FleetRunnr finds its global brand with Kalungi’s holistic approach to marketing

“We had to do it the proper way.”

Says Joe Doumit, Co-Founder and CEO of FleetRunnr. FleetRunnr is a cloud-based supply-chain automation software built around a real-time route optimization engine.

“We wanted to really create a name for ourselves. Something that stands out, something that is creative and represents our brand and our product well.”

After years of working with select customers to drive product development and build FleetRunnr into the powerful platform it is today, Joe and his co-founders, Elias and Mansour, knew it was time to start growing their marketing function and get their platform into the hands of logistics companies around the world.

“Our goal was to expand to North America in the United States and Canada and to be able to attract people from different areas of the world,” says Joe.

“Hiring a marketing team at this stage as a software company is definitely something you need. It's a very important goal, especially if you're selling to more of a global market.”

FleetRunnr had to start from scratch. After all, they started out as a team of developers and had very little marketing experience. They needed a solid marketing foundation to help them as they expanded. So Joe began looking for a way to bring marketing expertise to their team.

In-house marketing vs. an outsourced agency

As Joe started setting a roadmap to finding the marketing expertise FleetRunnr needed, he faced an important decision.

“We were really considering two options: an in-house team or an agency. We interviewed a lot of people as well as with different marketing agencies.”

And after interviewing nearly a dozen marketing leaders and firms, Joe found that almost all of them did not offer what FleetRunnr needed.

Most of the individuals and agencies Joe interviewed specialized in doing just SEO, outbound marketing, or other parts of inbound marketing. They could tackle one part of the puzzle for FleetRunnr, but lacked the expertise and holistic approach to get everything done. None of them had the B2B SaaS expertise he was looking for as well.

Joe knew he wanted a whole marketing team that could manage a complete rebrand and relaunch as well as both inbound and outbound tactics—so he continued his search. It was then that he came across Kalungi.

Finding the perfect balance

Talking with Kalungi tipped Joe over the edge to hire a marketing services firm with B2B SaaS expertise to run their marketing.

“Kalungi approached our needs in a very holistic way. They specialize in the whole package: Outbound, Inbound including blogs, SEO, SEM, content creation, you name it. They also offer fractional marketing leaders with great B2B SaaS expertise—it’s the full solution to what we were looking for.

“It clicked for us and it was a no-brainer. We decided to outsource and learn from the expertise that Kalungi has, whether from their CEO, their team, or all their B2B experience.”

Kalungi checked all the right boxes to help FleetRunnr build a brand and expand to the global market. And with an entire team plus fractional CMO services, Joe felt confident that they could help FleetRunnr scale to the next level.

A new image for FleetRunnr

Throughout the re-brand, Joe was happy with the communication and teamwork Kalungi exhibited. 

“Before Kalungi, we didn’t know that agencies could be so collaborative. We're all on the same page creatively, working towards the same vision. If I think of something, the Kalungi team has often already started working on it because we are on the same wavelength. It felt like just a part of our team.

To Joe, one of the biggest benefits of working with Kalungi was their ability to help FleetRunnr create a strong foundation.

“Now, we have a tone and image that represents FleetRunnr well and we have a better understanding of our positioning. We’re creating a community. We have a team that actually brings really high-quality prospects that we can work with. It’s not your typical run paid search and see what you get.”

Discovering the power of ABM

One marketing function that was completely new to the FleetRunnr team was account-based marketing (ABM). Through working with Kalungi, Joe experienced the power of a well-strategized ABM machine.

“It’s extremely important to have ABM campaigns that provide customers with real value. We didn’t know that very well until we started working with Kalungi.

“I get LinkedIn messages and cold emails every day, so I knew about ABM, but I was surprised by how in-depth the Kalungi ABM team went. I still work every day with our ABM lead, Dennis, and one of our marketing leads, Nassim, to drive the right demand and understand ABM performance. They’re always here to help and are always looking for ways to improve.

“They took our messaging and positioning, combined it with our customer research and our ICP, and put together very sophisticated campaigns that continue to drive great results.”

Learning from a B2B SaaS fractional marketing leader

Another aspect of Kalungi’s approach to marketing that helped FleetRunnr build its foundation was the benefit of a fractional marketing leader. With a fractional CMO, they didn’t need to compromise the benefits of hiring an in-house team for the convenience of an agency. 

“We realized you shouldn’t have to choose between an in-house team and outsourcing.

“The core advantage of having a fractional CMO is that they have a lot of experience and they are more or less completely part of the team.”

Gaining an experienced B2B SaaS leader even allowed Joe and the FleetRunnr team to grow as marketers themselves. 

“It allowed us as a team to learn a lot, not from our own mistakes, but from people who have experience and take what we learn from them and eventually apply that to what we do internally. 

“We worked with Yusuf, our fractional CMO, on establishing our foundation. We always had very educated give and take. He came with the experience we needed and we were all able to work together to apply that to our own needs. 

“What he and his team were able to do for our positioning and messaging was incredible. He really felt like a partner and someone that cared about our business as much as we do. That’s the true benefit of working with Kalungi’s fractional CMOs.”

An extension of the team

At the end of the day, Joe and the FleetRunnr team were able to see the results they were looking for. They were able to establish the foundational elements to expand into the North American market and compete with very well-established companies in that market.