In the barge transportation industry, operational efficiency depends on a team’s ability to communicate well. If information doesn’t flow seamlessly between shore and boat, major problems can arise within a fleet and reduce a barge company’s ROI.  

BargeOps offers industry-leading software with towing, fleet, and terminal management solutions that are configurable to each barge company’s specific needs. Words Have Impact (WHI) is proud to provide quality content for BargeOps to help them reach their target customers.

Who Does BargeOps Help?

While BargeOps can help just about any business that works on inland waterways, they typically focus on barge companies who transport liquids or dry bulk items. Each BargeOps module is built to enable more efficient communication through an intuitive platform, with offerings including:

• BargeOps Onboard, which enables an automatic exchange of information regarding orders and the movement of barges between shore based dispatch and boats.
• BargeOps Analytics, which generates insights based on data to optimize the revenue from assets, improve efficiency, and lower costs.
• Terminal Management, which automates inventory management of commodities and information about the customer who owns them.

BargeOps was created by talented developers in hopes of offering solutions to simplify internal systems and speed up response times. Companies who use it rave about its ability to keep customers informed, and say that it has helped them achieve their growth strategy.

How WHI Helps BargeOps

“Our site is becoming an engaging place to be…. a destination on the web. There are interesting, informative articles, graphics and demo videos — and all of that injects life into our presence online and into our brand.”

As Strategic Account Manager at BargeOps, Jacqueline Welch strives to create awareness about the benefits of BargeOps to current and potential industry clients. When she started at the company almost two years ago, their website didn’t have a consistent blog. She turned to Words Have Impact last year for help building up their content.

“By filling our site with informative blog posts, we’ve built a reputation as a knowledgeable brand in our network,” said Jacqueline. “We belong to a lot of different organizations across the country, and we want the prospects we meet to feel comfortable utilizing the information on our site—and hopefully reaching out for our expertise. Because there’s a lot of value in what we do.”

Prior to hiring Words Have Impact, BargeOps struggled with brand consistency. Some other agencies didn’t grasp the verbiage of the maritime industry, and Jacqueline spent time she didn’t have editing and completing the work herself. It felt, she said, like she and her team were constantly recreating the wheel.

“It is a very niche industry, and so it does take some time to learn about the barge business,” she said. “But with Words Have Impact, it’s been really quick and easy. You guys are able to take the information and run with it. It just needs minor tweaking, which is exactly how I envision a relationship with a marketing company should be.” 

With effective content and an efficient collaboration process, the messaging for BargeOps, Jacqueline said, feels streamlined. Not only is there quality marketing material on their website, but it’s becoming more consistent across all of their platforms. This includes social media messaging and emails they push out prior to important industry events.

“We pay a lot of money to be a part of these events because they have the biggest reach to our C-level contacts in our target companies,” she said. “Our content sets us apart as leaders instead of just as someone chiming in with an opinion.”

“It is a very niche industry, and so it does take some time to learn about the barge business,” she said. “But with Words Have Impact, it’s been really quick and easy. You guys are able to take the information and run with it. It just needs minor tweaking, which is exactly how I envision a relationship with a marketing company should be.” 

As Chief Operating Officer at BargeOps, one of Dave Costenaro’s current tasks is researching ways to grow the AI side of the business. He’s well aware that artificial intelligence can help with sales and marketing through generating images and even helping to generate copy. But he discussed how AI is more successful with the help of human writing experts.

“Oftentimes, AI makes a good first draft,” he said. “But it needs help to take it to the finish line.” 

Fact-checking and linking to reputable sources is something AI writing tools like ChatGPT can’t do. Along with professionally written copy, WHI does their homework and provides external links that provide barge transport businesses with usable information.  

And while the benefits of BargeOps are fairly easy to spell out in writing, the advantages can’t fully be grasped without seeing the software in action. WHI recently created video demonstrations of the programs and added them to the website, allowing barge transport companies to experience how BargeOps can improve their operations.  

“Our site is becoming an engaging place to be…. a destination on the web,” said David. “There are interesting, informative articles, graphics and demo videos — and all of that injects life into our presence online and into our brand.”