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Precision marketing at the tactical level

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Zachary R. Nuss
  • 361st Recruiting Squadron, F-Flight
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Washington --  As a recruiter, one of my most important resources is time. I need to be smart about where I pinpoint my energy and I need to be intentional with where I put my efforts.

When it comes to lead-generating activity, it is important I focus on events and activities that have the greatest opportunity to reach qualified future Airmen. I believe this is how I play a role in the command's number one priority: precision recruiting.

I have almost limitless opportunities when it comes to advertising options and participating in local events. At times, it can even feel overwhelming. An important thing to remember is that most of these events cost the Air Force money and all of them consume our time. When prioritizing these events, I need to carefully consider where these valuable resources can be spent most effectively.

Like most, I've had the opportunity to participate in local parades and festivals. This is good advertisement and it certainly contributes to raising Air Force awareness in my zone, but I've found that the age demographic is unfocused and ranges from 1-100. I've also had the opportunity to get involved with the city's annual marathon. At this event, I'm able to make contact with a more focused (and arguably healthier) demographic. But in the spirit of precision recruiting, I need to constantly ask myself, "How can these events be better? How can I be more precise?"

Where I have recently found success, and where I believe I can be the most precise with my marketing efforts, is getting involved with high school sporting events, such as swim and track meets.

Recently, I was able to participate in a local swim meet with nine high schools and more than 230 swimmers. With some prior coordination with the event staff, I was allowed to set up a table and hand out awards to the heat winners. The awards were Air Force drawstring bags filled with other specialty promotional items and literature. At the end of the day, nearly 100 of these bags were handed out to highly qualified student athletes.

In another event, I was able to work with the head track coach at Marshfield High School.  This is where former Olympian Steve Prefontaine went to school and they host an annual track meet in his honor, "The Prefontaine Invitational." After some coordination, the head coach invited me to participate. This year, there were 33 high schools and more than 630 athletes competing. In order to make an even bigger impact, the squadron marketing team brought the special operations trailer (more than six hours from the squadron) to the event. The track meet was a huge success. Again, I felt that the event had successfully targeted my highest-qualified demographic.

I received several dozen highly qualified leads and made hundreds of valuable contacts at these two events. They targeted my best qualified demographic and furthered my relationship with the influencers in my schools. I'm already looking forward to next year's events and figuring out how I can make them even more precise.

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