John Thomas on Freight Brokering

How Sharp Are Your Marketing Skills?

I witnessed one of the best marketing efforts just this past July that I will never forget. This really blew my mind.

We are driving in Chihuahua City on our way to Puerto Vallarte. We are driving on a 4-lane highway but it's not real busy. All of a sudden as I turned a curve, I see about 6 orange-colored cones set up in the middle of the road. You know, the type that construction workers use.

Then, behind the cones we saw someone and as we got closer, we saw it was a man in a wheel chair! He had a hat ready to take donations as everyone was slowing down because of the orange cones. We almost died laughing and I thought, I need this guy to be my marketing manager. It was a brilliant move.

"Creative marketing" is probably one of the most important items that will propel your business.

1. you first want to attract attention (the orange cones),
2. you want to make it easy for your potential customer to engage you (getting them to slow down after they spot the orange cones), and
3. you want to make it easy for the customer to give you their money (the hat ready to collect donations).

Maybe it's not this simple - but maybe it is.

As you broker freight, you might think about these three principles. You will want to make various efforts at marketing your services. Then, monitor what works and develop it fully.

Freight Brokers: Do You Need a Website?

It's common knowledge how the Internet has taken hold and websites are the main vehicles. More and more it's getting that many businesses would cease to exist without a website.

So the question I get asked often times is, "Do I need to create a website for my freight broker business". The answer, in my opinion, is "No, you don't HAVE to create a website". Now having said that - if you have someone who can create one for you rather inexpensively, it may help and it certainly won't hurt.

Some freight brokers have private web pages that only their customers or associates can enter. For example, you can set up certain web pages where shippers can enter and find out the status of their loads while in transit.

Personally, I think the old-fashioned telephone is the best tool for freight brokers. This opinion may change in time but for now, if you have a website, don't neglect your basic telephone and keep in contact with both shippers and carriers.

One of my recent clients just finished her website after freight broker training. She made it herself and she should be very proud. It looks great! Check it out. The address is: http://bicfreightlogistics.com/

Why not send her a note and let her know of your visit. Her name is Joyce from Phoenix.

Where Do You Go to Find Customers?

Freight brokering is no different from any other business. You HAVE to go out and find customers. They are the lifeblood of your business and the basis for your future success.

The "brick and mortar" store fronts (retail) usually use newspaper ads, yellow pages, radio and TV, and they send out flyers and run specials to attract new and existing customers. Some of these techniques might work for a freight broker business. But I doubt they will be the backbone of the freight broker business.

Internet-based businesses such as mine, have to rely upon websites, email, videos and the like. These as well may not work well for freight brokers. These techniques won't hurt - but they won't be the entire solution.

So what does a freight broker do to get customers?

There are traditional shipper directories as resources for potential customers and then there are shipper websites. There are personal visits that can be made as well. These SHOULD be used - but, is there more?

Yes there is. We emphasize creating unique keywords to do internet searches where, most likely, you will uncover shippers who are not being called by every other freight broker in the industry. We go into this technique extensively in our training.

If you are going where everyone else is going - you don't have a competitive edge. You NEED to have a competitive edge.

If you have not read our short article on Building Your Business, go here now:
Building Your Business.

You will find several more ideas in this article.

Freight Broker Marketing: Here Is Some Solid Content

What is the worst that could happen to you if you took freight broker training from just "anyone"? Probably number one: receiving a lot of useless information.

Running a freight broker business is about marketing and about using some good tools to help set goals and to monitor and determine your progress.

Here are a couple of video presentations that I think will be helpful. Feel free to leave a comment on one or both.

Video One: How to Find Shippers Using Keyword Searches - 4 mins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HoB_emNLCI&feature=related

Video Two: How to Evaluate Shippers Based Upon What's Important to YOU - 8 mins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEsxkklITZw&feature=related

I hope you will find these helpful.

Freight Brokering: Finding Customers

I recently sent out a survey asking, "Do you have one particular question". Some said, NO and many had questions. I'll try to address some of them here on the blog.

Freight Broker Marketing: Here's a Gem

I get many calls from all sorts and types of individuals. Many of them have an interest in how to market themselves to customers. Some of my callers are currently mortgage or stock brokers making, I'm guessing, between $75K-$150K per year.  Some of my callers are currently driving trucks with 20+ years' experience on the road. But do you know what your customers will be looking for?

Freight Broker Business & Websites

There are a few beginning freight brokers who prepare websites for their business. However, it is not a priority. While websites have their usefulness, there are other methods to market your services.