Liz Sheffield Copywriting

Insider Insights for Raising ROI

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Advos by HR Marketer

Photo by Proxyclick Visitor Management System on Unsplash

On Friday I had the opportunity to catch up with Rhonda Taylor from HR Marketer. In addition to reminiscing about SHRM Annual, Rhonda gave me a peek at HR Marketer’s new platform: Advos.

“I knew you’d be blown away,” Rhonda said.

And I was.

Let’s face it, for today’s marketers there’s a lot to manage. Blog posts. Conference content. Half a dozen social media platforms. Influencers. Networks. Press releases.

And, don’t forget the metrics and data behind all that content and social media interaction.

Without the right tools, it can be overwhelming.

So many clicks, but do they drive results?

HR Marketer understands that overwhelm. They saw the need to help HR product and service providers get their message to the right people at the right time.

“One organization I spoke to had 6,500 clicks on their webinar,” Rhonda said. “When the actual event happened? Not one person showed up.”

With bots behind many of the clicks, this scenario isn’t uncommon. It’s daunting for anyone trying to make their brand known in the HR marketplace. How can brands build trust and connect with the right thought leaders to make sure their message is heard?

HR Marketer offers a solution to help you get results

From what Rhonda showed me, Advos (powered by HR Marketer) has the tools HR service providers need to get a handle on their marketing.

Whether you’re a single person managing HR marketing, or an entire team of marketers, Advos offers:

  • Opportunities to connect with advocates, analysts and ambassadors
  • Social management of your own accounts, as well as interacting with thought leaders and monitoring competitors
  • Information about events, speaking opportunities, and awards
  • Simple processes to distribute news releases to expand your reach

Forget about jumping from platform to platform to manage all of the above…with Advos, it’s all under one roof. That makes a huge time savings for an HR marketing team.

What I love most about HR Marketer is that they never stop. Not only have they blown this new platform out of the water, they are adding new features related to press release notifications and ways for this system to integrate directly with sales systems.

Check in with Rhonda and the team to get your personal demo.

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Entice HR buyers to visit your trade show booth

I recently highlighted the steps that Archbright, an HR services provider, took to make their HR trade show booth stand out at the Lake Washington HR Association (LWHRA) Annual conference. The steps are:

  1. Use a current trend to draw in your audience.
  2. Entice visitors via social channels prior to the conference.
  3. Follow up after the conference to maximize your investment.

As promised, I’m going to look at each step in detail over the next few weeks.

In my previous post, I mentioned how coloring books geared towards adults have become very popular in recent years. The marketing team at Archbright used this trend to generate interest before, during, and after the conference. They brought in a coloring wall to their booth. It was a huge success.

What are some other current trends you could use to entice prospects to visit your booth?

Capitalize on trendy brands

Photo by Matt Hoffman on Unsplash

My husband regularly attends IT conferences, and we’ve been thrilled to see him walk in the door with branded Hydro Flasks and YETI mugs from the events he attends.

These are not only high quality, but they’re also useful, and they keep your product or service top of mind. Giving prospects something from a trendy, high-quality brand also subtly suggests that your product or service is high quality, too.

Make your mark stick

Photo by Paul Esch-Laurent on Unsplash

In the past several years, digital stickers have become a new way of communicating online. They’re also popular in print—with people using them to mark their territory.

Many people use stickers as a name tag on their notebooks, water bottles, or other items at work. These are a fun way to add some spark to your HR trade show booth that won’t cost a lot of money and are easy for prospects to immediately put to use.

Inspire charitable donations

Photo by Bert Ferranco on Unsplash

We hear a lot about how younger workers want to make an impact. I believe that’s true for all ages, so think about ways your HR trade show booth can help your prospects with their philanthropic desires. Offer them a way to #dogood at your booth. Rather than loading participants up with more stuff they might throw away, offer a way to recycle an everyday item.

For example, collect old shoes at the conference and tally how many pairs you collect. Snap photos as people donate and post those on social media. Celebrate the donation by sending participants an email with the number of shoes you collected and highlight your pile of shoes on social media. People want to make a difference—help them do so at your booth.

Support the environment

Photo by Célina Rohrbach on Unsplash

There’s a trend to remove plastic straws from restaurants.

Help participants support the environment by offering them a reusable stainless steel straw.

This may not be a budget-friendly option, but it will be an item people remember.

Offer options for wellness

Photo by Lynda Sanchez on Unsplash

The current trend at work is a sense of overwhelm. That’s probably even truer for the HR professionals visiting your booth. No way around it…they have a lot of stressful “people emergencies” to manage in their roles. The concept of wellness is top of mind for them professionally and personally. Offer some quick options for their wellness. A few easy ideas include:

  • A bag of chamomile tea to help prospects get to sleep after a long day at the conference.
  • A laminated card of simple yoga poses to practice
  • A clip-on pedometer to use while they walk at the conference. (There are some inexpensive options out there!)

 

These are just a few ideas for how you can use trends to inspire a great concept for your next conference booth. If you use one, let me know. And if you have other ideas to share, please be sure to leave a comment below.

Check back next week when I’ll be offering tips for how to use social to entice prospects to stop by your booth!

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How to make your HR trade show booth as engaging as possible

HR conferences offer a great way to meet and engage with the HR community.

But when you’re in a line of five, ten, or dozens of vendors, how do you stand out? And more importantly, how do you maximize the value of your investment?

Thanks to Facebook, I recently spotted an outstanding approach from Archbright, a provider of HR and legal advice based in Seattle.

Their approach highlights three important steps in deploying a successful conference booth:

  1. Use a current trend to draw in your audience.
  2. Entice visitors via social channels prior to the conference.
  3. Follow up after the conference to maximize your investment.

Use a current trend to draw in your audience

Everyone from researchers at Johns Hopkins University to the editors of Yoga Journal is talking about the wellbeing benefits of coloring. Archbright capitalized on the trend and brought a coloring wall to the LWHRA Annual Conference’s tradeshow floor. Their approach also incorporated the conference theme, “Get Focused—Cut Out the Noise!”

Invite visitors via social channels prior to the conference.

The day before the conference, Archbright reminded attendees that they’d be there…with the coloring wall ready and available for use. This served not only as a reminder to stop by, but also gave a large visual that made it easy to find Archbright’s booth among the others.

Follow up after the conference to maximize your investment.

Finally, Archbright used momentum from this engaging technique to remain connected. They posted “after” photos of the coloring walls displayed in their common work areas, and mentioned how members, visitors, and their team were going to finish what they’d started at the conference.

As you plan the booth for your next HR conference, look for ways to make your booth as engaging as possible:

  • Use a current trend draw in your audience.
  • Entice visitors via social channels prior to the conference.
  • Follow up after the conference to maximize your investment.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be publishing specific suggestions and ideas for each of these steps. Be sure to come back to get more tips for your next HR trade show booth!

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How will I know this is the best solution?

After a nearly 20-year hiatus, I’ve started playing tennis again.

It’s fun. It’s fast-paced. And, it’s frightening. (Yes, that’s an odd combination of adjectives.)

Fun? I love whacking that ball. There’s nothing quite as satisfying…especially if it’s a good hit.

Fast-paced? My coach knows just how to keep us moving around the court.

Frightening? I’m returning to something I played when I was younger. I was faster. And I had all the time in the world to practice. Now I have some internal fears about the game:

  • Will I hit the ball out of the park? (Great in baseball, not so great in tennis.)
  • Can my feet get me to the net in time for that volley?
  • If I move up to the next level of play, will I be laughed off the court?

You may not be meeting prospects on tennis courts, but chances are they have some fears about your offering.

Questions that might be on their mind:

  • How will I know this is the best solution?
  • Can I convince the leadership team this is what we need to move the business forward?
  • What happens if this product or service fails us like the last one did?

There’s a lot riding on prospects’ decisions—feelings of success, fiscal responsibility, their professional reputation.

To be effective, your content marketing has to address the fears that come up:

  • How does someone know your solution is the best choice?
  • How can they convince leaders this is what they need?
  • What type of support do you provide when things go wrong?

Get clear about your answers to these questions. Then find a way to weave those answers into your content marketing. Communicate your commitment to their success.

Understand your prospect’s fear. Then, show them how to keep the ball in the park.

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LGBTQ Inclusion and Diversity Training

As the workforce continues to diversify, it’s increasingly important for employers to do all they can to create supportive, respectful and inclusive work environments — including having an LGBTQ diversity and inclusion policy that is reinforced through diversity training.

By expanding diversity and inclusion policies to support the needs of LGBTQ talent more extensively, organizations can reap a host of benefits.

“With an engaged, diverse, and inclusive workforce, you are fostering an environment where employees are productive, feel valued and feel free to express ideas that may be the next big ‘change’ to move your company forward,” says Mollie Mantia, Director of Compliance for Talent Products at ADP. “Additionally, employees who feel valued are more than likely to send referrals your way.”

Click here to read the article.

 

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CPR: Should Your Employees Be Certified?

No one wants to imagine a medical emergency in the workplace, but unfortunately they do happen. Being prepared means more than having an office first-aid kit on hand — it means having designated employees who are trained to respond to a variety of emergency situations.

Training employees on what to do in an emergency can mean all the difference if the worst happens. Even short of such crises, emergency-response training comes with other advantages, from increased employee engagement to compliance with Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) requirements.

Click here to read the full article published at The Benefits Guide.