MARKETING MATTERS
Marketing Through COVID-19
A Hiring Opportunity for
Paving Companies
MONICA PITTS
If finding the right people for the right seats on the bus is your challenge, get ready to fill the bus.
A
s many businesses are forced to close up
shop, many places keep paving on. As I
drive down the main roads of my com-
munity, it’s one big work zone. The side-
walks are out, the intersections are dug up; it’s a
beautiful bright spot in all this mess.
Employees are feeling the crunch as other
industries struggle to keep their heads above
water creating an opportunity for paving and
construction companies to fill their employ-
ment bus.
Hiring has transitioned from HR to a mar-
keting activity, which feels pretty foreign if most
of your projects are won by low-bid or funded
by state and local government. So many pav-
ing companies suffer from a lack of marketing
horsepower. They haven’t invested in building
the online presence necessary to compete in the
job market today.
Now is the time to fix all that.
About the only place you can’t get
COVID-19 is online. Website traffic is primed
to go through the roof. The first metrics are out
according to Forbes, internet hits in Europe for
areas with enforced self-isolation policies are
up 70% over pre-COVID internet usage. You
have a captive audience (in some cases literally)
to share your message.
Here’s where you need to focus to make the
most of hiring opportunities during this time.
Lean into social media.
I know, you thought I was going to say list
your jobs out on Indeed and LinkedIn. That’s
obvious, yes—definitely do that. But right
now, people are freaking out, putting decision
making on hold. The person you want to hire
isn’t necessarily looking for a job yet, but they
might be feeling the crunch, or be afraid that
their job might not be there much longer.
They’re at the beginning of the buying cycle,
realizing they may have a problem and consid-
ering solutions to the challenge. You can be a
www.callape.com
potential solution. The people on a job website
are ready to buy, they’re looking for a new job.
So put your listings out there to scoop them up
when they’re ready to buy. On social media lean
into education and relationship building.
According to the New York Times during the
week of March 24, 2020, overall U.S. traffic
from Facebook to other websites increased by
more than 50% from the week before. That’s
where I recommend you focus your efforts
right now. With everybody marooned at home,
bored out of their minds, people want to con-
nect more than ever before. People are on social
media, many of them probably already regret
the decision to rejoin social media, but they’re
out there nonetheless.
You need to put a little money behind your
efforts. The people that you have in your fol-
lowing already know you and would already
consider working with you. We need to get in
front of new people.
Start by boosting a post. You could invest as
little as $10 on Facebook and get great results.
It could just be a testimonial from an employee
about how great you are to work for or a staff
photo with an, “oh, by the way, we’re accepting
applications”. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
It just needs to start the conversation to plant
a seed in the viewer’s mind that you may be a
solution to the problem that they’re starting to
feel.
Take your process online.
In general, your website needs to be ready to
take applications online. Especially now, when
for safety reasons you don’t want to invite peo-
ple in to fill out applications. But taking your
hiring process online is more than just getting
an email form on your website. How much of
your process can you virtualize? Make it easy to
schedule interviews using a service like Calend-
ly to speed up setting appointments, the basic
package is free. And much of your interview
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process can take place over a service like Zoom
so you can see people face-to-face. They don’t
have to have a computer to use Zoom, a cell
phone will do, then you can look them in the
eyes when you’re talking. Regardless of your
tactic, bring the process online and make it as
streamlined as possible.
Update the hiring section of your website.
The grass needs to be greener on your side
of the fence. The cool people that you want
to work for you may be in pain but many still
have jobs, they might even like where they
work. They need to understand you are also
cool people and great to work for. Some of
this “coolness” should be spread on social me-
dia and it also needs to extend to your online
home—a.k.a. your website.
Make sure your site really sounds like you.
Not too polished, not too rough but like you.
And delete those stupid photos of people who
don’t work for you. Replace them with actual
pictures of your team. Even if you have to take
them on your iPhone, those photos will be
more real than any stock photo could ever be.
Review your careers section. You may need
more than one page. People seeking entry level
employment have different concerns and con-
siderations than those people qualified to move
into management roles. Create a page for each.
Tell them the benefits that you offer and why
it’s a great place to work. Share quotes from
their potential peers.
Make a move online.
Right now, as a paving company, I’d invest
my marketing dollars online with a focus on
hiring. As this pandemic unfolds and if paving
continues, your community will present more
and more riders willing to fill the seats on your
bus. Now is the opportunity to meet them
where they are—online.
1.800.210.5923