The Most Important Ads You Will Ever Write
Should You Outsource Them?
March 2007 By Denny Hatch
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In the News
Job Ads Loosen Up, Get RealPlain-English Portraits Of Positions’ True Duties Help Firms Cut Turnover
When apartment-complex operator Aimco analyzed high employee turnover, it found an unlikely culprit: poor job descriptions in its recruitment advertising. The ads didn’t help applicants understand the work they would do. Instead, they featured jargon-laden task lists, and emphasized education and experience requirements. Many new hires quit shortly after realizing the job wasn’t what they thought.
—Erin White, The Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2007
Is it a good idea to outsource the copy to a puffed-up, high-priced headhunter or a $22K junior assistant in the HR department?
About Hiring
When I first became president and editor of Target Marketing in 1993, the magazine was losing torrents of money. Two huge tasks faced me: giving the book editorial credibility and finding a few good sales reps that could convince old advertisers to come back and new advertisers to come onboard.
With the enthusiastic endorsement of a local Philadelphia publisher, we hired one of his telephone reps who wanted to become a full-fledged advertising salesman. He was a presentable young man who performed well for us on the telephone, so we decided to give him the opportunity to start calling on advertisers.
I took him with me on the road to introduce him to potential advertisers in the south—Little Rock, Ark., Oklahoma City and Dallas.
Midway through the trip, I discovered that he was a cocaine addict.
“Hiring the wrong person costs you three times their annual salary,” states the headline of an advertisement for the $487 software program, “Hire the Best.” The copy states, “A $50,000 employee costs you $150,000. There’s also lost opportunity cost ... plus lost business, potential customers and momentum!”
Fortunately, we found this druggie early on and dealt with the situation quickly. Had this goofball been let loose in the direct marketing community, our entire turnaround effort could easily have been scuttled. Given the success of Target Marketing and the subsequent magazines and online products started by my wife, Peggy Hatch, over the past 15 years, the collapse of Target Marketing would have resulted in lost revenues of $40 million or more so far.
The Philadelphia publisher that recommended him to us did so with old-fashioned malice aforethought. Rather than go through the hassle of firing an addict, he foisted him off on us. I will never forgive the little bastard.
The Importance of Attracting Top People
One of the smartest people in direct marketing is Drayton Bird, an Englishman who, for many years, was associated with the legendary David Ogilvy. His book, Commonsense Direct Marketing, is a masterpiece. When I mentioned that I was doing a story on how to create successful help wanted classifieds, Bird e-mailed:
Takeaway Points to Consider:
* The Internet allows you to include far more copy than the old-fashioned newspaper classified section.* Write your own help wanted ads. HR will slam stuff out, generate resumes, but seldom will they communicate the warmth, emotion and passion that will attract the right people.
* Put yourself inside the head of the person you want to attract.
* Expend the same care and love on your classifieds as you would on your acquisition and retention ads, direct mail packages, or TV commercials. Your future depends on it.
* These are the most important ads you will place.
* Hiring the wrong people can cost you mightily.
* Have your top marketing designer come up with an attractive, inviting template for your help wanted efforts. For example, you would be astonished at the number of classified efforts that run in unreadable light gray mousetype in one, interminably long unbroken paragraph.
Web Sites Related to Today's Edition:
Drayton BirdDraytonBird@draytonbird.com
Drayton Bird’s Marketing Books
http://tinyurl.com/2vyg5y
Elsevier
http://tinyurl.com/r3owy
Parsons
http://www.parsons.com/
Companies Mentioned:
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