The transportation sector in the logistics industry faces sustained and unprecedented digital disruption as new technologies emerge, rapidly evolving customer preferences, and new competitors revolutionize business models and communication channels needed for the future growth of the industry.
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Industry 4.0 has finally started to emerge as a true driving force shaping the future of the global supply chain. A confluence of technologies including advanced robotics and artificial intelligence; Sophisticated sensors, big data analytics, 3D printing, cloud-enabled business models.
We also find high-power mobile devices; and the algorithms to direct motorized vehicles (navigation tools, ride-sharing applications, autonomous vehicles, and last-mile delivery services) that are enabling advanced connectivity between companies, countries, partners, and competitors.
Taking into account all these digital transformations in the sector, the objective of this article is to identify the main communication channels in the logistics industry and what they can offer to the modern logistics operator.
For several years now, digital communication channels have overshadowed traditional channels. 59% of buyers find out about the launch of a product in an online sales channel. And the truth is that only 9% of consumers learned about a product or service through a print advertisement in a magazine or an advertisement broadcast on television.
Unfortunately, the current reality has shown that traditional channels such as television, radio, print media no longer meet the needs and expectations of modern consumers who seek immediacy, and it is no exception for those who want an efficient faster delivery service.
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, and all current instant messaging applications are displacing traditional media since the Internet began to dominate the world. Likewise, the invention of the video call from the cellphone has further reinforced this gap with physical channels, which are destined to disappear in the future.
In the field of logistics, digital tools are enabling Internet data transfer applied to real-world product distribution processes, through smart, green, and modular containers ranging from the size of a sea container to the size of a small box that is standardized in all companies and countries.
These modular containers are continuously monitored and routed, sharing digital connectivity through the Internet of Things. For the physical Internet to work in practice, a much higher level of collaboration is needed across the industry and companies need to have multiple communication channels in the logistics industry.
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Below, we mention the most important communication channels for businesses that can generate positive changes in the industry.
Social selling is a sales model that is carried out through digital communication, mostly on social media platforms. It refers to a customer attraction model inspired by content marketing, with which it will seek to offer quality content to customers so that they can answer their questions and satisfy their needs.
Generating valuable content will differentiate you from the competition and position you in the sector. It is a medium that allows you to reach a fairly wide audience that connects with your brand and knows about your logistics services.
Transport and logistics companies store an important database that tends not to be used as it should. Usually, they take advantage of it to send newsletters regularly, but without segmenting the content based on the buyer persona to whom the content is directed.
In this sense, first of all, you should focus on your target audience. If your community expects you to talk about land transport, they will not be interested in you sending them content that is not related to their object of interest. This is the function of e-mail marketing, sending segmented content, aimed at obtaining a sales result.
The corporate blog is a compendium of valuable content that companies regularly publish for their users. Here you must take into account, before publishing, variables such as SEO positioning, publication date, keyword, and article structure.
Regardless of the number of current customers, you can implement the dissemination of ebooks that will help you to expand the number of potential customers who might be interested in your logistics services. An ebook is an electronic book that the user who visits your website will be able to download for free in exchange for leaving their data, which includes their email so that they can receive segmented content from email marketing.
Having a button to access WhatsApp business on your e-commerce page on networks can be very flattering for your customers because they will be able to clarify their doubts about the service they are interested in contracting. At the same time, you can save your customers' information and let them know about the status of their orders.
WhatsApp is a very practical tool for sharing specific information in real-time, much more immediate than mail, which means that the logistics operator and customers are aligned.
If there is a social network for professional and business profiles, it is Linkedin. From there you can share information of interest, your blog articles, you can make yourself known to your audience, or contact other people and customers. Facebook and Instagram are also two other communication channels where you can contact customers to request your logistics services.
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In short, since digitization began to expand in the business environment, there are more and more communication channels in the logistics industry, both the channels we use in our daily lives and the corporate ones, which are more specific for internal communication, they can be equally effective alternatives to attract customers and maintain a healthy interaction with them.