Tow Professional Podcast
The Road Ahead: Darian Weaver's Strategies for Towing Industry Branding
Ever wondered how the marketing landscape of the towing industry is evolving? Or how can you effectively brand your business for digital and social media platforms? Join us in this enlightening conversation with highly experienced publisher, Darian Weaver. Drawing on his extensive 30 years of industry wisdom, Darian reveals the seismic changes happening in the towing marketing world. He emphasizes the crucial need for businesses to embrace digital and social media platforms and shares innovative solutions like an annual fiscal calendar of top industry leaders and smart branding techniques.
We also delve into the world of podcasting, discussing its rising significance as a powerful tool to connect with industry's key owners and riders. We also touch upon the growth and reach of our own digital and print platforms over the last 12 years.
The third segment of our conversation dwells on the adaptive changes that the publishing process has undergone under Darian's astute leadership. From enhancing digital presence to targeting the influential 25 to 45 age group on social media, Darian sheds light on the strategic shifts undertaken. We express our gratitude towards the hardworking first responders, sending out special prayers for their protection. Join us on this insightful journey, and let's connect through our podcast, website, and at upcoming shows.
Ever wondered how the marketing landscape of the towing industry is evolving? Or how can you effectively brand your business for digital and social media platforms? Join us in this enlightening conversation with highly experienced publisher, Darian Weaver. Drawing on his extensive 30 years of industry wisdom, Darian reveals the seismic changes happening in the towing marketing world. He emphasizes the crucial need for businesses to embrace digital and social media platforms and shares innovative solutions like an annual fiscal calendar of top industry leaders and smart branding techniques.
We also delve into the world of podcasting, discussing its rising significance as a powerful tool to connect with industry's key owners and riders. We also touch upon the growth and reach of our own digital and print platforms over the last 12 years.
The third segment of our conversation dwells on the adaptive changes that the publishing process has undergone under Darian's astute leadership. From enhancing digital presence to targeting the influential 25 to 45 age group on social media, Darian sheds light on the strategic shifts undertaken. We express our gratitude towards the hardworking first responders, sending out special prayers for their protection. Join us on this insightful journey, and let's connect through our podcast, website, and at upcoming shows.
Welcome one and all to the Toe Professional Podcast. This is your podcast. It's for the pros that have a need to know, that are on the go. This is truly the voice of the towing industry. I'm DJ Harrington, your co-host, better known as the Toe Doctor, and it's my pleasure to have the president and publisher of Toe Professional magazine, a dear friend of mine and a great doctor of the industry, darren Weaver. Darren, how are you this beautiful day, dan?
Speaker 2:DJ, I am fantastic. As always, I woke up, it's a beautiful day 28 degrees. So I guess I complained enough about it being the devil's armpit down in Alabama to get the cold weather. But let me tell you, my friend, we had to kind of weather this morning and make your dog shit wag his whole body. It was cold. I'm having a great day and enjoying it and happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Well, let me tell you, I want to tell all of our listeners this is a special edition because I am going to interview the main man himself and we're going to talk about things that are going on in the marketplace. Here's the first question I know our listeners want to know about. There's been a lot of changes in the landscape of marking over the last five years. You and I both know that. What has your insight from the 30 years of publishing shown you up to that?
Speaker 2:You started out throwing the heat right off the bat. That's a good one. I'll tell you, that's a great question. When you look at the plane, plaint has been dominant for so many years. But when you look at the onset of social media, you look at the push of AI, the push of our electric cars, everything else that has made major changes, plaint has to make a change as well.
Speaker 2:One of the biggest things that you have to concern yourself with as a publisher is not falling in love with your product, being passionate enough about it, but being more in love with the results for the client and for our customers' needs. I think to me, sometimes somebody is in love with their product. They don't want to make any changes. They're afraid of that.
Speaker 2:My biggest thing was I've had customers asking me over and over again how do we reach more in the social and digital side of the market? We know we can see measured results there. How do we do this? That's the biggest thing I've seen is the shift, dj, from being just strictly pliant to companies needing to step down, do more on the social side, do more on a digital, interactive side so they can attach their videos to it, and it's giving them a mix of clients. It's giving them a mix of owners that they're hitting, but it's also giving them a mix of people that are key influence makers that they're getting in front of that can also direct that decision. So I think that's one of the biggest changes we've seen in the last five years.
Speaker 1:Alright, now, before I ask the second question, what I want to ask, just for clarification you've been in publishing 30 years. How many years have you been doing co-professional magazine?
Speaker 2:DJ, I'm glad you brought that up when we first came out. We've been out 13 years now. When we first started we were every two months. After that, after the first year, we went to every six weeks and so that gives somebody a tremendous amount of coverage in the market. It keeps them out there for image branding and it's really been effective.
Speaker 2:And the key to it was we took our database and decided to go away from the traditional which is forming subscriptions, letting people buy a subscription to the publication and smelling to that person. We went to a paid for mailing list of somebody that I've had a relationship with for the last 17 years before this publication inside the industry and we got the data that's when the person that purchased that vehicle goes to registered at the DMV. We capture those records. We put against done in Bradstreet records to assure a number of employees, company size, fleet size, annual income. And that way it's a targeted approach. It's sort of a shotgun approach, it's more of a rifle approach to hit the most active decision makers in the industry, the ones that sign the checks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that makes sense because I watch you when we go to shows and we're belly to belly with some of our own customers. I've listened to you explain this to your customer, so here's one of them that I want to ask. What are some of the customers asking for when it comes to marketing solutions in today's market?
Speaker 2:Well, I tell you, three years ago, dj, when we were hit, when COVID hit so hard, we had customers that were just looking for a solution. Hey, there's not a lot of people out, there's not a lot of products being purchased. How do we stay in front of them? How do we keep this branding going and keep our image out there so when they need us, they know that we're still helping, we're still here to serve them? Well, we came up with an annual fiscal calendar that falls right in the fiscal business year. It put 12 clients on there, so each one of them had a month devoted to them, with their image on it, their products, and these were all just top leaders in the industry that are on the calendar. So they were hanging in a decision-makers office for 30 days, branding their image and their products and reminding folks that they were there and they were helping and ready to serve them. That's one of the programs that we did.
Speaker 2:The other thing that customers are asking about when it comes to marketing is how do we get more reach in Facebook? How do we get more reach on the digital side? Because we want to be able to see measured results from that side. The biggest concern there today is you have to do a lot more branding to put the same image out that you do with print, where print takes about four times to get that image across and brand it with. The digital side takes about 20 because it's so fleeting and it's there and then it's gone.
Speaker 2:So we've stepped up to meet those needs for the client and to help them cross over with that and be able to meet it, and we've done that through our digital publication, or quarterly Q1, q2, q3 and Q4 that they're named was a quarterly publication and the whole purpose of this was to give our clients a very cost effective way to reach this social and digital market. It's pushed out on Facebook. The publication is their ads are able to link videos to them that pop up that the clients can take a look at. We get data on those and test it. Over the last two years we did over 150,000 impressions with over a five minute read time. So that gave us the data to show that if we step forward into this digital market, we can do exactly what we promised for the client, which is deliver, and that's my biggest concern and biggest passion.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. All right, let's take a fast break, folks, and you listeners, when we come back, we're going to just do that fact how do we embrace this digital age? And we'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:You have been listening to a professional on the go podcast. Each and every week we bring you informative episodes. Make sure you download and listen. We're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, google Play, stitcher, iheart Media, amazon or wherever you get your podcast Now. Just before the break, darren and I were talking and what I want to ask Darren what has co-professor done to embrace this digital age you're talking about and social media needs of our clients?
Speaker 2:I'm glad you asked that DJ up. I tell you, the first thing we did like we were just talking about was we created the quarterly digital to be able to measure the industry and to make sure that we could deliver on what we were talking about when we talk to a client. Again, that's my, my biggest concern. Second off, we stepped me and you both stepped into this industry when I heard others say, well, never do a podcast, that stuff's crazy. Me and you stepped forward because you knew the value of it in the industry. You knew that again, you're you're one of those that brushed off onto me and and showed me hey, you gotta love the client more than you love your product. You gotta be willing to change it to meet their needs. And we embraced it with a podcast. And that's reached one of the largest markets in industry when it comes to podcasts. It's given the vendors a way to not only image and brand their products, but simply a platform to come on here and talk about them and just inform potential buyers of the the features on them, but, better yet, what's most important, the benefits to them as an owner or a key person that's helping specify that equipment. You know a lot of times, just like they say the. You know, we were talking about it the other day when you said the construction industry a lot of times they want to ask the owner what's the piece of equipment you need, and a lot of times, the owner to say, hey, my tail doesn't sit in that seat for 12 hours a day or eight hours a day. We've got to ask that guy that's going to sit in it what his needs are. So this is a way with a podcast, with a publication, we were able to reach directly the owners and check riders of industry. With a podcast and our digital work, we're able to reach the folks that we've seen 76.6 of them are 25 to 45, 10% of those being women and 66.6% of those being men. So that's your, your family members, coming up through the company that are going to take ownership in the future. That's your key employees that are saying, hey, boss, this is what we need to get the job done and get it done safely. So it gives us that reach inside the industry and I think with that, dj, I might have answered our next question there on what the podcast does and the embrace the market.
Speaker 2:But let me go back and talk about this a little further. When we did the publication, my biggest concern was is keeping a product that's a value for everybody. I know these vendors have other places that they spend their marketing money and that is fine and that's a smart decision to spread it out to get the best results possible. But with Toe Professional, I'm proud that one thing I haven't done in 12 years going on 13 of business is I've never raised the rates the way card rates that are on the media kit from 2011.
Speaker 2:When I first started the publication and put that out for the same rates as of today, so the last three years with COVID going on with everything, I took this elephant of getting a email list compiled that was larger than my 11,000 and eight at one piece of time so I would not have to pass that on to my customers that have become friends in the industry. And by doing that, what Toe Professional has done is we have added 22,000 names to the 11,000 we have. So as of the first of your next year, we'll not only target with the printed publication but we'll also target with a digital side, targeting 32,000 double opted in owners that have asked to have this publication in front of. And with that I think we'll have the most effective not only digital publication on the side, but print publication in the industry, as we have had this past year.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to tell our listeners, darren, I am privileged to hang out with you at these conferences and I remember at the Florida show. I'm talking to Darren, the guy that we had, who's ahead of the Energy Superior, daly and Zartman. There you go, daly and Zartman, and I want to tell our listeners I'm talking to Daly and with Darren, and the person in the next booth yells over oh my, you're the voice of the Toe Professional Podcast. And I was like what I said yeah, you must be the Toe Doctor that's on that podcast. I said I am.
Speaker 1:And that was the first time I got recognized because of my voice versus my attire that I wear with this doctor outfit. And I've always been a fan of Dr Alphys, but the podcast has helped the presence of so many of the people that are in the magazine so it's hard to get a double hit. But they also are talked about in the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and let me talk a little bit about that, because let me tell you, these weren't just companies. These are some of the innovators in the industry. When you think about it. You've got our current sponsors on. This is Jurdan Toe Book Recovery, billing, unlimited, toe Mate Recurrentals. Now, every one of these clients were forward thinking enough and they are pushing towards a digital side and they looked and said, hey, not only do we see this value, we know this is the way it's going and we want to step with you. And that's been tremendous. And let me tell you, these are companies that I certainly hope our listeners go back to and pay with loyalty, and I also want to put that out. Speaking of that, I want our listeners to pay a lot of attention. We've got a article coming up. We'll be talking about the North Carolina Tonya Association and their trade show and a great job that Carrie Fogg and her team did there. We'll also be talking about the Ohio Toe Show, bruce Bender, trao, the passion, the work behind that show that they put into that, and also those vendors I'm going to have a list of every one of those vendors in the magazine and DJ.
Speaker 2:I want our listeners to take a look at that, because those were folks that said you know what? I know? It's the first year at a new location. I know I might take a hit, because things are always different when that happens, but we care enough about this industry. We're going to be there and we're going to support it. And I think anytime you're dipping out of an industry to generate something for yourself and profit from it, you've got to be pouring back into it, and that's certainly one reason I'm going to list these vendors in this upcoming article Towe Professional so that people can see the ones that have poured back into this industry to put their heart in it and said you know what? It's not about the dollars, it's about showing up and it's about our people safety and showing that we're here for the long run.
Speaker 1:I am totally with you, my friends. We need to support the people who support the industry. And when you support a state association, those proceeds go right back to that state. They go back to their driver fund. They have emergency driver funds. That goes back to that North Carolina. The same thing goes back to the state and help individuals that belong to that state association. That helps them, and we should support the ones who support us. Amen, and the family. Well, this makes a lot of sense. Let's do this. Let's take our break. When we come back, listeners, we're going to talk about the publication, what's happening next and what are some of the changes that you're going to be glad to hear. The new processes that are going on.
Speaker 1:The co-professional magazine and this wonderful podcast that's growing faster because of your efforts. So let's take a fast break and we'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:You're listening to the Toe Professional Podcast and I want to tell all of you thank you, thank you. Remember to like and review, share everywhere. We've grown because you've told your friends to go to Toe Professional on the Go Podcast. If you'd like to hear an industry expert, just dial the hotline number here at the Podcast Center, 706-409-5603, and Darren and I will do our very best to get those people on. That are professionals inside the touring recovery industry, People you want to hear and people you want to help grow your business. You know, Darren and I teased about this as we're having a bite to eat at these shows and I told Darren I said these people know the business, so Professional Magazine and Podcast help you grow the business. So there's a difference. You know it and we help you grow it. So there's the big deal. Here's Darren. Here's the question we want to ask. With some of the changes that are happening with the publication, would you be kind of just to address these to our customers and the customer teams?
Speaker 2:Definitely. Like I was saying earlier, dj, one of the biggest things that I've been hit with is hey, listen, we want to do more digital, more digital, more digital Publishers want to hold back from that. When they hear that they get a knee jerk, what do I do? I can tell you this after being in publishing 30 years Prince is not going anywhere. Prince is a tremendous place to brand image and to be there. If you drop print in the floor, guess what? You can pick it right back up, flip to that page, reread.
Speaker 2:If you've been sitting there on Facebook before, looked at something dropped your phone, picked it up. It's gone. Where was it? How'd I find it again?
Speaker 2:So Prince always going to be a staple, but if we're not embracing the digital side, we're backing up. So what I have done is I have went to. I'm staying on a schedule of nine issues every six weeks, just like I've always done. The only difference, for my issues are going to be straight digital. What I mean by that is it'll be a full digital publication, just like I am same size, same format. It's a larger publication and that publication will go out to my 32,000 double opted in owners. Also, in addition to that, we're going to take the money, a large portion of what we were using on print and postage, and we're going to do a large paid for push on Facebook.
Speaker 2:And what this is going to do is it's going to address two concerns One, image and branding of the product.
Speaker 2:That's going to be done by the print and also getting that highlighted, quick response and being able to be out there on a consistent basis on the digital and social side. We're going to be doing that with a publication. So we're upping that from 11,000 that we're hitting on the email side to 32,000, double opted in owners in the industry and we'll make that push on Facebook that will give you those decision makers that are in the 25 to 45 range and others that are decision makers and key people inside the industry. So that's what we've done to do this. We'll have the print issues that will fall at your major shows the Florida show, the Ohio show, tennessee show that will be distributed at the wall to fall into the family members there. So we'll still keep in doing that, keeping the magazine out there and distributing at the shows. The key to this and the big kick is we're able to reach more on that social side and with that, as our vendors know, that's something they're able to track and that's something that gets a lot of life form as well.
Speaker 1:Darren, here's the question I want to ask what cost changes have you made to be able to do this? I mean, you're always thinking of the customer first, so explain to our listeners a little bit about what does come with this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know my vendors are gonna be thinking big J Willoughby, amen, you hadn't raised your prices in 12 years. You put this to grow in your list. Here it comes, here it comes, here comes a hammer. But no, without a doubt, customers are the biggest concern for me.
Speaker 2:I started this book to make my living off of the masses. I don't have to knock somebody's head. I've seen people do that in publishing, charge all kind of different rates for everybody. I make my process my living off the masses. I give everybody a great value and that comes back and I make a good living off that as well. And that's how it has to stay, I felt when I made this change.
Speaker 2:So I did this work and put my dollars into it during COVID yes, go ahead and take the family. They went through a couple of mis trips and vacations I know already here the halls but we did things to put money back into the company so that I could assure that I could eat this elephant one piece at a time and not have to pass this on to my clients. I'm very prideful in the fact that I can say in 12 years I have not raised my prices any. So when saying that when we go into 2024, for all my clients that have been here from day one, which so professional. I gotta thank the good Lord for this because I know I'm talented, but it's a lot more than just me, dj. I know it's his gift. We have a 98% renewal ratio in the book. So with this magazine you get in here your state, because I'll always Underpromise and I'm always gonna over deliver.
Speaker 2:So I did this. With this we increase, we're keeping the plant production 26,000, those key decision makers in industry, the check riders that's one copy per company, her title. So we're getting in front of the person that makes the call inside the company with the print. We've up the digital side from 11,000 to 32,000, double opted in that we're going to there and I'm keeping the prices the same across the board. To me, again, it's pouring back into the industry. That's fed you and if I can keep this at a value for my people, I know I'm. I'm not the only one in industry. There's shows that they have to do. There's Sponsorship they have to do. There's other things they have to do an industry to promote their self. I'm a key to that piece of the puzzle and I want to be known for the one that that was the most passionate about it and that always tried to provide the most value and the largest Return on their money spent.
Speaker 1:Well, I know one thing, our podcast is not just going to towers, because I was just recently at ARA, which is the American Recyclers Association, and who did I talk about the code book At the conference and you know, I go over to me and said DJ, we listen to your podcast and publish one of your sponsors and that's who we're using.
Speaker 1:And I thought to myself God bless you. Yeah, never know how many people are listening to a podcast. You know we have so many and that some do not subscribe. They just listen to it because, yeah, I don't fight on iTunes. So I mean there's a lot of people listening that we don't even know our this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's it's been a an absolute blessing and it's and it's been a way also to to give back to the industry, because it gives our vendors a platform to come on here and Everyone that runs in tow professional magazine that that runs their advertising. It's a platform for them to come on at no cost and Talk about their products, explain it to the industry, because we believe that the I believe myself, dj the biggest difference between between a two truck outfit and a 20, 30, 120 truck outfit is Is knowledge. I mean, it's that simple. When I started and Publishing, I was a salesman and I was a salesman for many years. I was a manager on publications, I was a publisher on publications, but then, when I became a business owner, I knew the learning curve would be steep and that you have to dig in and get the knowledge. It's the same thing here.
Speaker 2:Some of these folks from these men and women, have been in the tow trucks before their little feet would touch the mats and they're one of the best drivers Toers in the industry. But the difference between that and being able to run the company and grow the company is getting the right Information fed to them and that's all we're trying to do with the publication, the podcast, the quarterly digital, the e-news, everything that we're doing in the market. The whole key to it is to give our toers, our first responders, these men and women. They have enough information so that they can go out there and make an intelligent decision that best fits their business. Sometimes that's one person, another time that's a different product. We just want to bring the information to you so you know what's out there and you can go make that decision and be safe when you're doing it.
Speaker 1:Well, down, list you this let's take our final break and when we come back, folks, we'll do our wrap up and we'll see you. Right, we're hiding after the break.
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Speaker 1:First of all, listeners, Thank you so much for helping this podcast grow. This is our time that Darren and I give our final shots, and I guess my best thing I want to say is I'm proud to be part of the podcast. I'm proud to write for the total professional magazine. Darren always lets me write from my heart and I really appreciate that part of it. And For you listeners, I really believe it and so does Darren. I thank the people who go to the shows and support the people who support us. You know the business and told professional magazine and this podcast help you grow the business. So, darren, I'll turn it on over to you. My friend and I want all of our listeners to enjoy a very great Thanksgiving that's coming up soon and Enjoy it with your family and if you have a driver or somebody working your yard that is single, invite them home for a Thanksgiving Day meal. You All right, darren, I'll pass your review for your final blessing, hey thank you so much, dj.
Speaker 2:Well, again, folks just wanted to say again the whole reason I'm in this market is to serve to help give you solutions, to keep you safer, to get your family members home and to continue to get back to the industry we all love. So with that, make sure we've got a tremendous amount of followers out there on Facebook, but we've got a lot of folks that watch us that haven't liked and followed the page. Go out there, find us on Facebook, like and follow Toe Professional to see the latest on the manufacturers, dealers, distributors and service providers that you all know and love. Also, follow the podcast. Dj's already given you all the directions. Any place you find a podcast, you can find us, toe Professional, the voice of the industry, on the Go podcast. Keep an eye on the magazine We'll be hitting like right after the Baltimore show. We'll be in hands. Make sure you stop by and see our loyal vendors that are in the publication at that Baltimore show. I know it's going to be a great one for those vendors and it's the next time. We certainly appreciate every one of you.
Speaker 2:Again, it's not my work that makes this possible, it's our listeners and it's our loyal vendors, the ones that have believed in us, given us an opportunity. Let me tell you we don't think it's an honor for you to spend your money with us. It's an honor for us to be able to be trusted by you and have the opportunity to put you out there and direct your business and help you grow it, and we certainly appreciate that. And with that let me close, dj, dear Heavenly Father, I just want to say I thank you, I praise you and I appreciate every one of my vendors that you've put in front of us and asked since they've had the given me the opportunity to earn their business and they've trusted me with that that you step out there and you bless their business, bless them with knowledge, bless them with wisdom that will help them bring products to the market that will keep our first responders safe out there. And again, father, I ask a special prayer for our first responders out there, for our men and women, for our tours that are out there on a daily basis, that leave their home and their protection to go take care of our family members Truly, folks that are just not thought about, not appreciated enough.
Speaker 2:And, lord, we just ask that you put a hedge of protects around them and protect them. And, dear Heavenly Father, we just ask that you put a hand on our planet right now. Our world's going through a lot. There's a lot of confusion in it. We want to just ask you to rack it for us. Thank you, every one of our vendors, we thank every one of our listeners and until next time, tune in Toe Professional on Facebook, check us out ToeProfessionalcom on the website, check out the podcast, take a look at the counter as many ways you connect, and look for us at a show coming up Again Darren Weaver and DJ Harrington, the Toe Doctor. Until next time, be safe out there.