that until you understand the length and breadth of your company’s range of services. Does your logistic business help customers at each stage of the supply chain or is the focus on one or several stages? Your answer to that question will reveal the relevant buyer personas.
Identifying your company’s specific focus is key before you look into how to get clients. Your existing clients are likely representative of your target demographic, but there may be other buyer personas you haven’t yet identified. Failing to correctly identify and approach the right target demographic means leaving money on the table.
As soon as you figure out your target demographic, the next step is to draft a customer profile based on the different buyer personas. Focus on the person or department in charge of buying decisions at the target companies. Doing this will help your freight broker or 3PL business engage the right prospects. A marketing strategy for a logistics company requires this level of specificity. Writing up customer profiles will pay dividends in the form of more clients.
Generate a List of Prospects and Actively Reach Out
After you identify the different buyer personas inside your target demographic, the next step is to generate a list of prospects and actively reach out to them. The importance of outbound lead generation cannot be overstated. Outbound lead generation will help your company engage with potential clients who may or may not be familiar with your products and services. It works courtesy of sales representatives sending out messages to possible leads.
For 3PLs and freight brokers, the goal of outbound lead generation and appointment setting is to generate interest and build a sales pipeline. It’s typically done via direct mail, cold calling, direct email, social selling, and more.
Are you looking for ways to grow your sales pipeline? Use lead generation strategies like cold calling, pay-per-click, or freight broker sales pitch emails to build your sales pipeline.
Freight broker cold calling tips include carrying out pre-call research so that you learn about prospective customers and writing cold calling scripts. Just because you pick up the phone to speak to people you haven’t talked to before doesn’t mean you shouldn’t jot down some talking points beforehand. It’s also best to avoid kicking off your cold calls with sales pitches. Make the cold calls more about the potential customers than about your company.
Optimize Your Website With Trending 3PL Content
Having a professional website for your logistics business is a given, but it’s not enough. You must also optimize your company website to draw in more inbound leads. Your website content needs to showcase the value proposition you offer customers, so you’ll need to assess your website on a page-by-page basis carefully. Every page needs interesting and accurate information communicated in a way that resonates with clients and prospective clients.
If you don’t have in-house talent to do your search engine optimization, it may be worth outsourcing your marketing efforts. When businesses fitting your target demographic need the products and services your company offers, they’ll often go online and type in search queries. If your logistics business has an optimized website, your company’s URL will appear high up on the first page of search engine results.
When working on your website strategy, ensure that customers who go online via their smartphones, tablets, and other consumer devices can easily access your site. You’ll inevitably lose customers if your website isn’t optimized to work on smaller screens. It has to be mobile-friendly so users can have a good experience with your business no matter what device they use to access your website.
Engage With Potential and Ongoing Customers Through Social Media
If you have a logistics services business, you should leverage social media to engage with companies and decision-makers that fit your target demographic. You can use different social media platforms to get more clients for your logistics business. You can use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to broaden your scope and reach all the different buyer personas within your market.
One of the benefits of social media is that it offers ways to connect with people based on different criteria. It’ll be easy to send messages to your target market and to connect with relevant businesses and people.
Focus on offering value. Post content that people working at businesses within your market will find helpful. Engage with them if they post comments. The goal is to provide the value that builds trust and potentially brings in new customers. Social media makes it easy for customers to get help if they have complaints or concerns. Customers want support sooner rather than later, and social media offers immediacy. Every logistics company in the digital age should use social media platforms to connect with their target audience.
Key Takeaways
If you have a logistics business, it’s essential to focus on ways to get more clients. Before doing anything, you need to know your target demographic. And there are likely various buyer personas within your target market. You need to know who they are and target them proactively using proven methods like cold calling, email marketing, and social media marketing. Optimizing your website and going the extra mile by engaging with customers on social media also helps.
At Abstrakt Marketing Group, we help growing logistics businesses get more clients through outbound sales development and inbound marketing.
If you’re looking to outsource sales and lead generation, don’t partner with just any service provider—outsource to a team of experts. When you’re ready to take practical steps to grow your business, contact Abstrakt!
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