A truck driver’s email inbox is one of the best places to recruit drivers. However, email marketing is not a walk in the park. Here is how to use email marketing for driver recruitment.
- Find an ESP That Best Fits Your Needs
- Build a Strong Email List
- Segment the Drivers Accordingly
- Keep Emails Personal and Entertaining
- Create a Pipeline of Top Performing Drivers
- Semi-Frequent Job Alerts
Find an ESP That Best Fits Your Needs
ESP stands for Email Service Provider. Email service providers allow companies to send email campaigns to a list of subscribers.
At the most basic level, ESPs do two things: store email addresses and send emails.
In addition to storing email addresses and sending emails, ESPs will help you build segments, create engaging email content, and report campaign performance.
Picking the best email service provider can be a difficult decision. To effectively make the decision you need to figure out what kind of features you are looking for before looking at different ESPs.
Ask yourself:
- How much are we willing to pay?
- How many people need to access the ESP?
- Do we need extensive spam filters?
- Do we need an ESP built specifically for trucking companies?
- Or can we use any ESP?
- How much design help do we need?
The answers to the above questions will help determine the best ESP for your company. It is good to ask these questions so you do not end up with an ESP that has too many features or not enough.
Build a Strong Email List
Your driver recruitment email campaign is only as strong as the list you are sending the emails to. If the drivers on your list are not interacting with the emails then the emails are being wasted.
One of the best strategies to get potential drivers engaging with your emails is to get them to sign up for your emails via different lead generation methods.
These lead generation methods can include:
- Offer a joining incentive
- Provide a free downloadable resource
- Registration for a free webinar.
Another strategy you can use for building your email list is creating a Facebook group for drivers and asking for emails to join the group.
Drivers signing up for your emails are interested in hearing from you. A list of willing participants is more valuable than a list that you purchase from another company.
Segment Drivers Accordingly
Even though your email list will be composed entirely of truck drivers, that does not mean that they will all want the same content from you.
Your campaigns will see much more engagement if you send drivers relevant content based on their preferences.
For example, if there are drivers on your email list that you have hired recently, and you don’t segment the list, then they are going to become annoyed seeing emails about job openings from the company they work for.
Common segmentation criteria for driver recruiting email include:
- Experience level
- Certifications
- Location
- Employment status
- Activity level
Segmenting lets you provide drivers with tailor-made content which reduces your unsubscribe rates and increases open rates.
Keep Emails Personal and Entertaining
People do not want to read cookie-cutter emails containing boring content.
Personalized emails have a 29% higher unique open rate and 41% unique click rates than non-personalized emails.
Drivers want engaging content that feels like it was personally made for them. A quick and easy way to make emails feel personalized is to use automation to address readers by their first name.
In addition to using their name, you can send birthday emails, skill-building opportunities, and industry updates for drivers with the same qualifications as the reader.
Create a Pipeline of Top Performing Drivers
As you implement email marketing into your driver recruiting strategy, you are going to hire drivers from your email list.
You need to keep tabs on the drivers you hire and measure their performance. The drivers you hire and are top performers need to be added to a special segment.
Having a pipeline filled with top-performing drivers is a huge asset for your company. Once the pipeline is built out, you will have constant communication with people you know for certain fill your driver criteria.
Even after the drivers leave your company you get to keep recruiting them and hopefully rehire them in the future.
Semi-Frequent Job Alerts
The purpose of the email marketing campaign is to keep drivers engaged with your company. It is not intended to bombard drivers with your open positions.
Your first goal needs to be engagement. Once that has been established you can start sprinkling in job alerts.
However,
Make sure that the alerts you are sending match the segments you send them to. If the position you are hiring for requires certain endorsements then only send that segments of drivers you know have the necessary endorsements.
Make sure you are only sending job alerts a couple of times a month. Do not overwhelm drivers on your email list. Doing so will result in drivers unsubscribing from your emails.
Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective recruiting strategies. Once your company nails the process, you have a direct line of communication with truck drivers. Follow this guide and begin email marketing for driver recruitment.
