Drivers are the lifeblood of any trucking company! Without them a carrier would falter and ultimately fail.  During the first quarter of 2013, the turnover rate for the U. S. trucking industry rose to 97% for large truckload fleets. At smaller truckload fleets, the rate rose to 82% in the first quarter. Another frightening thought is how CSA is impacting an already shrinking driver pool. 

As a recruiting manager who is responsible for maintaining a full fleet of drivers, I am sure you recognize that there are many drivers who know about your company but have not inquired about driving opportunities. So why have they not reached out to you? Why have they gone to work for your competition instead? Perhaps you need to look at your driver funnel and engage with more drivers through content marketing.

First, let’s take a look at what content marketing is and how it can be an effective recruiting tool.  Wikipedia describes it as “any marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, videos, white papers, e-books, infographics, case studies, how-to-guides, question and answer articles, photos, etc.”  It is not focused on selling, but communicating with prospects. The idea is to educate and influence drivers by delivering consistent, ongoing valuable information about your company.

Not every driver is ready to apply! Approximately 90 -95% of visitors to your website or landing page exit without completing an application. Some drivers won’t be ready to apply until three to six months from now-or longer. It’s important to provide a variety of different ways for drivers to stay engaged with your company at whatever level they’re comfortable with, from handling over only a name and e-mail address for job alerts, to filling out a mini app, subscribing to a blog or following your social media sites.

Drivers are constantly being bombarded with job solicitations; and in many cases become pre-programmed to ignore print and email ads. They are much more likely to engage by commenting back when they are notified of job listings through social media contacts and blogs. Also, notices of new job offerings through social media sites are much more viral. For example, if you announce a driver position on Facebook, many of their followers will be drawn to that announcement. You begin establishing a relationship through blogs and build trust over time so when they are ready to make a career change, you are first on their mind.

A common challenge is that content marketing is not an overnight process. Content marketing can be successful over time but may not immediately produce a significant number of applications. You must understand that campaigns must get traction before they are truly effective. It cost the same to post a blog for 100 people as it does to post one for 10,000 people. When you start, results may be modest. But hang in there! Audience results will improve exponentially. Campaigns may take up to 6 months or longer to gain traction. The results in year two will be far more significant than year one with the same or even a lower investment required to sustain it. But yes, you do have to sustain it. If you stop creating content, sharing content and nurturing your leads, the results retract to pre-program levels and you will have lost any momentum gained from previous efforts. You do not want to do that!

Content marketing is king and will become even more important over the next 12 months. Reach out to potential drivers. Let them hear, see, and read what your company is doing. In return they will reach out to you, and not your competitor, when they are serious about making a job change.

We are a contenting marketing service and would be happy to speak with you about our offerings.

The Hightower Agency is one of the best driver recruitment agencies. As one of the top recruitment agencies in the trucking industry, we offer a wide variety of driver recruiting services. Our driver recruitment consultants can get your company where it needs to be. 

Some of our truck driver recruitment services include: public relations for the trucking industry, radio advertising to recruit drivers, re-marketing to recruit drivers, social media to recruit truck drivers, blogs to generate more truck driver leads, email marketing to recruit drivers, Google AdWords to recruit drivers, mobile sites, ad campaigns, publication ads, brochures, Internet placement, newspaper placement, copyright services for trucking, ad copy, website redesign and more.

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