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(This is a direct transcription please excuse any typing mistakes.)
Over the last thirteen years we have been helping clients to drive qualified and targeted traffic (visitors) to their website; the last five years have been spent working with companies in the recruitment sector, both large and small. Quite a lot has changed in that time including what Google does and doesn’t like and of course the impact of social media, content marketing and paid traffic.
Important Point Do We Want Traffic or Clients and Candidates!!
When it comes to being successful online traffic is one thing and conversion is another!
In other words quality is what matters. We have been going through a new social media programme and one of our fellow members sells tickets for a private plane. He doesn’t need to drive thousands of visitors to his website; just people qualified to buy tickets on his small jet! I am sure you get our drift. It’s a better option to have a plan to attract 500 qualified website visitors than 5000 browsers; isn’t it? Here endeth the lesson as I step down from my soap box…so let’s get into it.
Why It Pays To Be Good looking
Let’s start with a foundational principle…
When I was at school there was a boy called Tony Malchevski. He was what is referred to as a heart throb.
Good looking, tall, dark, handsome and athletic, rumour had it that he had trials with MUFC. He was never short of female company. For a 16 year old boy he must have been in 7th heaven. Though you may disagree, Tony got the attention because of his looks; trust me it wasn’t his wit, I know I sat next to him in maths. It’s one of those facts of life we can’t get away from, a significant percentage of human beings have a strong visual preference and they use it to make decisions about people, places and companies.
The latest data suggest 40% of the population are visually preferenced. Now Tony was blessed with great genes from his family. Luckily in business a great looking website isn’t a genetic right, and therefore can be purchased relatively easily.
The Reason Why Looks Matter
Picture the scene….someone stumbles across your website and it’s outdated and old-fashioned. Unfortunately they will judge you and your recruitment consultants in a similar way.
They will make a presumption that you maybe aren’t doing as well as you are trying to make out and don’t have access to either candidates or clients. Think of your own behaviour when it comes to your purchasing decisions? It’s no different for other people and especially so in a B2B environment. The good news is that a good looking website makes your brand stand out. If someone has visited your website once and they were impressed they are much more likely to visit it again.
FACT: It’s rare that people buy on the first visit, it’s about cultivating a relationship so they keep coming back till they are ready to engage your services.
Make it User Friendly
Next make sure your navigation is logical and people have plenty of ways to engage with you by downloading your free reports, reading your content or signing up for SMS text alerts. Oh and make sure your phone number is visible on every page.
Make sure you have a blog with multiple pages with social share icons that you direct people to use.
“If you like this article, which I hope you do please hit the share button on the left.
We appreciate it!
Then Of Course Optimise Your Webpages
SEO (search engine optimisation) is complex and has changed drastically in the last 4 years. However one thing that is still important to do, is add relevant keywords to your webpages. This is known as on page optimisation and this plays a major part in Google sending you traffic.
They need to be in three key places:
- Title
- Description
- Keyword tags
By doing this you let Google know what your page is about. Your website company will be able to do this for you. Your keywords are what your clients and candidates might search on to find you. For instance; construction recruitment company in Manchester or quantity surveyor jobs.
Top tip: Get them to add your phone number in your description to make life easier, what if a visitor just wants your phone number? You can see how it works on the image below from our website.
Give Something Away For Free People Love It
You will have heard us use the phrase lead magnet or ethical bribe in the past? Cast your eyes over to the right of this post and you will see a blue and yellow box. On our Dominate Your Sector programme we teach our students how to create an ethical bribe just like this. So here we are encouraging people to add their name and email and in exchange they will receive a report packed full of actionable content. We will then keep in connection providing value and offering to help with our various training programmes; when they are ready.
And Then Email Your Database
Many recruitment companies have a database of clients and candidates. If you email them on a regular basis you can let them know about content on your website.
HINT: Whilst they are there they might just look at your Job board or pick up the phone.
It also sends a signal to Google that your website receives regular traffic, which gives you another positive tick.
Remember To Share Those Links
Not everybody cottons onto this and that is to make make sure you share your website address everywhere. Email signatures. On Inmails in LinkedIn; many people miss this opportunity. In every piece of communication that you deliver.
Then Here Is The Big Thing…Use Content Marketing To Attract Visitors
The more content you have on your website that provides value to your candidates and clients the more traffic you will get.
In a previous post I shared data from Hubspot about the fact that websites with over 50 pages hit a tipping point and received up to 50% more traffic. Remember each blog post can rank on Google in its own right. This is a longer term strategy and isn’t going to deliver overnight. Though imagine doing this consistently for 6-12 months and your traffic is going to double.
Get Social
Google wants to send traffic to websites that add value. In their eyes having a social presence does that. Especially when people are sharing your content. One recruitment company we work with gets 40% of their traffic from social channels and another 30% from their blog content.
Then Share The Love
Share your content. Bizarrely a lot of people don’t do this. Post it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Not just once….multiple times. I see people sharing content all the time on LinkedIn….weird it’s mostly to other websites not their own. There is nothing wrong in sharing content from great sources just make sure some of it is yours!
This Is Guaranteed On Tap Traffic…Pay For It
The fastest way to generate traffic is to pay for it, for example placing an advert on Google. Using the example from earlier we could have our advert appearing for construction recruitment agencies Manchester.
Today Google was telling me that 2900 people search on that term every month. If we place an advert it will probably cost around £1.40 every time somebody clicks on it.
Let’s say we spend £141 generating 100 clicks. It’s likely that one or two of these might convert provided they land on your good looking website that is adding amazing value and demonstrating you are the ‘go to’ construction recruiter. You can do a similar thing with Facebook adverts too. Facebook allows you to be even more targeted and you can make sure your adverts only appear in front of super targeted folks. For instance let’s say you know the ‘make up’ of your ideal candidate or client. They might be male or female, live in and around Manchester and are aged between 30-55. You could set up two adverts one for female and one for male. For individuals that live within 50 miles of Manchester and are aged 30-55.
Is your head spinning with possibility?
I hope so because a plan like this will bring results. It might differ slightly depending on your sector. Do you need help in creating your own plan or someone to bounce ideas off? Let’s have a conversation, we will roll our sleeves up together and map out a plan. It is on us.
All you need to do is book a call with one of us by clicking this link. The power of our fancy pants technology will take you to an online diary and all you do then is claim a spot. Simple.
Important
As an ambitious recruitment organisation, THE marketing strategy to master is email marketing. It will consistently deliver both candidates and clients.
In a special complimentary training Webinar, we give you the template for writing emails we use for our clients and the exact 4 campaigns that are working now.
You can register here.
