Why email marketing is an essential component of digital marketing

email-215x300

With the explosion of social media and mobile apps in recent years, email can seem almost quaint. But it’s still one of the most effective digital marketing channels. In fact, 91% of U.S. consumers use email every day [1]. A recent analysis by McKinsey & Company found that email generates 40 times the number of new customers as Facebook and Twitter combined.[2]

Email can serve as the mortar that holds all the parts of a digital marketing strategy together. It can forge stronger connections with website visitors, social media followers, and past customers. “You can send a message directly to your audience’s device to let them know what’s going on ‘right now.’ It’s timely and direct,” says Michael Burnham, Digital Sales Manager at MassLive.

So how can you tap this important resource? Here’s what you need to know.

Building your list

Why-Email-300x126

Start by inviting people to join your email list by offering something of value. This could include special offers for subscribers or access to entertaining content. Put subscription links on your most popular Web pages and invite Facebook fans and Twitter followers to sign up. Brick-and-mortar businesses can keep email sign-up forms at the checkout counter and offer a coupon in return for signing up.

Keep the sign-up process as simple as possible. In many cases, all you really need is a name and an email address.

Engaging your subscribers

Now that you have a list, you can start building relationships with those subscribers.

Consider starting an email newsletter that goes out weekly or monthly and includes a variety of content, such as how-to articles, updates about your business or important industry news. Besides text, email newsletters can include images, video and audio, and are a great way introduce new products or services to an audience that’s already shown interest in your business.

Next, you can send occasional sales promotions along with your regular newsletter. For example, a retailer might send a “deal of the week,” while a company marketing to business customers can send emails offering white papers or invitations to events that help establish authority and generate leads for the sales team.

It’s important to establish a schedule for your email promotions and stick to it: Too many email offers and you run the risk of turning customers off; too few and they may forget about you. The ideal schedule ultimately will depend on the nature of your business and your customers’ preferences, but 86% of adults said they would like to receive email promotions at least monthly, according to marketing research firm MarketingSherpa[3].

Measuring results

To get serious about email marketing, you need to use an email service provider (ESP), such as WhatCounts, MailChimp, Exact Target or Constant Contact. ESPs provide the platform to manage your subscriber list, automate your sending schedule, and—most importantly—collect data on the emails you send, such as how many subscribers opened the email or clicked on a link in the message. This data can help you determine which types of offers or newsletters are most popular with your audience, so you can target your emails even more effectively.

Note that the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 outlines a series of rules that govern email marketing—such as requiring businesses to seek permission before sending marketing messages, and to make it easy for subscribers to opt-out of those messages. A good ESP or a digital marketing consultant can help you manage the requirements of the law.

But those rules help protect one of the big advantages of email marketing. You’re reaching out to customers who have asked to hear from your company. Nurturing that interest can take time, but the payoff can be enormous. “Email is great for specials, sales, events or updates. It can contribute to creating a lasting relationship with your customer base,” says Burnham.

[1] ExactTarget 2012 Channel Preference Survey

[2] McKinsey and Company, Why marketers should keep sending you e-mails

[3] MarketingSherpa, “Email Research Chart: How often customers want to receive promotional emails.”

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