Today’s guest blogger is Sharon Newey. She is the MD of Superfast Recruitment, a recruitment marketing consultancy that also provides campaigns and content to support recruiters and search companies globally to stand out to clients and candidates and win more business. Since 2008 they have worked with over 300 companies helping them to grow their marketing results. Superfast Recruitment is an NPAworldwide Endorsed Program partner. Read her post below if you want to know where to start with your marketing this year.
In a recent email, we shared a handy marketing checklist to identify your starting point for this year, which I know many of you found useful.
Logically, the next question is, where should I start considering my gaps?
Today’s post will answer that question for you and is especially relevant if you haven’t done much marketing before.
The market has changed significantly over the past few years. The bounce-back recruiting surge followed the pandemic, and now layoffs are fueled by uncertain economic times across the globe.
Consequently, consistent marketing that generates more client and candidate demand is on many people’s agendas as a key action item this year.
We’ll be running a few webinars for NPAworldwide members this year to answer your marketing and lead generation questions; ahead of that, here is where to start getting some marketing wins.
I want to give you three key focus areas to start your marketing today.
Always remember that marketing and sales are the growth engine of any business, and that’s where your focus should be, and marketing is about creating demand from people at all parts of the buyer’s cycle.
That is people who aren’t aware of you.
People who come across you and like what they see.
People deciding if they should work with your search firm or others they have heard of.
Then, once you’ve created that demand, you have a better chance of converting your contacts into clients who work with you and candidates you place.
Let’s start with an audience most founders forget.
The Gold Around Your Feet
Let’s start with the easiest win. I put this as number one because this is an area where you will get results fast, and that is the gold around your feet.
Sometimes, it’s referred to as low-hanging fruit.
These are people, candidates, and clients, both past and present, to whom you are connected and you’ve reached out to work with your search company in the past.
This specific strategy needs to be part of your marketing system so that you consistently re-engage with people. The good news is you can build a simple campaign to reach back out to your connections.
If you have a database, you can filter people into a list based on when you last spoke to them.
Then, send a short email campaign or messenger sequence on LinkedIn with three or four emails/messages combined with calls and get into a conversation.
Remember, conversions happen in the conversations.
Fact: A lot can happen in a few months for many of us, and where an individual was in the past might not be where they are now; this might be a candidate who has finally decided to move to a client that has lost a star performer.
This strategy will throw up many people you can begin to talk to who are now interested in what you have, whether a candidate or a client.
A few years ago, we were working with a particular client and suggested this strategy. He pulled up a list of names he thought his team had been in contact with and said he would call them himself and feedback on how it went.
Yes, he got some new roles, which was great news, AND he was annoyed.
Why?
Because he had found out several candidates and four clients had gone and worked with another recruitment company; they hadn’t returned to this particular company’s brand.
They’d gone elsewhere because his team hadn’t regularly contacted them.
This is a great first start when you haven’t done a lot of marketing, and then it is a process to dial into your marketing campaigns consistently each quarter.
Next, let’s take control of the situation by deciding who you now want to work with.
Identify Who You Want To Work With
The second thing is, who are you working with currently; Have you identified the ideal candidate and client you want to work with?
This is foundational work regarding marketing and something to action while working with the gold around your feet.
If you have not done this yet from the end of last year, review where you’re spending your time, what companies you’re working with, and which candidates work best with you.
Use that information to build campaigns that attract the ideal companies, clients and candidates you want to work with.
Once you decide who you want to work with, it’s easier to focus on where to direct your energy.
An easy win is to use Sales Navigator or Recruiter; from here, you can create a list of companies and individuals as a target list.
Let’s say you now want to work with companies with over 50 employees in a certain geography. You can go into Sales Navigator and pull a list of those people, some of whom you might already be connected to, and then reach out to them.
LinkedIn outreach is an effective way to start your cold outreach process. Next, it is time to get visible on social media to the candidates and clients in your sector.
Getting Out On Social
Social media is a gem, as it is one of the easiest ways to consistently get in front of your market to demonstrate who you are, how you can help people, and your professionalism and expertise as a recruiter.
Depending on which sector you’re in, LinkedIn might be the platform for you; for others, it might be Instagram and Facebook.
Identify your social channels and start posting consistently on social media.
One client who followed this three-step process discovered that not only did he get new connections and messages, but he also noticed he was getting business back from his past clients because suddenly they commented; “Oh, I’ve seen you again. I wondered what had happened to you. Can we have a conversation?”
All because he was now posting on social media.
If you want an experience of the content style to post on social media, follow me on LinkedIn. It’s Sharon Newey; ring the bell on my profile, and you will be notified when I post.
Once you’re out on social media, you can brand yourself and your organization and share great content demonstrating your expertise to thousands of connections and followers, leading to the conversations you want.
Use these three strategies to start your marketing this year and see your results improve.