In the post-pandemic world, the competition in the freight forwarding industry is higher than ever before. On one hand, there is a plethora of independent freight forwarders like you, while on the other hand, we have large multinationals who are constantly chipping away at your clientele. Regardless of the size of your company, there are several measures you can easily take to expand your business, reach, new clients and get more projects. Keep reading this post where we have discussed a few essential tips for independent freight forwarders to boost the scope of their enterprises.
Tips for independent freight forwarders to grow their companies
Know your competitors
Before anything else, you need to carefully study what your competitors are doing and then position yourself carefully in the market. For instance, find out how your competitors are successfully coming up as digital freight forwarders. Understanding this will better place you to make significant changes in your organization and motivate you to take the digital stride. In other words, you need to focus on polishing those aspects in which you are lagging behind your competition.
Join the best freight forwarders network
Becoming a member of one of the best freight forwarders networks is a foolproof way of expanding your logistics business. As an independent freight forwarder, you need to find new partners around the world to provide truly global services. Joining a leading freight agents network like Globalia Logistics Network will help you find hundreds of reliable partners and many new collaboration opportunities with the network members. Moreover, you will get to take part in a yearly meeting where network members from all over the world get together to promote their business and discuss new project opportunities. This can be extremely helpful in finding new projects from your international network partners.
Understand the market
Analyzing and understanding the market is yet another area that needs special attention. This will keep you in touch with the ground reality and make you aware of what your customers are expecting from you. Additionally, a better knowledge of the market will keep you updated with the industry trends.
Create a formidable team by training your staff
It is important to remember that any company is as good as its workforce. Moreover, in a specialized sector like transportation and logistics, you need to create an expert team then can successfully solve all logistical hitches. Training your workforce is also vital for ensuring proper cargo handling without accidents. The top logistics companies are implementing dedicated employee training programmes to increase their output and for enhanced workforce retention. Lastly, workforce training will boost the future performance of your team, and adapt them to the changes in the industry.
Globalia Logistics Network has created an online training academy precisely to help the members upskill their employees and get a competitive edge. As a Globalia member, you can enroll in two specialized freight forwarding courses provided by CIFFA on- International Transportation and Trade and Essentials of Freight Forwarding. Additionally, there is also The SOC Container Masterclass by Container xChange which is an exhaustive course about handling Shipper Owned Containers.
Build relationships
Building a strong relationship with your partners and suppliers is crucial for taking your business forward. As an independent freight forwarder, you need to network with your existing and would-be partners and ensure that people remember you in a positive way. For this reason, you should invest in building and maintaining relationships with clients, partners, and industry peers. This is yet another area where a logistics network can help you. For example, Globalia’s Annual Meetings enable the union of a well-established network of freight forwarders who understand that mutual cooperation is the key to success.
Digitize your work processes by selecting the right online platform
The contemporary supply chain is entirely dependent on connected systems and online platforms. The term ‘digital freight forwarding’ has become a catchphrase in the transportation and logistics industry. Digital freight forwarding involves the use of transparent cloud-based systems that allow for easy supply chain management to provide the best deal to the customers. Big Data, IoT, AI, Cloud Computing, TMS, are some of the digital trends that have serious consequences for this sector with regard to customer service, cost control, speed, and resilience. One of the main objectives of digital freight forwarding is to reduce paperwork and manual processes. This can be achieved by generating, sharing, and uploading all sorts of data on an online platform.
As one of the leading freight forwarding networks of our time, Globalia understands the importance of up-and-coming technologies that are setting new standards in the industry. Globalia’s member-exclusive Transport Management System- FreightViewer is an instant quote generation platform that allows the members to compare rates between different carriers, and obtain the most accurate quotation. Furthermore, apart from speeding up the quoting time, it also creates an enormous open showcase 24/7 for their clients. A tool such as FreightViewer increases transparency in prices improves customer services, eliminates human errors, and most importantly saves a lot of valuable time.
Launch a user-friendly and informative website
Your company’s website is the first point of connection between you and your clients. Its primary function is to help bring in new businesses by convincing your audience through the content you’re offering. Well-written website content is absolutely crucial for the success of your website as a tool for company development. Additionally, your website should also come with a user-friendly interface. Simply put, you need to design your website in a way so that your clients can easily access all the information they are seeking.
Freight forwarding companies need to first consider their target audience before creating the web content. All companies in this sector do not cater to the same audience. The audience you’re targeting will largely depend on your specializations. Additionally, you also need to spend time on SEO or search engine optimization of your website content. This is a major factor that affects the visibility of your website. An SEO-optimized web page tends to rank higher on Google enabling your audience to find your website on the first page of Google search results.
Strengthen your presence on social media
Other than creating a fully functional and user-friendly website, independent freight forwarders also need to strengthen their online presence on several social media platforms. Having an active presence on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter is imperative for maintaining your competitive edge and for boosting the online visibility of your company. Additionally, you need to think of effective social media marketing campaigns that could find you, new customers. Lastly, you need to post interesting content and updates from your company on your social media handles.
Before concluding, it should be said that joining a reliable logistics network can help you internationalize your operations, find global partners, and get new projects. This is the only way for small and mid-sized freight forwarding companies to counter the threat of multinationals. Globalia Logistics Network presently counts on 190 + members across 130 countries. Most importantly all our members are financially solvent and trustworthy forwarders who get to exclusively represent a city/port. They are responsible for all shipments within the network to/from that city. Lastly, Globalia has enabled the digitization of its members’ operations by creating a highly useful TMS that members can use for free.
Join us today to find new avenues for growing your business!