We ran a webinar at the back end of last year about how recruitment business owners could market their organisations and I think we made a mistake? Yep we weren’t clear enough.
A marketer admitting a mistake; really?
Yes it’s true. I have come to that conclusion because people consistently put marketing on the back burner when it comes to business growth; why?
They don’t appreciate, how marketing can help grow your recruitment organisation.
The Truth
Let’s be blunt, at the risk of offending anyone, recruitment isn’t that sexy; unless you get it right or wrong of course, though that is another story.
Recruiters do a great job and are a contributing factor that helps to fuel economic growth; that is a given.
However when it comes to clients, candidates and talent choosing you, the general recruitment ‘product offer’ isn’t that innovative and doesn’t stand out.
It’s not an Iphone, or a disruptive way to get cheap transport (Uber) or accommodation (AirBnB) or cloud storage (Dropbox).
It’s a competitive business environment with many recruiters selling their brand as a commodity purchase; hint………if you charge less than 10% you most certainly are.
If you want to accelerate your growth, expand your consultant team and dominate your recruitment sector, you’ll need to roll your sleeves up and create some demand and buzz around what you have to offer.
In case you don’t have the definition of marketing to hand it is about creating demand.
A demand for what you have to offer as a great recruitment company in your sector.
A Scary Story
I was talking to a fantastic business director last week who had the goal of trebling his turnover in the next 3 years; he already has 18 consultants and is well over 7 figures already. In his specific market sector his vision is more than possible yet he hasn’t got a marketing plan that gives a blueprint about how it’s all going to happen??
Remember, recruitment might be growing steadily at the moment, only it isn’t classed as a fast growth sector.
Fast growth is easier to achieve in sectors driven by innovation, and launching new products or services can fuel considerable growth quickly; in honesty products or services like this are easy to market.
All is not lost though, as long as you have a marketing and promotional strategy based on what works.
Planning
Would you go to the bank to ask for more money without a plan? Unlikely. Yet consistent implementation of marketing will provide you with a flow of cash; yet your focus isn’t always here?
Step one have a plan that is related to what you want to achieve. As an example if it’s launching a new division or vertical to your current sector have you asked yourself these questions?
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Growth opportunity and size of market now; 3 years 5 years?
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Investment needed ?
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What is the Vision?
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What does the competitive landscape look like?
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What will success look, sound and feel like?
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What are you financial goals?
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What is your value proposition?
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What roles ?
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What is your fee structure?
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What is your launch plan and cycle; 30/60/90 days?
Communication
The first step is to communicate what you have to offer consistently on every channel in your market. I know how obvious that might seem and yet few people do it.
Nothing happens till you take action.
On one of our marketing training programmes we have been covering communication and how to get YOUR message out there.
One of the group started a particular campaign on Facebook and after a couple of weeks her consultants ( they are a marketer ) phones started ringing and emails started pinging with qualified CVs; great, #result……it’s possible for you too, more now than ever.
Never a better time
The facts are that digital marketing now levels the playing field. It’s available to anyone from a recruitment start up in a back bedroom to your organisation with ambitious plans to hit 10 plus consultants and more.
Investment cost is no longer an issue as any recruitment company can compete with a corporate if they follow a strategy and dominate their niche.
The beauty of digital and online marketing is it’s so inexpensive, compared to how it was just 10 short years ago. No need to spend thousands on print media to get your message out or a blanket direct mail that would never work.
It’s the start of March next week and soon that first quarter of the year will be over. Are you ready to get going?
There are multiple ways to get moving on this.
How To Take Action
I have suggested you communicate with potential clients and candidates more to tell them how you can help. So for your reference here is how we work with people to market their recruitment organisations.
No Cost
If you are not on our mailing list you can join by adding your details into the box at the top right and we will send you content and invite you to our free webinars every few months.
You can look at all the content here, which is gold by the way, or subscribe to our podcast.
Mid Cost
We now run an online Marketing Bootcamp which you can join no matter where you are in the world. It also includes a ticket to a live 2 day event during the year that you can attend either here in the UK or the US; we are running them in both countries. (Australia coming soon guys.)
The content is based on what is working now for our service clients (currently full) and our current course attendees.
Higher Cost
We work with a handful of private clients on a coaching and consulting basis where you get both of us working on your business. If you would like to discuss more about how this might work we offer a
complimentary consultation. Book a call here.
The alternative is going it alone. That works for some and not for others. It will take you longer and I guess you know that already………….
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.
