Case study · Professional services

WorkforceXS: digital marketing for a labour-hire network.

WorkforceXS places workers through a network of franchised offices, each run by a franchisee who knows their local market. In late 2019 the business set out to grow that network.

Sector: Professional services
Service: Social media advertising
Channels: Facebook · Instagram · LinkedIn

Digital marketingCampaign delivery

Construction team in hi-vis discussing a project on website.

The challenge

What needed to change.

WorkforceXS is all about finding the right people, at the right time, in the right way. Each office in the network is owned and operated by a franchisee who understands the specific recruitment needs of their own area, and the business wanted more of them. When the team engaged us in late 2019, the goal was clear: expand the franchise network.

The starting point was a blank page. WorkforceXS had no existing digital presence, so there was nothing to optimise and no data to learn from. Nobody yet knew, in any measurable way, who the ideal franchisee was or where to find them.

Before any campaign could run, we had to uncover the demographic the business wanted to reach and decide how best to reach them, so the budget would produce results rather than noise.

Approach

How the work took shape.

After our initial meeting it was clear WorkforceXS would see its greatest success by combining paid and organic social media, with each channel doing a job the other could not. Paid advertising would find and qualify prospective franchisees. Organic content would show them a credible, active business worth joining.

A thorough onboarding process shaped a marketing recommendation tailored to a niche target market. The research showed that the people most likely to buy a franchise were experienced recruiters with an interest in franchising, so key messaging, creative, target groups and budget recommendations were all built around them.

The paid campaigns followed Facebook best practice, structured so each audience saw creative and messaging written for them. Alongside the advertising we managed the organic social presence, analysing the business goals and identifying where the existing presence could be stronger.

Content was tailored to WorkforceXS as a business and planned to work hand in hand with the advertising. From the interests of the target market we identified four main content pillars and repeated them across each monthly calendar, and the grid was collated to match the brand and hold together visually.

WorkforceXS social media advertising design mock-up.

The shift

The ideal franchisee turned out to be an experienced recruiter, and every message was written for that one person.

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The work

The work, up close.

The campaigns ran across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, with advertising carrying the franchise offer and organic posts sustaining the story between campaigns. Because both sides worked together, prospective franchisees met a consistent message wherever they encountered the brand, and the franchises page on the website became the destination for that interest.

183.5%.

Increase in traffic to the franchises page from social, compared with the previous period.

87.

Leads generated through social advertising in the first three months.

181%.

Increase in LinkedIn impressions in one month.

93k.

LinkedIn ad impressions in the first month.

The organic channels grew alongside the advertising. On Facebook, the content pillars gave the page a consistent rhythm and engagement rose with it. On Instagram the grid, planned to the brand requirements, brought a steady increase in followers. LinkedIn, where the advertising reached experienced recruiters directly, delivered strong reach, with impressions on the ads climbing from the first month.

In a matter of months WorkforceXS went from no digital presence to an active, measurable one, with a pipeline of qualified franchise enquiries behind it. The business also realised that if we could generate these results for the brand, we could do the same for its network of 20+ franchisees. We have since been working alongside the franchise partners to develop unique digital campaign strategies aimed at the same success across different regions and industries.