Buyer Reports: Trends in HR Marketing℠: HR Buyers’ Behavior — What to Expect in 2010

January 20, 2010 comments (3)

This research report from HRmarketer.com, Trends in HR Marketing: HR Buyers’ Behavior — What to Expect in 2010, is the fourth report in an annual series started in 2006. The report provides information on trends and best practices for marketing to the human resource and benefits marketplace, and more specifically on the purchasing behavior of the typical HR buyer. It includes an analysis of HR buyer research and purchasing trends and their budgetary priorities in 2010.

The data in this report is based on responses from human resource and employee benefit buyers, hereafter referred to collectively as “HR buyers,” collected during October and November of 2009. The key trends outlined in this report tell us the following about HR buyers and their needs going into 2010:

• Thirty-one percent of HR professionals report their company will hire 10-20 percent more staff in 2010;
• Twenty-six percent of HR buyers plan on increasing their budgets for HR-related products and services in 2010;
• As a group, HR buyers plan on increasing their budgets by 25 percent in 2010 for corporate social networking tools, employee wellness programs, management and leadership development initiatives, performance management systems, and other training and development programs;
• Key “pain points” for HR in 2010 include assessments and selection, applicant tracking and talent management systems, coaching and mentoring, corporate social networking, I-9 compliance and E-Verify, employee self-service, and work-life programs;
• HR buyer participation in social media and the consumption of social media-delivered content such as blogs, social networking sites, white papers, research reports, podcasts and webcasts continues to increase;
• Forty-five percent of HR buyers are somewhat optimistic about the economy and think that business is starting to improve in 2010;
• HR buyers turn to the Internet first when beginning their search to identify vendors for HR products/services they are interested in purchasing. For the first time since we’ve done these reports, the Internet surpasses peers in our survey;
• HR buyers value industry content (e.g., white papers) and other organic online sources of information as a primary source of product/service information much more than ever before – more than print or online media advertising.

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eBook: Conversation Starters – Social Media Marketing in the HR Marketplace

January 18, 2010 No comments

* Newest release (9/29/2009) – No registration required!

Summary: Social media marketing is all about combining the power of online marketing and social networking so that HR suppliers converse openly with their buying universe about their firm – good, bad and all in between. Social media marketing uses social networking services as a means of doing just that. This eBook outlines the importance of participating in social media marketing that will definitely come back to HR suppliers in the form of familiarity, trust, thought leadership and credibility with their customers, prospects and influencers. Another powerful way to generate publicity, traffic and leads.

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Article: Making Sense of Your Press Release Distribution Options

January 18, 2010 No comments

Traditional wire releases.
Search-optimized releases.
Social media releases.

The simple task of Sending out a press release is not so simple anymore. Making sense of your press release distribution options is becoming increasingly difficult because there are so many product choices, with new ones emerging monthly and existing ones adding features regularly. This article walks companies through best practices in news distribution.

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eBook: Marketing and PR in the Human Resource Marketplace: What You Need to Know

January 18, 2010 No comments

It used to be that brand advertising, a few direct mail campaigns and trade show appearances, coupled with sales calls and a little PR, was enough to stay competitive as a vendor in the Human Resource marketplace. No longer.

The HR marketplace is growing rapidly as organizations realize the competitive edge gained from high-quality employees. Our calculations suggest it is a marketplace worth more than $1 trillion per year and still growing. But this lucrative marketplace has attracted swarms of new companies offering products and services for all segments of the HR industry.

Competition forces all suppliers to become more efficient and cost effective. In some ways marketing has never been more difficult. Today, broad-based marketing messages and brand advertising are mostly ignored. However, anyone doing business has never had a greater opportunity to reach out to buyers directly in a more conversational manner, and on a playing field more open or democratized than at this moment in time. We’re of course referring to the Internet.

And with all new methods come new rules. Rather than receiving marketing messages and sales calls, HR buyers are hunting for information and resources to help them identify their needs and distinguish the products and services that will help them most.

They are looking for people they can trust and people trusted by others. We know HR buyers use the Internet to find what they are looking for; they also depend on word-of-mouth recommendations from peers, which increasingly are also mediated by online communications, social media, and online community forums. Specifically, at the early stages of the buying process, they are using search engine technology and Web 2.0 functions to locate news and information they can trust. Key tools for reaching the new breed of HR buyer include online press releases, other forms of online content, and search engine-optimized websites.

The bottom line, then, is that suppliers of HR-related products and services who will succeed in today’s HR marketplace are those who are readily available to help buyers in their quest for information online, develop a standing of good reputation among trusted advisors including industry peers, and have the mechanisms to develop direct relationships with prospects.

This eBook will walk you through today’s HR marketplace to help you understand the changes that are taking place and help you see a future for your company in that marketplace. Then we’ll show you how to make use of the most effective marketing tools available today and how to measure the success of your marketing campaign to satisfy the new mandate for demonstrable ROI. The eBook concludes by showing you how vendors in the HR marketplace have been employing these tools and how they have put HRmarketer to use to get the best possible return on their marketing investment.

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Article: Using Original Content to Generate Online Visibility, Web Site Traffic and Sales Leads

January 18, 2010 No comments

This complimentary article is part 2 of our 3-part series on how to effectively use your web site, original content, and ongoing marketing activities to achieve the measurable results of publicity, traffic and leads.

Our second article, Using Original Content to Generate Online Visibility, Web Site Traffic and Sales Leads focuses on just that – the development and use of original content for effective lead generating campaigns.

HR decision makers are looking for sources of information they can trust to help them make sense of the marketing cacophony.

Having great content on your Web site increases the likelihood of your company showing up on search results – and the decision makers finding you first.

Some ideas to get you started in your brainstorming session to identify compelling topics to write about include:

What are your buyers’ pain points?

What are hot trends and issues in your industry?

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Article: Putting SEO and Marketing PR to Work for Your Business

January 18, 2010 No comments

Marketing PR is the integration of traditional PR and marketing tactics that combine social media and other Internet-based activities – all of which can generate more search engine visibility, media visibility, sales leads and brand support. With Marketing PR, all marketing and PR initiatives support marketing objectives, such as lead generation and media placements, which result in verifiable ROI. Marketing PR allows HR vendors to incorporate their marketing strategies, Internet technology, public relations and sales goals into activities that generate more leads without increasing their marketing budgets.

Marketing press releases, blogs and webinars—all common tools of Marketing PR—have supplemented, and in some cases replaced, traditional marketing tactics such as print advertising, in the HR/benefits marketplace.

“In the last year, we have seen a dramatic shift in marketing spending from traditional marketing to online initiatives”, says Mark Willaman, founder of HRmarketer.com, the largest marketing and media visibility service in the human resource industry. “This trend is not surprising when you consider that 72 percent of Americans use a search engine to find news, and 84 percent use a search engine to find information, products and services. If your company’s marketing and PR activities are not geared toward maximizing your online presence, you are missing sales opportunities.”

PR 2.0 and Marketing 2.0 – which refer to interactive online communication through blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts – have become buzzwords for the HR/benefits industry. Most HR suppliers are aware of the change in marketing best practices, but they have yet to adapt to these new trends because they are not exactly sure how to start. HRmarketer has been helping suppliers get accustomed to these search engine optimization (SEO) and Marketing PR trends, as well as helping the suppliers integrate these tactics with their marketing and PR activities.

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Podcast: HR Market Share: Episode 18 (Qualigence)

January 17, 2010 No comments

Interview with Stephen A. Lowisz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Qualigence, Inc., a recruitment research and professional search firm that Stephen founded in 1999.

HR Market Share: Episode 18 (Qualigence) Listen:    Download File     Embed This:  Interview with Stephen A. Lowisz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Qualigence, Inc., a recruitment research and professional search firm that Stephen founded in 1999.

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