ARLINGTON, Va., - A new Air National Guard direct-mail recruiting campaign launched this month is educating active duty servicemembers leaving the military on the benefits of continuing their service as part-timers.
"This is an awareness piece to get people thinking about the Air Guard," said Tech. Sgt. Matt Leas from the Air Guard's marketing office here.
He said the Air Guard's recruiting and marketing office sent out information packets Jan. 4 to the mail boxes of nearly 100,000 Air Force, Army and Navy servicemembers, who have recently separated or are separating.
Leas said that direct-mail marketing is just one method the Air Guard uses to reach out and provide information on its opportunities. "The best way to reach out is through direct [face-to-face] interaction," he said, but advertising is a multi-tier process where you have to contact people a lot of different times in a lot of different ways.
The direct-mail packages contain a letter describing the benefits and opportunities of Air Guard service, with special, four-color inserts on the service's specific needs for health professionals as well as Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance professionals.
Interested servicemembers can fill out and return a postage-paid reply card or call the Air Guard Call Center at 1-800-864-6264 to learn more. The Web site, www.goang.com, is also a good method of contact.
"At that point, our call center will reach out to them, talk to them a little bit more, pre-qualify them, and direct them to unit recruiters," said Leas.
The Air Guard's renewed marketing efforts and recruiting programs have helped put its recruiting and retention on a two-year gain, with back-to-back fiscal year end-strength goals exceeded.
For December, the Air Guard reported its monthly accession goal of 450 Airmen was exceeded with 692 Airmen, or 154 percent.