Before you create an ad campaign, you must first determine whom you want to recruit. Sure, you want drivers, but are you targeting owner-operators or company drivers, regional or long haul, flatbed or dry van, men or women?
Men or women? Why should your ad consider the reader’s gender, aren’t all drivers looking for the same thing…pay, home time, equipment, etc? Not necessarily, if you truly want to recruit women you might consider changing your message and your graphic to be more inclusive.
If your ads depict scantily clad women spread across the grill of a truck, you aren’t going to attract female drivers. It’s offensive to them. What about the wording in your ads? “Take your wife to the big island” claims one ad. Wife? A simple solution would be to change “wife” to “spouse,” but then you’ve excluded all the single drivers.
At Women In Trucking (WIT), we’re concerned about the way our industry reaches out to potential female drivers, and recruiting ads are part of the challenge. The message and the image often excludes our target audience. Be sure to show your female drivers your recruiting ads and ask for their input before you publicize them. You might be surprised at what message you have been sending!
