Conrad Winter Copywriter

The Transportation Marketing & Sales Association (TMSA) annual conference just unofficially kicked off in Florida tonight. Media biggies, JOC, SupplyChainBrain, Supply Chain Dive and AGILE are all in attendance. Editors from each will be panelizing tomorrow. 

This is my second year and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to learn more about the transportation and logistics industry and the challenges marketers in this space have—especially regarding content and copywriting. This year’s theme is customer experience (CX).

It’s an important topic. Last year’s keynote speaker Jeff Davis touched on it. This year’s conference promises to explode it. 

During last night’s speed networking and welcome reception, I spoke to TMSA’s new CMO and COO, Don Friddell about this year’s CX-focus. He emphasized the inseparableness of CX from business success today—and stressed that regardless of the data supporting this, there are still a lot of business leaders who have yet to be convinced. By the looks of the agenda, TMSA aims to change that. 

The speed networking was a good time. Andrew Gulovsen, Director of Sales for Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), kept it lively with his humor and bullhorn. 

Met some very interesting people (too many to mention here) and got to see familiar faces from last year’s conference. 

I networked with Carleen Herndon from Women in Trucking. This is a unique organization that I’m told has over 800 members at present, hosts a growing conference and even has it’s own doll, “Clare the Truck Driver Doll”available on Amazon no less. 

I talked to Denny Grim of SoundBusinessNetwork who was content marketing and podcasting before the two even existed. He once produced a transportation-related audio magazine which was distributed by audio cassette to a select C-level audience back in the 80s. 

I also had the chance to ask marketers their biggest challenges. I heard the same sentiment on a number of occasions: it’s a big challenge feeding the content machine with quality posts, white papers etc. 

That’s sort of my theme this year: “I help keep your quality content moving.” Speaking of this year, this conference I boothed up. That’s right. If you’re at the event, please stop by. While you’re there, you can pick up one of my limited edition “Keep your content moving” post cards that entitles you to 20% off your first project.

No one wants to do business with a computer, or have a relationship with a robot. It’s creepy. 

That’s why it’s important to keep your web copy, content, case studies and email communications personal. 

That’s not an easy task as companies become more digital and virtual. Nevertheless, making your writing personal is my number one tip for providing great customer experience (CX) through words. In doing so, you appeal to the emotional side of prospects, and that’s what creates a customer experience that builds strong bonds to your brand. 

Getting personal means thinking of your readers as people.

When writing for the customer’s experience, the most important things to keep in mind are their needs, problems and concerns. Provide a positive experience by being completely focused on their realities. Here are four ways:

• Write for humans, not for robots—No one ever read a post and exclaimed: “I love the SEO of this piece, it’s so good!”
• Rant for a reason. Yes, railing against fuel prices or unfair public policies can be attention-getting. But it’s better to give readers advice or information they can use like I did in this post for Trimble Transportation (formerly TMW Systems) about a recent court ruling affecting California’s motor carriers. 
• Use your superpowers of cleverness for good—i.e. not just to impress me.
• Keep it fresh. Don’t insult your readers by regurgitating old posts or your boilerplate copy.

So what does “getting personal” mean in practical terms?

It means letting your drivers, dispatchers or software developers author blog posts. It means fearlessly telling your founding story of how your company grew from one milkman to a fleet of truck drivers. It means boldly telling about your company’s quirky location—or that you’re a virtual company without a headquarters. 

People make up the heart and soul of your brand and your company. It stands to reason that prospects what to know those people. 

There are real humans behind your business, no matter how virtual you are. Letting people know who you are does lots of good things:

1. Builds trust—I mean, don’t you trust people more than machines? (Remember Hal from 2001 Space Odyssey?)
2. Differentiates you—the product is the way it is because of the people who made it. How they are, their ethics, their passions and all the rest say everything about the product.
3. Compels prospects to treat you humanely—people don’t treat faceless companies the same as humans. Need proof? When’s the last time you thanked Siri or Alexa? 

CX is PX…Personal Experience.

Being personal means being friendly. Professional, yes. But friendly too. It’s possible to be both. How many people do you know who you can count with your life and who are actually nice, too? See? Keeping a conversational tone in your writing accomplishes that. 

Who doesn’t love a conversational CX?

Writing conversationally often involves letting your company’s guard down. That’s what we do when we converse with people we know. We speak easily. That’s what people like. They also like to be charmed and entertained—never simply sold at. So be a good friend and tell your prospects a story about a challenging load you hauled and the details of how you delivered like heavy-haulers, Bennett IG did in this post I wrote for them. In short – indulge your readers. 

People don’t read anymore, but they do experience.

Writing for CX can be hard when everyone on your team is pontificating about the economy of words and how no one reads or has any time anymore. To those who believe this, I have this message: people will read as much as you can write, as long as it’s entertaining or interesting or both. Storytelling is not fluff; It’s the stuff prospects and customers remember the best – because it’s the part they like the most.

Writing readable, enjoyable, useful copy is a big part of providing great CX today. What sort of experience are you providing your customers?