Recruiting Session 4:

Hey guys, it’s Matt, and in this Recruiting Session, we’re going to talk about landing pages.

You know, the characters from Madagascar may have had no choice when it came to travel, but drivers certainly do. As we’ve discussed in previous sessions, every single driver has multiple carriers competing to hire them. And if you want a better chance, then you need to be able to send them to one location that lets them clearly see and act on a job opportunity.

And that’s a driver landing page.

But before discussing landing pages for drivers, let’s just define a landing pages in general. What are they? And why are we talking about landing in a series about driving. Those two usually don’t make a safe combination.

In this case, though, it’s okay. A landing page is just a webpage that you reach—or land on—by clicking a link in some sort of online message or promotion.

Now, technically this means any web page has the potential to be a landing page, but the term is almost always reserved for a dedicated landing page. This is one that’s been specifically set up as the destination for particular online messages or ads. A dedicated landing page typically stands alone from a company’s main website, and is made to accomplish just a single goal.

What’s the goal? Well it always boils down to one of two things. Either to interest someone in a product or service and then have them take the next step toward buying it. Or to obtain someone’s contact information, so you can speak to them directly by phone or email. In other words, you’re either getting the sales process rolling or getting a sales lead. Accomplishing either goal is called a conversion. Meaning you’ve gained someone’s attention and permission to either continue or close the sale.

Here are just a few examples:

This is a landing page for H. Bloom flower company, and it’s trying to achieve that first type of conversion goal. They want to pique our interest in their flower delivery service and then get us to click the link to see and buy flowers on their main site. That’s why this is known as a click-through landing page. It’s meant to be a gateway to another destination. Which is pretty obvious from that giant, glossy button that’s just practically begging to be clicked. Can you resist the temptation?

Another example is from the Sharp Law Firm, and it’s trying to accomplish that second conversion goal of capturing contact information. This is often referred to as a “lead generation” landing page because it’s meant to generate sales leads. That’s why the most noticeable thing on the page is this short form where you can enter your information, be contacted by the firm, and finally get that legal settlement you deserve.

Our final example is from the Keep On Trucking Company. If you watched the previous Recruiting Session on company brand, then you know that Keep On is the fictional carrier we’ve created for this series, and this is the landing page for their regional driving routes. The goal of this, or any driver page, is primarily to capture leads, but to do that, it also has to get a driver interested in your company and what you offer. So, in that sense, it’s also kind of like a click-through page.

This example from Keep On will help us talk through why to use driver landing pages and what they should include. But before we cover these topics, I just want to point out that we’re not going to cover the technical side of things. We’ll focus on key reasons and best practices for driver landing pages, but won’t get into the web development required to get those pages up and running. For that, you’ll need to work with your IT team or hire a qualified external partner. I happen to know a really good one if you need a recommendation.

That said, let’s start with three overall reasons to use driver landing pages, and since we’re talking about landings, I feel like I should count these down. So, Reason #3:

Landing pages let you talk directly to drivers

A driver landing page helps you avoid that kind of communication breakdown by providing a dedicated channel to speak directly to drivers. That’s something you can’t do on your website homepage because it’s made for a general audience. For example, Keep On Trucking’s home page is designed to communicate their overall company brand and information to any site visitor, whether that’s a customer, vendor, employee, or just someone who just happens to stumble upon it. This is certainly not job or driver-specific.

And even the careers section of a site has to be somewhat generic, since you’re likely recruiting for different types of driving and non-driving jobs. But on a dedicated driver landing page, you can focus and limit your message to a particular job type.

Carriers that use landing pages all take slightly different approaches, and you have to evaluate what makes sense for you, but a good rule of thumb is to have a dedicated page for at least each type of driving position, and you can even create one for every single opening.

Though Keep On Trucking has multiple dedicated routes, they’re all either local or regional runs out of Dallas, and the regional runs are all about the same in terms of distance and pay, so they have one landing page for local runs and one for regional. Here’s their regional page, and anyone who lands on it will only see information that’s relevant to that type of job.

Besides being specific, another advantage is the ability to update the message and make it match with recruiting ad campaigns as often as needed. We’ll cover ads in the next Recruiting Session, but suffice it to say, drivers will arrive on a landing page by clicking a link in some sort of online ad. And you can make sure the ad and landing page have the same or complementary messages, so when a person arrives, they know they’ve reached the right place. That consistency reassures them and reinforces what you’re saying.

Alright, so we’re counting down the top three reasons to use landing pages. Reason #3 was that they allow you talk directly to drivers. Reason #2 is this:

They reduce distractions

On a driver landing page, you can eliminate anything that could potentially divert a driver’s attention from this particular job opportunity. Notice what’s not on this page: all the navigation and links from the Keep On’s main site. In fact, it doesn’t even have a link to the site. This page stands alone and keeps the visitor focused.

A company website, on the other, hand is full of distractions. It has a navigation menu and links to lots of different sections and pages. And that’s fine. It should have those things. A website is meant to encourage visitors to browse around and explore the different areas of a company. The problem is that if a driver comes to this site, she might end up getting sidetracked in one of these other sections, which means there’s a higher chance she’ll leave without applying.

With a landing page, we can eliminate all those diversions, and focus solely on presenting the job and getting the driver to respond.

That brings us the #1 Reason to use landing pages, and we’ll discuss it in the next session. Until then, I’m Matt.