Pesky Problem
Originally, a Fremont Contract Carriers (FCC) advertisement was seen on a newspaper email blast for driver recruitment. Knowing that it is a national company based out of Fremont, Nebraska, we were curious how a local email ad would fulfill their need for drivers. After meeting with FCC, we did an analytics review and noted that metrics from their former company did not match the data in analytics. FCC shared that recently leads have been trailing off, but that routes for FCC were growing. After 3 months of review and strategy planning, FCC became a client.
Our primary challenge was to increase driver applications for FCC. Newspaper ads were not an effective way to reach truck drivers, especially coast to coast. In addition to their many newspaper ads, FCC’s previous marketing company used online strategies that were limiting and outdated. These were not being tracked accurately and caused potential hires a great deal of work before they could even reach the application, or contact someone at FCC. These hurdles in the process were causing them to lose potential hire.
Our #1 objective was to increase applications via online marketing. Other objectives included increasing FCC’s presence on social media, creating new video content to push online, improving the website and its content to encourage better SEO and user engagement, and finally, creating successful, trackable paid campaigns. We also did videos for their recruitment department to use during the hiring process, welcoming applicants to FCC.
After two months of tracking button clicks to their applications, we found that there was a large disparity between applicants who were clicking to apply, and those who were actually filling out the full application. Clearly, there were missed opportunities happening. We walked through the application and realized it was lengthy, involved, and not visually appealing. We looked at Google Analytics and found that more than 50% of FCC’s overall site traffic was through mobile devices.
Marketing Strategy
Our solution to limiting barriers to submitting an application was creating a simplified application different than the one formerly used on the site. This new application captures only necessary information and is easily navigable through a mobile device to reduce applicant abandoning prematurely. After filling out their name, phone, and email, it gave the applicant two options: continue to the full application, or have a recruiter contact them. This did two things for recruiters: notify them of an applicant wanting more information, and it also notified them to be on alert for an incoming application. With this change, we were able to put the recruiting process back in FCC’s hands. With the application process simplified we could turn focus to driving traffic to the website form.
FCC’s prior AdWords campaign was only utilizing nine keywords total, and they weren’t getting conversions. We created a new campaign that included Search, Display, YouTube, and Re-marketing Ads with accompanying landing pages and conversion tracking in the form of phone calls, button clicks, and event tracking. We targeted specific geographic locations where FCC needed drivers and included messaging to set FCC apart from the competition.
We created new strategies and campaigns on Facebook and Twitter targeting areas where they were hiring drivers and promoted posts to those locations. We continued highlighting driver anniversaries, but updated the design that was used to better reflect FCC’s new brand guidelines, that we recently created.
We saw ways we could improve FCC’s Craigslist campaign which continues to be a huge area for them to spread the word to potential new hires looking for trucking jobs. Through their previous campaign, they weren’t utilizing backlinks to their website for potential hires to fill out applications leaving the burden on the applicant to leave Craigslist and then search the company and call or go through the once laborious online application. We fixed this issue, along with creating new posting templates that were updated and hyperlinked to their website. There are specific criteria that have to be met for FCC to hire a new driver, so each Craigslist post needed to be deliberately targeted to a specific location and worded to a particular audience to control the qualification level of applicants.
We created new Google AdWords campaigns in Search, Display, and YouTube. Each used specific keywords and locations where FCC had routes to fill. Using custom landing pages that tracked clicks to applications, form fills from those applications and phone calls as conversion points. We pointed Display and YouTube video ads to landing pages created to catch conversions from our Google campaigns.
To improve user experience on FCC’s website, the homepage got a facelift including better navigation. We also updated the open position page to better navigate through various positions and filter them. We also created a blog section, regularly posting relevant topics to establish FCC as a go-to for industry news. We created several new sliders to draw attention to job openings within the company. We added video to relevant pages to increase time spent on page and interaction with more content throughout.
Additionally, we knew there was a crucial period between application submittal and getting hired. In order to connect with potential hires on a personal level before they were flown in for an interview, we created personal welcome messages from the President of FCC that are emailed to the applicant throughout the hiring process, thanking them for their interest in his company. FCC culture is very much like family and giving that experience to a potential driver shows what makes FCC different from other trucking companies.
TM Results
Through continued efforts in online marketing:
- Facebook Ads reached over 29,000 people
- Facebook following increased 17%
- Top social Post reached over 4,400 people
- Twitter followers increased 58%
While recruitment is our #1 priority for FCC, we know that it goes hand in hand with employee retention. After our recruitment efforts a proven success, we gained the opportunity to marketing in other areas of driver retention and sales materials.