Marketing any business is a unique challenge.
The process gets a bit more interesting with international shipping companies because you have to be extremely knowledgeable about the content you’re putting out there. Promotions, offers, how-to guides, customer testimonials - you have to be really smart about how you approach marketing to avoid making yourself sound like an amateur.
In this article, we’re going to talk about how to build an online marketing strategy for shipping and logistics businesses from scratch.
1. Understand what Makes a Good Brand
Is branding important for shipping companies?
The answer is: absolutely.
According to this PwC report on the latest trends in global logistics, “Extended possibilities for online marketing” is one of the most important opportunities in the industry. Time to act is now.
To capitalize on this opportunity, though, you must have a good understanding of how you should build yours to ensure that you’re presenting yourself in a manner that differentiates you from competitors. Keep in mind that they care a great deal about their branding because they strive to be associated with things like:
- Reliability
- Professionalism
- Speed
- Expertise
- Confidence.
In other words, the main purpose of marketing campaigns employed by shipping companies is to instill the feeling of trust in customers and build a reputation of a professional, trustworthy partner.
Striving to create such an image makes sense because mistakes, delays, and damages caused by shipping operators cost companies billions. Often, this is the money the latter have to pay themselves even if that’s not their fault.
So, let’s start by focusing on what makes a good brand for a shipping business:
- A good understanding of the target customer. This involves knowing the challenges that your customers face as well as how to resolve them as effectively and efficiently as possible
- A unique identity to stand out from the rest. The competition in the shipping business is fierce, so you need to find something that makes you different; this goes beyond the logo and involves customer experience, offers, customer service, etc.
- Consistency. If you work in the shipping industry, you know very well that consistency is key to success. Since your target customers are looking for that in a shipping company, you should find a way to let them know that you’re a good fit
- Expertise. You need to show your customers that you have in-depth expertise in the dynamics of the global trade as well as a good understanding of specific overseas markets (customs procedures, the nature of transport infrastructure, common delays, terminal conditions, etc.)
- A unique organizational culture. This involves being committed to the success of customers/employees, caring about the environment and other things coming from your unique nautical heritage and experience.
These are the areas that we’re going to consider to build an online marketing strategy for a logistics company.
2. Brainstorm Ideas for Content
Digital marketing involves creating a lot of different content, and requires consistency and creativity to be effective. That’s why planning is tremendously important when it comes to creating a shipping marketing strategy.
The process of generating content ideas can seem like a daunting task, but it could actually be very simple. The key is to be strategic and customer-centered, but here’s an overview of the content brainstorming process:
- Describe your main value proposition to your customers
- Come up with situations where the target customer might use your help
- Choose content formats to use to answer customer questions: blog articles, white papers, industry reports, social media posts, videos, etc.
- Think about which content type should be the best to explain a topic, e.g. “A Guide to the Most Common Problems with Container Shipping for Business” could be an article or a video (the ultimate choice depends on your content production abilities).
Don’t forget to add visuals to your content. Visuals not only help with search engine optimization (SEO), but they also make your content more engaging. To really knock it out of the park, your visuals have to be relevant and high-quality. If your image isn’t high-def, you could use tools to enhance your photos, like Picsart, with a single click.
The last thing to remember is to have fun with brainstorming. If you’re someone who’s been in the international shipping industry for a long time, chances are you have a lot to share. In case your company is a newcomer in the market, you should turn to best writing services for professional advice on the content strategy.
3. Be Creative and Helpful
In addition to traditional marketing content and materials, you should consider creating content that has an element of interactivity to it. This content includes quizzes, polls, surveys, calculators, generators, and checkers.
Take this Load Calculator from SeaRates as an example.
By simulating the placement of goods inside a shipping container, it helps with finding the optimal position. The simulation is done through by the 3D image of goods measured according to the user’s input (length, width, height, number of units, weight, etc.) that shows the best placement.
The load calculator can be a useful tool for companies looking to optimize the arrangement of goods in shipping containers as well as cargo carriers and shipbrokers. It allows importing data from Excel, too, so the user can just look for standardized documents and upload them.
Your company can also consider the following ideas:
- design infographics to explain complex legal or shipping-related concepts (sea port regulations, etc.)
- port fee calculators
- route planner to help with finding the fastest cargo shipping ways (check out SeaRates’s Route Planner for inspiration)
- Container tracking tools.
One thing to keep in mind with interactive content is no to make it too complicated. If you do, chances are that people will find it difficult to use, which is frustrating and leads to abandonment.
4. Share Video Customer Testimonials
People in need of international container shipping services aren’t interested in marketing talk from consultants. All they want is unbiased and detailed information from people like them who used your services.
That’s where video customer testimonials come in. They can help with increasing confidence in your business as well as overcoming hesitation and skepticism potential clients might have.
Take a look at this customer testimonial video from Amazon. It features a few people telling stories about how they benefited from using Amazon’s services.
If you’re not sure how to market your business online but need quick results, customer testimonials like these are definitely your best bet. They work because of two major reasons:
They give potential customers details and figures, not marketing talk
They instill “the fear of missing out:” seeing that the competitors are advancing can make businesses act faster.
So if you have an opportunity to create a customer testimonial in the form of a short video interview, please don’t hesitate to ask them. They don’t need to share all of the details of your cooperation, obviously, but some figures sure would be helpful for the viewer.
Successful Shipping Marketing Needs a Strategy
Digital marketing can be a bit hard, but if you plan everything ahead, chances are that you’ll find the process more than doable. While an international shipping business might not be the easiest one to promote, there are still many ways in which you can attract people with amazing content.
So, the bottom line is that digital marketing is important for shipping businesses, and failing to do it means leaving a lot of money on the table. If you make your content relevant and useful for your target audience, good things can happen.
Well, hopefully, some of the tips here inspired you to explore digital content creation and come up with some ideas that can resonate with your clients. Time to act and use this “extended possibility” is now.
