Building Trust and Community: Marketing Lessons from a Logistics Startup's Journey
In logistics tech, where skepticism often meets complexity, trust and authenticity are the real differentiators. A recent conversation with Ava Barnes, VP of Brand and Community at Albus, highlights how a psychology background, startup grit, and a relationship-first mindset helped scale a three-person team into a 150-employee powerhouse.
In a recent episode of the Freight Marketing Gurus podcast, Ava Barnes shared how she helped scale Alvys from a three-person startup to a 150-employee company through psychology-driven marketing and authentic relationship building. Her story highlights how trust, customer-centric messaging, and a scrappy mindset can cut through the noise in logistics tech.
The Psychology Behind B2B Marketing
Barnes brings a unique perspective to marketing with her background in psychology and experience as a university professor teaching mass communication courses to 200+ students. This foundation has proven invaluable in understanding customer motivations and crafting messaging that resonates.
“One of the biggest things psychology teaches you is curiosity about people and how they work,” Barnes explains. “What motivates the type of person that starts a trucking company versus a brokerage? How are they different? And then, how do I connect with them in person and speak to them through copy and messaging?”
This psychological insight extends to team building as well. Using frameworks like Myers-Briggs and DISC profiles, Barnes has learned to hire for complementary temperaments. While she excels at messaging and relationship-building, her team includes analytically-minded marketers who thrive on data and technical implementation—creating a well-rounded marketing organization.
Trust-Building in High-Stakes B2B Sales
In the logistics industry, where a Transportation Management System (TMS) serves as the entire operating system for trucking and logistics companies, trust isn’t optional—it’s fundamental. Barnes learned early that digital marketing alone wouldn’t suffice.
“In logistics, you’ve got to build trust. You have to look people in the eye and shake their hand for them to believe you’re not just full of it,” she notes. This realization led to an aggressive conference strategy, attending 30+ industry events annually during the company’s early growth phase.
The strategy proved prescient. Companies forward-thinking enough to try new software are typically the same ones investing time in industry conferences. By establishing face-to-face relationships, Alvys created a foundation of trust that proved crucial when asking prospects to make the significant leap of changing their entire operational system.
Overcoming the Onboarding Fear Factor
One of Alvys’s biggest challenges wasn’t product-related—it was addressing the fear of onboarding. “One of the largest barriers for us onboarding customers is fear of changing your entire system,” Barnes acknowledges. This insight led to marketing messaging that directly addressed implementation concerns, positioning onboarding ease as a key differentiator.
The company learned to market the onboarding process itself, recognizing that even the best product means nothing if customers are too intimidated to make the switch. This customer-centric approach to messaging demonstrates how understanding buyer psychology can inform entire marketing strategies.
The Power of Customer Language
Barnes emphasizes the critical importance of speaking in customers’ words rather than internal company jargon. “The biggest thing is learning the way that the customer describes it, not the way I would describe it,” she explains. This involves literally using customer quotes in marketing copy and recording customer conversations to capture authentic language.
This approach extends beyond simple terminology. Barnes advocates for simplicity over complexity: “My goal is to connect with every person here. So I’m going to say it as simple as I possibly can. I want you guys to understand this concept.”
However, she notes an important balance: using industry acronyms and terminology demonstrates expertise, while overcomplicating explanations can alienate prospects. The key is speaking the customer’s language while proving industry knowledge.
Building Community as a Marketing Strategy
Barnes’s role title—VP of Brand and Community—reflects a strategic emphasis on community building as a core marketing function. This two-pronged approach focuses on both customer community and industry partnerships.
On the customer side, Alvys launched the “Free People” podcast featuring customers, developed customer advisory boards, and planned their first user conference. “Customers will also be your best marketers,” Barnes notes, emphasizing how Net Promoter Score data helps identify the most enthusiastic advocates.
The partnership side leverages Alvys’s 120+ technology integrations. Each integration represents potential referral partnerships, revenue sharing opportunities, and reseller relationships. “Your entire revenue structure could just be your own partnerships,” Barnes suggests, highlighting the untapped potential in existing business relationships.
Scrappy Startup Mentality
Success in the startup environment requires adaptability and initiative. Barnes looks for team members who “have a lot of scrappiness themselves and a lot of will to figure things out on their own.” This self-directed approach allows rapid scaling without overwhelming management overhead.
The scrappy mentality extends to lead generation tactics. Alvys has successfully implemented B2C-style promotions in the B2B space, including Black Friday discounts and giveaway campaigns. A Traeger grill giveaway for demo participants might sound unconventional for enterprise software, but it works because qualified prospects appreciate the extra incentive to take action.
Balancing Inbound and Outbound Marketing
Alvys has achieved remarkable success with paid inbound marketing, creating what Barnes calls a “tremendous” funnel that can reliably generate qualified pipeline on demand. Combined with strong organic and earned media efforts, inbound marketing drives roughly half their pipeline.
However, Barnes recognizes the need to strengthen outbound capabilities. “We need somebody dedicated team, dedicated to cold calling,” she explains. The current sales team can hit quotas with inbound leads and event-generated prospects, reducing motivation for cold outreach. Building dedicated outbound capacity represents untapped growth potential.
The Future of Marketing: Human Connection in an AI World
Looking ahead, Barnes sees artificial intelligence transforming marketing execution while making human relationships more valuable than ever. As AI handles content creation, social media posting, and data analysis, marketers who can build genuine relationships and establish trust will differentiate themselves.
“I personally feel like the in-person stuff is going to be what sets anything apart, because everybody is going to be leveraging AI and saying the same things,” Barnes predicts. This perspective influences her focus on conference attendance, relationship building, and authentic community development.
Lessons for Marketing Leaders
Barnes’s journey from psychology professor to startup marketing leader offers several key insights:
Hire for temperament, not just skills. Look for self-directed team members who thrive on challenges and can figure things out independently. Use personality assessments to build complementary teams.
Speak in customer language. Record customer conversations, use their exact words in marketing copy, and prioritize clarity over complexity. Industry knowledge matters, but connection matters more.
Build trust before selling. Especially in high-stakes B2B environments, invest in relationship building through events, content, and community initiatives before pushing for demos or sales conversations.
Address the whole customer journey. Don’t just market the product—market the experience, including onboarding, support, and long-term partnership.
Balance art and science. Successful marketing teams need both creative, relationship-focused leaders and analytical, data-driven specialists. Neither alone is sufficient.
Think long-term about community. Customer and partner relationships compound over time. Invest in building authentic communities that provide value beyond immediate sales opportunities.
The logistics industry may be known for being behind the times, but companies like Alvys prove that thoughtful, psychology-informed marketing can drive rapid growth even in traditional sectors.
By focusing on genuine relationship building, customer-centric messaging, and strategic community development, Barnes has helped transform a three-person startup into an industry leader preparing for Series B funding.
In an increasingly automated world, the marketers who succeed will be those who remember that business is ultimately about people connecting with people—and build their strategies accordingly.
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