A recent article by the Wall Street Journal highlighted the incredible growth in the importance of Internet advertising in reaching new hires, especially for those in the trucking industry.
According to the data, Indeed.com conducted a survey of common search terms used on their site. These are what job seekers – the people you are trying to reach – are looking for when trying to find a new career. Guess what made the top of the list? “CDL Truck Driver” was the number one search term in annual growth. Compared to January of 2014, the term grew by 83%. This means a lot more people are considering a career in truck driving!
What does all of this excitement mean for you? If you’re looking to recruit drivers online, you should be using Search Engine Marketing.
Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is one of the most powerful tools in truck driver recruitment. Basically, the goal of SEM is to increase visibility in search engine results pages through optimization and advertising. If someone searches for “truck driving jobs no experience,” your website or landing page can be shown to prospective drivers as a direct result from SEM. Bingo.
To drive traffic to your sites and grow driver leads through SEM, it’s important to first understand the two main types: paid and unpaid.
Paid SEM means you pay the search engine to put your company posting or landing page at the top of search results. Here’s an example below:
These are typically pay-per-click advertisements. You pay the search engine based on how many times a user clicks your ad, which links to your chosen website or landing page. Seeing that the majority of job seekers click on links that appear on the first page of results, potential truck drivers will likely see your advertisement before your competitor’s. If your webpage is designed well and optimized for new driver leads, you should have a solid chance at hiring qualified candidates.
Most paid SEM efforts allow you to set your budget, targeting needs and other specific parameters. This allows you to enhance your campaign and reach your target audience. There are many forms of paid SEM, so it’s about finding the right method for you (contact us if you’d love to hear more details!)
Unpaid SEM is good if you’d rather focus your strategy with a more frugal option. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a component of Search Engine Marketing, and allows you to improve search results without dipping into big ad dollars. The main technique of unpaid (or organic) SEM is to create content that allows search engines to crawl your web pages and push that content up in search results.
First, think of common phrases and keywords a potential new driver may search. What would you search if you were looking for a job in truck driving? Make a list (and save it to continue adding more along the way). Now, make an effort to include these terms strategically throughout your website and blog posts. As you consistently incorporate key terms, you’re strengthening your SEO by providing more nuggets for search engines to find.
Yes, consistent blogging is a fantastic way to improve SEO. Steadily publishing well-written, content rich blogs that include your target keywords in the blog title, body of the post, and internal links tell search engines that your blog posts contain information a user is searching for. So not only is it a great way to update your readers on news and tips relative to the industry and highlight your company offerings, it allows your website to organically appear higher in search engine results–recruiting truck drivers!
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Prospective drivers are most definitely using Google, Bing and Yahoo to explore new career opportunities, so the use of SEM to recruit drivers is without a doubt a great way to hire new prospects.
Interested search engine marketing to recruit truck drivers and other services to improve your driver recruitment advertising? The Hightower Agency is happy to schedule a free consultation. As one of the best driver recruitment agencies, we offer it all!