DC Velocity - July 2017

128 DC VELOCITY JULY 2017 www.dcvelocity.com TO SAY THAT TRANSPORTATION MARKETING HAS BEEN a stepchild would be an insult to stepchildren. In an industry with an operations-driven mentality, the marketing function, with some notable exceptions, has been invisible. Sales has been integrated with operations. Marketing, when it has existed on the organizational chart, has often been siloed from sales.

But there are signs of a change. Businesses are recognizing the value of marketing—which today means content development—and how it can connect with customers to drive sales and deepen relationships, which can subsequently lead to future sales. Furthermore, today’s digital tools make it more cost-effective than ever to quantify a marketing campaign’s success.

The fish seem to be biting. According to a report on the findings of an annual survey released last month at the Transportation Marketing & Sales Association’s (TMSA) annual conference in Amelia Island, Fla., 46 percent of 151 provider respondents said they increased their marketing budgets in

2016, up from 40 percent in 2015. About 7 percent said their marketing budgets were significantly higher in 2016, up from 2 percent who made the same statement in 2015. (We don’t know if this is connected, but only 39 percent of respondents said they have planned sales headcount increases in the 2016–17 budget year, down from 51 percent in 2015–16. That may be due to a reduction in sales productivity because 49 percent of the sales headcount achieved half or less of their quota last year, according to the survey.)

TMW Systems Inc., a Cleveland-based transportation man-
agement software (TMS) provider, has jumped deeper into the
At the TMSA conference, Lyle said TMW isn’t selling products
or services, but rather solutions to customers’ problems. And
ies, or something else, the objective is to showcase the company’s
strengths and how they can be leveraged to solve
a customer’s problems, Lyle said. Because each
website page is tracked, TMW knows exactly what
content current and prospective customers are con-
suming and can tailor solutions to those interests,
she said.