Conrad Winter Copywriter

Use referrals, case studies, and video to demonstrate proof of performance.

Perhaps the greatest takeaway I received at the recent Transportation Sales and Marketing Association conference came during the shipper panel. It was the opportunity to listen to a panel of prominent decision-makers live and unfiltered. The panel members are part of a very elusive and mysterious group. To put it another way: it’s hard to get through to this group—and rare to have the opportunity to hear what they think.

So what was this great takeaway I received? It came from Troy Turner of Unilever who was answering the question, what it takes to become a shipping partner of choice?

He answered that it came down to “ease of doing business.”

In other words, how easy is it to do business with a transportation provider? A consideration that he admitted can only be demonstrated by actually working with the transportation partner in question.

His answer had most of us in the audience scratching our heads. But Turner was kind and didn’t abandon us to chase chicken-and-egg scenarios. He gave a couple of workarounds for demonstrating how easy it is to do business with your company…without actually doing business with your company, that is.

Referrals are the next best thing to proof of performance.

They’re golden to Turner. Get a referral from the right colleague and you’re in.

Referrals are powerful, but there are different ways to leverage this power—some more nuclear than others. An email introduction can open the lines of communication for you, but what if you took it a step further and asked a happy client to call your prospect directly? The extra effort would speak volumes about your client’s esteem for you while making the referral more personal. A voicemail from your client would have a similar personal appeal, and might be an easier ask.

The only thing about referrals…they can be hard to get. Plus they’re a one-time single use tactic. I mean you can’t expect to get a referral for every prospect.

Second best is case studies.

Turner values case studies that demonstrate how companies have addressed challenges and how they’ve worked with other companies. This tracks with what I’m seeing; carriers, logistics companies and NYSHEX are consistently asking me to write case studies that demonstrate how they help clients overcome their challenges and that bring their services to life. They’re also maximizing their use by repurposing them in blog posts, newsletters and white papers. Another nice thing about case studies is their staying power. Post them on your website and they’ll work hard for you for a long time.

So how else could you demonstrate ease of doing business?

Turner’s comments inspired me to consider what other alternatives are available to marketers who want to prove their value to prospects.

Don’t forget case studies’ little brother, testimonials.

Quick, scannable, 2^ndperson endorsements can create instant credibility for you. They have powerful name-dropping appeal, and their short format makes them great for home pages, inserting into emails and lots of other things. Always ask a happy client to give you a blurb. (Tip: ask right after you’ve done something great for them.)

Show ‘em in a video.

In the absence of great case studies, it came to me that another way you could demonstrate ease of doing business would be to capture the experience in moving pictures. Show your people working on a real problem. Demonstrate your processes. Provide visual proof of your standards. And introduce viewers to your culture. A lot of times these things are better shown than said anyway.

Aim for a case study on every project.

When you complete an engagement, ask your client if you can feature them. Better yet, during the project, plant the seed of a case study by mentioning that your client has a great story to tell and a lot of people would benefit from hearing it. Sometimes it takes a while for clients to give you the go-ahead, so ask early and pitch the idea in an appealing way, In other words, tell them how innovative, daring and agile it will make them look.

Need help keeping the case studies flowing?

I know the ropes from conducting successful interviews to creating a unique case study style for your brand—as well as the many ways you can promote and repurpose your great stories. Let’s talk. Email me to arrange a short call, or click here to see some samples.

At TMSA’s 2018 Logistics Marketing and Sales Conference, Chris Peer, President & CEO of Digital Marketing Agency, SyncShow delivered a highly-relevant presentation entitled “10 Reasons Google Hates Your Transportation Website.”

I can safely say that Chris’s tips apply to every site and every industry under Google’s sun today. As a classic cobbler’s son who’s prone to “set it and forget it” behavior with my own website, I certainly received a wake-up call.

First off: why Google and not Yahoo or Bing or anything else? Well, Google dominates—except in China where Baidu rules. (Maybe that will be the topic of a future SyncShow presentation, “Why Baidu thinks your site is bad.”)

Here’s my take on the 10 reasons Chris Peer of SyncShow gave:

1. Your site is too slow. He gave an example of how devastating this can be to your hits: a 9-second load time translates to 29% less visitors. How do you know how long it takes your site to load? Try this: https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com. The fixes: image optimization, check your server or your content delivery network, and lastly, reduce your redirects.
2. Your website isn’t optimized for mobile. Lots of companies do this as an afterthought, but mobile usage surpassed desktop usage of the internet three years ago. (Sidenote: the transportation industry has not passed the 50% mark…yet.) What does optimizing for mobile mean besides automatically sizing for smartphones? Fat finger design, no pop-ups, no Flash. (Glad to see the site I recently wrote for NYSHEX passes the test. Take a look on your smartphone.)
3. Link issues are making Google ding you. In short, good inbound links from reputable sites increase your ranking while bad inbound links from spam-filled, disreputable sites cause Google to penalize you. Chris’s tip for increasing high-quality links is to make sure the trade associations you belong to are linking to your website. He also gave some tips for “disavowing” poor inbound links so Google knows you aren’t associated with them. You can find them here.
4. Your content is thin. Surprisingly in the stripped-down copy days of today, Google wants 700 words or more per page. Yes, you read that right: more copy, not less.
5. You have duplicate content. (i.e. don’t plagiarize yourself or others.) The fix: rewrite your site content to make it more useful and unique. Google doesn’t like similar content, and it can outright de-index you if you steal text from other sites.
6. Your content is not optimized. Your content quality determines how Google grades you. So start with an accurate title tag telling what your page is about. Make sure your headers contain your keywords. After all your headers are optimized, look at your body copy and do the same. Don’t stop there: every area on every page can be optimized, so optimize your alt tags on every image as well
7. Your site isn’t engaging visitors. (i.e. your bounce rate is high.) The fix: change your focus to providing valuable content and giving visitors what they’re looking for. Specifically, think video (great for visitors, not so great for search value) and scrutinize your calls-to-action to ensure they’re action items.
8. You have poor site structure. This often occurs when websites evolve over time as businesses grow and new pages get bolted on. As a result, the navigation of the site – and the organization of the site as a whole, doesn’t follow a logical path. That confuses both users and Google. You need to have a structure that’s easy to navigate with pages organized by topic. Visitors should be able to get to any page on the site in two clicks.
9. You have “orphaned” pages. (i.e. pages that can’t be found through navigation.) I’ve seen this happen with companies who routinely create landing pages for promotions. Orphaned pages are a no-no because Google doesn’t know how to rank them. The fix: include them in your sitemap at the code level. (Chris suggests having someone submit them.) So what do you do if you want to keep your top navigation clean and user-focused, but have a ton of other pages on your site? Check out how we positioned the navigation for NYSHEX’s subordinate pages in the footer where they’re easy to find, but don’t crowd the main navigation which only lists the pages we most-wanted to direct visitors to. See it here.
10. Your site isn’t secure. These days, every site and every page (even “orphaned” pages) needs SSL certification. The good news: you can purchase and install it in 15 minutes.BONUS TIPS FROM CHRIS 
11. Make google love your site by driving social traffic to your site. Put a snippet on LinkedIn that links to your site. Make Google love your site by driving social traffic to your site. Put a snippet on LinkedIn that links to your site. And post your videos on YouTube, the 2^ndbiggest search engine. (And be sure and have your videos transcribed and posted on your site so you can get the search value.)
12. Lastly, ensure every page on your site has a strategy for what you want visitors to do and learn.

Chris said a lot more in his great talk. For any details that I might have missed, read his comprehensive presentation here:

Then round out your reading with my 3-part series on creating a customer-centric website.

Are you looking at a website refresh or rewrite this summer? I’d love to help. Email me to set up a short call.