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As I’ve mentioned, my husband and I are preparing to relocate to NY city from Phoenix, Arizona. We have already downsized from a house to an apartment so we don’t have that much to move. We found ourselves in the position of having too much to ship, but not really enough to justify the cost of a full-blown mover.
Not knowing any other options, my husband decided to surf the internet to find how others had handled this situation. On google, he searched on the phrase ”Moving Tips Blog”. Within the first few results was one that read “ABF Moving Guide & Blog - Moving Tips and Advice by Relocation Experts”.
The link led him to What Moves You? , the blog for ABF U-Pack Moving. This company provides containers that fit in an apartment parking space or driveway. They drop off the container, you fill it, then they pick it up and deliver it to your new location. It fit our needs perfectly.
There are probably multiple companies that follow this business model or a similar one taregeted at consumers with small moving needs. After he told me what he had done, I searched for other similar companies with blogs - but I couldn’t find any.
ABF had the insight to recognize the pain point of their target market - anxiety over the cost of a move, worry over not being taken as seriously as bigger moves, fear of being taken advantage of by an scam mover, confusion over who to ask questions of.
A blog addresses many of those needs by increasing the customer’s comfort with the company. It establishes a connection, builds a relationship, provides answers and reassurance.
When deciding among a variety of small move specialists, feeling like you can trust the people who are taking possession of all of your worldly goods, can be the tipping point for an anxious customer. And blogs can be the differentiator that establishes that trust.
What Moves You is a well-written, regularly updated blog written by thirteen “relocation experts” including one NASCAR enthusiast. (ABF also sponsors a NASCAR car and Josh, their employee and amateur racing enthusiast intersperses posts about the races among the posts about moving.)
ABF has been in business for over 80 years. It has 13,000 employees nationwide and last year moved $16 billion in freight. ABF started their blog in January of 2008, adding it to their award winning site (2005 WebAward, naming upack.com the Best Institutional Services Website).
So far blog updates have been made a few times a week, totalling 27 posts altogether. Recent topics include the relative benefits of guaranteed transit, tools for realtors to add to their web pages, Alaska moves, hiring help to load self-move containers, and NASCAR.
The posts are receiving a few comments, some of which are testimonials from satisfied customers. Some of the bloggers do a better job than others of responding to the comments. They would probably do well to respond more actively to the other comments in the posts, to encourage connection with their readers (and potential customers).
If you are considering adding a blog to your business, I recommend checking out ABF’s blog. What practices would you incorporate into your blog? What could you challenge yourself to do even better?
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