How to Recruit Drivers with Inbound Marketing

If you’re in driver recruiting business, your number one goal is simple – generate qualified apps in an effort to hire qualified truck drivers. The major picture is “simple” because it’s single-focused—recruit, hire, retain. Right? Well, the simplicity becomes a little muddled when you consider all of the different ways in which the goal can be accomplished. Some of the more popular methods include:

Internet job boards
Media placements
Pay-per-click & remarketing campaigns
Video campaigns
Social media advertising
Email campaigns
Press releases
Direct mail & PURL campaigns
Text blasts
TV & radio advertising
and… the list goes on.

Today we’re talking about another, newer technique to add to the mix… A technique that draws a driver audience to you–instead of the other way around.

Excuse Me, Could I Bother You For a Moment?

One characteristic that most of the above-mentioned advertising methods have in common is their “outbound” quality. They’re initiated by an organization, without being requested, in hopes of generating some type of specific action. Take a website pop-up ad for example. You’re trying to search for something and land on a site that puts a huge advertisement right in the middle of your screen. How annoying. You neither asked for nor particularly care to see this irrelevant content.

Unwanted, unsolicited emails are much the same. They’re another example of someone trying to get through to you on their own behalf in order to extract a specific action from you. In many cases, that action ends up being the dreaded “delete” or “mark as spam” button. Now, don’t get us wrong, email is great. Direct response methods are great. We have to have them to convert visitors to leads. But these methods are much more effective when drivers know who you are and want to read your content. So how do you get there? Try inbound recruiting.

How Inbound Draws Your Audience In, Not Out

Trucking companies and businesses alike are now using inbound marketing as an additional means of reaching out to their audiences in a way that’s much less obtrusive than traditional methods. With inbound recruiting, you develop a relationship with potential truck drivers by providing them with information in the form of content they find interesting, useful, entertaining, or of personal value. The key is to know who you are as a company and to share that story with your target audience. Telling that story consistently and with the confidence that will hold you out as an expert in your field, you’ll begin to attract an audience that likes what you have to say, comes back to hear more, and shares your content with others – thus building stronger relationships with driver candidates.

What To Share

The secret to successful inbound recruiting is to first carefully define the traits and qualities of the individuals you want to attract, and then create a stream of content designed specifically to appeal to this target group. Without sounding pushy or “salesy,” the content you deliver to your growing audience must be informative and something they appreciate receiving.

One of the most popular ways to supply this consistent content is by blogging. Creating informative and interesting blog posts regularly give your target group something of value, without attaching any overt attempt to tell them how great your company is or to hit them head on with your desire to recruit them. Within your blogs, include a call-to-action that drives traffic to a landing page. Whether it’s another piece of content or a short form to contact a recruiter, you’re subtly moving them through your site and generating leads.

Other ways to share content include video, Facebook, Twitter, and email blasts filled with content of interest to your audience. Again, a subtle call to action could simply be for you to ask them for comments regarding a particular piece of content, such as a YouTube video or Facebook post.

What’s Next?

Once you’ve created a loyal following on your blog and social media networks, you can begin steering them to your lead generation landing pages and ask them to do take action, such as fill in a short contact form to obtain more info. Once you’ve gained this data through inbound efforts, you can start nurturing your top leads.

With tens of thousands of current vacancies out there for truck drivers, the recruiting competition is stiff and you’ll want to take advantage of every means at your disposal to be unique and stand apart from the others in your determined efforts to attract qualified candidates. With numerous avenues to recruit drivers, inbound marketing definitely deserves some serious consideration as one of the tools in your recruitment toolbox.

If you have questions or comments, feel free to leave your message on our blog below!

Looking for the best ways to recruit truck drivers and enhance your recruitment advertising strategy? Contact The Hightower Agency, one of the top driver recruitment advertising agencies in the industry.