CRST International

Antony (AJ) Mock is working as a Marketing Manager at CRST International for nearly 3 years now. He is responsible for handling talent acquisition and recruitment advertising.

Please tell me, in light of your experience, how the MarTech landscape has evolved?

Marketing technology has evolved to some extent concerning the customer cycle, and now it has become more customer-centric. Initially, when we were used to the Megaphone marketing style, we had to rely heavily on personal relationships, local recognition, and even word of mouth to succeed. Now, we’re, in a way coming back into a full circle by returning to small online community marketing by cultivating trust and relationships with the customers, we’re advertising and nurturing them so that they keep coming back instead of relying on one conversion. As a result, companies that better build a bond with customers and maintain their base are touching the heights of success.

As a marketing leader, what are some of the specific tools or measures you’ve applied to restructure marketing efforts or streamline customer relationships?

Direct communication is what I’ve seen or done mostly, which is considered the ultimate end goal of advertising rather than conversion. The reason is that I’m focused on talent acquisition and recruitment advertising in my current role. So, for instance, if I recruit candidates for a job post, I would be more concerned about getting engaged with them by updating them on future jobs or getting their contact information and connecting with them through CRM databases like Hubspot or Salesforce, which would lead a long way in building a personal relationship even though we’re talking about B2C communication, a bond will still be made.

Could you elaborate more on any projects or recent undertakings you conducted to up the game in marketing at your organization?

We’ve recently connected our applicant tracking system with our email marketing platform, i.e., HubSpot. We are using the candidate’s data to automate our communication with a touch of personalization to ensure that we’re hitting the right person with the relevant information. For example, suppose I have a job in Atlanta, Georgia. In that case, everybody in our database fitting that qualification based on the information we possess for them might get thrown into a loop of content and messaging that fits them based on their requirements and qualification. So when we’ve looked at our email and text campaigns and social ads that we’re putting out there, the more central and tailored we can get, the more effective it would be.

"Sometimes marketers assume that they know and understand their audiences and their likes and dislikes, but that may vary from person to person. Therefore, proper research and analysis are mandatory to understand and stand out in this field."

What analytical tools of KPIs do you take into account to measure your performance for your marketing initiatives?

In the transportation industry, to measure the absolute KPIs, we use cost per hire, and the problem with that in recent years has been that we’re doing more things that rely on fixed costs and don’t have direct spending tied to them necessarily. So for this, we have shifted our focus to engagement metrics we garner from social media or website traffic.

Is there any other projects or initiative that you are undertaking at present?

As I’ve mentioned earlier, we’ve recently connected our applicant tracking system with our email marketing platform, and this year as a marketing team, we are mostly focused on synchronizing all the data we have between our different databases through HR marketing and operation platforms. This way, we could have the full picture of not only the people working with us in the past or present but also in the future because I believe everyone is equally important, and the more you can retain people, the less you have to hire.

Being a senior marketing leader, what are the leadership principles that you apply or any piece of advice that you would like to share with your peers?

Well, one of the things that my seniors have always advised me is never to be afraid to fail and try different methods till you get the right solution. It is specifically needed in marketing because firstly, we need a hypothesis, we need to test the key, and then we need to analyze the result to succeed. In marketing, there are no flat blanket answers for what’s the best way to market, so taking that risk is necessary. Secondly, we should not assume and instantly jump to conclusions in marketing. For instance, there is a possibility that the truckers would be interested in listening to some beauty or makeup podcast; who knows. Sometimes marketers assume that they know and understand their audiences and their likes and dislikes, but that may vary from person to person. Therefore, proper research and analysis are mandatory to understand and stand out in this field.