How to

Nurture Driver Leads

in your Recruitment Strategy

A Free Guide from The Hightower Agency, the Leader in Recruitment Advertising.

Introduction pg. 1 - 4

Email Marketing pg. 5 - 7

Retargeting pg. 8 - 11

Social Nurturing pg. 12 - 15

Offline Activities pg. 16 - 18

Analyze and Optimize pg. 19

Conclusion pg. 20

Table of Contents

Have you ever walked into a store to just look around, and immediately found yourself pressured by a salesperson when you're not ready to buy? If you're like the common shopper, you want to do research and feel comfortable before making a purchase.

Because we live in a world inundated with ads, and tend to ignore pushy advertisements. Driver recruitment is no different. That’s why lead nurturing should play a large role in your advertising strategy.

It allows you to promote your trucking company to driver candidates by giving them useful and relevant content, without "interrupting" them.

Lead nurturing is the key forming comfortable relationships with driver prospects, and moving them through the hiring funnel.

Introduction

1

So why is this important more

than ever?

2

“The trucking industry is trying to

avert a more severe driver

shortage.”

– American Trucking

Associations (Aug. 2014)

3

The nationwide truck driver shortage means you must step up your recruiting game and follow a few effective stepping stones that will turn prospects into drivers:

1. Build an audience;

2. Drive inbound traffic to your website;

3. Turn that traffic into qualified leads; and then

4. Nurture those leads into hired drivers.

This guide will focus on four lead nurturing methods…

That’s why!

4

Lead Nurturing Method #1

Email

Email marketing is the most common lead nurturing technique; however, not all leads are created equal. Your pipelines of contacts are all in different lifecycle stages, and should be treated as such.

One of the best ways to nurture driver leads is to send targeted email blasts with strong call-to-actions and quality content.

5

First, segment your database so you know which type of emails you should send to what lists. If a lead is in the very beginning stages, your emails should reflect that with simple content.

Give them blogs, videos and other info so they can learn more about your company, easing them into the hiring cycle.

Email

6

Your email blasts should continue to provide content that will filter them towards the bottom of the funnel.

When your qualified prospects are comfortable and to ready apply with the goal of joining your company, you have successfully nurtured those leads.

Tip: Your emails should always offer a call-to-action.

Email

7

Lead Nurturing Method #2

Retargeting is a powerful branding and conversion optimization tool. It's successful in recruiting truck drivers because you have the opportunity to put your brand in front of those who are already familiar with you.

It's an effective way to indirectly remind potential drivers what you have to offer, and persuade them to take the next step.

Retargeting

8

1. Pixel-based

First, place a small pixel (or code) on your website.

Then, every time a new visitor comes to your website, that code drops an anonymous browser cookie.

Later, those visitors will be served ads from your company.

3 Ways to Use Retargeting

9

2. List-based

If you have an email database/contact list, it's possible to target those contacts on digital platforms associated with their email addresses. For example:

Upload your contact list to Facebook's advertising platform. Create your ad (emphasizing users to revisit your website).

Later, contacts who use those email addresses for Facebook will be served your ad in their News Feed.

3 Ways to Use Retargeting (continued)

10

3. Look-alike-audience

First ask yourself: Who is your audience? Where should you target them?

These are questions you'll need to understand when creating a look-a-like-audience for retargeting purposes.

Once you've determined specific demographics, there are various retargeting campaign options available to attract driver prospects back to your website.

3Ways to Use Retargeting (continued)

11

Lead Nurturing Method #3

Social Nurturing

To send qualified candidates towards the bottom of the driver funnel, you must engage with your prospects on social media.

Of course, a solid social media recruitment strategy is required to reach truck drivers, but you must take it to the next level to really nurture those leads.

Here’s how…12

To nurture driver leads on social media, monitor specific keywords and mentions across the social web.

For example, a hot keyword to monitor is "looking for driver job." Anytime a Twitter user tweets out "I'm looking for a driver job. Anyone have suggestions where to apply?” Your company will be notified in your social stream monitoring tool.

Social Nurturing

13

This is the perfect opportunity to tweet back ”Hi _____, we'd love for you to check out our available driver jobs and give us call with your questions!”

That person who was looking for a trucking driving job is now receiving a personalized message from your company.

This is an excellent way to nurture qualified leads on social media.

Social Nurturing

14

Tip: If you’re interested in creating a social stream to monitor specific keywords, platforms such as HubSpot and Salesforce offer these tools.

Social Nurturing

15

Lead Nurturing Method #4

A large part of driver recruitment advertising takes place in the digital world. But let's not forget about what happens in the offline world.

Face-to-face relationships pack a powerful punch when it comes to lead nurturing and recruitment.

Here are a few examples of how you can nurture qualified truck driver leads through offline activities…

Offline Activities

16

Hiring Events and Job Fairs

First, use a variety platforms to promote your hiring event (email blasts, social media, newspaper and radio advertising, press releases, etc…)

When the event arrives, this is the perfect opportunity to sell your company benefits and convince driver prospects why they should drive for you.

In-person events allow you to build a more personalized connection with your qualified leads.

Offline Activities

17

Direct Mail and PURL Campaigns

(that’s right, print isn’t dead!)

PURL = personal URL

Create branded postcards to mail out to your database. These postcards should include a link and/or QR code that will send recipients directly to a landing page personalized to them.

Because this type of campaign is personalized and tangible, it captures their attention, sending traffic to your landing pages and successfully nurturing your leads.

Offline Activities

18

Always measure your efforts.

Run A/B tests to improve your lead nurturing efforts and optimize your overall driver recruitment strategy.

Calculate the number of leads that turn into driver hires.

Analyze and Optimize

19

Recap:

1. Email Marketing

2. Retargeting

3. Social Nurturing

4. Offline Activities

5. Analyze and Optimize

These four methods to nurture driver leads allow you to maximize what you do at the top of the funnel, ultimately resulting in more hires and filled trucks.

Conclusion

20