Someone once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. When it comes to marketing your pallet business, you may be taking the same approach, expecting a different outcome.
CEO of Digital Native and APM Shipping, Jesse Viola, found online sales and outreach were overwhelming for many pallet companies. Most don’t have an actual sales structure funnel. They may have a salesperson, but they’re not actively using digital tools to knock on as many doors as they could. When they do use those tools, they’re not following up enough to be able to make the sales. They reach a critical crossroads where they have the potential to make a sale, but ultimately give up. Jesse Viola founded Digital Native because very few pallet companies have ongoing, scalable, measurable systems. “Many lack the ability to use technology to inform their process,” he stated.
Viola not only has experience in the pallet industry; he owns his own pallet business. When Pallet Enterprise first interviewed him back several years ago, he wanted to do marketing and media as well as continue the pallet business. Jesse has now found a way to combine his expertise. He started Digital Native, a B2B online marketing firm.
Viola explained, “We offer content development, digital marketing systems, and more. We have a studio where we can help companies develop promotional resources. We have clients all over the country. Most are in the packaging space, and we are just starting to work with a few pallet companies,”
Digital Native has built its business around LinkedIn. The marketing firm strategizes with a client focusing on potential customers in a 100-mile radius from a pallet facility. The team builds a list of targeted companies and prospects on LinkedIn for manufacturers and distribution. Then, they create an automated sequence of connection requests to add those people to the company network.
“As we add to your network, we have a little bit of an automated sequence of introduction, introducing yourself and the business, saying hello,” said Viola. All of the campaigns have real people that are trained in the pallet business and understand the nature of customers who buy pallets. That person is managing the inbox and takes the conversation from LinkedIn and brings the sales qualified lead to the client.
There are other social media channels out there, but according to Viola, “LinkedIn is far and away the best social media channel to use for any B2B business because it’s the largest B2B database in the world.” That’s where businesses are showing up and networking. It’s easier to sit at your computer and have discussions with local potential customers on LinkedIn versus knocking on doors and begging for their business.
Digital Native offers services using a retainer-based model. The retainer involves ongoing follow-up and touchpoints with potential customers. It’s not about producing a large quantity of leads but procuring qualified, worthwhile leads. The Digital Native team is trained and qualified in the pallet business to bring you the best potential candidates for customers so that your time and money will not be wasted.
Some clients want to go beyond basic connections with new clients by posting relevant content to their page. This helps establish the pallet company and brand as a subject matter expert. When you are posting about pain points that pallet buyers have, your company becomes a solution to their pallet headache. Content drives connection as potential pallet buyers reach out for answers. Viola admitted, “It’s more of a long-term, long-range approach. We will create content for you. This method helps establish you as a thought leader in the space.” Content is posted to the individual’s page as well as company pages. Digital Native also has the capability for podcasts and video content as well.
You can hire a pro or task a salesperson to add this to their portfolio. But creating your online presence requires a consistent approach. You can’t post once a month and expect that to work. You need more touch points than that. But it doesn’t require a lot of content or expensive video editing. You can take quick videos and even make them on your cell phone.
Another area where pallet companies struggle is connecting their online sales process with their customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. This speeds up communication and automates key response functions. Too many pallet companies lack a way to track leads and work them through a sales funnel.
Digital Native helps install CRMs and connect them to the LinkedIn prospecting process. It has worked with Pallet Connect as well as other CRM and ERP systems. Viola said, “We can work with anybody’s legacy system.” No matter the size of your company, Viola works with anyone who is not a competitor in their immediate area of the New York Metro tri-state.
When it comes to using AI with the process, Digital Native is very careful how they leverage the technology. AI may not have the answers and potential expertise that clients want. If you utilize it, the AI must be trained to represent your brand and the answers you want to provide customers. Viola explained, “We use AI to achieve scalability and efficiency, which gives us the ability to charge what we charge, be affordable, and get customer results.” It is a combination of AI and outsourced labor, “a custom cocktail” of technology with experienced pallet industry professionals selling to the shipping supply marketplace.
To learn more about Digital Native and its approach for pallet companies, visit https://www.digitalnativeny.com/.
