Editor’s Note: The following is a blog post version of an email that is sent out every Monday morning and republished to the Digital Dispatch later in the week. If you want to be part of the cool kids club and get access to the email early, you can subscribe here. 

Since this is the inaugural version of our newsletter, a dispatch ~if you will~ let’s start with the information that should be front and center.

First, Truck Driver Appreciation Week is less than a month away (also a reminder to get those appreciation gifts ordered). In this email, we’ve highlighted some of the best marketing seen during last year’s 2019 event so you can get your gifts and marketing in line. Which….whew…2019 feels like a lifetime ago. Even if you’re not hiring for drivers, there are a ton of ideas you can use in your employee apprecation plans.

The second biggest thing you need to know is the upcoming Freightwaves Carrier Summit (8/19-8/20). I was bored with virtual events until I attended the first Freightwaves Live at Home event a couple of months back. There were clear strategies initiated to make a virtual event not suck—so if you’re a carrier or service provider in this space—plan on focusing the majority of your attention on the information coming out of these two days.

No worries though—If you can’t attend the free event, be on the lookout for our top takeaways in next week’s email.

good playcalls

This is the part of the email where we share our favorite digital marketing tactics seen across the industry.

For this version, we’re checking back on our Insta saves from 2019 to show off some past examples of Truck Driver Appreciation Week—which runs in 2020 from September 13th-19th. Feel free to use these examples to stir your own ideas for upcoming campaigns:

• Scout Logistics sharing a recipe in a creative supply chain way.
• Prime Trucking hiring a stylist to take care of all your hair concerns plus intimate stories from their drivers. You love to see it.
• Cargo Bot sharing Insta-worthy pit stops for drivers along the road. Bonus points if your driver stops to snap these and take in the fresh air.
• Pilot Flying J using images other than trucks to promote life necessities supplied by drivers all over the country. Keep in mind the majority of your audience probably sees trucks all over their social media feeds–sharing non-truck images can help you stand out. Unless it’s a really cool truck–the it’s ok to bless the timeline.
• Radius Logistics with a good example of their own driver generated content by turning a quote into content.
• Dat Solutions “littles” campaign was a clever, different approach that required some outside of the box thinking and some pre-planning.

The lesson in most of these examples is personalization is key because we connect to human stories. Ask yourself what stories within your company can you tell? Did you or any employees face a difficult challenge in work and/or life and how did they grow from it? Use a notebook to jot those ideas down, including posts for social media, and when you need something to publish, reference your notebook to avoid the panic of “I know I need to post something” dilemma.

Got a favorite social media follow? Send us a link to your fav account and why you like them so we can share it with the world—AKA a moderately-sized email list. 

[worth] scouting report

• Twitter thread from Fast CEO @domm where he asks his audience what’s the best advice for founders–to which they delivered.
• I chatted with PDQ America about football, truckers on TikTok and advice on starting a social media account.
• Another Twitter thread with predictions on how the 2020s are going to be the Remote Work decade.
• I’m sure I could find an argument on how this is trucking and logistics related, but I love it when Bill Belichick gets excited about a football play.
• The Customer is the Hero with Tom Augenthaler on The Logistics of Logistics podcast, hosted by Joe Lynch dives into how many of those with the best brains in this industry are crafting their message to stand out from the rest. Hint: It’s not about us. It’s about the customer.