LOGISTICS, SUPPLY CHAIN & DISTRIBUTION

Marketing Samples

You sure know how to keep the inventory moving.

How's your brand keeping up?

You've got all the boxes checked for strong relationships, reliability and doing what you said you'd do. It's resulted in a reputation for solving problems other people can't.


So why does it feel like your marketing hasn't caught up?


It's usually at least one of these things happening for a while now:


  • You've been under pressure to evolve the business to reflect where you're headed next, including investing in how you show up in the market today.


  • You have service, speed and expertise in the region. But you're communicating that primarily through a single PDF and outdated materials.

  • You've watched competitors get press, industry recognition and clients, all the while wondering why it wasn't you.


  • Your website reads like a service list instead of clearly communicating the complexity you manage every day.


That's a content and positioning problem. And it's exactly what Caliber fixes for logistics, supply chain and distribution companies across Chicago and beyond.

Who we work with

  • Regional distributors for specialty products
  • Mid-size distributors in verticals such as medical devices
  • Supply chain technology companies, including software
  • Logistics providers managing warehousing and fulfillment


You've built the kind of operation over many years that values outstanding service and relationships more than a product spec sheet.

There's a story you can be proud of from that. But you haven't figured out how to tell it.


At the same time, you're at a key inflection point in your growth, navigating a real state of transition - whether that's private equity interest, digital ordering platforms, supply chain disruption or succession scenarios.

What we actually deliver

Moments of transition and evolution call for urgency around brand, positioning and thought leadership like never before.


  • Content that builds your team's credibility in the vertical even more visibly. 


  • A clear, differentiated story that explains why you're the right partner over a national competitor.


  • Cross-selling and upselling so existing customers understand the full scope of what you handle, instead of sending business to another vendor because they didn't know you offered it.

What this can look like

Case studies & capability narratives: stories in the customer's language (not industry jargon) about real problems solved, the kind that speak directly to what your best prospects are currently challenged by.


LinkedIn presence: a consistent voice that establishes your firm as the regional expert. Not just another distributor.


Strategy Sprint: a focused 90-day engagement to solve a specific challenge, such as leveling up and modernizing the core brand message or setting up your marketing and sales teams to finally be on the same page, with a CRM they'll actually stick with and foundational content that moves deals through each unique stage of the buying cycle.

LOGISTICS, SUPPLY CHAIN AND DISTRIBUTION BUSINESSES WE'VE WORKED WITH

We’re not in the business of saving lives, but SOS Technologies definitely is. Through the Philips AEDs they distribute as well as CPR training and first aid supplies they provide, they’re giving people a second chance at life after events like sudden cardiac arrest and stroke. It’s a story that’s a whole lot bigger than products and services, though, which is why we’ve worked closely with them to develop content for their robust eCommerce site, ongoing blogs, eNewsletters, sales collateral, social media and more.


In the space of medical devices, first aid supplies and CPR training, there's a lot that can quickly become commoditized.


We didn't want SOS to just sell equipment or ask customers to pick from a catalog. They have such a knowledgeable team in-house, from customer service to management to those in the field that we knew we could leverage that so much more of that built-in advantage by positioning them as true safety consultants in a sea of distributors trying to engage in price wars.


If you show someone how much better you understand their particular industry and then combine it with a quality offering, you don't have to race to the bottom with the rest of them.

David Lipman, President & CEO
SOS Technologies

Dan helped transform our marketing efforts, took the time to understand our business and marketplace and provided value with every interaction.


Dan took the lead on revamping our website, logo, and marketing materials. Dan's collaborative approach along with his ability to listen, absorb and challenge me as a business owner allowed us to increase our online profile, which lead to a measurable increase in sales and other business partnerships.

Dan is a talented writer, designer and is always bringing cutting-edge ideas and tools to his clients. I highly recommend Dan as a partner for your business.

SAMPLES OF WORK

Medlin Communications has been a trusted systems integrator in the Chicago area for more than 25 years, with a deep roster of clients that includes national retail brands.


Like a lot of established companies that had built their business on word-of-mouth, Medlin was showing up to potential clients as smaller than they actually were - known for phones when they also handled security systems, fire alarms, audio/video, building access and data networking.


The positioning challenge was clear: Medlin wasn't being seen as the full-service technology advisor they genuinely were.


Brought in by our agency partners at UberBlue Digital Media, we got to work building a content engine that closed that perception gap and turned opportunities into conversions. That meant starting with a website overhaul to bring their full story to the surface, followed by case studies that let their national and local work do the talking in sales conversations. We also helped launch specialty programs that added structure to their service offerings and wrote blog content that kept the site current and credible. Video rounded out the mix, giving prospects a more human look at the company behind the brand.


The work repositioned Medlin from a parts vendor to a trusted advisor - one that doesn't just show up with equipment but shows up with a plan.

SAMPLES OF WORK

HillDT Solutions in Michigan is part manufacturer, part distributor. It's the name behind one of the most respected devices in the chiropractic industry, the Hill DT spinal decompression table. It's also a distributor of the PiezoWave2T, an acoustic wave device used to target tissue at a variety of depths.


As a company driven by founder-led sales and virtually no internal marketing department, HillDT turned to us to create co-op advertising in which chiropractors and rehab therapists could simply add their name and logo to utilize in-office pieces such as posters and 1-sheets. These components were designed to encourage existing patients to ask for treatment through the PiezoWave2T, thus potentially adding more revenue per patient.

We also developed a post-purchase loyalty program called Alignment Advantage that encouraged existing customers to leverage HillDT's expertise in decompression tables and its repair channels for long-term ROI on those tables.

SAMPLES OF WORK

The logistics of marketing isn't easier
with a bunch of jargon and gobbledygook.


Good thing we don't have any.

01

"Reliable." "On-time." "Safety first." C'mon.
Everybody says that. How are we gonna stand out?

We get it. If everybody's website and other materials say the same thing, who's going to want to read that? 

Wait a minute. Maybe we're on to something here. 

If all your competitors are talking about the same, dull, vague crap that anybody could say, what if you talked about things like:

The specific results a customer got?
The dock delay you caught before it became a real problem for the customer?
The way you made it through the peak season without a single missed pickup? 

That's not content that blends in with everyone else's. Is it?

When you're a firm in logistics, supply chain or distribution that brings specifics, provable outcomes and success stories, the content you have to reflect that experience can help you stand out in incredible, crystal-clear ways nobody else in your space is articulating.


02

Our budget's not big. But we've got people in our ear saying we "need to be on this" or "nobody's on that."
What the heck do we do?

You can't throw around money like it's unlimited to all the places someone suggests.
So don't.

Sure. Chances are, you have decent or good word-of-mouth. But that's still unpredictable. What if you looked at one area to accompany that and focused exclusively on it?

Let's not try to choose which direction yet. Just wrap your mind around narrowing rather than expanding based on which way the wind blows or what random people say is "hot."

We see a smarter plan by committing to 1-2 channels solidly where you can be in front of your audience consistently. Not a light, occasional presence across each channel that you can't sufficiently measure. That's maximizing what you have.

03

We've had happy customers and testimonials.
So why are prospects choosing other vendors?

Obviously, happy customers who sing your praises are the gold standard. But here's a question - are those testimonials fairly, well, ordinary? Are the customers specific in their description about how you helped them or just saying things like, "They were professional"?

You can talk about serving customers for decades, but nobody really knows what that means. It does nothing for a prospect looking for challenges that mirror their own and evidence you've provided a similar solution.

Look. You're not the only company with a deep track record and satisfied customers.

So if you want a leg up on others, you'd better make sure you're conveying the Before, not just the After. Otherwise, there's no story to tell. And in turn, no compelling reason to select you compared to another firm that's been transparent and clear about everything they do.

04

Our sales cycle could be well over a year.
How do we know marketing is actually contributing to closed deals?

Stop crediting the most recent touchpoint and start tracking the whole path.

In a cycle that long, an operations person who read a case study in month one and the finance person who pulled up your pricing page in month nine are equally important.

If you only capture one lead source in a report instead of viewing the entire landscape of contributing lead sources working together, you'll overvalue one source and severely undervalue another.

Pull that picture together with sales instead of marketing alone. A CRM and collaboration on content lets us see one pipeline, providing us with a more honest read on all the elements at work moving deals along.

05

Should we be more focused on winning new customers or growing business we already have?

It's not really an either/or, BUT there's no question which path is the easier to err on.


An existing customer already trusts your team. You're not educating them on why they should select your firm as much as exciting them on a new service. So the sell is shorter.

However, upselling and cross-selling to customers doesn't just happen naturally due to the relationship you have. View it as a plan that's as purposeful and unique as any other you'd follow to win a new customer. If you respect that part of the process, you should be well positioned to earn more revenue.