Is digital marketing helping your business? Here’s how to tell.
Your business has made the leap into digital marketing. It was a big leap, and a smart one. If you want your business to compete and grow market share, you must have a strong online presence.

Maybe you were all in on digital, maybe you had some hesitations. Maybe your unfamiliarity with it yielded some questions. How can I track digital marketing? What can I consider success? What am I getting for my money?

We all know the main objective of any marketing effort is increased business. But, there are a lot of variables that determine the month-to-month success of your business. You need to be able to measure your digital marketing in a vacuum. The good news is, digital is the most trackable form of marketing, and it’s not even close.

If you have an e-commerce business, ROI from digital marketing will be clear once you set up e-commerce tracking in your Google Analytics. You’ll be able to see what channel is driving the most online sales.

If your business is strictly a brick and mortar location, you’ll have to be a bit savvier to track digital success. It all comes down to what happens when prospective customers visit your website. Google Analytics will be your best friend here. It can be tricky to navigate, which is why it’s very important that you have a sharp marketing team or marketing partner to execute and analyze your digital advertising efforts. These are some clear indicators of success that marketing analysts should look for:

Hard conversions

Form fills

If a customer can’t buy directly from you, a meaningful indication that they’re interested in your service or product is a form fill on your website. This can be a contact us form, free estimate or a consultation request. Furthermore, these are direct leads for your business that can be tracked with Google Analytics. By setting up a form fill completion as a Goal in Google Analytics, you’ll be able to see what channel of traffic is generating the most form fills. You can even assign Goal Values to help measure ROI more closely.

Say your website offers a free consultation form fill that you value at $50. You run an e-mail campaign promoting your free consultation that costs $750. If you see in Google Analytics 20 form fills were generated from the e-mail channel, then you know that it you got a positive return on your investment (20x$50 = $1000).

Phone calls

Phone call tracking is another clear-cut way to judge if digital is generating leads/sales. Customers may find your business online through a display ad or an AdWords campaign, then call your business to get more info, schedule an appointment, etc. Additionally, call tracking features allow you to see how many phone calls are being generated from your individual marketing efforts.

It also provides intelligence. For example, in an AdWords campaign, you can see which keywords are driving the most calls. This is very useful in determining which keywords to focus on.

Site traffic

In 2017, you must think of your website as another physical location of your business. It’s where people start their path-to-purchase. They go there to learn about your business, browse your services and products, see your phone number and address, find store hours, the list goes on. It’s important that you drive users so you can convert them into customers. Digital marketing is hands down the most effective way to increase site traffic considering they’re…you know…already online.

So, an increase in site traffic should be a key measurement for digital marketing success. There are different ways to measure site traffic. Again, Google Analytics proves itself to be very useful in this capacity.

Date range comparisons

You can compare date ranges in Google Analytics to find out what effect digital marketing is having on site traffic. Year-over-year comparisons are best when your business has seasonality to it. If you ran a digital marketing campaign in Q1 2017 but not in Q1 2016, you can compare your website’s traffic between each year.

If there is little to no seasonality to your business, you can look at what happened to your website traffic once your digital marketing campaigns kicked off.

Geography comparisons

Being able to target specific areas is a huge benefit of digital, unlike traditional media where you sometimes have to place a broader marketing buy.

You can use Google Analytics to compare the lift in traffic in areas that you’re targeting with digital marketing vs. areas you’re not advertising in. This can be done by changing the primary dimension to city (or any geographic qualifier) then using a date range comparison.

Social media engagement

Well-executed digital marketing campaigns will heighten your brand awareness. It’s simple – the more people who are familiar with your brand – the more likely they are to interact with and follow your social media accounts.

Take notice of your social media after your digital marketing campaigns kick off. Increased page likes, followers, retweets, post comments and shares are signs that your brand is becoming more recognizable and trusted.

Benchmarks

Clicks and click-through rates aren’t everything. Any digital marketing analyst worth their salt will not judge a campaign purely on click metrics. Furthermore, benchmarks exist for a reason. You can get an indication of the health of your campaigns by comparing click-through-rates with benchmarks for your industry. This should be combined with Google Analytics and Social Media analysis to get a full picture of your digital marketing’s effectiveness.

If you are looking for assistance in tracking your digital marketing efforts, reach out to your local experts.

 

Manufacturing Recruitment Strategy

Worker shortages in manufacturing industry is real. Highly skilled positions remain open as a significant portion of the manufacturing workforce is nearing retirement age. For manufacturers, building and maintaining a robust and skilled talent pool is key for both short-term and long-term hiring success.

Recruitment Marketing as a Relationship Builder, Not Just Candidate Sourcing

Don’t wait to be present until a position is open – consistently position your brand in front of both passive and active job seekers. Consistent branding creates a talent pool who is familiar with your company, benefits, culture and therefore more likely to consider you when looking to make a career change. Top of the funnel marketing tactics such as video and display make your brand presence known.

Build A Connection By Understanding Your Best Potential Candidates 

Develop personas, marketing strategies and campaigns specific to your common open positions. Different positions attract different types of candidates. Understanding the nuances allows you to more directly content with job seekers, to communicate your company story and to welcome them into your culture with a personalized approach. Seek out a recruitment marketing partner with a deep data bench, capable of developing audience segments, media placements and creative to speak directly to specific candidate audiences.

Enhance Your Job Board Presence with Display & Video

Placements on job boards are effective in reaching those actively seeking a position. However, other traditional marketing methods like targeted display and video allow companies to share their full story. More visual formats let prospective candidates see your benefits and experience your culture. Both elements that can cause them to choose you as their next employer – over your competition.

SUCCESS STORIES

Healthcare Recruitment Strategy

A growing aging population, pandemic burnout and a ramp up of traveling nurse opportunities have put a strain on healthcare recruitment. Nurses are in high demand – with an abundance of employment options to choose from. How does your healthcare facility standout in this mad dash for employment?

Invest in the Community You Serve

Healthcare is essential to the community. Consider supporting the community you serve by sponsoring local events, job fairs and awards to keep your organization top-of-mind. Not only will these positive associations bring your organization front and center, it will also generate positive word of mouth among the community – reaching friends and families connected to potential candidates.

Showcase Company Culture

Give a glimpse of what its like to work at your organization on any given day. Show the people who work there, the halls to be walked and the benefits to be had. Video succinctly communicates positive culture through virtual tours, testimonials and more. Written testimonials and other content featuring current employees lend authenticity to your showcase.

Replenish Talent Pools with New Grads

New graduates are critical in helping to fill staffing gaps and to replenish talent pools. Utilize highly targeted strategies to reach new graduates, while still on campus, where they are spending their time. Hyper local mobile targeting puts your organization front and center among soon-to-be-graduating adding you to their consideration set for post-graduation employment.

SUCCESS STORIES

Education Recruitment Strategy

Like most categories of business, education providers are facing faculty and staff shortages. Finding experienced and passionate educators and faculty continues to be a challenge. Education institutions should look beyond salary and benefits to larger strategies to drive interest and applications for the upcoming school year ahead.

Build Your Talent Pool with Year-Round Strategy

Primary education recruitment season begins at the end of the previous school year, with many schools starting from scratch every year. Establishing a year-round recruitment marketing strategy, allows you
to reach faculty and staff considering a change throughout the school year, adding them to your talent pool as the year progresses. Having a year-round plan also puts your institution front and center, outside of the more cluttered traditional recruitment period.

Utilize Your Community As A Recruitment Tool

Your community has the potential to be a unique selling point for your institution. Consider highlighting the quality of life – showing prospective employees the community you serve. Community events, local activities, cost of living and more can have pull over prospective employees looking to make a move or to enjoy a way of life your community offers. Partner with local events, local organizations and even your convention and visitors bureau to generate content about your community.

Job Fairs Help Build Awareness of Your Institution

Passive and Active job seekers join job fairs to learn more about prospective districts and institutions. By merely being present, among your competition, you can ensure that your district or institution is in the consideration set for educators looking to make a career move. Both in-person and virtual career fairs provide additional visibility and awareness for your institution.

SUCCESS STORIES

Warehouse Recruitment Strategy

Warehouses are experiencing unprecedented growth thanks to a shift towards online shopping. As growth continues and timely shipping remains critical, warehouses face a continual shortage of workers.

Tout the Benefits That Make You Stand Out

Warehousing jobs are not historically known for good benefits and upward mobility. With changing demand and increased competition, more warehouse companies are adding long-term benefits and job training to their offerings. As an employer, tout benefits like 401Ks, employer matching and paid training as part of new hire packages. Talk about your openings more as long-term careers vs. short- term or holiday employment for additional appeal.

Get Connected In the Community

Grassroots community efforts and word of mouth tactics still hold strong in warehousing recruitment. Sponsoring local community events and job fairs raises brand awareness in the community, spreads positive sentiment about your organization and jump starts word of mouth. This simple activation makes your organization more likely to be noticed by potential job seekers and considered as a stable, future local employer in a future job search.

Local Jobs, Local Placements

Warehousing recruitment pulls most applicants and new hires locally. Very rarely to companies hire outside of their immediate market. Tap into the local job seeker scene through local job boards, job fairs and other local job posting opportunities. Local job seekers continually use these outlets to find new employment opportunities.

SUCCESS STORIES

Trucking Recruitment Strategy

Facing an aging workforce and increased competition for new talent, the trucking industry struggles to keep recruitment pipelines full and trucking routes staffed. Trucking industries should look to implement full-funnel marketing strategies to not only attract active job seekers but it keep talent pools fresh with new prospects.

Address Trucking Industry Myths

Increase top-of-the-funnel prospects by introducing the benefits of a trucking industry careers to passive job seekers. Address potential concerns head-on, including hours, mileage goals and living conditions while highlighting employment benefits such as 401K matching, healthcare and time off. Video and written content are both great vehicles to communicate this information.

Stay in Touch with Prospects

Deciding to change careers can be a lengthy process for passive job seekers. Keep your talent pool active with periodic communication about your business, job openings and career benefits. Set up an email calendar, reaching out to a list of emails from those who you met at job fairs, submitted an inquiry or sent a full resume. Frequently post about your culture, the trucking industry and openings to keep your followers engaged.

Job Boards Are Important

Trucking applicants remain tapped in to local and regional job boards. A presence on local job boards and job aggregator sites provide you business with bottom of the funnel presence – reaching those interested in the truck industry and actively applying now.

SUCCESS STORIES

Professional Recruitment Strategy

Finding outstanding talent that fits your culture is a concern for any business. Make the most of your time and resources by attracting qualified candidates that can hit the ground running and succeed within your organization. Identify quality talent and cultivate your talent pool with leading recruitment marketing strategies perfect for professional businesses.

Showcase Your Company Culture

Tell the story of your business, your history, your employees and more. The more a prospective employee knows about your operations and culture the more they are able to determine whether they are a match for your organization. Office tour videos, employee testimonials and other visuals can help to show daily life within your company.

Tailor Communications to Open Positions

Instead of deploying blanket recruitment ads for all positions in your company, consider developing custom creative and campaigns for each position. Messaging should focus on key benefits and operations of that role, showcase photos and videos of that segment of your business and speak directly to those candidates. Specific communication, drives more qualified applications – increasing your odds of finding a match while building up your talent pool - than general recruitment ads.

Use Job Boards to Reach Active Job Seekers

Job Fairs, local job boards and job board aggregators remain critical bottom-of-the-funnel tactics in securing applications for open positions. While other flashier tactics will fill the top of your funnel, these more nitty-gritty media elements provide a place for active job seekers to seamlessly apply for the positions they want – now.

SUCCESS STORIES