ManpowerGroup and Structsales have been working together since 2019. But it was when Manpower really wanted to get started with Inbound Marketing that the collaboration really took off. For two years now, Structsales has helped Manpower build its content machine in HubSpot and created customer journeys for the company's three different brands Experis, Jefferson Wells and Manpower. Here's the story of how the journey came about.
In early 2020, the decision was made to invest more in scalable marketing and sales. The key to this was to digitize and share its vast knowledge and experience in staffing and recruitment. One challenge was to increase the production of content and content - while maintaining quality.
In 2020, Manpower found itself in the situation of starting the Inbound machinery to get going, quite simply. As a system, they had already chosen HubSpot, one of the market's absolute largest and most secure systems - integrable with many other existing systems in the company group.
Henrik Ohlsson, Inbound Marketing Specialist
Manpower realized early on that HubSpot is not a self-playing piano - but completely dependent on qualitative and relevant content to take off.
Another insight was about what many companies have already begun to feel. That is, the traditional way of marketing a service or business no longer works as well today - in some cases it may even have stopped working already.
"As a global consulting and recruitment company, we have a huge amount of data, knowledge and insights. Theoretically, we already had a position around thought leadership - although we may not have used it so digitally - but more through traditional press reviews, news reports on labor market statistics and so on," says Henrik Ohlsson, Inbound Marketing Specialist at ManpowerGroup and continues:
"Our basic idea was simply that - since we have such a huge amount of knowledge about staffing, recruitment and transition, why not use those insights in more pure marketing - we already had parts of what is required to succeed with Inbound Marketing".
As a global and innovative company, we have a responsibility to our stakeholders to always be part of the development instead of passively watching as the landscape for recruitment, for example, is redrawn at a breathtaking speed.
"Everything from getting colleagues to prioritize an interview in a hectic everyday life to getting them to share their knowledge in a recorded webinar has proven more difficult than we initially expected. This is certainly not unique to Manpower, but something I have noticed that other companies that have made a similar journey have experienced.
The key is to do a good internal sell-in to the program and explain the long-term benefits so that local leaders encourage colleagues to spend an hour on the assignment. Otherwise, it's easy for busy colleagues to prioritize their regular tasks instead - which of course they should do.
Inbound Marketing is a marathon. It's important not to run out of resources, budget and people for short-term gains - but to plan for different stages over several years to come. It is only now that ManpowerGroup has been running for a couple of years that we can make the more interesting observations and optimize both structure, content and target group. Moving from Inbound Marketing where you have slightly broader target groups to eventually move more towards Account Based Marketing will be more natural when the model and experience from Inbound Marketing is in place.
The ManpowerGroup marketing team works in parallel with four of the Group's brands, each of which can be grouped into at least three target groups - the candidates looking for jobs, the consultants on assignment and the companies or organizations that buy ManpowerGroup's services. Three target groups that are completely separate, but which must run in parallel and have a clear red line in the Group's values and overall business strategy. It becomes a relatively complex business model and for inbound marketing and then requires a supplier who works closely and knows Manpower and other brands for quality in articles and content.
Structsales has helped to clarify the marketing department as a revenue-generating part of the Group. Today, it's about new business and revenue on the income statement created from digital customer journeys that can start with a post on LinkedIn, turn into a blog, or webinar and end with, for example, downloadable checklists. Today, we have the ability to drive customer traffic to this type of content and measure conversion in a completely different way than was previously possible.
"Historically, both sales and marketing teams have undergone a revolution in recent years. The roles and responsibilities of both marketing and sales are completely different today."
Today we do zero print, no TV marketing, neither linear nor streamed and rarely large broad campaigns that live for a limited period. The conditions in the candidate and customer market change so quickly that a campaign that requires more than two months from start-up meeting, planning, production and launch can mean that it lands wrong in the market and does not fully contribute to maximum return or the right business and revenue in the organization.
Facebook, Insta, Google, Youtube, Snapchat, Likedin, Twitter, Twitch, various job boards, SEO, SEA and TikTok are more interesting channel choices and all have their unique pros and cons depending on the brand, target audience and purpose. In any case, you rarely find our vacancies in the daily press. When they do, it is 100% because the local customer really demands and finances the advertising.
With Structsales, we have today laid the foundation for a content library for all three of our brands. Having a varied range of good content in different forms is crucial today when the pendulum swings quickly and you sometimes have to twist and turn the marketing in the step to support the business.
"Structsales understands content and can produce good content. Now we also have a long-term plan for how we will work with content within the framework of Inbound Marketing. By doing SEO analysis and listening to the sales and delivery organization, we have found creative, relevant and exciting angles in lots of material for ManpowerGroup's three different brands", says Henrik Ohlsson, Inbound Marketing Specialist and continues:
"Structsales focuses on business - you can tell that everyone at Structsales is interested in sales - that marketing is part of sales. They are always thinking about the business - not as employees to just create material, but focus on helping to do more and better business."
From the very first day, it has been critical to always keep your eyes on the business and not lose focus and get lost in the borderland between sales and marketing... Even if it periodically does not go as you wish, the leads do not come in as planned, you must never get tired, but it is always important to really think about inbound marketing as a marathon and for our part a complementary path to new business and revenue in parallel with a large and professional sales and delivery department.
In concrete terms, the enormous value of Structsales is that it has really helped us lay the foundation for the entire concept of ManpowerGroup's Inbound Marketing. How should Inbound Marketing feel and look to our stakeholders? How should it work in practice? Structsales has helped us with all that. So - both the implementation of HubSpot functionalities and the creation of lots of relevant content in the right format for three different brands.
Henrik Ohlsson, Inbound Marketing Specialist
Structsales has also helped us problematize Inbound Marketing and become more agile and modern in our way of thinking about marketing and sales. Many questions about modern sales go hand in hand with modern marketing and we feel that we have received a lot of help and support from Structsales.
- During the work with Structsales, we have learned extremely much, which has made us well equipped for further development of digital marketing - and sales. . Every day we bring candidates, consultants and clients closer to us with our Inbound Marketing machine. It's not magic - it's hard work".
We have worked with several different agencies over the years. My personal view is that it has been difficult to find an agency that can relate professionally to all our brands and show an interest in how the business works in practice. It is particularly difficult to find an agency that really tries to understand in depth what our clients, consultants and candidates value in terms of knowledge, insights that we should share.
- Personally, I think our Inbound Marketing efforts have been manageable and successful largely because we have chosen to work with ONE agency instead of working with several at the same time. This way, you avoid clutter, avoid clashes, duplication and maintain a higher quality and efficiency over time.
Having a long-term relationship with a supplier is more important than we might initially think. Constantly introducing new team members and project managers can be a strain and a clear disadvantage for the collaboration.
Working with the same people today as when we started this journey with Structsales several years ago feels very good - you understand each other, communication becomes uncomplicated and it becomes easy to keep a common thread.
Today we have a really good foundation to stand on - while together we continue to experiment, try and adjust models - all to find new exciting ways to communicate and break through the noise.
Marketing today is never finished, but is constantly changing. The future also places completely different demands on the material to be constantly up to date - something that is a great challenge in times when everything changes quickly and everything gets old very quickly. One thing we have noticed with Structsales is that the higher the quality of guides and webinar articles, the better the material stands the test of time.
"What is the sweet spot" between marketing's mission and the sales organization's responsibility and who makes sure to keep everything together?
Do sales and marketing have the ability to stick together through thick and thin? That marketing and sales work closely together is a prerequisite for making it work at all. Otherwise, you won't get any customer value from inbound marketing. You can do everything else as a supplier, consultant and professional - but only we can agree on whether we can make the collaboration between sales and marketing work.
How much staying power do we have on this? If you want Inbound Marketing to be successful, longevity is everything. Sales and marketing must stand together in both good and bad times.
Allocate enough time. Although some changes may seem small at first, the implications can be more complex and require deeper investigation and more time. So don't make too tight schedules and set aside time for changes.
Make sure you get the right input from the right people. Identify already in the project planning phase who has the knowledge and input that is important for success and make sure they are available when you need them. Remember the end users! Your most important stakeholders.
Not investing enough effort in finding a good person and giving that person enough authority and resources to work as a professional "Sales rep" is to run everything into the ground even before you start. The digital salesperson and advisor is absolutely crucial for the inbound initiative to work. After all, it is the unique personal contact and experience of our DSR that provides a trust and sharp customer meeting or not.
Many customers are already ready to have a digital contact regardless of geography and previous local contacts. It is part of our plan to be available in multiple channels and at the times when customers need us, regardless of our presence in the locality - our goal is to develop the concept so that we continue to be a relevant, reliable and immediate partner and supplier to the next generation of buyers who have grown up with fast digital platforms such as Boozt, Amazon, etc. It is no longer enough for you to call a switchboard and get the answer to return in two hours or another day. Today, it is important to build a digital flow to quickly convert when the buying signal comes.