Building Responsive Campaigns to Reach HR Buyers
Where are these mysterious HR buyers that have seemed to vanish overnight? HR by nature is a gateway into a company, but this market has gone MIA leaving many vendors to develop long-standing relationships with voicemail and auto-email replies.
As a digital marketing agency that targets the HR buyer ourselves, we know only too well the uphill challenges solution providers face when trying to target these elusive buyers. We’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. We’ve even succeeded at turning the tables – having the buyer seek out our vendor clients on their own.
Building responsive campaigns and increasing engagement requires multiple strategies that identify who the gatekeepers are, how to communicate with them, and offering the right information that helps expedite the complex buying cycle and vendor evaluation process.
Allow us to make the introductions.
STEP 1: KNOWING WHERE TO LOOK
Did you know that HR buyers actually hang out together? They may not be meeting up for drinks in droves, but there are plenty of websites frequented by this market, influencers spreading WOM praise, and common key terms that are searched for daily. Imagine the possibilities of marketing to large clusters of your target audience versus fishing in an ocean of one. Integrated digital marketing campaigns give you the opportunity to reach a plethora of HR professionals anxiously awaiting information from you to make their lives easier. With the right analytics, OLA, and SEO tactics, you can make your presence known.
STEP 2: KNOWING WHAT TO SAY
Now that you’ve got their attention, how do you turn a quick glance into a captive audience? Cue the drip campaign. Which brings us to our next question, what do you plan to say? That initial message needs to be clear, concise, and convincing. Not an easy task to achieve with say a 15 second window (and that’s being generous). So before you even launch your OLA you’ll want to have that value prop prepped and ready to go, those assets geared up to turn prospect into lead, and put your best foot forward with quality content. Whether it was Oscar Wilde, Will Rogers, or Madison Avenue that originated the phrase “you never get a second chance to make a first impression,” take note. This is where you introduce your company to your buyers, and where you start to be heard.
STEP 3: KNOWING WHO TO SAY IT TO
You can drone on and on about what a great product you have, but if no one knows why it’s great, the only person you’re winning over is yourself. The one thing you need to recognize is that the vendor evaluation process is just that, a process. Filled with multiple decision makers at every level of an organization, opinions and personalities run rampant at the intersection of vetting and short-list. Determine who the key stakeholders are, and the domino effect that their two cents has on pushing you further in the door. Identify their needs. And understand that each will be asking themselves the question, “what’s in it for me.” From tactical usage to ROI, at this stage of engagement your content, your message, and your overall approach should be tailored to an individual decision-maker. By leveraging tactics already in place and pairing it with new strategies, you can ensure that your message will be received.
Marketing to HR buyers should be an integrated program that continues to evolve as leads delve deeper into learning about your company. You need to structure campaigns as virtual hand-holding to help them navigate the maze of information and get exactly what they need. Strategies should support one another and lead to further engagement. The one-off marketing is simply a waste of time.
But don’t take our word for it. Take theirs.
Listen to our free webinar featuring a panel of HR leaders talking about how they identify solution providers and what information they look for to create a short-list of potential vendors. Listen to the recording.
