Rachel Steinberg specializes in helping companies connect with hard to reach prospects in challenging fields like oil & gas, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics management on LinkedIn.
This makes her upcoming presentation at TMSA’s October 21-22 conference all the more essential during these challenging times. We Zoomed with her this month to get her insights on what she’s seeing out there technology-wise and strategy-wise. Read on for her take on the state of tech in logistics sales and marketing, as well as what industries are succeeding on the leading edge and where the opportunities are for our industry.
A: A big part of that is this is kind of the way that it's always been done. And it can be really difficult to disrupt the status quo when you're a very established company and you've been in the space for decades. It's different than a new company kind of coming on the scene that's already primed for digital. They don't have to necessarily have any kind of digital transformation or make a big shift to digital.
A: Figuring out the resources that are required to actually move forward with digital efforts and actually create some differentiation—some specialization—and some marketing of those efforts–could be via an agency, hiring digital-first marketers, figuring out marketing attribution, or all of the above.
A: Really any place where there is an opportunity to find hard to reach decision makers in the digital ecosystem is a place that marketers in this space should consider. So search obviously being a huge one. That's where a lot of the intent is, people are looking for certain products and services. Additionally, any technology or platform that enables you to measure the results of your marketing efforts–measurement and attribution tools.
A: With a company like LinkedIn, you may not have as much insight into the intent, but what you do have is ability to reach a very difficult audience to find at scale, whether that's supply chain directors, logistics professionals, or warehouse managers. Whatever it is, there aren't a lot of places where you can find and target that audience at scale.
A: I do think that's important. Whenever we do, hopefully go back to in-person events. I also think that the landscape will be potentially changed forever. So virtual events platforms are going to be important. And we know LinkedIn has an important place to play as a connection point in the events space, which is why we are investing in it.
A: Standing up some sort of ABM effort to help align marketing and sales. There are a lot of offerings out there, Demandbase and Terminus being a couple of the larger offerings. They could also be considering B2B platforms, like G2, Capterra and things like that. And then lastly, I'd say the measurement piece. One fantastic thing about digital is the myriad ways in which you can actually measure and see a return on investment and what you put into it versus what you get out of it. So net net, I'd say search is a big bucket. Social is a big bucket, virtual events, ABM, content syndication and then measurement and attribution tools.
A: I think basically you have the opportunity to, one, establish trust in a crowded marketplace. Two, identify and connect with customers and potential customers with the correct mindset at scale. Three, have a forum for customers to understand your value, your identity and your differentiator. And then manage perspective and existing customer relationships and prospects at every level of the buying funnel.
A: If you're looking to gain mindshare, gain market share, and drive new customers that can have a positive impact on the business—and you're not embracing LinkedIn or other digital platforms—you're missing out on an opportunity to make more money, save more money, mitigate risk for the company, or be a positive revenue driver for the company.
A: Other than tech, which I think is the really obvious one, I would say automotive and manufacturing have also started to embrace digital in a bigger way. Automotive is a really good example of a traditional industry that is embracing digital for their full funnel all the way from the tier one brand marketing all the way down to tier three dealer activation.
A: I have a few examples to talk about, but in the case of one large, traditional shipper I’m thinking of, they’re using a larger mix of traditional and digital media. They do a lot of television. They do a lot of search. I'm sure they're also going to trade events. So they are definitely squarely in the traditional media. But then from a digital standpoint, I know they also have a presence on LinkedIn. I think what they're doing is basically using digital to have a full funnel strategy. So in the same way that I talked about automotive and what they're doing at the tier one level, all the way to what they're doing at the tier three level, I'd say brands that are doing it well on LinkedIn and other digital platforms are doing the same thing. They're understanding how to use branding to differentiate who they are—you know, talk about those competitive advantages that they have—whether it's through a blog, or branded advertising. They're doing thought leadership. They're establishing why they are the expert. They're telling those stories. They're engaging with videos. They're doing customer stories. But then they also have a healthy lead-gen or demand-gen engine to drive revenue for the company.
A: I think every media has a place to play potentially, it just depends on what your goals are.
A: I know a lot is being asked of sales and marketing right now to be revenue drivers for companies. I would look at where are marketing efforts going and what is essential for driving business right now at a time when we maybe need to show a return on investment more than we ever have before. Does your media mix right now look like it is primed to do that? If you have the resources, I’d consider digital first platforms where you can only pay for the clicks and the engagements and the actions that you know are through the right people that could potentially drive revenue down the line.
A: Well, how do you establish trust in a crowded marketplace? How do you identify and reach elusive potential customers at scale and provide a forum to help those potential customers to understand your brand, your value, and want to buy from you? This is a moment to try something new and help your company make money, save money, mitigate risk, and drive business impact. We can lay the foundations and help the attendees of the conference understand why LinkedIn can be an input into that—show them why it doesn't have to be a monumental effort to be able to do it, but they’ll be able to see the impact of that pretty quick.
Tune into Rachel’s full and unfiltered on-demand presentation at the Logistics Marketing and Sales Virtual Conference for her insights into how it’s harder than ever to differentiate without embracing digital—as well as how embracing digital has never been easier.
Rachel Steinberg is a Sales Leader at LinkedIn. She has over 13 years of experience in advertising, with the last decade focused on content marketing and digital/social media. In her current role she focuses on nurturing sales talent to enable business growth at scale and has done so for a wide variety of industries including Manufacturing, Transportation and Oil & Gas. Learn more about her upcoming presentation as well as the full lineup of the conference here.
Conrad Winter is a freelance copywriter specializing in content and copywriting for transportation and logistics. Based in Metuchen, NJ, he creates website copy, campaigns, blog posts, whitepapers and case studies for carriers, 3PLs and transportation technologies.