Selecting the right logistics marketing agency will make or break your B2B growth goals. With rising customer expectations and relentless margin pressure, logistics companies need more than generic marketing. Yet, it’s harder than ever to figure out what you actually need.
On the one hand, industry experts are saying you don’t need a specialist due to AI. Others claim that AI is all hype and won’t impact your brand. Let me be very clear. AI is and already has impacted logistics marketing. It has been for years, even in the early days of spellcheckers and more, but that’s another topic on the history of AI. For today, logistics marketing must go beyond the typical. Logistics service providers need tailored, intelligent strategies built for their unique supply chain challenges. To make the right choice, start by asking these five questions the next time you are going into a content marketing agency RFP or similar process.
You don’t have time to train an agency on the basics. A strong logistics marketing agency should already speak your language—WMS, 3PL, EDI, LTL, reverse logistics, carrier networks, and more.
Ask:
Deep expertise means faster onboarding, smarter strategy, and fewer mistakes.
But let’s also assume that industry expertise is a given, be sure to ask specifically about experience in using AI and their level of AI maturity.
AI maturity as a logistics marketing agency means having extensive (3+ years) of experience in working with AI for marketing within the transportation industry. If their experience is limited solely to the recent agentic AI conversations, run.
I’m sure that there will be some who see this and immediately ask, why?
Well, let me tell you something. JCI Marketing has been creating AI-driven marketing functions for years, including the development of an agentic-AI solution to streamline content product in 2023, but at the time, no one had heard of agentic AI. It wasn’t buzzworthy yet. It wasn’t even a known term yet.
But what we created, a series of prompts that could travel a complex network of if/then statements with flexibility built into each step, was agentic AI before it became mainstream. Now, we’re creating new AI agents for others, applying some of our own knowledge and our deep experience in Zapier. Together, it means we have both the marketing agency expertise needed to succeed plus the level of AI maturity needed to keep costs in check.
Generalist agencies won’t cut it. Look for a partner offering logistics SEO, PPC for freight brokers, content marketing built around load boards and TMS software, and lead generation targeted at 3PL buyers. And think about the future of content marketing. The whole world is moving toward an AI-inclusive future, and if your agency is avoiding the AI conversation, you will end up behind.
Ask:
A good agency should be able to speak clearly to freight tech buyers and supply chain leaders—not just generic B2B audiences.
A great agency will help you realize things you might have missed, such as news stories that directly affect your industry well before they become mainstream.
For example, JCI Marketing identified the opportunity for indexing ChatGPT conversations as an option for our clients the same day the indexing became optional. However, we intentionally held all client requests for immediate action pending tests.
Within 14 days, OpenAI had terminated that option and removed all previously indexed conversations from search. Had we moved forward according to client requests without our due diligence, we could have seen clients spend whole budgets on developing AI conversations without absolutely zero benefit.
Let’s get real for a moment. Every company wants leads, and no matter what your fancy numbers show, you have to track it back to actual revenue. However, that means tracking not only the vanity or lead metrics that precede MQLs.
For instance, tracking performance in Google Search Console is great and helps to organize impact of SEO efforts. However, it does little good until you are looking at whether that traffic is generating leads. It’s also important to realize that if you’re just getting going in SEO, you need to go into the process with a 6-month mindset, meaning, do not expect any new leads in the next six months.
For high-competition industries, such as those involving SaaS or analytics, plan on a 12-month period of performance improvement. Yet, even before you start getting those results, your agency should already be working to help you understand and track:
Expect dashboards, such as JCI Marketing BI Dashboard, to gauge campaign retrospectives, and enhance optimization built into the process.
Ask:
Without data, you’re flying blind. A true logistics marketing agency should help you make smarter moves with every campaign.
Your business isn’t like the next freight broker. Your marketing strategy shouldn’t be either. Every business deserves to a custom strategy. Yes, a high-quality marketing strategy will always have similar characteristics, X number of blogs, Y number of social posts, and recurring meetings. But the key is to ensure that you are getting something entirely customized to your brand.
Ask:
Cookie-cutter doesn’t work in logistics. You want tailored messaging that drives relevance and results.
For example, let’s imagine two competitors, both running drayage from Port of Savannah.
Both will inevitably benefit from blogs, but if company A has an extended footprint of drayage-related content, it’s not as simple as rinsing and repeating blogs. Instead, it may be more appropriate to consider new clusters or refreshing current content rather than simply rehashing the same material.
Great marketing compounds. The best agencies stay with you long enough to evolve strategies, uncover new opportunities, and grow alongside your business, and that means you will have to think about the long-term results.
Ask:
You’re not just hiring an agency. You’re building a partnership.
The wrong logistics marketing agency will cost you time, money, and momentum. The right one will drive qualified leads, tighten your sales pipeline, and unlock market share in a crowded field.
Ask better questions. Vet harder. And partner with an agency that understands the realities of freight, supply chain, and B2B logistics marketing. The growth of your business depends on it. Speak with a B2B growth expert at JCI Marketing to get started.