Our long time accounts Hi-Way 9 Express, Concord and more recently Quik X, all changed ownership. Fortunately our relationship with those carriers didn’t end and we actually made further inroads with sister divisions. Some senior people who left those companies turned to us when they joined new firms or created their own companies. The wheels keep turning…

So what’s the point? Although the industry is shy when it comes to engaging in social media trends, most professionals in the industry use LinkedIn. It’s a great resource to help keep you up to date with the changes that will likely continue to be a common occurrence in the industry. We are about to experiment with some advertising opportunities using this social network. It’s amazing how targeted a campaign you can launch in this and other social media venues.

We are currently managing the social media for a few clients. It’s an opportunity that didn’t exist a few years ago and will probably be one of the things that help us through this now tighter economic climate. On the transportation side, offering a brokerage service to capitalize on the convenience sell with existing customers is probably the most common opportunity that carriers are looking to for increasing their revenues quickly and profitably.

We can count on further consolidation but we should all keep our antennas up for new opportunities. They do exist. We just have to look to the future and ask the question “I’d like to see this happen. What did I have to do to get there?” Then keep going backwards until you come up with your first step and you will have all the steps in between. It’s a simple process that adds clarity when you can’t seem to get there from here.

Lee’s Quote for the Day

“If you think you finally have everything figured out, you’re more likely a fool than a genius.” 

Typically, a sales and marketing VP has their hands full managing reps and their share of major accounts. They may have a flair for marketing but probably very little training on the subject. The biggest synergy between sales and marketing disciplines are they both have to tell a compelling story and communicate the unique reasons why their product or service is the better choice for prospective buyers. Maybe that’s why they have been lumped together in the B2B transport sector, while they are very much separate functions in consumer products.

My experience with the owners and presidents of transportation companies is that very few are marketers. I would say they are typically deal makers, know their numbers, great at attracting the right people to their team, and workaholics by either necessity or nature. In my 23 year career, I would say the original owner of Concord, and the folks heading up Challenger and MSM have been the biggest believers in using marketing to grow their business.

Sometimes it can be a little thing that gets you noticed. A good example is when CN recently adopted the paint scheme from their train engines to their highway tractors… simply brilliant!

We find many companies think about it, want to do it but the reactive nature of the business keeps them from taking the steps necessary to make it happen. Other things take priority and the marketing that’s required is put on hold waiting for a better time to address it.

Here’s the deal. The time to address it is now. We’ve seen a dramatic change in the last year and a half with the ROI on web marketing. The transportation industry is behind. Especially in web marketing. The primary focus is on existing customer shipment visibility. That myopic view is limiting opportunities. It doesn’t cost that much to take greater advantage of the power of the web across these additional 4 areas:

• Cross sell services to existing accounts not using your full menu of services-the easiest way to grow your business
• Utilize search engine optimization techniques to create awareness to those buyers looking for a service that you provide, who are not currently aware of your company
• Advertise your unique message to potential drivers, sales people and other positions within your company-positions that are getting harder and harder to fill with good candidates
• Make a favourable impression with potential partner carriers and companies considering your company as part of a RFP for your services

Lee’s Quote for the Day!

“If you wait for the perfect time to take action, the only action you will take is waiting for the perfect time” 

Let’s face it; freight brokers still have a bad rap. Maybe it’s jealousy because the broker doesn’t have to  make the heavy investment into their business that carriers do. Maybe it’s presumed or documented unethical behaviour. Either way, most freight brokers don’t want to be called freight brokers and many carriers would like to see them wiped off the face of the planet. Why? They have been successful in capturing freight that used to belong directly to carriers at a higher rate. Brokers can provide a lower rate and they are a contributing factor to the erosion of freight rates for the carriers.

We did a website for a small broker a couple of years back. He was happy with the results and referred us to one of his flatbed carriers in the region. When we met with that well established carrier, he was extremely frustrated. “How is it I keep losing out to a freight broker? He gets the freight and then I move it. I don’t understand.” I didn’t understand either, so I spoke to the broker in question. My assessment, after a brief discussion, was that the broker in this case, was a more confident sales person and he offered the customer a choice between several carriers, at several price points. Customers like choice.

It’s a funny world. There are many carriers that fill their trucks with broker freight. Brokers are their sales force and these carriers have very few relationships with customers directly. There are carriers that successfully outsource key lane segments to other carriers, like the corridor between Windsor and Quebec City or Ontario to Atlantic Canada, without a hitch. The message I get from that, is the shipper is mostly concerned about getting the job done, not how it gets done.

Lee’s quote for the day

“In the music business, there is a saying that the side men all want to be front men and the front men all want to go home. In the trucking business, it seems most carriers want to play in the “freight pimp” world and most “freight pimps” have the dream of building up key lanes so they can put on their own equipment. Whoever orders their new Cadillac first, is the winner!” 

“Okay, so much for sending out that blanket increase of 4.5%” was the reaction of the carriers in the audience that day. Rate increase? Forget about it, was the look I read on the faces of the carriers represented in the room that day. A stronger move to rail and a shift to more local distribution hubs were also in the forecast for some. Man, how tough is it going to be for truckers to make a dollar going forward?

It is a tough life for trucking companies and their drivers. It’s not uncommon for a company’s driver force to totally turnover in the course of one year, especially in the U.S. What’s going to happen? That’s a billion dollar question. Some innovative thinking that increases driver income, reduces time away from home, gives drivers more respect and promotes a healthier life style were all topics discussed at the conference.

Other comments made like “uncover any rock” seemed to be a shared sentiment on both the carrier and shipper side. There is nothing holy, nothing that can’t be looked at with a fresh viewpoint and possibly changed for the better.

This economy is forcing us all to get smarter and in a hurry. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Maybe it’s what we should have been doing all along.

Lee’s Quote for the Day

“I always get uncomfortable when things are too perfect.  I try for a few perfect things and let a couple of things fall purposely short. That keeps any real bad stuff from coming my way.”

There are two ways which you can view Google Analytics data, through the browser and via pre-defined and scheduled e-mail reports.  Although you can customize the type of reports you receive from Google Analytics, the most commonly received report is the default dashboard report which presents a good set of key website performance metrics. The dashboard report consists of several categories, which are defined by several key metrics.

We’ll take a look at each of these categories and metrics in detail, and I’ll show you how they should be interpreted within your transportation related site. Typically most dashboards reports cover the past month, so just keep that in mind if you’re viewing the PDF report.

Traffic Sources Overview – The Four Ways Visitors Get To Your Website

There are four key traffic sources for any website. Direct Traffic, Referring Sites, Search Engines and Other.

Direct Traffic refers to visitors who type in your website address directly into their browser. These visitors either have your site bookmarked, know your website address, or reference some promotional material where your website address is printed, such as an ad, a business card or some other advertising piece.

Traffic from Referring Sites is the amount of traffic you receive from other sites that carry a link to your company. It could be a transportation partner, an association that you’re a member of, or a general internet directory.

Other Traffic comes from custom defined sources. You can track your various marketing campaigns (e-mail newsletters, outlook signatures, etc) using Google Analytics, but that’s beyond the scope of this article, and we’ll take a look at that in another one.

The Top Traffic Sources subcategory shows the source of where your website traffic is coming from. Here you will see search engines like Google, or Yahoo, or a list of those Referring Sites that we’ve talked about.

The Keywords subcategory will show you the top 5 keywords or keyword phrases that are used to get to your website through a search engine. In most cases it will be your company name, as a good percentage of visitors will type in your company name into Google when looking for you. If your website is Search Engine Optimized (SEO), phrases related to your business will show up here. So for example, if your site is search engine optimized for “Canada LTL”, or “Toronto Montreal Truckload” these terms will show in this category. Keep in mind, that on the dashboard report you only see the top 5 keywords, and you will have to login into the Google Analytics service in order to view more.

Visitors Overview  - What Kind Of Visitors, and How Are They Viewing Your Website

The visitors overview page, is the third page of your dashboard overview. The first metric that you will see is the Visits metric, which will tell you the amount of visits your website has received over a specified period. Any time someone visits your website, they are counted in this metric.

The Absolute Unique Visitor metric, is the amount of “unique” visitors your website has received. It is a bit more difficult to understand. A unique visitor is someone that is visiting your website for the very first time. If they have visited your website in the past within the specified time period, they are still only counted once. You can have  multiple visits, from one absolute unique visitor. This metric is a true representation on the number of actual individuals that have visited your website.

The Pageviews metric shows how many pages were viewed on your site. If your website has just a single page, and you had 100 visitors to your site, more than likely you will have received 100 pageviews. Simple math. So the pageviews metric factors in how many pages your website has. If you have a very large site, and a large number of visitors, the amount of pageviews that you will receive is very high.

The amount of Average Pageviews shows on average how many pages a visitor has looked when visiting your website. The higher the number, the better. A higher number typically indicates a higher quality of visit. In an ideal world, a visitor will land on your homepage, go to your services pages, and then visit the contact page. You’ve just landed a potential customer, and best of all, you can track this with Google Analytics.

The Time on Site metric shows the average number of minutes or seconds that the average visitor has spent on your site. Again, a higher number will usually indicate that the visitor is interested in your website and has spent a good time browsing around the various pages.

The Bounce Rate shows how many times a visitor has left immediately after visiting the first page that they’ve landed on. While this is an important metric, it is more important to look at the bounce rate when viewing the New Visits metric.  The reason behind this, is that the bounce rate on the dashboard report factors in New and Returning visitors. A Returning Visitor for example may just be visiting in order to trace a shipment, so the bounce rate for returning visitors will higher than new visitors. New visitors to your site will have a lower bounce rate. They will be interested in the services you offer, and will look around other pages of your website. The New Visitor/Bounce Rate report is not available within the default dashboard, and you will have to login or get a report setup in order to view these stats. Contact us on how you can do this (link to contact page).

The last metric shows the percentage of New Visitors. New visitors are people who are visiting your website for the first time. If you further dig down in this metric, you can figure out how your new visitors are reaching you – if they’re coming to your website directly or if they are searching for a specific keyword or term on Google and reaching you via a search engine.

Technical Profile – Browser and Connection Speed Data

The Technical profile section shows the technical aspect of the visit, such as browser and connection speed. This data is important to know if your website has some features which may be incompatible with a particular browser.

The connection speed shows what type of connection your visitor is using. In most urban centers DSL, Cable and other high speed connections will be most common. However, if your transportation company is primarily servicing a rural area where high speed connections are not prevalent, you will see a larger number of dial up connections. In this case, it is important to optimize your website so that it loads as quickly as possible for customers with slow connections.

Map Overlay – Where Are Your Visitors Coming From?

The map overlay is the last section of the report and shows you where your visitors are coming from. The PDF dashboard report will just show you the country of origin. You will want to login into your Google Analytics account and view the information in detail by clicking the specific country that you wish to gain information on. This will give you a further break down by region and city.

In Summary

Google Analytics is a very powerful tool, and can be customized to an endless extent. If you have Google Analytics running on your site, that’s good news, because you’re already capturing all that key visitor data. If you don’t have Google Analytics, or simply wish to set more reports up to be e-mailed to you, contact us, and we’ll set you up.

Does anybody know where this economy is going? Not really. But one thing is for sure… in the next few years marketing is going to play a bigger role in growing your business then ever before. We’ve seen it happen for us and our clients in the last half of 2010. Business opportunities are increasing through well developed websites that incorporate the latest SEO techniques. By developing a message that really cuts to the chase about who you are and what you do, more potential customers are finding you…instead of you having to pound the pavement to find them.

Today, you can accurately measure the results of your marketing through increased rankings on search engines. By benchmarking your current web activity through implementation of Google Analytics you can receive easy to understand reports that measure your progress and increased exposure through the web.

I would encourage you to look at what’s happening in the marketplace. Is the image presented by your competition making you look “old school” by comparison. Are you communicating a message that rings true with who you are today? Are your service strengths clear and pronounced?

For less than the price of a single trailer, you can create the foundation of a comprehensive marketing program. Whoever your vendor is in this area, set up a meeting and get the ball rolling. It takes 3-6 months to start seeing a return on this kind of investment. The sooner you sew the sooner you’ll reap!

Lee’s quote for the day

“At some point running an older truck down the road gets more expensive then buying a new one. The same thing goes with your marketing. At some point, not investing in proper marketing will cost you more than the marketing expense you’re trying to avoid.”

Regardless of the reason we enjoy the 3M’s, here are a few things to keep straight as we continue these activities into our senior years.

• Music. If your plucking your G string make sure it’s attached to your guitar.
• Motorcycles. Although wearing leather chaps promotes safe cruising on the highway, prepare for different reactions if you mistakenly wear them to the boardroom or the bedroom.
• Marketing. If you don’t understand how you are different from your competition, neither will your customers.

Lee’s Quote for the day. “You need to blend out, not in, to get noticed. This applies equally to your marketing, your music and your motorcycles.”

#1. You typically have to win customers over one service at a time. Even though an integrated approach is the end goal for the diversified model, if you don’t establish the necessary rapport and trust first… the big sell is a hard sell.

# 2. By casting too wide a net with your marketing you run the risk of not catching anyone’s interest. If you can’t back up a statement with tangible evidence of expertise, your entire message can get grouped together as being unbelievable.

# 3. You don’t want customers confused about what your service offerings are and you also don’t want to hear the words “I didn’t know you did that” by failing to create the awareness of your full service offering. If you can, lead with your best service first and remember “It’s the steady rain that soaks.”

# 4. As a general rule, we find transportation providers have a core strength(s), a secondary focus and what we would typically call a value added or convenience sell. It’s important to weight these accordingly in your marketing so customers understand fully who you are as a company.

# 5. Most successful diversification is through a dedicated model, something that has been developed for a single customer with very specific needs. It won’t typically role out to your general customer demographic…so don’t market it that way.

# 6. Decide who you are. Are you better suited as a handyman that does a host of things pretty well? Or is what you do a craft, with a more select target that’s tough for others to duplicate. Both have value. You need to make sure there is alignment between your skill set and your targeted market.

# 7. Markets change. Regardless of your business model, if what used to be the volume of your activity is shrinking, maybe it’s time to bring one of those secondary services front and center. As an example, what represents 50% of our market strength today (websites and branding) was only 5-10 % of our mix 4 years ago.

# 8. From listening to recent shipper panels, they want stability, service commitments, information exchange and relationships. It won’t be just about price going forward… they know the landscape is changing and that shrinking capacity is on the horizon.

# 9. Reset your thinking soon, as no one can beat you down any further on price. The value, innovation and focus you have going forward will dramatically shape your road to recovery…proceed with caution, and confidence!

Lee’s quote for the day:
“Truckers are like elephants. They work hard and have long memories. The shippers who forced their hand too heavily during the recession may soon be viewed like a male porn star after a very cold shower…small, unimpressive and no longer carrying a big stick!”

I value old sayings like “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” and “Necessity is the mother of invention”. The immediacy of shrinking business revenues forces us to take the actions necessary to get our business back on track. And for the majority, it’s been a dramatic transition from where we were just a short time ago.

From my experience and listening to the views of other business owners and managers, there are 10 basic fundamentals that most agree on.

1. If you don’t love what you do develop an immediate plan to get out, however painful.
2. If you used to love what you do but are in a “recessional funk”, do a reboot and reenergize with a clear vision and action plan complete with time lines and task champions.
3. Communicate your concise vision to your entire team and for those who don’t get it in a timely manner, politely suggest a new and exciting career path for them …outside your organization.
4. Address every hurdle keeping you from achieving your goals and take action, take action, take action!
5. Treat your people, customers and suppliers like they matter most.
6. Fine tune your menu of services through the “good to great” criteria. What are you passionate about? What are you best at? What gives you the best economic return? You need all three firmly in place for the best results.
7. If you are a generalist, fully understand this “convenience sell” from a customer perspective and make sure you have conquerable levels of quality across your diversified service mix. Good execution of one can win you another. Poor execution of one can cost you everything.
8. If you are a specialist, make sure your niche offering is still relevant. Sometimes a recession causes a slowdown that a recovering economy corrects and sometimes there is a permanent swing that doesn’t swing back.
9. There are many new ways to reach your existing and future customers. Experiment and assess what works best for you.
10. Make sure your product is solid, your message is compelling and you assign the proper resources to deliver it to your market with clarity, consistency and confidence.

Lee’s Quote for the day:
“If you always start with your toughest task first, the rest of your day can’t help but get easier”