Content is Still King. Honor Thou King.

Cheryl Goldberg of Goldberg Communications wrote an excellent blog post summary about New Research Describes the Most Effective Ways to Market with Content.

Allow me to summarize Cheryl's summary.

• Three major new studies have been published about content marketing over the last few weeks. All validate that content is a critical component to marketing efforts.
• White papers remain the most influential types of content (but only if they’re well written).
• The influence of white papers depends on the size of the customer. Both decision makers and influencers from enterprise and mid-market companies are more likely to pay attention to a white paper than their small business counterparts.
• Ninety-percent of B2B marketers use content to grow their business with the computing/software industry having the highest rate of adoption of content marketing strategies.
• Case studies are also valuable content. One study showed 67% of respondents using case studies to make technology purchases.
• What disappoints people when reading white papers? Poor writing quality and papers that are not technical enough (remember, survey respondents were primarily from high tech/IT) and those lacking real-life cases.

Good stuff.

At HRmarketer, we've touted the benefits of content marketing for a decade and our most recent Trends in HR Marketing report validates that HR vendors are catching on. And our HR Buyer reports show that HR decision still place high value on quality content.

In fact, our HRmarketer Services Group typically won't work with a company if there isn't a process in place to produce content on a regular basis.

Why?

It works. Seriously, it really, really, really works. And not having content really, really limits your chances of marketing success.

Benefits to you? Thought leadership, branding, lead generation and improved SEO (if you value those sorts of things).

And it's so darn cost effective. Say you invest a few thousand dollars in producing a great white paper. Look at what you can do with it (in no particular order):

1. Place the white paper on your website for download.
2. Announce it's availability in several press releases.
3. Share it with your LinkedIn connections.
4. Share it with your company's Facebook fans.
5. Blog about it.
6. Tweet about it.
7. Send it to your short list of analysts, press contacts and bloggers and explain why it is newsworthy/important.
8. If you have a newsletter, mention the white paper in the next issue.
9. Send a direct email to your house list announcing the availability of the white paper with a link to the landing page.
10. Consider renting a targeted email list and do the same - great way to build your house list.
11. Recycle and revise the white paper into a 800 -1,000 word byline article and submit/publish in an industry trade magazine that accepts byline articles.
12. Consider doing a webcast on the white paper topic. Maybe even a podcast (now we're getting bold).
13. Reload and repeat the above steps.

But remember, don't just slap something together because that will most certainly hurt you more than doing nothing at all. The content must be well written, well designed, well timed, compelling and non-promotional.

Serve the King of content in 2011 and make it a part of your marketing plan - maybe even the foundation.

Post by HRmarketer CEO Mark Willaman. Join Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Results Are In! Trends in HR Marketing 2010/2011 Survey (niche mktg is back)

The Results Are In!

Marketing and business leaders from across the industry have provided their insight and responses to our annual Trends in HR Marketing Survey.

One of the more startling statistics from our research is that most HR vendors will maintain or increase their marketing budgets next year. This is a dramatic turnaround, because last year 30% of the respondents said they were decreasing their budgets in 2010.

So does this mean all HR vendors are optimistic about the future and seeing improved economic activity?

No.

When we cross tabulated our budget question we found that HR vendors in certain product categories were more likely to be increasing their budgets in 2010. The top industries were:

1. Talent Management
2. Rewards & Recognition (incentives)
3. HR Consulting
4. Screening & Assessments
5. Outsourcing (HRO and RPO)
6. Training & Development

And some product categories, like Payroll Processing, were more likely to be decreasing their budgets.

OK, so can we infer that certain HR product categories are hotter than others?

Well, yes and no and this is where it gets really interesting.

Even in high growth product categories like wellness and incentives, not all vendors are having success.

Why?

A conversation I had with Lee Klepinger, CEO of a leadership development firm Impact Achievement Group (IAG) sheds light on some of the reasons (disclosure: IAG is an HRmarketer.com customer).

Lee has been experiencing rapid growth the last several -- at the expense of his larger competitors. And while a big chunk of IAG's business is from Fortune 500 businesses, the growth is primarily coming from SMB's - a segment, according to Lee, most of his competitors ignore.

A lot of companies in the leadership development space -- and the broader human capital marketplace -- have lived off their Fortune 500 clients. But compared to SMBs, the larger companies tend to have longer sales cycles (6 - 12 months) and many have been downsizing and cutting HR budgets. Conversely, SMBs have shorter sales cycles (in some cases weeks) and many are in growth mode - particularly in certain industries like healthcare and some retail segments. Lee is making a killing in these market segments.

Yet some of IAGs competitors were slow to penetrate the SMBs and have been unwilling to adjust price points. A common statement from some of these vendors was "we don't need leads, we have all the business we can handle".

But if a majority of your business is coming from a few large customers, the risk is high and when those companies stop buying the result is a sudden drop off in revenue and an empty pipeline of qualified buyers.

The key takeaways for HR vendors is (1) don't stop lead-generating marketing and (2) market segmentation - something many marketers have failed to do effectively.

Niche marketing is back.

A report issued recently shows "The U.S. economy grew unevenly" in early fall, with more than half the regions of the country expanding modestly while others struggled to grow.

And a report from Kelly Services listed the Top 25 Fastest Growing Industries for 2010 to 2011.

Segmentation, segmentation......

In fact, at the request of many of our clients we recently added industry channel “tags” to every profile across our information databases in our HRmarketer software. This helps marketers quickly find relevant information for their niche marketing campaigns. For example, a human resource company targeting the “hourly” marketplace can select tags such as hourly, healthcare, retail, food services or hospitality to get an instant list of key media outlets, journalists and conferences in these industries.

This helps HR suppliers more easily create and manage niche industry marketing campaigns — something absolutely critical in the current business climate where the needs and financial strength of companies vary greatly across industries (we'll blog about this in more detail in the future and also talk about how your messaging may need to be tweaked for each segment).

Here are some other highlights from our recent HR Marketing Trend Reports that we shared via our @HRmarketer twitter account the last several weeks using the hashtag #HR_MktgTrends:

• 2011 #HR_MktgTrends Report-coming soon. Most #HR vendors to maintain/increase #marketing budgets next year. Follow @HRmarketer for updates.
• 2011 #HR_MktgTrends Report coming soon. Last YR 82% of #HR cos didn't measure ROI of #SMM. Now 69% will. Follow @HRmarketer for updates.
• 2011 #HR_MktgTrends Report-coming soon. Most cos Somewhat Optimistic on #HR market. Up from 41% last yr. Follow @HRmarketer for updates.
• 2011 #HR_MktgTrends Report-coming soon. Biggest #marketing pains for #HR vendors: Lead gen & messaging. Follow @HRmarketer for updates.
• 2011 #HR_MktgTrends Report-coming soon. 95% of #HR vendors increased participation in social networking in 2010. Follow @HRmarketer for updates.
• 2011 #HR_MktgTrends Report-coming soon. 50%+ of #HR vendors plan to increase/maintain #PR budgets in 2011. Follow @HRmarketer for updates.
• 2011 #HR_MktgTrends Report-coming soon. 47% of #HR vendors don't use outside #PR or #marketing firm. Follow @HRmarketer for updates.
• 2011 #HR_MktgTrends Report. Top #marketing tactics for #HR vendors: Email mktg, SEO....Report coming soon. Follow @HRmarketer for updates.
• 2011 #HR_MktgTrends Report-coming soon. Key metrics #HR vendors use 2 measure #marketing: Web visits, visibility, SEO. Updates @HRmarketer

Download the report today.

It's really good.

Enjoy -- and if you need help making sense of the findings please contact HRmarketer.

Post by HRmarketer CEO Mark Willaman. Join Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Do I have the integrity to take the Integrity Test?

I keep thinking of a conversation that I had at the recent HR SouthWest conference in Fort Worth, with one of the vendors at the exhibition. During our conversation to help me to understand more about the vendors offerings, I was hearing about their pre-employment testing, background screening, assessments and thinking, OKAY you have to have a differentiator, and then they said 'Integrity Testing". Whaaa - I stopped them right there. Tell me more …..

Merchants Information Solutions Inc has had this “Integrity Testing” available to their customers since 1979 – called American Tescor’s behavioral psychological assessment - and they are now just starting to “market” it separately and with vigor. Okay this test will help you understand if someone is prone to theft, substance abuse, hostility and faking (really faking? What does that mean?).

I mean really, how can you tell if someone is going to be filled to the brim with integrity or if it just shows up in his or her character depending on the day and the temptation of the situation? Apparently they say they can, and they also say that they will give a GUARANTEE cost savings on the product, and if you don’t get that cost savings, you get your money back.

It got me to thinking – is integrity born with you, or do you grow into it/out of it? Nature vs. nurture? Is it something that will show up immediately? Or will it present itself as someone moves up the corporate ladder and the opportunities are more or that you are less likely to be caught and punished for small matters? Does integrity waffle on the balance depending on the environment you are in? Or as a strong person, with concrete morals and values, can you have semi-integrity, and still live with yourself? If this proves to be absolutely accurate – shouldn’t we give this test to our politicians?

Hmmm, me? Skeptical? BUT Merchants does have some white papers from Cornell Research to prove the point of this test being a highly effective way to eliminate high-risk hires, and save money. Worth a read.

I am sure that there are other companies that also have something similar to this, that I am sure, is a great money saver and absolutely essential in some industries. But where are they? AND why wouldn’t any company want to have a full employee base that has such strong integrity, for a positive environment. Which begs the next question – perhaps there is not enough people with integrity out there in the world to be able to do that! Yikes – my head hurts just thinking about it.

Do we really need to do all this marketing???

OR just smile and stand at on an exhibit floor, with the right kind of audience and say I have all I need. Really - what do we need to do?

I know, you are shaking your head saying "What the heck is she talking about? Of course you have to do more" but if you are a couple of vendors that I spoke to on the exhibit floor of HR SouthWest this past week in Fort Worth, then you DON'T.

My conversations with the vendor exhibiting took the whole spectrum of no marketing to all the different kinds of marketing I can do. I mean, I intimately understand some of the marketing strategies of some of the vendors there, because HRmarketer works with them now - but many I didn't. In all sincerity, I spoke to some that indicated that all they needed to do was go to a couple of conferences, attended by their target audience, and with "Word of Mouth" they had all the leads they needed. I believed them. It got me thinking - perhaps it is all they needed for the business they run, for the sales team they have in place, and for the long-term business strategy they have.

So what about the other things I heard about marketing, promotions, "gettin' out there", "getting well known", "reaching out";

- Good old direct mail? Yes, there were vendors who said they still did this and WHY NOT. Old is new again. Email, email, email that has no substance is in everyone's inboxes - who doesn't love a special letter addressed to you personally? It is so nouveau.

- Banner and print advertising - hmmmm, in some cases, this makes sense, but becoming less and less according to my conversations.

- Renting a direct email list - YES, I feel that there is value there - but don't just send so many times that you forget what you promoted the last time. Make it valuable with content download, webcast invitation, survey invitation.

- Content Development - Absolutely - but please make it educational and valuable for the reader. Help them to learn something. The best thing about creating content is it fits perfectly into any marketing campaign, social media strategy and works towards building thought leadership.

- Webcasts/Webinars - so many vendors are doing this and that is why again it needs to be valuable information AND give it a differential. Client speakers, surveys throughout, interactive questions. PS just read something today about a "Panel Webcast" and its kind of cool.

- Attending Conferences - a vendor commented that she felt that the Virtual Conference would soon be taking over because it saves money, larger audiences, offer more content and repeatable content and though that is true - there is NOTHING that beats the sit down and talk face-to-face. NOTHING! so perhaps a balance of both?

- Social Media marketing/Organic gain - I am still awestruck at how many vendors do NOT have a social media strategy. Nope - nada - nil strategy. So many things you can do, and so much of this is complimentary to a strong marketing strategy across the board. This is a whole blog post on its own, so not today.

SO – is this original vendor correct in his statement that all you need to do is attend a couple of conferences and word of mouth? It may not fit everyone’s objective BUT perhaps for his long-term business goals.

Unemployment/Reemployment - Is this new to everyone?

I recently came back from the HRTechnology Conference in Chicago, and as usual, it was a kaleidoscope of large booths, new products, acquisitioned companies smiling, HR practitioners on the floor ready to buy AND Parties. Yes, there were great sessions, fabulous shoot outs and debates and the opportunity to watch the LIVE FEED of Tweets from the attendees. (by the way, this had to be one of the most entertaining ways to see what was happening all HRTech all the time.)

I did learn so much from talking to my prospects and clients on the exhibit floor, and one of the new things I learned was the term "Reemployment". First I was jealous that I did NOT think of that myself and be seen in the space as brilliant, and then I realized that the term really is not as new as me (obviously) but filled with wonderful possibilities.

There are a number of companies, especially around the government, that deal with "Reemployment" as the services of making yourself "re-employable", working at it all on your own. When I was speaking to TALX at the HRTech Conference, Pam explained to me the introduction of "Reemployment Services" as part of their cost management offerings. WHAAAA - you mean that there is a HCM vendor that offers you something that you in turn can offer your employees to help them when they are laying off some of the employee base? Yup - TALX, provider of Equifax Workforce Solutions.

TALX offers this service along with their Unemployment Cost Management service offering training and coaching of laid-off employees, helping them to find a job quicker, reducing the duration of unemployment benefits. This is helping corporations in being pro-active in assisting former employees to get back on their feet. Think about it - this service will quickly pay for itself through reduced unemployment taxes. LIKE IT - mmmmmmm - me too!

Layoffs in today's workforce is unavoidable, but with this service, getting people one-on-one job coaching, help in creating an effective resume, prepping for the interview, Software Training, and pushing into how to network to land some of those hidden jobs is truly a "life-saver", especially if you are the one reading this, and are on the end of the layoff.

One of the things that I liked alot at HRTech - Reemployment!!!!

#HRTechConf Perspectives

In this post, I'd like to share other's perspective on this week's HR Technology Conference & Expo.

My feet were confined to a 10x10 patch of carpet for most of the daytime hours, so check out these dispatches from those who got around. Then I'll add analysis from my more stationary perspective of the show.

From the private equity perspective:
Who Will Be the Sponsors of HRTech 2015?, by Charles Bedard of Ephor Group

From the cynical perspective:
What I learned at #HRTechConf, from Laurie Ruettimann

Reporting and commentary:
John Hollon at TLNT.net offers Weekly Wrap: At HR Tech Chicago, A Surprise and a Great Debate, and John Zappe's piece cross-posted on ERE.net and TLNT.net, Not Mind-Blowing, But "Gee Whiz" At HR Tech Show's Awesome HR Session.

Perspective from the 10x10 patch on the show floor:
After abandoning the idea of exhibiting under our software and services brand (HRmarketer.com of course!) beginning in 2009, this year marked the second year we've set up shop to distribute our hard copy publication we call the "HR Vendor Phonebook." In our digital age, it's a throwback to the desktop or bookshelf reference. It still has its strong fan base. (Note: the idea of a marketing firm serving Human Capital vendors but who does not sell to HR taking out exhibit space was creatively revisited this year by our peers at the Fort Worth-based marketing firm. Who can object? Starr Tincup = Free Beer!)

In exchange for the complimentary Phonebook, we ask for contact and budget information from the Expo hall attendees. It's the oldest marketing play in the book. Information in exchange for Offer.

Green sheets vs. white sheets:
So who made up the 2,500 people reported to be at the show?

Eschewing the lead retrieval systems common to these trade shows, we collect detailed information the old fashion way. We use pen and paper. HR professionals working in a company who influence or make buying decisions complete an order form which includes a budget survey. Everyone else, vendors, consultants, investors, those in transition, get the other form sans budget survey. In short, white sheets for working HR professionals; green sheets for everyone else.

Our tallies? Lots more green sheets than white sheets. By a factor of 2 to 1. Unlike other HR conferences, the HR Technology Conference brings a more evenly distributed mix of people - at least to Expo hall (many also wearing the green "expo-only" badges).

To my mind, that's neither a good nor bad thing. It's just a fact of this conference. Investors scope out emerging trends and look for those who need capital. Independent consultants in a position to help their clients make buying decisions (often technology related) come to learn about the various offerings being presented. It's a broad-based community for sure.

The Twitter Perspective:
The Tweet Streams get bigger and better every year. Of all the Tweeps tweeting from the show, one stood out to me. Tim Sackett has a strong, consistent, if sometimes snarky point of view. He's both an HR leader and a blogger on FOT.

Here's Tim's Monday dispatch looking back on HR Tech. Jobvite: Take Your Hiring Managers' Excuses Away...

Here's a random sample of Tim's conference Tweets...

• Just a feeling but I think I'm going to run into a couple of Talent Mngt companies here...#HRTechConf
• @Rypple tells me they are the 1 HR vendor who gets the HR Mgr with a team of 5 or less - so take solace HR Pros there's 1...#HRTechConf
• #HRTechConf I'm lookingATS for staffing/RPO firm that doesn't suck - any suggestions - hitting the expo to spend some money...
• Saying the business doesn't work in silo's, but HR does, is at best naive #HRTechConf (scare tatic by vendors to get HR to buy stuff)
• So it sounds like I'm a Type C proactive - I've got no money, but I have metrics to prove it #HRTechConf
• Interesting how we seem to be getting to a point where we are adding so much technology, HR is becoming less productive #HRTechConf

Tim, great to meet you… I was the tall dude in the 10 x 10 with surrounding by stacks of vendor directories :-)

The 2010 HR CEO Networking Meeting - Talking Talent Management in Boston

Before everyone headed to the must-attend 2010 HR Technology event, Rita Jackson, Katrina Busselle and I had the pleasure of participating in our 2010 CEO Networking Meeting. First and foremost a huge thanks to Kronos for hosting the meeting at their very impressive and welcoming world headquarters.

About 20 executives from a variety of human resource software and services companies participated in the networking event from startups like Jobmagic (a super cool platform for recruiting via social media) to established businesses like Sam Gruenbaum's BTHR Solutions (formally BeneTemps), respected industry consultants like Bill Larkin from Executive Alliance and of course, the host of the event and global leader in workforce management solutions, Kronos.

But the undeniable highlight of the morning were the panelists:

David Almeda, VP of HR at Kronos.
Russ Campanello, Senior VP of HR and Administration of Phase Forward
Jack Lane, VP HR of Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare

It's not everyday you get to spend time with such capable and experienced senior level HR practitioners. These gentlemen are very impressive business executives. As I shared with the group - and I wasn't kidding - this was one of the most informative HR/business conferences I've been to in a while. And I wasn't the only one who expressed that sentiment.

The theme of the meeting was talent management. Specifically, how companies have integrated their talent management with their business strategy. And how it has contributed to revenue growth.

Some of my takeaways from the networking session:

• How does HR get a "seat at the table"? Earn it by delivering the human resources to make the business successful.
• The most important job of HR is to deliver the workforce to meet the strategic needs of the business.
• HR is the supply chain for for the growth of the business.
• Read Peter Cappelli's book Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty.
  
• HR must help get people into positions where they can be most effective. The 9-box grid is a useful tool.
  
• One panelist offered his insights on viewing talent management as 8 "buckets" from attraction/employee branding to systems/processes and globalization.
• Whatever your buckets, another panelist said the value in HR comes from the horizontal integration of your talent management buckets (slices).
• How organizations value HR is directly correlated with the value they place on people.

The backgrounds of our three HR executive panelists is interesting. Of course all had decades of proven success in human resource management. But they also had business degrees, a few had MBA's and all had successful experience in non-HR positions from general management to marketing and sales. How can you not have a solid grasp of business knowledge and experience in a position that is so strategically important to the company? You can't. If you are in HR, make a note of that.

Another observation I had while listening to these HR executives was the disconnect between how they view and value HR versus how some HR vendors position the value of their products/services. To illustrate this point lets take a common metric that many vendors focus on when selling the value of their services: "time to hire". And lets compare it to a variation of this metric: "time to contribute". There is a subtle yet important difference. The former is backward looking and cannot be found on a financial statement and by itself it is arguably useless (e.g., you can hire a ton of people really quick but they are the WRONG people).

The later is more strategic, can be directly linked to a financial statement and will likely resonate more with a manager. It is the start of a meaningful business conversation.

A recent discussion I had with Joe Impastato, the CEO of nowHIRE, illustrates this point. One of nowHIRE's products is a talent acquisition software solution for companies that do high volume (hourly) hiring. When Joe describes his solutions to me he does not use the software jargon that is usually associated with talent management products. Joe talks a lot about how HR can be a "profit center" in organizations that do high volume hiring - and he has hard data to support this. The messaging is subtle yet powerful and resonates with business executives more effectively that a features and benefits sell.

Take a fresh look at your messaging. Does it speak to senior level business executives and managers?

Post by HRmarketer CEO Mark Willaman. Join Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.