How Postcards Can Help Ease Your Company’s “Now Hiring” Woes

In the wake of the Great Resignation, many companies are discovering that they must adapt their “Now Hiring” marketing strategies to meet the demands of a changing workforce. As companies face new challenges in the post-pandemic hiring climate, Taradel has taken a particular interest in identifying which strategies are proving most effective in helping to overcome the specific hiring difficulties our clients face so that they can continue to find quality candidates to fill their roles.  

To aid in our understanding, we interviewed Laura Bowyer, Executive Assistant at Hilite International—a manufacturer and supplier of automotive parts located in Whitehall, Minnesota—about how hiring has changed for them over the last few years and how direct mail is playing a critical role in their new hire marketing campaigns. 

The "Now Hiring" Campaigns Getting Results

Hilite International is a fairly small facility with about 300 employees who largely work in assembly and manufacturing roles. According to Laura, one of the biggest changes they’ve had to make has been in their approach to advertising employment opportunities to their target audience.

“It used to be years ago that you could put an ad in the newspaper and that did the trick, but with the rise of social media that’s changed a lot—so companies, us included, have to be mindful of Facebook and social media sites,” Laura explained. 

In addition, Hilite has had difficulties hiring for in-person manufacturing roles, particularly as more and more job seekers are favoring positions that can be done remotely or with schedule flexibility. This difficulty, Laura told us, extends not only to hiring, but also to employee retention, which has led to an even greater need to get “now hiring” advertisements in front of as many potential applicants as possible. 

Thankfully, they’ve seen a lot of success in meeting these challenges with some of their recent new hire marketing campaigns—and especially with direct mail advertisements. 

“We’ve been very encouraged with Taradel. The postcards are reaching more homes and getting in front of more applicants,“ Laura told us. 

There are a number of ways direct mail advertising improves the likelihood of drawing in more applicants, the most obvious of which is that a well-designed “Now Hiring” postcard places essential information about the job and how to apply directly in front of the recipient. Once the card is in their hands, the target audience can easily act on the information—or pass the card onto a friend or relative who might be seeking the sort of work being advertised. 

Direct mail can also help to reach applicants who may not use social media for their job searches. Rural areas with poor internet service are a great example of untapped pools of job seekers who would be more than happy to respond to a direct mail “Now Hiring” ad. Of course, rural or not, local campaigns tend to work with any sort of applicant. As opposed to being “out of sight, out of mind” as the saying goes, direct mail puts job information “top of sight” and “top of mind.” 

Direct Mail for the "Now Hiring" Win 

In the case of Hilite International, their most recent round of postcards in their new hire marketing campaign was a sleek, simple advertisement of the open positions that included the offered pay, the website, and a QR code leading to the application. Laura told us that this alone has gotten them 3-4 calls a day asking for more information about the open positions. 

Hilite’s local campaigns have been targeted at areas within reasonable driving distance of the company, but Taradel’s direct mail service can be customized to cover any area that a company wants to advertise in to reach its target audience. 

“I absolutely love that we’re able to pick the different zip codes that we want,” said Laura, indicating how easy it is to shape a campaign around a desired area or demographic.

In future campaigns, Laura tells us that they plan to update their postcards to include job benefits, which, she added, is made very easy with the tools and templates provided by Taradel’s service. 

Hilite International definitely plans on continuing to use direct mail advertising to seek job candidates as they continue adapting to the new job market. “We know it’s an effective way to get the message out,” Laura informed us, and while there’s no exact way to measure what the future of hiring will look like, an adaptive approach seems to have the best thing for keeping the company well-staffed and thriving. 

If you are interested in trying out Taradel’s digital advertising or direct mail services to launch your company’s next new hire marketing campaign, you can find us here.