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Kevin Grossman, HRMarketer

Sunday, 08 March 2009

Trends in HR Marketing: Where HR Suppliers Spent Their Dollars in 2008 and What’s Ahead in 2009

"Everything that you do starts with the Internet these days." Kevin Grossman

Kevin Grossman

Welcome to a Big Picture channel podcast on Total Picture Radio with Peter Clayton reporting. Joining us today is Kevin Grossman, President of HRmarketer.com. He has over twenty years of marketing communications experience working in the human resources and recruiting services industries, high-tech, and higher education. Kevin and I discuss the most interesting and important data points resulting from the new HRMarketer.com survey, and how HR vendors are responding to the recession, job cuts, and the economy.

The Trends in HR Marketing report covers the latest trends and best practices for marketing to the human resource (HR) and employee benefits marketplace going into 2009. The data presented in this report is based on responses from a diverse group of HR and employee benefits suppliers collected during the fourth quarter of 2008. Topics covered in this report include:
• Patterns of adoption and use of various marketing and PR tactics by HR and
employee benefits suppliers – including social networking, social media,
blogging, podcasting and RSS – also known as “Web 2.0” activities.
• Marketing and PR activities most important to HR suppliers.
• The marketing and PR activities that generate the most sales leads for HR
suppliers, and those presenting the greatest challenges.
• How HR suppliers measure the success of their marketing and PR.
• Who and what suppliers rely on to stay knowledgeable about the human
resources marketplace – and how optimistic suppliers are about the overall
health of the human capital marketplace.
The key trends outlined in this report include:
• Growth of “Web 2.0” tactics like blogging, podcasting and social networking as
a means of lead generation.
• Growing importance of search engine optimization (SEO).
• Continued use of direct e-mail marketing and devaluation of print advertising.
Finally, our team of experts provides analysis on what these findings mean for HR suppliers and recommendations for 2009.

Please don't cut my marketing budget!:

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Excerpts from Trends in HR Marketing
© HRMarketer.

Who’s Doing What? HR Suppliers’ Marketing and PR Activities in 2008 – And Plans for 2009. We asked respondents to report which marketing and PR activities they used in 2008 and which ones they plan to use in 2009. By an overwhelming percentage, direct e-mail marketing continues to be the favored marketing tactic of HR vendors and will continue to be so in 2009. Other popular marketing tactics include search engine optimization (SEO) and distributing regular monthly press releases to media contacts and over a wire service.

The marketing and PR activities growing the most in popularity include Web 2.0 activities: Webcasts/Webinars, Blogging and Podcasting. Also showing increased popularity are social media and social network marketing (via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). This is encouraging news, as these cost-effective activities lead to increased online visibility, a critical component to lead generation and search engine rankings. And as more HR decision makers go online to find information and solution providers (a trend confirmed in our Buyer Reports) vendors with a strong online presence have a competitive advantage.

Also showing increased growth is the self-publishing of original content (e.g. white papers, eBooks, research reports). The growing importance of self-published original content is a byproduct of direct e-mail’s popularity, as the most effective direct e-mail campaigns are those with a content offer associated with them – such as a white paper. Print advertising and print direct marketing continue to decline in popularity. In some cases, suppliers are cutting their entire print advertising budgets. Other activities decreasing in popularity include trade show exhibiting and sponsorship.

It is notable that, with few exceptions, HR suppliers continue to expand their marketing and PR activities across the board including both traditional and nontraditional (e.g., Web 2.0) activities. To be effective in today’s competitive landscape, HR suppliers cannot rely on just a few proven marketing tactics. Instead, suppliers must use a combination of traditional and Web 2.0 tactics to engage buyers – and we’re finding the more Web 2.0 tactics, the better for your budgets and your immediate return.

The Importance of Various Marketing and PR Activities

The top five “must have” marketing and PR tactics for HR suppliers were
(1) direct e-mail marketing,
(2) search engine optimization,
(3) self-publishing original content,
(4) speaking at conferences and
(5) Webcasts/Webinars.

A surprising finding, given the number of vendors decreasing their trade show budgets, was the importance of speaking at events. However, for those vendors who are experienced at securing speaking opportunities, it continues to be a valued means of interacting face-to-face with HR professionals – something most other marketing activities cannot offer.

The top five “replaceable” marketing and PR activities – those that suppliers said were important yet would be cut if budgets were reduced – included (1) print advertising,
(2) print direct marketing and
(3) podcasting,
(4) online display advertising (e.g., banner) and paid buyer guide listings.
(Although podcasting was on this list, we predict it will continue to grown as an important marketing activity in 2009 and beyond. 40% of respondents plan to increase budgets for this tactic).

Kevin Grossman biography
Kevin Grossman is the President at HRmarketer.com. Kevin has over twenty years of marketing communications experience working in the human resources and recruiting services industries, high-tech, and higher education. His broad knowledge of marketing and media visibility tactics, and thorough understanding of the human resource marketplace, helps HR suppliers develop and implement effective direct marketing activities resulting in increased visibility, sales leads and improved search engine optimization (SEO). Kevin received his BA in psychology from San Jose State University. He’s a proud new father who enjoys reading, music, drumming, hiking, running and travel. He’s also a published writer of children’s books, short fiction and poetry who contributes regularly to the HRmarketer Blog and his own daddy rants at Get Off The Ground.

Resources

HRMarketer
Trends in HR Marketing: Where HR Suppliers Spent Their Dollars in 2008 and What’s Ahead in 2009
HR Marketer Blog
HRMarketer Facebook group