In the departed days of yore, recruitment firms were largely a bricks and mortar brand. Two things mattered, the professional look of your high street firm and the reputations of your recruiters. While both are still important, today there’s a new player in town. An agency’s digital real estate is just as important as their bricks and mortar offices, and those with an effective digital brand are reaping the rewards.
When it comes to digital presence, it can be easy to throw budget at Google AdWords and advertising banners to increase your presence. While this can be a great way to give your presence a quick boost, without endlessly deep pockets, paid reach is not a very sustainable approach. In today’s post we’re going to look at some organic approaches that will deliver the results your agency needs. By having a strong digital presence, you will be able to attract the best consultants, reach more candidates, and increase client leads, while reducing your paid advertising expense and increasing your revenue. Developing your digital brand is a win on every level, so without further ado, let’s get started.
- Content strategy
The recruitment industry has always been an early adopter of new technology and ways of working. Many recruitment marketers have been quick to catch on to the benefits of content strategy, but there is still a long way to go. If your website is one of those tasks that gets pushed on to the back burner, then it’s likely your priorities need tweaking. Attracting visitors to your website will take effort, but if you can provide a reason for users to keep coming back and share your resources, you’re on to a winner. The key to eliciting such attractive behavior: useful content! Providing job seekers with content that’s easy to digest and makes their job search easier, will not only attract and retain repeat visitors, it will also position you as an expert recruiter. By taking the time and effort to develop useful content, you will show that you care about job seekers and understand their needs. You’re also likely to impress your clients by demonstrating that you’re on-trend with technology and ahead of the pack when it comes to candidate support.
There are a couple of minor words of warning when it comes to content strategy. Rome wasn’t built in a day and becoming a trusted source of high quality content won’t happen overnight. Be sure to create a strategy that is sustainable. Consistency is your friend. Bursts of activity might seem productive, but a consistent output is much easier for you to promote and for your audience to consume. Commit to a realistic amount of content per week or month that you will actually be able to produce and remember, quality is more important than quantity. One well researched and truly useful post, is worth more than ten poorly written blogs with throwaway tips. If you can, try to bring something new to the table. Share your real experience of a job search approach that worked, or a real life interview answer that you were impressed with, rather than regurgitating the dearth of content that’s already out there.
It’s also worth noting that if you don’t actively promote your content, jobseekers won’t know it’s there, so your efforts shouldn’t just stop at creating a piece of useful content, which leads us neatly on to our next point…
- Social Media
Social media is your content delivery system. If content is your fuel, then social media is the rocket that will transport your recruitment site into the stratosphere. Whether you love social media or hate it, your candidates and clients are already on it. Firstly, it’s a case of choosing the right social media platforms. While there are 1000’s of social networks out there, it’s really important that you go where your target audience is. For mass appeal, a safe bet is to start with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Once you’ve made your mark and want to spread your wings, you could look at other networks that focus on visual content such as Instagram or Pinterest, or even try your hand at niche networks that are created purely for members of a particular industry.
To get the most out of social media and your content strategy, it’s important to think about what your audience wants. The number of recruitment agencies we’ve seen idly using their social media profiles to share endless streams of jobs is enough to make us cry. Find out the type of information that your audience finds useful, and create content and social media posts accordingly.
At this point, you might find it useful to create candidate personas that will help you to visualize and target your audience. These fictional personas are essentially descriptions of the different types of users that you’re hoping to attract. Make a list of your different targets, for example: the inexperienced job seeker, the temp worker, the contractor, the career changer, the executive, the passive candidate etc. Then explore their differing needs in advice. What do they need to know to help them progress with their job search? By writing detailed descriptions of their needs, frequently asked questions and concerns, you’ll be able to write solely for them. You can even further tailor your content by honing in on specific industries or roles that are hot property at the time. If you find you’re inundated with job orders for a specific role or skill, create some content specifically for that group.
- Job boards
As an agency, having a mobile friendly job board integrated into your company site, could be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make. The great thing about having your own job board is that it makes things easy; easy for you and easy for your candidates. Your recruiters will be able post job openings right from their desks, and job seekers will be able to peruse and apply for them with ease. By making it so easy to apply, you will attract more applications, and over time you will build up a searchable and highly relevant talent pool. If you’re looking for new ways to grow your online presence while decreasing new client and candidate costs, integrating your own job board should definitely be on your priority list.
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