The human resources department plays a crucial role in the success of any large or small business. HR teams are responsible for talent acquisition, ensuring a productive, safe work environment, and maintaining employee productivity.
Human resources professionals play a greater role in purchasing decisions than almost anyone else. As gatekeepers, they have access to senior management, but they are also in close contact with teams across their entire business hierarchy, which gives them unique insight. Therefore, they play a significant role in influencing business decisions and strategic planning. For this reason, however, the volume of marketing and sales communications received by human resources professionals can be daunting.
If your target audience is a HR department, it is important that you reach the right person, with exactly the right message in order to stand out from the crowd. By following these 4 tips, you can gain a deeper understanding of your ideal customers and develop a more effective marketing strategy.
1. Assess their needs and pain points
Identify the issues impacting your average HR manager before you start marketing to them. The main challenges HR professionals experience include:
- Attracting and retaining talent
- Increasing employee satisfaction and employee engagement
- Lowering the churn rate
- Maintaining company culture and performance management
These issues can be addressed by automation tools, but this usually requires the commitment of the top management, especially in larger organisations. In addition, if they already have a tool in place, moving between platforms or suppliers may mean having to start over, which is a lengthy, costly process.
Is the product or service that you want to market capable of providing a solution to these issues? That is the message you need to convey in your marketing campaign.
2. Engaging with them through digital marketing
Maintaining a strong social media/online presence can help you become more visible to HR professionals. In this way, you demonstrate your authenticity and present a trustworthy image, which makes them more likely to get in touch.
Make sure not to over-engage or spread yourself too thin – the key is targeted, valuable visibility rather than spamming prospects with pointless messages and interactions. Essentially, you should make networking a priority to strengthen your marketing efforts. You can create a powerful presence for your brand by:
- Posting HR-related news/information,
- Sharing opinions, case studies and research reports related to their industry,
- Participating in their thread discussions, and
- Producing email marketing content that is relevant to the audience.
3. Embrace account-based marketing
A great HR strategy benefits greatly from account-based marketing (ABM). With ABM, the goal is to create a fully aligned sales and marketing team that cultivates relationships with a small number of highly targeted and highly qualified leads.
By using ABM, you identify relevant individuals from the companies you want to target and send them a personalised message. Following these connections, you can begin a genuine dialogue with your prospects via phone or email.
Remember to always make any sales email or call as personal as possible, and keep track of every interaction so that your marketing and sales departments can track where individual prospects are in the sales cycle.
4. Share their values
The most successful businesses today are those companies that are articulating a vision, collaborating with their employees, building value, and positively impacting their communities. Businesses that don’t adapt to the changing world are going to be left behind in the market.
According to LinkedIn’s Workplace Culture report, 89% of millennials are willing to accept a lower salary for a company whose values are aligned with their own. For comparison, only 9 percent of baby boomers would consider it.
This is important for marketers to take note of when aiming messages at the new generation of HR professionals. Find out what a HR leader values – and make sure your messaging reflects those values. Storytelling is appealing to everyone, especially if it is relatable. Not only can your prospects benefit from case studies that address common pain points and solutions, but a case study or testimonial could be the deciding aspect for a purchase decision.
List of human resources contacts for direct marketing activity: More Than Words’ HR contacts database contains 10,068 HR contacts within UK businesses.
