columbia river customs brokers and forwarders association presentation

Understanding social media, web and online promotion for logistics

companies.

Scott Case Founder, Chief Storyteller scott@positionglobal.com

@scottcase

Today’s Topics

• Branding - What is it, why is it important, is yours current and relevant and do you use it correctly?

• Digital marketing and communication: • Newsletters • Audio / video • CRM • Your website

• Social media for businesses (focus: logistics industry)

Branding

Simply, it’s how you look. Everywhere. To everyone. Relevance and quality aside, it has to be executed consistently. Do you let other people use your brand mark? Best practice is to have a style guide.

Brand Considerations

Geographic consumption. Audience - B2B or B2C? Or both? Name, logo execution, tagline or some combination of all three? Equity and market reputation. Level of penetration. Overt or nuanced messaging of your company’s mission?

Right and Wrong Style Execution

Overt or Subtle?

The Arrow

Henny Youngman, the comedian, had this whole signature to his act around ‘Take my wife. Please.’ What the PR folks wanted to do was the equivalent of changing his shtick to ‘Please, take my wife.’ If you have to call attention to your punch line, to explain it, it’s no longer a punch line. It doesn’t work, it isn’t funny, and no one will remember it.”

- Lindon Leader, Creator of FedEx Logo Excerpted from Matthew May’s book The Laws of Subtraction

Appearing online in Fast Company Co.Design October 23, 2012

Another use of subtle

When You’re Copied, You’ve Made It

1939 British government propaganda poster to boost wartime morale.

When You’re Copied, You’ve Made It

Digital Marketing and Communication

Survey Tools of the trade

CRM Email campaign Surveys

Newsletters Webinars/Seminars Podcasts

CRM (Contact Relationship Managers)

• Do I need one? YES • Choose wisely. • Considerations:

Features Interoperability Cost Interface with current operations software?

• Buy or subscribe?

Email campaign programs

Stamps are great if you’re a collector. Like CRM’s, you’ve got choices. Make specialized templates for different messages. Top features: –Segmenting your lists –Checking your clicks

List Segmentation

World Market is a GREAT bad example. Respect the inbox. Rule of thumb is the rule of threes.

Newsletter Targeted issue General marketing topic

!

The era of the audience is dead.

Checking your clicks

Newsletters

Newsletters

Determine the frequency. What’s in your company’s DNA? Industry news, product offerings, project news, employee content? Should be timely, highlight your company and link back to your site and the source content.

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Things your content should be:

!

Helpful!Shareworthy!Shareable!Searchable!Path to conversion from prospect to customer.!!!

Your Website

• Your website is your always-open door to current and future clients, agents, employees and vendors.

• The site must put forth the most professional and complete digital identity that is pitch-perfect with your real world identity.

• The site must be responsive to render across multiple devices and platforms (computers, tablets, phones).

• The site must incorporate a prominent call to action. • Don’t think when it’s up that it’s done.

Not-the-greatest practice web example

And how’s that look on my iPhone?

Pictures tell stories on your site

• Meta-tagging • Words + pictures =

find in Google Images = direct traffic to your site

• We’re BROKERS AND FORWARDERS. We move and clear stuff. And we should take pictures!

Credit: jifnet.com

QR Codes

QR Code Best Practices

• QR codes used in advertising are going to be checked on a smartphone or tablet.

• QR codes need to be simple; short web addresses are the best web addresses; use a link shortener.

• Think of the screen real estate of the device it will be shown on.

• More importantly, if you’re advertising a product or service, direct the viewer to the campaign for that product or service.

Keep QR codes simple: goo.gl, bit.ly

Crowley QR Code Shortened Port Seattle QR code shortened

Search Engine Ranking and Optimization

Credit: sparkwiz.com

Two Ways To Get Listed

ORGANIC !

Site design Meta-tagging Content marketing

INORGANIC !

PPC Advertising Remarketing

Advertising online offers clearly measurable results to determine ROI.

Campaigns can be run that take advantage of: •  Pay per click (involves bidding for

keywords). •  Remarketing ads. •  Display ads. •  Promoted posts through social media

sites. •  Geographic areas, variable budgets, A/

B testing. •  Site or industry specific activities.

Other digital outreach

• Webinars and

Seminars

• Podcasting

• Audio / Video Content

Social Media for Business

Social Media for Business

1.2 BILLION

Twitter Fact(oids)

Make it count: 140 characters or less. Has become the communication vehicle of choice in: –Disasters –Revolutions –Television and film marketing

#HASHTAGS for topics. Lots of people weigh popularity based on “followers”.

Logistics Companies On Twitter

Companies and their followers as of October 23, 2013: !

FedEx Trade Networks: 180 Maersk Line: 91,684 UPS: 57,703 Ceva Logistics: 2,223 Expeditors: 180 AA Cargo: 0 (because it’s gone)

Twitter Relevance for YOU

• If you promote you’re on Twitter, somebody has to pay attention all the time.

• Use it to advertise (newsletters, projects, services or jobs).

• Use it for emergencies (power outage, weather closure, zombie apocalypse).

• It’s the fastest real-time means at your disposal to get the word out repeatedly.

• Launched on May 5, 2003, LinkedIn in January reported 200 million users in 200 countries and territories.

• The networking is a little more personal.

• LinkedIn is the place to be for companies and individuals who want to network professionally.

• Don’t fall into the trap of making your “social” friends your LinkedIn connections; keep it work focused.

• Join groups that are relevant for you and your company. • As an employer, you can see somebody’s history. • As an employee, you can look for a new gig. • As a salesperson, you can keep people on your radar.

• Fully SIXTY-FOUR percent of visits to corporate websites are from LinkedIn.

• Facebook has declined by nearly half from thirty to seventeen percent over the past two years.

• Twenty percent of web traffic is from mobile devices.

• However, only twenty-three percent of companies have a mobile or responsive site to accommodate those visitors!

Source: Investis IQ Audience Insight Report

• Pew Research in 2012 showed that women were five times as likely to be on the site as men.

• “Boards”, which highlight content, are usually pictures. • Mostly for travel, fashion and cooking at this point. • But believe it or not, logistics companies are there with

infographics. • Infographics are expensive to produce, print and

distribute, but help stuff “stick” better in people’s memories.

Infographic Example

Maersk on Pinterest

• Created in 2010 and acquired by Facebook for $1 billion (with 13 employees) in 2012.

• First on iOS, then Android. Now Windows Phone.

• #share #with #hashtags.

• 100 million users.

Hashtags used here: #logistics #lgi #heavyhaul #transportation #broker #logisticsgroupinternational #huge #otr

1 billion

800 million

343 million

200 million

200 million

Social sales channels are equalizers

Manage those accounts!

Pick a service and post centrally. Repurpose content. Respond and thank people for follows / retweets / repostings.

How do you measure your success?

• Campaign metrics - impressions, click throughs. • Subscribers added to your newsletters. • Followers or connections on other platforms. • Acquisition cost per client. • Brand penetration. • Revenue.

Takeaways1.Evaluate your digital presence. 2.Establish a budget, whether allocating existing funds or creating

a category for them. 3.Ask how many clients, prospects and agents can you talk to

simultaneously? 4.Is your site relevant and built properly for all visitors? 5.A multi-pronged strategy that focuses on communicating with

clients, remaining in front of prospects and putting forth an image to both as well as future employees and decision makers is key.

6.Have a policy for managing your social networks. 7.Meet me tomorrow morning for a free analysis!

Scott Case | (630) 410-2059 | scott@positionglobal.com