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HR professionals spend billions of dollars each year on products and services for their organizations. Have you ever wondered how they make their buying decisions or what source of HR information they use most?

To find out, the HR Sales and Marketing Institute (HRSMI) conducted a survey of HR professionals.  And here are some of the facts... 

Finding: HR professionals first turn to the Web when seeking HR information.

As we’ve seen, social media is a common source of HR information, and this would include HR buyer information. However, not all social media are created equal. Some are better than others for acquiring business-related information. Of those platforms that are used for this purpose, LinkedIn is the clear winner, with 30% of HR professionals using it daily and another 30% weekly. Only 6% never use LinkedIn for business purposes.

Second and third on the list are Facebook and YouTube. About 24% of HR professionals use Facebook at least weekly for business purposes, and 21% use YouTube at least weekly.

How often do you use the following social platforms for business purposes?

What does this mean for the HR solution provider?
To find out what this means and how it influences the HR solution provider, download the full HR Sales and Marketing Institute research report. To access the complete research report, you must be a member of the HR Sales and Marketing Institute. HR Sales and Marketing Institute (HRSMI) is the ONLY community of sales and marketing professionals specifically in the rapidly growing HR marketplace that is here to support your sales and marketing needs and professional growth. 

What is the effectiveness and impact of your marketing efforts? 

To help make sense of marketing efforts and their impact, the HR Marketing Institute has initiated some research: The State of Marketing in the HR Industry: Leverage the Viewpoints of Suppliers to Boost Success Rates. 

One of the questions we asked is “What Is the Effectiveness and Impact of HR Marketing?”

Finding 1: Only half rate overall marketing as highly effective

Half of marketing professionals rate the overall effectiveness of their marketing efforts as high or very high. The other half rate their success as moderate or low. These numbers, while not awful, are not as high as they should be, given the importance of the function.

There are substantial differences between larger and smaller organizations. Whereas 65% of larger organizations rated the overall effectiveness of marketing efforts as high/very high, only 38% of smaller organizations do. While more marketing dollars does not always translate into increased effectiveness, it may be a contributing factor in larger organizations which spend, on average, far more on marketing.

Overall, to what degree are marketing efforts successful in your organization?

 

Finding 2: There are mixed news in regard to the impact of marketing on sales

Let’s start with the bad news first. Nearly two-fifths of respondents (38%) say their companies are not even measuring—or just don’t know—the impact of marketing-generated leads on sales. We see this as an important metric to track.

The better news is that, if we do remove the “Don’t Know” and “Don’t Track” responses, then about 63% of marketing professionals say that more than 20% of sales can be attributed directly to marketing-generated leads. This seems more in line with marketing goals and results in other industries. For larger organizations, the number is 56%.

What percentage of your organization’s total sales can you attribute directly to marketing-generated leads?

 

To find out what this means and how it influences the HR solution provider, download the full HR Marketing Institute research report. To access the complete research report, you must be a member of the HR Marketing Institute. HR Marketing Institute (HRMI) is the ONLY community of marketing professionals specifically in the rapidly growing HR marketplace that is here to support your marketing needs and professional growth. 

HR professionals spend billions of dollars each year on products and services for their organizations. Have you ever wondered how they make their buying decisions, and where do they begin their search?

To find out, the HR Marketing Institute (HRMI) conducted a survey of HR professionals. In a nutshell, this is what we found about where they begin. 

Finding: Buyers typically start their research process by consulting search engines first (60%) and peers (49%) second. 

When researching vendors for HR products or services you may be interested in, what are the two places you typically BEGIN your research? (select up to two)

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When HR professionals begin researching providers of HR products and services, they typically begin by mingling technology-based and human-based resources. That is, they most typically type a query into a search engine and ask their peers what they think.

Why? Search engines such as Google are built using technologies that leverage the collective wisdom of millions if not billions of people. Asking peers does just the opposite, providing insights from just a few trusted people, many of whom will have deep expertise and experience in specific areas of HR.

Finding 2: By some measures, people outweigh technology.

To find out what this means and how it influences the HR solution provider, download the full HR Marketing Institute research report. To access the complete research report, you must be a member of the HR Marketing Institute. HR Marketing Institute (HRMI) is the ONLY community of marketing professionals specifically in the rapidly growing HR marketplace that is here to support your marketing needs and professional growth. 

We all love multi-goal tactics - especially since they can increase your brand/visibility and business generation. However, we’re curious to know...which multi-goal marketing tactics you consider to be the most effective.

We asked Marketing Professionals in the human capital space the same question, and the results from our survey might surprise you...

Today’s Human Capital market is worth $21 billion or more. Moreover, it will continue to grow at an 8% to 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Thousands of suppliers are trying to meet the needs of buyers in this growing industry. With a wide range of solutions, they are vying for a share of their potential customers’ wallets.

To help make sense of this dynamic environment, the newly formed HR Marketing Institute (HRMI) has initiated one of its first pieces of research: The State of Marketing in the HR Industry: Leverage the Viewpoints of Suppliers to Boost Success Rates. 

One of the questions we asked is “Which Multi-Goal Marketing Tactics Are The Most Effective?”

Multi-goal tactics refer to tactics that can serve two purposes: brand/visibility and business generation.

Finding: In-bound call capability is the most effective multi-goal tactic

Multi-goal tactics have an impact on both brand visibility and business generation. Respondents considered in-bound call capability as the most effective practice in this category. The reason we classified it as a multi-purpose strategy is that call centers often answer questions and provide support to current customers as well as handle inquiries from prospects and clients alike on their organization’s solutions.

Tradeshows are also viewed as effective by many. Indeed, our companion research report on HR buyers, The 2018 HR Buying Trends study, revealed that even though buyers may only go to one to two trade shows a year, they often use these as opportunities to interact with suppliers. The key to maximizing expensive tradeshow costs is ensuring you are spending time with the right prospects/customers from the hundreds that may walk by your booth.

New product launches are also considered effective or very effective by three-fifths of respondents. New product launches are, in our view, extremely important. Many companies look at innovative solutions and services as a primary growth driver.

A solid launch requires considerable thought around factors such as pricing, current customer cross-selling/upselling, new client acquisition, field sales force training, crafting strong value propositions, and more. This study confirms what many already suspect: that print advertising has all but disappeared in the HR supplier industry. It has been replaced with more targeted and measurable e-advertising.

Effective Multi-Goal Tactics (% agree and strongly agree)


What does this mean for the HR solution provider?
To find out, download the full HR Marketing Institute research report. To access the complete research report, you must be a member of the HR Marketing Institute. HR Marketing Institute is the ONLY community of marketing professionals specifically in the rapidly growing HR marketplace that is here to support your marketing needs and professional growth. 

To dive deeper into the most effective ways that Marketing professionals can get their brand in front of the HR Buyer, the newly formed HR Marketing Institute (HRMI) has initiated one of its first pieces of research, The State of Marketing in the HR Industry: Leverage the Viewpoints of Suppliers to Boost Success Rates.
To help make sense of this dynamic environment, the newly formed HR Marketing Institute has initiated one of its first pieces of research: The State of Marketing in the HR Industry: Leverage the Viewpoints of Suppliers to Boost Success Rates. 

One of the questions we asked is “Which Marketing Practices Are Most Effective to Promote Brand?”

Finding: Client communications via emails and newsletters represent the most effective Brand practice.

This category deals with tactics that build client loyalty and brand visibility. Client communications via emails and newsletters represent the most effective tactic, being used by 81% of respondents. Although this survey specifically asked about emails and newsletters, client communication vehicles can typically include other tactics such as webinar updates on new products. Their major purpose is to keep clients up-to-date on your company, highlighting its latest thought leadership, market trends and new products.

Fifty-six percent of respondents gave a high effectiveness rating to their Customer Experience (CX) design efforts. CX involves designing customer “journeys,” embedding specific and critical customer touch points along the way. Each touch point is designed in a way that maximizes customer value and satisfaction. A limited number of companies in the HR industry—and many outside—have appointed a CX leader dedicated to working across functions to build and maintain successful journeys.

The third brand tactic in terms of effectiveness is public relations

Of the three top practices in this category, larger organizations tend to outperform smaller ones in the area of CX design and PR. There is no size difference for client communications.

Effective Brand Tactics (% agree and strongly agree)


What does this mean for the HR solution provider?
To find out download the full HR Marketing Institute research report. To access the complete research report, you must be a member of the HR Marketing Institute. HR Marketing Institute (HRMI) is the ONLY community of marketing professionals specifically in the rapidly growing HR marketplace that is here to support your marketing needs and professional growth. 

Today’s Human Capital Market is worth $21 billion or more. Moreover, it will continue to grow at an 8% to 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Thousands of suppliers are trying to meet the needs of buyers in this growing industry. With a wide range of solutions, they are vying for a share of their potential customers’ wallets.

To help make sense of this dynamic environment, the newly formed HR Marketing Institute has initiated one of its first pieces of research: The State of Marketing in the HR Industry: Leverage the Viewpoints of Suppliers to Boost Success Rates.

One of the questions we asked is “What Do HR Marketing Budgets Look Like?”

We looked at two related metrics in regard to marketing budgets:

• total marketing budget
• marketing budgets as a percent of total revenue

Finding 1: Most organizations spend less than $250,000 annually on marketing
Most respondents spend $250,000 or less on marketing, with only 22% spending more than a million dollars. As expected, this metric is influenced by company size. Half of respondents from larger organizations (250 employees or more) spend $1 million or more on marketing, whereas only 10% of smaller organizations (less than 250 employees) do.

Approximately what is your total marketing budget for your current fiscal year (both internal and external costs)?


Finding 2: Marketing budgets as a percent of total revenue point to “frugality”
As a way of gauging the relative size of marketing budgets, the numbers derived from marketing spend as a percent of revenue are more meaningful. Benchmark data across industries show that typical spending across all industries tends to be in the range of 6%-7% of total revenue. However, only 28% of our sample are spending more than 6% while 47% of respondents spend 5% or less. Larger organizations spend, on average, slightly less on marketing as a percent of revenue because of economies of scale.

Note that one in four respondents did not know their organization’s marketing spend as a percent of revenue. This lack of knowledge about a basic marketing metric is disappointing, at best.

What is your total marketing budget for the current fiscal year as a percent of your organization’s total revenue?

 

What does this mean for the HR solution provider?

To find out download the full HR Marketing Institute research report. To access the complete research report, you must be a member of the HR Marketing Institute. HR Marketing Institute (HRMI) is the ONLY community of marketing professionals specifically in the rapidly growing HR marketplace that is here to support your marketing needs and professional growth. 

Finding: In the coming year, buyers are most likely to modify their performance management, wellness, and rewards and recognition systems

• performance management
• wellness
• rewards and recognition

Which of the following HR systems will your organization modify over the next 12 months?

What does this mean for the HR solution provider?