• It’s National Driver Appreciation Week. Hopefully, you took our advice a few weeks back about ordering those gifts in time. But if not, there are other ways to show your love for drivers; which we talked about in this video.
• We’re launching Freight School Playbook on Tuesday 9/15. *cue the fireworks* It’s the industry’s first online marketing and sales training hub that helps you handle your website/marketing in-house, create content (think: blogs, social media, podcasting, etc…) to attract leads, save time with templates/workflows, and make smarter decisions on where you spend your digital dollars. Hellooooo budgeting season.
• Learn more about this + more strategies in our *FREE* Freight Marketing Mistakes webinar. Also submit your questions about where you’re getting stuck, marketing-wise, and we’ll answer live during the webinar.
• Oh yeah and a little thing called the NFL kicked off over the weekend and we’ve never been so happy to see bad football opinions in our social media feeds again.

good playcalls

In-house content creation by freight companies has exploded over the last 8-months but which companies are doing it right? Here are two that we’re a big fan of which you can use for inspiration:

PDQ America

• Not only does PDQ America have one of the best Instagram accounts where they show interesting and BTS images into their company but their Trucking for Millenials podcast is also one of the best I’ve listened to out of all logistics podcasts. They recently debuted a new studio look and added a video component to all shows–which if you know where I stand in content marketing, it’s that video should be your FIRST priority.
• Another cool tidbit is located on their website–they’re prioritizing email signups as well as load board updates via SMS text messaging. Outside of your website, these are the only content distribution platforms you own and fully control but SMS open rates are close to 90%–drastically higher than any other medium.

Aborn & Co

• The company itself has been around for years with an exceptional content game that seems to get better with every post. Whether it’s an industry-leading Consulting Logistics podcast hosted by marketing vet Kyle MacNaught who utilizes the insight power of his coworkers to whiteboard sessions led by the company president Jill Clifford–Aborn leads the charge when it comes to in-house content marketing.

[worth] scouting report

• Some of the top marketers on Twitter expressed their favorite tips to get noticed on Linkedin. Hint: once you actually follow relevant folks in your industry, the feed gets waaaaaaay better.
• It’s not just about lonely JCPenney’s. But taking over unused space in struggling malls and retail locations could be the move as e-commerce continues to explode.
• Are you building out future marketing or advertising campaigns for the busy holiday season? Big data marketer Phillip Stutts shared the latest consumer data and what it says about your customers. TLDR: You need to change your messaging STAT.
• I’m a fan of using data to make better business decisions and based on the latest research from the Freightwaves team. Especially when that data has real-world implications such as 3PLs freeing up their team from making 100 phone calls in a day.
• Sports may be playthings for the wealthy–but of America’s 400 richest people, 42 of them own a professional sports team.
• Nikola had one interesting week—to say the least. Not only did they announce a new partnership with GM but they’re being accused of using years of lies to build a $20-billion dollar enterprise.
• Let’s end this on an adorable note–check out this video of two small children excitedly greeting their trucker dad as he pulls in home. Part 2 and 3 if you wanna see the rest.