Email Marketing for U.S. Army and Special Operations Forces (SOF) Recruiting
Abstract
U.S. Army and Special Operations Forces (SOF) Recruiters in the U.S. Army Recruiting Command (USAREC) currently use four prospecting strategies to recruit Future Soldiers. These include telephone, referral, face-to-face, and internet or e-mail prospecting. The four prospecting strategies have proven to be effective, but e-mail prospecting continues to remain the most underutilized. Ironically, e-mail prospecting is the most efficient strategy, yet most recruiters either refuse to try it or they use it incorrectly. This study demonstrates that U.S. Army and SOF Recruiters can use e-mail as a legitimate marketing tactic and a powerful tool. Chapter 1 sets forth the purpose of the study and the author's hypothesis. Chapter 2 discusses the four recruiting strategies that are being used by U.S. Army and SOF recruiters, with a concentration on e-mail prospecting. In Chapter 3, the author presents three case studies of organizations that successfully used e-mail marketing to increase customer recruitment: the Raleigh Recruiting Company, Digital Underground Credit Knowledge (DUCK9), and the Eastpoint Community Church. The first case study is the author's personal account of the e-mail marketing campaign he launched while commanding the Raleigh Recruiting Company, U.S. Army, during FY 2006. By the end of the year, he had sent over 750,000 targeted e-mail newsletters to college students within his area of responsibility. Ten enlistments resulted from this e-mail campaign. Chapter 4 presents a model to demonstrate the efficiency of e-mail marketing compared with phone prospecting, and justifies an estimate that the Army could recruit roughly 2,300 more recruits each year with a nationwide e-mail campaign for under $600,000. The author recommends that USAREC implement a mass e-mail marketing campaign in 2008, and presents COAs for doing so. The final portion of the thesis is an appendix that provides additional strategies to assist USAREC with its e-mail marketing endeavors.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA475899
Entities
People
- George F. Mcgrath Iii
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School