A building trades union is only as successful as its members. That means recruitment is crucial to the overall, long-term health and stability of your organization.
In the past, traditional recruitment methods, such as newspaper ads or radio advertisements were used to help recruit new members. Today, digital advertising offers an alternative to traditional methods. Digital ads can reach a specific audience and provide actual data to gauge effectiveness compared to traditional recruitment options.
Digital advertising may be unfamiliar, but we can help. Your time is limited and you have a long to-do list, so we don’t want to create more work for you. BMA Media Group works with our clients, helping produce, manage and review all aspects of marketing campaigns.
With any type of advertisement, there are pros and cons. Here is a brief breakdown of what different options entail.
What is Digital Advertising?
This utilizes search engines and social media to reach a specific demographic. This means we focus your message by strategically reaching people of a certain age, geographic area, or even education level by keywords they search on Google.
Unlike a traditional campaign, which shares the same message to all listeners or readers, digital campaigns can narrow the focus. Digital campaigns drive designated groups to your website in order to take a desired action.
While BMA Media Group can offer a traditional recruitment campaign, such as print ads, we do not solely recommend this type of campaign.
Using traditional advertising may work for some campaigns, but there is no guarantee your message will be viewed by your target audience, and there is little data to determine how well the campaign performed.
Digital recruitment campaigns, on the other hand, can provide the data and selectively target a chosen demographic. With a target audience, you are putting your time and money into an audience you want to attract.
Building a traditional recruitment campaign
A traditional recruitment usually involves print media, such as a newspaper, but can also include radio or TV as well.
Newspaper ads are one of the oldest ways to communicate and for that reason, many organizations feel comfortable using that medium.
Each of these offer a way to spread a message, but you are spending money on ads that might not even be seen by your target audience, and these methods can be costly over a short run.
No matter the recruitment route you take, BMA Media Group recommends the following:
- Establishing campaign goals.
- The creation of a campaign name and brand logo for either traditional or digital materials.
- Identifying a contact person within your organization to interact with individuals responding to the campaign.
BMA can help put together a recruitment plan for your organization, whether it’s for organizing or apprenticeship. If you want to learn more about how a recruitment campaign will increase your membership and strengthen your union, contact us.
LaborTools powered by BMA Media Group is used to help strengthen our union client’s organizations. From working with unions from the local level to the international, with training funds and labor management partnerships, as well as other labor organizations, BMA has experience with organizations of all sizes. We are here to create and implement unique and customized marketing campaigns for our clients.
At BMA, we offer services in the following categories: union event services (from writing the history of your union to executing the logistics of an event,) video production, website design, union marketing campaigns, print and broadcast advertising, social media management, development of print materials, building trades industry education, labor public relations and crisis management, union merchandise, as well as strategic branding and marketing of union organizations.
BMA Media Group is a Union Building Trades Contractor, signatory with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 673 and International Union of Painters and Allied Trades DC 6 / Sign Display and Allied Trades Local 639. BMA Media Group is also signatory with AFTRA and an affiliate contractor of the Cleveland Chapter of NECA.
