Advertising & Marketing Freight Business

[Tony Pratsas]

Hi all,
Finally up and running with our business Rand Freight Forwarding & Shipping. As a newbie in a market of really big players and already established business out there,I'm asking peoples thoughts on marketing and how to create exposure for the Freight forwarding business.
Google adwords ,SEO etc are the obvious as well as listing on relevant trade magazines. Its a business service needed by most industries out there that import/export their goods and products and pitching it in the right media streams will get the business known.
What are your thoughts on Yell.com? We have been quoted around £60/month inc. for position 3 on a search hit that gets roughly 24 hits a months. We are sitting on the fence with this. We ask ourselves if people in Manchester are looking for a Freight Forwarding business,Yell might be the obvious choice,the hit rate could be better but for this type of business these numbers might be right. The other thing putting us off is the 12 month fixed term.

We would appreciate peoples valued input into this matter as well as some ideas of people already affiliated in this industry.
regards
Tony
randfreight.com

 

[Nochexman]

Hi Tony and welcome to the forum. Any good marketing planning begins with an appreciation of your existing customers: who are they and can you get more of the same? Are they trade related or entirely random?

You can generate new business from AdWords, but referral is generally better value for money, so understanding your customers and using them to help get new business should always be your starting point!

 

[Dan@FreightFirst]

I've had a great deal of success in the past using email marketing.

If you want some pointers or example emails that I have sent, just send me a quick DM.

 

[Sevoris]

One of the ways I'd recommend doing it is to attend trade shows, either with a stand, or, if that's too expensive for you at the moment, just by going there and doing some face-to-face networking. A personal approach is still the best when it comes to getting customers.

Also, looking at your website, I think it might be useful to do a bit more there. At the moment it's quite simple and lacks a lot of the information that a potential customer might want. In other words, add more copy in the form of descriptions of what you do and such. The copy will also help your SEO, as at the moment, from what I can see, you mostly have bullet points with some keywords there. Google prefers more, genuine, content to rank you higher.

 

[yourmoneytree.co.uk]

I can only really share with you my own experience from 10 years ago with regards to freight forwarding.

As a newbie to shipping, I had to import some goods from Italy and Turkey. The Italians have been shipping to the UK for years and as such a lot of them actually take care of the delivery for you via road - but Turkey is a different story.

They are very much focused on getting the container to the docks and that's it. As someone without much knowledge of what I was doing, I had never heard of the term "freight forwarding" so I wouldn't have searched for it.

The first thing I did was look online at places like DHL (laughable now but that's the first thing I thought of) and then I rang up my local chamber of commerce.

The chambers like to think they promote exporting so they invited me in, explained this whole concept, even hooked me up with a guy that new the ins and outs of it and they came up with a name of a specialist freight forwarder that worked with Turkey.

That was it done.

I wouldn't really use Yell if I were you, I'd also accept that your blog isn't going to get you traffic for a few years so you need to put your money where it's really going to have an effect tomorrow.

I would therefore use google adwords (if you need advice on that side feel free to message me and I'll tell you what I learnt about PPC agencies) and I would get in contact with your local chamber of commerce to see how they can help spread your name around.

The other thing you can do is find people to refer business to you - for example someone that has the same customers as you but doesn't do your part of the supply chain e.g. packaging companies. If you can give them a good incentive e.g. commission or a payment per client then they might refer.

My theory is that if someone wants to export then they need packaging for their items, and they will do this part of the chain before they look for you so you can get ahead of the game.

From an import perspective, I think it's a bit harder as the supply chain is mostly abroad, so you could either try to track down the factory suppliers over there (tough) or think about the things people will need once they get to the UK.. e.g. a pallet network to deliver the goods once they are broken down, or the insurance brokers they need to cover the goods in their warehouse etc.

All in all I haven't been in distribution for some time so I expect there's many better ideas you can come up with than me but hopefully the above helps!

 

[London Gary]

Hi Tony,

Not sure if you're reading people's replies but, as Sevoris said, your website is lacking. Even if you manage to get people to the site there's nothing there that would make them decide you're the firm for them.

Writing good sales copy for a website is a craft and it can make all the difference between you looking like all the rest - or standing out from the crowd as a reliable, credible operator.

Yes, I write sales copy for a living. If you message me I can give you some basic guidelines on what you should be doing on the website so that it works a little harder for you than the current version does.

Good luck whatever you decide,

Gary

 

[TheConsulter]

You should look at your competitors and try to understand what they do to succeed. The freight market is profitable but you have to play your cards right. Make sure that your website has appealing content which make people want to order their freight with your business. Also, make sure that the website is mobile/tablet friendly because many people do their browsing nowadays on their mobiles or tablets.