Stable Orbit - Article FeedThoughts and explorations of digital marketing and professional consulting.2023-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.stable-orbit.com/Stable Orbit Teamsales@stable-orbit.comMeet CDP, your new BFF2021-11-15T00:00:00Zhttps://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/cdp-basics/Multichannel marketers owe it to themselves to get acquainted with CDP — a tool that can unlock clean, comprehensive data to drive segmentation and targeting across all channels, from web to mobile to email and direct print.<p>Most modern organizations have accumulated a wealth of information about their customers and their behavior. Some of them use portions of this data very well, some not at all, but very rarely is ALL the available customer information leveraged across the COMPLETE organization.</p>
<p>The opportunity cost of not taking full advantage of such a rich dataset can be huge. Forrester estimates that properly leveraging this data can increase conversion rates, improve customer retention and reduce the size of advertising and marketing budgets. Surprisingly, according to one survey, only 12% of marketers report high confidence in the accuracy of the data they manage (1.)</p>
<blockquote class="pull-quote">Only 12% of marketers report high confidence in the accuracy of the data they manage. (Forrester)</blockquote>
<p>To meet this challenge by taking control of valuable data, the industry has created the concept of a "Customer Data Platform" or CDP. This is a data synchronization layer that can consolidate all the disparate data points an organization has into a unified view of each individual customer while ensuring that required privacy protections are in place. This data is often sourced from a wide variety of data stores, including in-house CRM and eCommerce records, 3rd party analytics data sources such as Google Analytics and social media sentiment monitors. By leveraging all available data, a CDP is able to use deterministic and probabilistic methods to provide a unified view of each customer.</p>
<p>If your organization is looking to get better at all aspects of cross channel marketing, then one of the first key steps is to take control over the data you have today and make it accessible to all of your marketing channels. Often is the case that real-time personalization is available on the website, but not on the mobile app and only partially in email communications. This is often a telltale sign of siloed data solutions or that the very best data isn't being shared across all customer touchpoints.</p>
<p>OpenText CDP is a healthy first step towards addressing this common problem. Built on best of breed Open-Source technology and time-tested solutions, OT CDP gives digital marketers control over their data and allows them to make informed decisions on how to target their content efficiently. Because OpenText CDP can integrate with any data silos your organization may have and unify that information into a single view of your audience members, you can make smarter decisions around what content and offers are best to serve up to each and every one of them.</p>
<blockquote class="pull-quote">Unifying your data allows you to make smarter decisions on what content and offers to show each member of your audience, across EVERY channel.</blockquote>
<p>A CDP never works alone. If you combine its power with that of other linchpins of the OpenText ecosystem, you can establish a new level of marketing agility. With OpenText WCMS, you can quickly create and deliver content, at scale and with OpenText DAM you can leverage and target your rich media assets across digital channels.</p>
<p>If you would like more information on how OpenText CDP and other technologies can empower your organization, fuel true personalization and increase conversions across all your channels, Stable Orbit would love to help. <a href="https://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/cdp-basics/#contact-form" class="scrolly" onClick="setTimeout(function(){document.getElementById('name').focus()}, 500)">Click here</a> to find out how.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.treasuredata.com/resources/forrester-cdp-roi-802-percent/">Forrester Consulting: Treasure Data CDP ROI at 802% ROI - Treasure Data</a></p>
The Stable Orbit Executive Review2021-12-18T00:00:00Zhttps://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/executive-review/The Executive Review is the simplest, fastest way to engage the Stable Orbit team to help improve your digital experience (DX) practice. Whether you're deep into OpenText technology or just testing the waters, we can assist you with practical answers and an actionable plan.<p><strong>Over the years, one of the most popular engagement types we've been involved in are Executive Reviews</strong>. They're a time-boxed / cost-limited opportunity to connect, get to know each other and how we work together. A team of Stable Orbit subject matter experts will capture your business needs and strengths to then build a concrete plan that will power you towards success.</p>
<blockquote> The basic premise of the Review is to hit the ground running and in a few short weeks, frame a practical strategy and plan of action that fit your exact needs. The end result should give you clarity and confidence, no matter your starting point or your end goals.</blockquote>
<p>If you'd like to chat with our team and explore how Stable Orbit and the OpenText technology stack could contribute to your DX practice, have a look at the fact sheet below then <a href="https://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/executive-review/#contact-form" class="scrolly" onClick="setTimeout(function(){document.getElementById('name').focus()}, 500)"><strong>contact us</strong></a> to get the conversation started.</p>
<hr />
<a href="https://www.stable-orbit.com/assets/files/StableOrbit-Executive-Review-v1.0.pdf" target="_blank">
<img src="https://www.stable-orbit.com/assets/images/articles/one-pager-preview.jpg" class="image fit" alt="Click on the image to load the PDF in another tab" />
</a>
<hr />
<h1>Executive Review</h1>
<h2>Marketing Success, Accelerated</h2>
<p>There’s no way around it: adopting digital experience software is a considerable
investment in time and money. As with any other investment, you should expect a
tangible return – results that align with your strategic goals, increase your impact in the
market while adding to your bottom line.</p>
<p>The <strong>Stable Orbit Executive Review</strong> is both a process of open discussion and a set of
focused, practical deliverables. The main goal is to inform your key decision-makers on
how the OpenText ecosystem of digital experience (DX) products can help your team grow
in confidence and achieve real success. The Review is a highly personalized dialog between
your leadership and a team of Stable Orbit's subject matter experts. Through a series of
working sessions, we will capture your current projects, future goals and feed these into
a useful plan of action. Thanks to the open format and focused deliverables, we will meet
you where you are with clear, actionable advice.</p>
<p>The final report and briefing will include valuable insights into Digital Experience trends,
risks to your organizational goals and will spotlight where OpenText's suite of tools and
products can best fit into your existing ecosystem.</p>
<h2>OBJECTIVES AND DELIVERABLES</h2>
<p>Our workshops are a discovery event allowing both your organization and Stable Orbit to
identify how OpenText solutions can help fuel your marketing strategy. Both teams will
come away with a list of action items and next steps.</p>
<h3>Stable Orbit Objectives</h3>
<ul>
<li>Understand your current situation, applications and projects</li>
<li>Understand the business challenges that affect your organization</li>
<li>Understand your unique strategic goals, both short and long term</li>
</ul>
<h3>Stable Orbit Deliverables</h3>
<ul>
<li>Underline what’s possible with OpenText technology and how it can help you</li>
<li>Highlight where your organization can improve through best practices</li>
<li>Develop a roadmap or medium-term plan for the use of OpenText technology</li>
</ul>
<h2>EXECUTIVE REVIEW TOPICS</h2>
The best way to make these briefings successful is to focus in on your specific needs.
Depending on where you stand in your journey, we may choose to narrow the
conversation to a specific topic, allowing us to more directly and immediately contribute
to your success.
<br />
<br />
<h3>Example Topics</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Health Check</strong> – An examination of the current solution infrastructure, leading to
a prioritized list of actionable items aimed at maximum positive impact.</li>
<li><strong>Move to the Cloud</strong> – A strategy to upgrade and migrate existing infrastructure to
the cloud. The output is a road map of short / medium / long term goals.</li>
<li><strong>Architectural Review</strong> – To help clients who are running new OpenText projects
achieve success, we execute a review of recommended architecture and design.</li>
<li><strong>Content Migration</strong> – Moving content and assets into TeamSite can be a complex
undertaking. We prepare a plan on how to most smoothly migrate existing
content and assets onto your new platform.</li>
</ul>
<p>Photo Credit: zhang kaiyv from <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/time-lapse-photography-of-brown-concrete-building-842654/">Pexels</a></p>
Banking Transformed2022-03-30T00:00:00Zhttps://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/digital-experience-financial-industry/How to leverage the OpenText suite of tools to personize messaging for the financial industry.<script type="text/javascript" src="https://demandcentral.opentext.com/LearnMore/CSInject.js"></script>
<iframe id="AVCSFrame" leadguid="67857347-f768-4b4e-b242-c60b2851e510" src="https://demandcentral.opentext.com/UserData/777/Mailings/b86257fb-d1e8-4548-a87d-eea86a7fe766.htm" style="width: 100%; border: none;"></iframe>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://demandcentral.opentext.com/Library/js/plugins/iframe-resizer-master/js/iframeResizer.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript"> iFrameResize({ autoResize: true}, '#AVCSFrame');</script>Emerging use cases for DAM2022-04-08T00:00:00Zhttps://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/dam-use-cases/Exploring unconventional, not-traditional applications of DAM technology.<script type="text/javascript" src="https://demandcentral.opentext.com/LearnMore/CSInject.js"></script>
<iframe id="AVCSFrame" leadguid="e575f1d4-5f6d-4200-986a-29bfa025a4d0" src="https://demandcentral.opentext.com/UserData/777/Mailings/8c31f5c6-3b1e-42f2-817d-2f2333852a43.htm" style="width: 100%; border: none;"></iframe>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://demandcentral.opentext.com/Library/js/plugins/iframe-resizer-master/js/iframeResizer.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript"> iFrameResize({ autoResize: true}, '#AVCSFrame');</script>Data Entropy and Other Cosmic Marketing Challenges2023-03-27T23:39:27Zhttps://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/entropy-and-other-cosmic-marketing-challenges/The universe is defined by the slow, unending and ultimately fatal loss of energy. The same principle applies to your marketing data. Are you doing everything possible to make sure your data stays recent, clean, actionable and available to all your channels?<blockquote>
<p><strong>en·tro·py [ˈentrəpē]</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>PHYSICS -
a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system:</li>
<li>lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>In a competitive market, staying on top of branding challenges is critical, but so too is keeping your marketing data up to date, clean and aligned with your overall marketing strategy. Let's examine, in broad strokes, how to fight the good fight against the slow degradation and eventual chaos caused by <strong>data entropy</strong>.</p>
<h2>Fighting Entropy</h2>
<p>The universe is defined by the slow, unending, ultimately fatal loss of energy. After all, even the brightest star is slowly spiraling down towards an eventual "heat death".</p>
<p>This same principle applies to your digital marketing work. You're always bleeding customers, relevance, attention. Your brand identity needs to be kept current and under control. Your products or services and how you sell them require constant vigilance in a world where obsolescence is always a hair's-breadth away.</p>
<p>The only thing in this world that ages faster than data might be fashion, which is often old by the time it hits the shelf. Every day, every single byte is another 24 hours out of date. Are you still capturing the info you need? Is your data clean and available to all your channels? What unknown information will be critical tomorrow but needs to be captured today?</p>
<h2>Your Brand Requires Constant Attention</h2>
<p>The creative people who manage your brand and generate your content are constantly trying to keep ahead of the curve. On a daily basis, they come up with clever new designs, engaging visuals and punchy copy. Their work helps maintain and improve your position in the market, and in verticals with a heavy emphasis on design and customer experience, such as fashion, automotive and consumer technology, <em>creativity is nothing less than a survival skill</em>. It's critical to keep a close eye on ever-changing trends while still differentiating yourself from the pack. It may be a stimulating challenge to succeed in a competitive space but it certainly isn't easy.</p>
<p>If your brand is on the move, then so is the competition's. How then can you avoid falling behind in the global stampede for relevancy?</p>
<h2>Your Data Needs Attention, Too</h2>
<p>If you invest all you must in establishing and maintaining your market presence and brand perception, you can't then suddenly turn away from your responsibility to maintain a first-class marketing data practice. If you're using targeting or personalization on any scale, you need data. Good data. Clean data. Recent data. If you're guiding your communications across every customer touchpoint using data, you need a comprehensive profile and record of transactions, messaging, feedback and sentiment.</p>
<p>Like any high-performance engine, targeted digital marketing in ecommerce requires a lot of different types of data:</p>
<ul>
<li>Product and inventory</li>
<li>Website and app analytics</li>
<li>Loyalty program activity</li>
<li>In-store (i.e. brick and mortal) analytics</li>
<li>Call center phone notes/logs</li>
<li>...and more</li>
</ul>
<p>If you are indeed capturing all of that information, how are getting it all into a consolidated, up-to-date profile? Can you convince those systems to work well together? It's not always immediately obvious how that's even possible. On top of it all, how can you measure the ROI of all that effort?</p>
<p>The answers vary. You don't actually have to do everything at once, or even ever. You need to focus, prioritize, and that all starts with preparing a current "Situation Report" or SitRep.</p>
<div class="box"><p>One way to consolidate and manage your data from various sources, including 1st party and 3rd party data, is a <strong>Customer Data Platform (or "CDP")</strong>. That's a broader discussion for another time but it's a tool worth considering if you're looking to get your arms all the way around your customer data and could use some help.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/entropy-and-other-cosmic-marketing-challenges/#contact-form" class="scrolly" onclick="setTimeout(function(){document.getElementById('name').focus()}, 500)">Contact us</a> if you'd like to discuss how a CDP could solve many of your customer data problems.</p></div>
<h2>SitRep - The (Current) Situation Report</h2>
<p>Before you can draw a meaningful data roadmap, you need to know where you stand. That means cataloguing all of the hard (official) and soft (unofficial, anecdotal) data sources you have access to. Qualify the state of each source:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Fields captured</strong> - Each individual piece of data.</li>
<li><strong>Source</strong> - Who creates this data, where/who does it come from?</li>
<li><strong>Recency and Churn</strong> - How old is the data? How often is it updated?</li>
<li><strong>Triggers</strong> - What events (if any) will trigger a new record or an update?</li>
<li><strong>Regulatory/Governance</strong> - Are there any concerns around this data that need consideration?</li>
</ul>
<p>Ideally, you can draw up a picture of the flows through typical customer journeys and position each spark of data interaction somewhere on that graph. Both data capture and data creation events matter, as do the types of information that are captured and how that information can be legally/ethically stored and used.</p>
<p>These points of contact with the customer are ultimately what will fuel the success of your data-driven strategy, as we steer your leads towards meaningful conversions using powerful personalization, recommendation and targeting tools.</p>
<div class="box">
<span class="align-center strong" style="width:100%; display:block;"><strong>Graphic - Example flows + data-changing events</strong></span>
<a href="https://www.stable-orbit.com/assets/images/articles/events-graph.png" target="_blank">
<img src="https://www.stable-orbit.com/assets/images/articles/events-graph.png" class="image fit" style="max-height:600px" alt="Graph showing key events that could trigger data changes such as conversions, notifications, user actions" />
</a>
</div>
Throughout this process of identifying current and potential data capture and use cases, we must remain vigilant to comply with both the regulatory limits on data privacy and corporate policies governing the use of customer-related data. While this is all part of the risk-management portion of our work, it helps us sharpen our pencils to be intentional in all of our efforts. No waste or excess, no opportunity missed. This commitment is critical if we are to overcome the forces of data entropy: data that is understood and well managed is easier to keep clean, compliant and up-to-date.
<h2>Roadmap to the Future</h2>
<p>The next step is to map out -- guided by your established Strategic Priorities and fed by the SitRep -- a realistic but aspirational set of goals. Those will fall under the short to longer term and will provide us with a skeleton to fill out with concrete actions to take and systems to leverage or establish.</p>
<p>You should evaluate each of the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Each piece of data that's being captured, whether on purpose or incidentally</li>
<li>The value of each data point (e.g. Will knowing X improve your ability to convert a lead?)</li>
<li>The opportunities along the journey where pieces of that data could be useful to improve conversion rates (e.g. personalized recommendations) or client retention (e.g. after-sale support information, best practices, answers to common questions)</li>
<li>The urgency of each opportunity
<ul>
<li>Immediate action</li>
<li>Short-term action</li>
<li>Long-term "aspirational" action</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The gaps in your data capture process</li>
<li>The data that is being captured that shouldn't be (not insignificant consideing current regulatory risks)</li>
</ul>
<p>This will give us enough information to prepare a data strategy, both for the human process and the systems that will be required. From there, as consultants, we at Stable Orbit typically do an analysis of the current state of your technology/systems and prepare recommendations for minimal and "aspirational" improvements (if any exist). This process is an open discussion around the value of the individual pieces of data (e.g. the projected revenue for each expected tick up in conversions, including up- and cross-sales) and the cost to achieve those improvements. We then pull together recommended platforms/solutions and with a rought cost estimate. Given the green light, we plan then execute the plan.</p>
<p>Because the execution phase (it's a lot more fun than it sounds) is a pragmatic exercise in achieving measurable results while managing costs, the outlay in effort and investment can be split up into phases, organized to fit into fiscal constraints and throttled based on the ability of your team to support the rate of transformation. This is a team effort, so both our people and yours need to be in synch and delivering together.</p>
<h2>Where From Here?</h2>
<p>Keeping data entropy at bay is possible, and developing a sharp focus on the realities of data's fickle nature allows us to maintain the required discipline to succeed. That positive drive forward is an opportunity to improve the efficiency of and return on our marketing investments. Besides, the technology involved is a lot of fun to work with. When your data "knows" your customers well, it closes the gap between the ask and the offer -- a critical conversion boost and a potential revenue generating game-changer.</p>
<p>There's nothing more valuable than time, and few things are more satisfying than getting what we want, as quickly as possible at a price we're happy to pay. With a well-designed data flow and an engaging customer experience, the sky's the limit to what we can achieve with a clear vision, focused effort and creative imagination.</p>
<p>Even the laws of physics can't stop us, though they'll surely try.</p>
<hr />
<p>Are you up against data entropy challenges of your own? Have you had success in this struggle against data obsolescence? I love talking shop, so if you'd like to continue this conversation in person, drop me a line on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorbastien/">LinkedIn</a> or <a href="mailto:sales@stable-orbit.com?subject=Data_Entropy">email</a></p>
Overlooking the Hidden Segment: HR Marketing2023-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/hr-hidden-segment/Successful companies that depend on a strong workforce are pivoting their marketing firepower towards a completely different audience: potential new hires.<p>We often focus our marketing energy on unearthing potential leads or reinforcing our relationship with paying customers. After all, everyone understands the marketing-to-sales pipeline. However, successful companies are pivoting their marketing firepower towards a completely different audience: potential new hires. Focusing on recruitment is especially important for firms whose product or service depends on fielding a strong workforce.</p>
<p>If you are in that situation, if your ability to compete depends on staffing then you ought to carefully consider your efforts to feed leads into your recruitment pipeline. Are you getting full value out of your marketing horsepower in the talent acquisition space? The answer matters, whether you're a B2C company with a heavy investment in "brick and mortar" customer service or you compete in a B2B market thanks to R&D and a highly skilled workforce.</p>
<h2>What You Value Gets Your Attention</h2>
<p>Over recent years, we've all seen the headlines about "The Great Resignation":</p>
<ul>
<li>10 Million Jobs Went Unfilled in April, Adding to Inflation Pressures — <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/markets/fed-rate-hike-bets-quicken-as-10-million-jobs-go-unfilled-in-april">The Street</a></li>
<li>40% of Workers are Looking to Resign in the Next Year — <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work">Microsoft</a></li>
<li>Quitting Your Job Never Looked So Fun! — <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20211029230029/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/style/quit-your-job.html">New York Times Oct. 29, 2021</a></li>
</ul>
<p>In fact, the narrative that this is a new challenge is somewhat misleading. Non-farm resignations have been steadily rising for over 10 years (<a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/JTSQUR">St. Louis Fed</a>) and started as we exited the 2008 financial crisis. This means that though it may sting to lose key people, a lot of employers (including your competitors) are sharing in your pain. When employee turnover is high, there's little doubt that when push comes to shove, having a strong recruitment pipeline can be a critical competitive advantage.</p>
<img src="https://www.stable-orbit.com/assets/images/stlouisfed-quits.jpg" title="20 Year Trends - U.S. Non-Farm Resignations" alt="Graph showing an upward trend in resignations since 2011" class="image fit" />
<p><strong>The future of your enterprise may depend on the quality of people you bring into the fold.</strong> When it comes to recruitment, HR naturally gets all the attention. However, your Marketing team may well be <em>the key difference-maker in your success or failure</em> to attract and retain solid candidates.</p>
<p>According to Bloomberg:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Almost half of the world’s workers are considering quitting, according to a Microsoft Corp. survey. About 4 in 10 millennial and Gen Z respondents say they’d leave their job if asked to come back to the office full time, a global survey by advisory company Qualtrics International Inc. found—more than any other generation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>What you value gets your attention.</strong> If you value your workforce, if your business success depends on bringing talent onboard <strong>then you must invest in marketing to potential job seekers</strong>. You really don't have much choice.</p>
<h2>If you can sell a product, you can sell a job</h2>
<p>Like any other market, the employment market is driven by supply and demand. In many fields right now but especially in high-tech, engineering and hard science research, the overall demand for talent is higher than the supply. That harsh reality is driving up costs (i.e. salaries, benefits, the cost of the HR "sale") and increasing the competitive pressure on anyone who has to play in that marketplace for workers.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It's up to you to find, attract and convince qualified candidates to choose you over your rivals.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If this sounds familiar to capturing customer leads and moving them along a "customer journey" to conversion, don't be surprised. In fact, we propose that if individual customers are worth targeting, tracking and guiding towards a sale, you should apply the same type of focus on identifying and funneling candidates into the selection and hiring process. The good thing is that if you're used to playing in the ecommerce space, there are a lot of similarities to be found in marketing to candidates.</p>
<p><strong>Finding good candidates is an evergreen problem that's made even more challenging when the job market is particularly tumultuous, as it is right now.</strong> Turnover is expected. People will retire. People will quit. Companies will grow. However, in recent years, the turnover rate at many companies has been unusually high, causing many well-paying, stable jobs to remain open.</p>
<p>Our team has helped clients market to potential new employees, in particular in the high tech space. Though not a comprehensive write-up, what follows are some of our general thoughts and best practices on marketing for HR, "The Hidden Segment". Because you've surely overcome your own unique learning curve in this area, we sincerly welcome your feedback and would love to hear any ideas you have to share.</p>
<p>How have you been able to address this unique and rewarding marketing challenge? What hasn't worked so well?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/hr-hidden-segment/#contact-form" class="scrolly" onClick="setTimeout(function(){document.getElementById('name').focus()}, 500)">Let us know.</a></p>
<h2>It's Still Just Marketing</h2>
<p>There are many similarities between selling in ecommerce and in capturing new hire candidacies online. If you describe the basic features of each, you'll find they overlap quite a bit.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><h2>Marketing</h2></th>
<th>VS</th>
<th><h2>Recruitment</h2></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Existing Customers</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td><strong>Existing and past employees or contractors</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>— These people already have a good idea of what you can do for them. <br />— Satisfy their needs and support their use and enjoyment of your services. <br />— Encourage word-of-mouth marketing.</td>
<td></td>
<td>— These people know you well. <br />— If they are good at their jobs, you want them to stick around.<br />— You also want them to bring in strong friends (make employees into champions).<br />— Ensure fair compensation, a healthy work-life balance and meaningful work to accomplish.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Potential Leads</strong></td>
<td></td>
<td><strong>Potential Candidates</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>— These folks may not know much about you. Aim to make a good impression, establish an identity and a voice.<br />— Project a sense of quality and ability.<br />— Drive paying customers steadily toward the sale.</td>
<td></td>
<td>— These folks may not know much about you. Aim to make a good first impression, establish an identity and voice.<br />— Project a sense of trustworthiness to steadily drive curious job-seekers toward submitting their candidacy.<br />— Drive <em>attractive</em> candidates to apply. Separate the wheat from the chaff.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Use your UX Smarts</h3>
<p>Over the years, I've seen some... sub-optimal candidate experiences. Perhaps you have also. It can be a painful experience that gives people a very poor first impression of an organization. Likewise, it's amazing how leaning into the familiar experiential language of a shopping flow can grease the skids for people to comfortably submit a job application.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, the constructs we use repeatedly in our B2C UX designs can be hugely useful in the HR space. Candidates are nearly all entirely comfortable adding ecommerce products to a wish list or a cart, populating an account profile and completing a purchase. Build on that existing comfort to create your candidacy experience.</p>
<p>Remember: you're competing against not only other firms in the marketplace but, in the UX sense, against the familiar user experiences that candidate visitors trust and use every day. (Think Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, etc.)</p>
<ul>
<li>Make it easy to search for and filter open positions and subscribe to email updates when a suitable job opening comes up.</li>
<li>As soon as a user sees a job posting that might fit, have them add it to a "favorites" shortlist.</li>
<li>Make it easy for them to apply to multiple openings at the same time.</li>
<li>Find a way to invite failed but promising past candidates to reapply when a more suitable position comes available.</li>
<li>Allow people to easily share openings with their friends, family and colleagues. Consider giving a gift to successful referrers (but beware of incentivizing spam).</li>
<li>Allow them to create an account and have them consent to you holding some necessary personal information. (This should go into your CRM and from there, populate a candidate "customer" profile in your CDP. Use that profile in your candidate marketing automation flows.)</li>
<li>Capture analytics on referrers and abandonment, optimize your candidacy funnel, maximize conversions and wire in clear attribution for closed "deals".</li>
</ul>
<h2>Main Differences</h2>
<p>Beyond the powerful parallels between selling a product and selling yourself as an employer, there are of course some material differences. These make this area of marketing uniquely challenging.</p>
<h3>Candidates Aren't Fungible</h3>
<p>Money is money, therefore any paying customer is usually a welcome customer. With recruitment, however, you need to weed out potential candidates who just aren't a fit for your company. In part to save them the trouble but also to save you from wasting your most valuable resource: time. Few things are more wasteful than a pointless interview, other than perhaps missing out on someone who goes on to be an all-star somewhere else.</p>
<p>For those reasons, you need to carefully define the <strong>candidate journey</strong> to include off-ramps where you disengage from a candidate.</p>
<h3>It's a BIG Ask</h3>
<p>As opposed to competing in a B2C space where a given lead could spend some of their money with both you and a competitor, employees need to make a hard choice between you and every other possible employer. It's a mutually-exclusive commitment and therefore you're making a more complex and delicate pitch.</p>
<p>Prove your commitment to them and the value of working with you. Demonstrate respect for their skills and consideration. Show that they will be better off and among good people if they join up. In B2C, price is important but it isn't everything. The same applies to hiring: salary is only one (key) variable when competing for talent.</p>
<h2>Pulling it Together</h2>
<p>If you're responsible for selling a premium brand with a high profile, candidates will often come looking for you. The key is to weed out undesirable candidacies and to not drop the ball with a poor onboarding and lead capture process (think CTAs, prime above-the-fold website real estate, etc.) If you're working for a scrappy up-and-coming firm, focus on raising awareness to attract valuable talent. Building your brand equity should be second nature. You might need to work on your SEO in the job-seeker segment while building out multichannel campaigns. Either way, you likely already have skills and tools in-house to get going.</p>
<p>If you need a hand, our team at <strong>Stable Orbit</strong> is here and eager to help you build out your strategy, to both get the most of your existing marketing assets and to add whatever's missing — to push your recruitment marketing strategy to the next level.</p>
<p><strong>Remember: as in any marketplace, you're competing against very smart people who are committed to winning.</strong></p>
<p>Start by setting attainable goals right away. Stick them to the wall in nice, <strong>bold</strong> letters. If you haven't already, look into what the competition is doing (pretend you're a job-seeker) and figure out where you can do even better.</p>
<p><em>Set up a plan, take action, own your market.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.stable-orbit.com/pages/articles/hr-hidden-segment/#contact-form" class="scrolly button" onClick="setTimeout(function(){document.getElementById('name').focus()}, 500)">Talk to Taylor and the team about your HR Marketing goals</a></p>
<p>References:</p>
<ul>
<li>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-12-07/why-people-are-quitting-jobs-and-protesting-work-life-from-the-u-s-to-china</li>
</ul>