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So I got this email from Jamie the other day who basically said “Denise and Sharon, love your blog, love everything… all the things that you share on LinkedIn but I’m just starting out and I haven’t got any money and I don’t know what I need to do next. Clients will be a good idea and where do I start?”
So Jamie is just starting out and he wants to know where to start, where to focus his attention. Jamie had sent me this email. He has worked in recruitment for a number of years and is just starting out in his own recruitment company. So first thing is lead generation – really really important. And you know what, this is quite a gift really when you think about it Jamie because you’re starting out and you’ve got an opportunity to make things work really well for you and to focus on your marketing, to focus on your branding, to focus on how that’s going to develop the company that you want to create.
Now admittedly when we first start off, most of us don’t have much money. And there’s a tendency to think “Well, I’ll just pick up the phone and speak to people” which is a really good idea however, you need to have a strategy around it.
So here’s my top seven that if I was starting again, I would focus on. The first one would be – get yourself a list. If you don’t have people to contact here in the market or in your sector for your particular service, then it is going to be a real uphill struggle. It all starts with having a list of targeted prospects.
You can create that list, you can pick up the yellow pages if you got such a want to do that or you can go out and you can buy a targeted database. This can work incredibly well. So the first thing is, you need a list of targeted prospects that actually want what you have to offer.
Number two – We live in an online world for the recruitment sector. You need a nice branded website that looks good, that looks like people will say “Hey! I want to work with this guy because he knows what he is talking about.” And I would always say to people “You know, spend as much as you can because this is your shop window.” Whatever money you’ve got put it into a really good looking website that works. And in today’s environment, have a responsive website.
Have a website that people can find and on that website make sure that you do a number things. You want to connect and engage with your audience so you want to speak into what their problems are. So that once they reach your website Jamie, they then start to go “Ah he knows about what’s going on for me. Maybe I should spend a little bit more time here. Maybe I should pick up the phone and actually speak to him.”
One of the ways to grab people’s attention on a website is to offer them something of value as a great mentor of mine said, “Nothing starts Denise until somebody makes an offer so how about offering him something that would be of value to him or her.” It could be anything. Just have a look online. There are so many different things.
For instance our website is targeted at recruitment company owners, business owners and we are all about marketing – how you market your recruitment company particularly online. So what we do is we offer a report that says ‘These are the five key marketing strategies that recruitment company business owners are using currently that work.’
Now what would be your alternative? Obviously Jamie, I’m not going to give your sector away but obviously you have a particular sector. The sector that you are referring to, I know would do very well on LinkedIn and you know, that could be something that you could leverage there.
You could create a report for that particular sector that then they would download the report and they would… then obviously you would have their name and email address. So that would be really useful to start to engage with your client base and you can do that cost effectively. There are many email service providers out there that don’t charge much for the initial sort of investment and getting going. In fact, I think MailChimp won’t charge you anything. So you’ve got that that you can do – so giving them something of value.
One thing that works and continues to work depending on where you are when you are, whether you are local or not, then it’s networking. Networking does work depending on what you’re doing. And if you wanted to create a great name for yourself, you know, people love people and if you’re an energetic type, and you can get out there and you can talk to people, you will create business by doing this.
The next thing to do and it’s a real favourite of mine because it works really well and I find it really easy to do, is email marketing. If you have a database and if you purchase this database and remember of course that if you are selling business to business which you are because you’re looking at contacting clients, you want more clients then, you know, it is okay to send an email provided that; for our anti-spam laws in the UK, you give them an opportunity to unsubscribe then you can email people and it works incredibly well.
Have a look on our website and have a look at I think a blog post, actually it was a video that Sharon did a few weeks ago and she talked about some of the dos and don’ts of email marketing. One of the things is to have a campaign and to build up a real good connection. And if you put some of the things in place that we’re talking about, it would work really well.
So imagine that you have this list then you can email them. Email them, start the connection, give them something of value, email them your PDF white paper or report. You will be astounded at how that might work with someone and just make sure that the way you communicate with people, you’re coming from a place where you’re wanting to add value to them. So email marketing – you know, get that in place.
Now the other thing – obviously you are in the recruitment sector and LinkedIn. I always say to people “You must have a website and you must have a good strong LinkedIn presence.” Think about your profile that’s the first thing so for instance, Jamie if you call somebody or you email somebody, one of first things they are going to do is they are going to Google you online and see if they can find you online. Two things that come up at the way the search engines work is often you’ll find it will be your website, your name and it will also be your LinkedIn profile to make sure that it’s going to count.
And make sure that on your LinkedIn profile, it’s compelling, it talks about what you do and how you can help people and also it’s pretty easy then for people to connect with you so have your email address very visible if you want to make connections and really start to engage with people on LinkedIn. So you must leverage social networks, particularly LinkedIn obviously.
So what else? Well here’s one for you and it depends on what money you have but run events. Events are great ways of getting like-minded people together that you can talk to and that you can impress with your skill, your ability, your knowledge of the market and the sector. It’s a really underutilized in recruitment. Obviously you can run a webinar online if you’re very tech savvy and you know how to do that but how about running a local event? That would help to get some buzz about you and what you’re doing.
So there are some basic lead generation activities. I haven’t focused on cold calling. Obviously cold calling works. It is something that most recruiters fall back on that they actually can pick up the phone and start talking to people.Yes it does work but it helps much better if you’ve warmed them up first and some of the things that we talked about would do that.
If you’re wondering where to spend some of your marketing and resource then those of the areas that I would say to focus on Jamie. I hope this has been useful so we got seven, you know, pretty available lead generation strategies that any start-up business can use.
So get yourself a list. You’ve got to have a target list if you’re looking for clients. Secondly, you need a website that people can find. You need to give some value, maybe a white paper. Remember you’re the expert in your niche. People haven’t got time to go and search online and find out about engineering or oil and gas all or about secretarial recruitment but you can because you are an expert in that area so you can give them some top tips. Networking and then obviously one of my favourites – email marketing. Then obviously the biggie – LinkedIn. And then possibly, how about running events?
So Jamie I hope you found that useful and thank you for all your lovely comments in the email. This is Denise from Super Fast Recruitment. If you would like more information about some of the things that we do and some ideas that we have around marketing your recruitment company online then just head over to our website superfastrecruitment.co.uk and go and have a look at some of the information that’s there. This is Denise saying bye for now!
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