Latest Trends in Driver Recruitment Advertising

Driver recruitment advertising is a different ball game than it was years ago. If you’re wanting to hire more truck drivers, it’s important your trucking company is aware of current trends. For an impressive driver recruitment plan, your driver recruiting services should match these trends.

Traditionally, print advertising was the primary route utilized to recruit truck drivers. Ads were placed in magazines and in radio and blasted out to a broad range of different consumers in an attempt to recruit drivers and raise brand awareness. But with the advent of digital media, such as Internet, smartphones and tablets, the way drivers digest information has drastically changed.

As a recruitment advertising agency, we research the most powerful ways to recruit truck drivers and stay on top of advertising trends. We evaluate those trends and extensively research where truck drivers are so your trucking company can be there, as well. From the Hightower Agency to you, here are a few key points when it comes to trends in driver recruiting:

Trend #1 – Response from traditional print media continues to decline.

Take a look at the below graph from State of the Media. You can see print ad revenue beginning to flatten out; experts suggest this will continue into 2014.

2-Print-Ad-Revenue-Continues-to-Decline-Copy1

Now don’t get us wrong, print isn’t completely dead. It’s still a good way to recruit drivers and drive phone calls and online traffic. But when we look at trends, print shouldn’t be your only form of recruitment. Your company 100% needs to have a strong digital presence as well, which leads us to our next point.

Trend #2 – Internet recruiting is becoming more targeted and effective (such as pay-per-click, remarketing and online banners.)

We’re seeing Internet recruiting evolving into a premier way to advertise on the web. There are various ways to market your company online, but two forms that are highly effective are pay-per-click and remarketing.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a directed advertising method that directs online traffic to your recruitment site. Through a PPC campaign, you can guide your targeted audience to your trucking company’s site which ensures your voice is heard above the background noise flooding the Internet. Google AdWords, Bing Ads and Yahoo Advertising are all examples of PPC campaigns.

Remarketing is another fascinating Internet recruiting tool. It’s the process of reinforcing marketing impressions on those who visit and leave your company’s website. It allows you to keep communicating with visitors — more specifically, potential drivers — who would have otherwise been lost to the endless depths of the Internet. It allows you to post targeted ads that remind users why they should return to your website after they’ve left.

Let’s not forget about online banners. Through online banners, you can target drivers based on region, state, route or address location. Know what type of lead you’re looking for and tailor your message for drivers using desktops smartphones, or tablets. Since online banners are directed to your landing page or recruiting site, it’s critical those sites be responsive to accomodate multiple devices.

Trend #3 – Relying on social networks to find new drivers is quickly growing.

Through social media, drivers have the ability to interact with trucking companies like never before; companies are able to create social media campaigns and promotions to recruit drivers and connect with them in real-time. More than ever, social media has become a leading platform to build driver relationships and recruit new, qualified drivers.

The below chart from Mashable shows the 10 Most Frequently Used Apps in the U.S. (50% of them are social media, with Facebook coming in as the second runner-up.) Using social media to find drivers is a trend that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

most_frequently_used

Trend #4 – Drivers are doing more search queries from mobile devices than ever before.

According to Pew as of January 2014:

90% of American adults have a cell phone
58% of American adults have a smartphone
42% of American adults own a tablet

These statistics reveal the use of mobile devices is a trend that you can’t ignore. What’s more important than just realizing the country has gone mobile is what is your company should be doing to recruit truck drivers through mobile marketing. There are numerous ways to market to potential drivers on mobile devices with a conversion goal in place for more qualified applications.

Food for thought: The trucking industry is unique in that it contains a demographic that is consistently mobile: truck drivers. Be sure your company is taking advantage of this trend!

Trend #5 – Job boards and job aggregators are driving significant traffic to websites.

The use of job boards and job aggregators is progressively growing and driving more traffic to recruitment sites. Because searching online is fast, convenient and easy, many people seeking truck driving positions look to driver job boards to find potential positions; therefore, more and more trucking companies are advertising through these platforms. As driver job boards and aggregators capture the attention of drivers, the result is serious web traffic for trucking companies.

Indeed.com shows transportation job postings have increased a whopping 85% within the last year!

indeed

The trend takeaway: These trends in driver recruitment advertising tell us that as traditional marketing fades into the background, digital advertising roars toward its full potential. Drivers are more tech-savvy than ever and must be recruited on a digital level. Advertising in the digital age has come to mean using multiple channels, such as mobile and social networks, to get your message across. Digital ad spending is even expected to surpass TV! (see chart below from Wall Street Journal.)

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So remember: stay on top of driver recruitment advertising trends so your company can successfully recruit and retain qualified truck drivers!

The Hightower Agency is the Leader in Recruitment Advertising. Contact the Hightower Agency here for more information about our driver recruiting services. Our driver recruitment consultants can get your trucking company where it needs to be!

Some of our truck driver recruitment services include: creation of landing pages, developing responsive websites, public relations for the trucking industry, radio advertising to recruit drivers, remarketing to recruit drivers, social media to recruit truck drivers, creating blogs to generate more driver leads, creating Facebook ads to recruit drivers, email marketing to recruit drivers, Google AdWords to recruit drivers, creation of mobile sites, ad campaigns, publication ads, brochures, Internet placement, newspaper placement, ad copy, website redesign and more.

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