‘Tis the season of change. Savvy cold chain service providers are shifting their focus to prospecting.
You can compete by adopting logistics company marketing strategies tailored for transportation and logistics companies.
The period from November to February is incredibly busy for cold chain service providers in the food logistics industry. These are the months with the most food-related holidays and events: Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year, the Superbowl…
Cold chain companies are a vital link between farms, food production, and food manufacturing to grocery stores, food service distributors, and consumers. They provide the storage and transportation services essential to connecting these groups. Service failures can lead to spoiled products and empty shelves—bad news for profits and reputations of food companies.
Companies will seek new options after experiencing a service failure with their current provider. This is the perfect time for you to ramp up your brand promotion with unique messaging to set yourself apart.
Position yourself as a viable alternative using logistics company marketing techniques.
A handful of large international cold chain service providers control about half of the market capacity. They have the advantage of having a broad network of facilities and handling a significant volume of business. But, you have a network too, and can compete for this business.
Geography
If consumer demand correlated with population density across the USA, with all other conditions being equal, only 16 distribution centers could support next-day delivery to 98% of the population.
A report by Chicago Consulting suggests the best locations to achieve optimal distribution center coverage for warehouse networks from 1 to 10 facilities. You probably have facilities in some of these areas.
Now consider that your prospects probably require deliveries to regional distribution centers—and maybe only to specific metro areas. You might not even need 10 locations to support the customer base of your target accounts.
Service Portfolio
Next, compare your service offerings. A few core services are common across almost all cold chain service providers: storage, case and each-picking, repacking, and labeling. Blast freezing is also common in protein production regions. Do you offer these core services?
Some specialized value-added services, such as a kitting operation, may require investment in equipment and additional resources. But, if you have available temperature-controlled space, you could offer a similar service.
Inventory Management and Network Visibility
Having a customer portal with visibility across your network is a non-negotiable necessity. Prospects simply won’t consider your solutions if they have to put in more effort to manage them. If you don’t already have this technology and connectivity, you’ll need to invest in it soon.
You CAN Compete
Essentially, we’ve just discovered that you’re a viable option to compete for business requiring a network of distribution centers. Now, your marketing team just needs a cohesive strategy to position you for success.
Do you have a marketing team?
Logistics Company Marketing Support
Even if you do, maybe your team could benefit from a resource boost to enhance your marketing efforts. That’s where Ocean 5 Strategies comes in.
With Ocean 5 Strategies by your side, we’ll align your services and capabilities with the challenges your audience faces. We’ll make your service offerings more relevant to the solutions your potential customers seek. And we’ll develop a comprehensive marketing plan for your logistics company.
Once you have their attention, we can address other major concerns for your potential new customers, such as how to change service providers with minimal disruption. We’ll also assist you in reviewing your processes and developing effective communications to give your prospects peace of mind about your business transition process—easing their worries about this crucial activity—along with your other unique service offerings.
Ocean 5 Strategies is a Logistics Marketing Agency
Ocean 5 Strategies has worked with very large logistics companies on website redevelopment, SEO, messaging, content and campaign management, sales collateral development, and trade shows.
- We have the experience, expertise, skills, and resources to help logistics businesses like yours meet their sales growth objectives and new client acquisition goals. We can even help with recruitment marketing.
- We offer a comprehensive library of resources to help you and your team hone your skills. We believe you will appreciate our expert insight. We have numerous articles available to guide you on best practices. Ocean 5 Strategies offers insight into Inbound Marketing Best Practices, SEO for Business, and even How to Build Successful Email Campaigns.
- If your resources are already stretched thin and you don’t have the bandwidth to become an expert in every aspect of marketing, it may be more productive to leverage our fractional support.
- Read more about our logistics practice here.
What Does a Typical Engagement Look Like?
We know logistics and the support we offer is comprehensive, including:
- Messaging workshops to align who you are and what you do with what your customers are looking for
- Tactical campaign execution, including messaging, content development, landing page creation, ROI measurement
- Marketing strategy development, including conference and event planning, campaign management, content, and collateral development.
If your main hook is the availability of capacity and great customer service, you’re not standing out!
Let us help you refine how you communicate about your company’s capabilities to move you beyond the capacity price wars.
What would be the first step?
We want to support you, and if you believe our support will be beneficial, then let’s connect.
